© Trevoux | Dreamstime.com

The Buddha spoke often of the importance of calmness and tranquility. Tranquility — passaddhi in Pali — is one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, or mental states that support the realization of enlightenment.

Spiritual masters often are caricatured as being unceasingly tranquil, floating serenely in some blissed-out state detached from the edgy, messy world. And, of course, no living creature lives that way.

Whatever their spiritual status, living creatures must eat and wash and use the toilet. They stub their toes, catch the flu, and run out of mustard.

(There’s an ancient Zen story about a great master who was asked what he did before enlightenment. “I chopped wood and carried water,” the master said. And what did he do after enlightenment? “I chop wood and carry water,” he replied.)

Maybe because of the caricature, you don’t hear much about tranquility in present-day western Buddhism. Yet the Buddha said tranquility is very important. Note that he didn’t promise we would become wonderfully tranquil after enlightenment. He said that tranquility is to be cultivated in order to realize enlightenment.

The Importance of Tranquility

The Theravadin scholar Piyadassi Thera said,

“Hard it is to tranquillize the mind; it tre3mbles and it is unsteady, difficult to guard and hold back; it quivers like a fish taken from its watery home and thrown on the dry ground. It wanders at will. Such is the nature of this ultra-subtle mind. It is systematic reflection (yoniso manasikara) that helps the aspirant for enlightenment to quieten the fickle mind. Unless a man cultivates tranquility of mind, concentration cannot be successfully developed. A tranquillized mind keeps away all superficialities and futilities.”

Passaddhi, on the other hand, is calmness of mental properties — feeling, perception, volition — and consciousness. It’s an ability to be mentally and emotionally still, like a pond on a windless day.

There are two kinds of passaddhi, called kaya passaddhi and citta passaddhi. To understand these, refer to the Five Skandhas. Kaya passadhi relates to the second, third, and four skandhas (sensation, perception, mental formations) and citta passaddhi relates to the fifth skandha, consciousness or awareness.

The Seven Factors of Enlightenment are sometimes described as a progression, with each quality drawing on the one that comes before it and leading to the one that comes after it. Tranquility comes after happiness, which in this case is a deep contentment that comes from putting aside selfish desire. What follows tranquility is concentration, a one-pointedness of mind in which subject and object are absorbed into each other. In the Eightfold Path and Mahayana Six Perfections, concentration is the wisdom path, the door to enlightenment itself.

How to Develop Tranquility

Along with developing the first four factors of enlightenment — mindfulness, investigation, energy, and happiness — daily meditation practice is highly recommended. The Buddha also taught that there are seven factors that develop and support tranquility. These are:

A Healthful Diet. Nutritious food keeps you healthy and supports vigorous practice. You might also consider avoiding sugar if it makes you hyper, or any food that gives you indigestion. See also “Buddhism and Vegetarianism.”

A Comfortable Climate. In these days of insulated and temperature-controlled homes, this one may be less critical than in the Buddha’s day. But if you are prone to seasonal allergies or affective disorder, it’s certainly a consideration.

Good Posture. This refers not just to correct meditation posture, but posture whenever you are standing or sitting. Keeping your hips, spine and head correctly aligned really does help your organs work efficiently and reduces tension in your body. It also enables diaphragmatic breathing, which may help lower blood pressure. But your posture should not feel rigid or forced, but natural, balanced, and comfortable.

No Burnout, No Sloppiness. The Buddha said that the effort put into practice should be like the string on a stringed instrument — tight enough to play a note, but not so tight it will break. The key word is sustainable — your daily practice should be one you can sustain, through weeks and months and years, without burning out. But don’t be a slacker, either.

Association With Calm People. The Buddha spoke of choosing congenial companions rather than people who leave one feeling agitated. Fast forwarding to contemporary life — these days, you may spend more time with co-workers than with companions. Do your best to reduce agitation and acrimony.

Directing the Mind to Tranquility. Be vigilant and mindful in practicing the first six factors.

[This is an article I wrote for the Buddhism section of About.com. However, since About.com has removed it from their servers, all rights revert to me.]

Klesa (Sanskrit, also spelled klesha; in Pali, Kilesa) are the afflictions or defilements that keep us from seeing reality as it is. You could think of the klesas as mental disturbances or unhelpful psychological habits.

The three primary klesas are the Three Poisons — greed, hate and ignorance. All the other defilements flow from those. In Theravada Buddhism, the most severe klesas are associated with the demon Mara and sometimes are called (in Pali) Kilesa-Maras.

Over the centuries various sages have proposed different lists of klesas, so there isn’t any one Official List of Buddhist Klesas. For example, the Pali Abhidhamma lists ten kilesas — using the Pali terms, these are greed (lobha), hate (dosa), delusion (moha), conceit (mana), wrong views (ditthi), doubt (vicikiccha), torpor (thina), restlessness (uddhacca), shamelessness (ahirika), and recklessness (anottappa). But in the Sutta-pitaka and in Mahayana scriptures there are other lists.

Beyond the Three Poisons — which you probably will hear about a lot no matter where you practice — the klesas are spoke of more in some traditions that in others. Depending on where you study and practice, you may hear about them a lot, or you may never hear them mentioned at all. These overlap a bit with the Five Hindrances, and like the hindrances, a review now and then doesn’t hurt, especially if you are going through a rough patch.

The defilements presented here are common ones taken from several sources. The names are Sanskrit; if the Pali differs from the Sanskrit that will be noted in the definition. Terms are in alphabetical order rather than order of importance.

© Gautier Willaume | Dreamstime Stock Photos

1.  Ahrika, Shamelessness

(In Pali, ahirika) No sense of shame or conscience.

11.  Raga, Greed

Also passion or desire. Associated with lobha, above.

The Buddha taught that there are seven factors that support awakening, or enlightenment. The second of these is, in Pali, dhamma vicaya. Vicaya refers to examination, analysis or investigation; dhamma is the Pali for dharma. In Buddhism, the word “dharma” most often refers to the teaching of the Buddha, but it can also refer to the nature of existence (see “What Is Dharma in Buddhism?”).

Notice that it says “investigation of,” not “belief in.” It cannot be stressed enough that the Buddhist path is not about adopting a belief system or accepting religious authority without question.

One of the most frequently quoted passages of all Buddhist scriptures is the Buddha’s advice from the Kalama Sutta — ” … don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.'” Instead, judge for yourself what is true.

However, if you read the entire sutta you see that the Buddha provided rigorous criteria for making spiritual judgments. The Kalama Sutta is called a “charter of free inquiry,” not “a permission slip to believe whatever you like.”

Why Believing in a Doctrine of Enlightenment Is not Enlightenment

Buddhism is built upon the proposition that the way we perceive ourselves and everything else is an illusion, and waking up to reality requires discipline and determination.

The Buddha taught that because enlightenment is different from our conventional experience and and outside our usual points of reference, it cannot be imagined or “figured out.” It is perceived only by one’s direct, intimately experienced insight.

The Buddha himself could not give enlightenment to someone else merely by describing what it is. For this reason, the Buddha did not leave us with a belief system but with a path of disciplined practice.

Working With Buddhist Doctrines

So there you are, walking the path, and before long you bump into one doctrine after another. You’re told about the Three Poisons, the Four Truths, the Five Aggregates, the Six Perfections, the Seven Factors, the Eightfold Path, and on and on. And you might wonder, If I’m not supposed to accept these as beliefs, what do I do with them?

And the answer is, investigate them. But how? Many people stumble on this point. Either they accept the teachings as beliefs — which isn’t terribly useful — or they try to figure them out intellectually, which also isn’t terribly useful.

We humans usually learn new things by a process that draws on what we already know. As we listen or read or watch, consciously or unconsciously we classify the new thing according to our existing taxonomy of knowledge. Most of the time this is a reasonably useful learning strategy. But if the new thing is utterly unlike anything we already know, this strategy gets in the way.

Often, if something doesn’t immediately “make sense” — meaning that it doesn’t correspond to anything we already know — we are likely to reject it pretty quickly. Or, we “interpret” the new thing so that it does fit into what we already know. However, to do that we have to distort the new thing to make it fit, meaning we aren’t seeing it as it is, but as we think it’s supposed to be.

Much of Buddhist practice amounts to opening ourselves up to new ways of understanding. In particular the practices of mindfulness and concentration quiet our minds so that we stop judging and comparing and classifying.

Thich Nhat Hanh said,

“We need to empty our mind, and be free of thoughts, ideas, and perceptions in order to listen to a Dharma Talk (Buddhist teaching). Comparing what we hear with something we already had in mind, and drawing “right” or “wrong” conclusions is a mental habit that limits our capacity of listening. To agree or disagree with what is said does not help us learn anything new. To listen deeply, we do not engage our intellect while listening.“

To “not engage our intellect while listening” does not mean blind acceptance. It just means staying open. A teaching that baffles you the first time you hear it may open the door to realization the third or fourth of tenth time you hear it.

Over the centuries the several schools of Buddhism have developed many different approaches to dharma. Some of these approaches may seem “out there” — Tibetan tantra, Zen koans. Others are more analytical. Most schools combine some amount of “book learning” with meditation or some other concentrated practice to transform consciousness. Most schools also recommend working personally with a dharma teacher who can guide you beyond the boundaries of your particular projected reality.

So, exactly how you investigate the dharma depends on the school in which you choose to practice. And it may take some time to get the hang of it. But the Theravadin teacher Piyadassi Thera (1914-1998) said,

“One who goes in quest of truth is never satisfied with surface knowledge. He wants to delve deep and see what is beneath. That is the sort of search encouraged in Buddhism.”

[This is an article I wrote for the Buddhism section of About.com. However, since About.com has removed it from their servers, all rights revert to me.]