2021-05-26 Kusala (3 of 10) Understanding the Unwholesome

Insight Meditation Center13min

Gil Fronsdal

00:02

I have been talking about wholesome and unwholesome this week. Today I am going to talk about the unwholesome.

Gil Fronsdal

00:16

I think that understanding what the Buddha's teachings are on this topic, or how he sees this topic, helps us to study – investigate – how it is for us personally. It gives us ideas, or an orientation, to really see the impact of some of our attitudes, some of our behaviors, some of the ways we speak, even some of the ways we think. Some of that – maybe occasionally – can be unwholesome, uninspiring, unskillful, or unbeneficial.

Gil Fronsdal

01:07

We will look at this topic of the unwholesome and, in particular, at what is called the three roots of the unwholesome. They are the source for all things that are unwholesome.

Gil Fronsdal

01:24

First, the unwholesome is described as involving suffering in this very life. It involves stress in this very life. The word suffering, sometimes people take it to mean that only the big things in life are suffering. But the word dukkha can be applied to even mild forms of stress – not just to discomfort, because that is too broad – but to mild forms of distress, mild forms of suffering. The unwholesome – whatever is unwholesome – always involves some degree of dukkha.

Gil Fronsdal

02:23

The Buddha goes on to say it involves vexation, despair, and fever. Those are strong words. We have to understand that there can also be mild versions of it. But it always involves some way that we harm ourself. There is a kind of self-harm involved. And it involves discomfort. The unwholesome always involves dukkha, harm, and discomfort.

Gil Fronsdal

03:04

When we act with hostility, when we act in a mean way to people, when we are consumed with meanness or criticalness of ourselves, when we are greedy. It is not a moralistic teaching like, "I shouldn't do those things, because that's an immoral thing to do," and with some abstract morality coming from outside. But, rather, the pragmatic and experiential orientation of the Buddha is always, "How does it feel? How am I experiencing myself? What's the impact of this on myself, here?"

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