Review of Research

ISSN: 2249-894X
Impact Factor : 5.7631(UIF)
Volume - 12 | Issue - 12 | September - 2023

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF KILESA

VEN. Nyarnainda
Research Scholar, Centre for Mahayana Buddhist studies,
Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar Guntur, AP, India.

ABSTRACT
Kilesa literally means impurity, defilement or corruption.
Derived from the root klis; Kilesa refers to “things which are
defiled”, and which in turn defile the mind of sentient beings. The
term is rendered sometimes as “corruption” as in the English
translations of the Abhidhamma texts, and sometimes as
“defilements” as in the Suttanta Texts and in the Path of
Purification.
Upakkilesa: “anything that spoils or obstructs, a minor
stain, impurity, defilement, depravity” In the Atthasālinī, it is
defined as “cittaṃ upagantvā kilissati kiliṭṭhaṃ karotī ti
upakkileso” – approaching the mind (greed) corrupts it, makes it
corrupt, and so is depravity This word is often used in the Sutta Pitaka, e.g. in the Majjhima Nikāya where
16 upakkilesa-s are mentioned. Here upakkilesa is used as what defiles the mind and thus is synonymous to
the term “kilesa”.

KEYWORDS: greed(lobha),hate(dosa),delusion(moha),conceit(māna),wrongviews (micchāditthi),

doubt (vicikicchā), torpor (thīna), restlessness (uddhacca), shamelessness (ahirica), recklessness
(anottappa)

INTRODUCTION
Kilesa (Sanskrit, also spelled klesha) are the afflictions or defilements that keep us from seeing
reality as it is. You could think of the kilesas as mental disturbances or unhelpful psychological habits.
The three primary kilesas are the Three Poisons — greed, hate and ignorance. All the other
defilements flow from those. In Theravada Buddhism, the most severe kilesas are associated with the
demon Mara and sometimes are called (in Pali) Kilesa-Maras.
Over the centuries various sages have proposed different lists of kilesas, so there isn’t any one
Official List of Buddhist Kilesas. 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 kilesas 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.

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THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF KILESA Volume - 12 | Issue - 12 | September - 2023
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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.
In this essay will portray the different type of Kilesa, the arising of Kilesa and the ways of
abandoning of Kilesa. These are important to understand for one who wants to know about Kilesa
(defilement) clearly.

The arising of Kilesa

There are causes and conditions for the defilement of being as well as for the purification of
beings. Because five aggregates are pleasurable, beings are attached to them. By being attached, they
are captivated by them, and by being captivated they are defiled. This is a cause and condition for the
defilement of beings. It is thus that beings are defiled due to causes and conditions. And because five
aggregate are suffering, immersed in suffering, steeped in suffering and is not steeped in pleasure,
beings experience revulsion towards them. Experiencing revulsion, they become dispassionate, and
through dispassion they are purified. This is a cause and condition for purification of beings.
Pleasure and pain are experienced by one through feelings. Feelings which are unwholesome
become causes of Kelisa because feeling can be the conditions of craving (vedanā paccayā taṇha ti iti kho
panetaṃ vuttaṃ). In order to understand phenomena as they really are contemplation about feeling is
recommended because feeling is prominent factor for seeing the arising and ceasing, the nature of
impermanence. With regards to this it is said “having truly understood the arising and passing away of
feelings, their attraction and peril and the deliverance from them, the Tathāgata is liberated without
remainder. Visuddhimagga explains that defilements are caused by unwholesome feelings
(akusalavedanā): unwholesome feeling is a state of disquiet, because it is the cause of reprehensible
actions and because it produces burning of defilement.
Since the term Kilesa without prefix is not frequently mentioned in early discourses, in
canonical source it is difficult of find the order of arising of Kilesa. In the Vatthupamā Sutta defiled state
of mind is explained with the simile of defiled cloth (vatṭhaṃ saṃkilitthaṃ) and purified state is
described as one bathed with the inner bathing (sinato antarena sinanena). what this signifies is that
whenever beings come to this world, their mind is innately defiled with certain defilement.
We cannot speak about the order of arising of Kilesa in an absolute sense because there is no
first arising of defilements in the beginning-less samsara but we can talk of arising in more relative
manner. Since Kilesas are constituents of āsava, when āsava (individual I-ness) arises in an individual,
Kilesas as constituents arise with the function of āsava. It is the cause and that āsava as the cause and
avijjā as the condition personal sankhāra (abhisankhāra) arises. With the arising of personal sankhara
various Kilesa arise. The Visuddhimagga explains the arising of Kilesa in a relative sense:
Usually in single becoming the misinterpretation of insistence on eternity and annihilation are
preceded by the assumption of a self. After that, when a man assumes that this self is eternal, clinging of
rite-and-ritual arises in him for the purpose of purifying the self. And when a man assumes that is
breaks up, thus disregarding the next world, clinging of sense desire arises in him. So clinging of self-
doctrine arises first (pathamaṃ attavadupadanaṃ), and after that, false-view-clinging, and rite and
ritual clinging or sense desire clinging. Thus, then, is their order of arising in one becoming.
Here, Buddhaghosa comments on the arising of Kilesa within the limit of present birth. However,
the previous existence of Kilesa could be understood for there is ‘anusaya’ (underlying tendency) as the
chronic innate nature of all ordinary human beings. The concept “I am” (asmi ti anusayo) is the
underlying tendency which is the core of Kilesa. Even an infant who has no notion of self cannot be an
exception to it. As a result of the latent tendency ‘I am’, self-view-clinging (attavadaupadana) arises first
and depending on this, various views arise. Beings with views come into conflict with others.
Defilements arise in our present birth depending on an innate defilement, the underlying tendency ‘I
am’ with āsava as cause and avijjā as condition. Therefore, it is possible to say that āsava is the basis of
arising of Kilesa.

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The way of abandoning of Kilesa
We can overcome Kilesa (defilement) by practicing and fulfilling the seven factors of
enlightenment (satta-bojjanga) expounded by Buddha in Bojjanga Saṃyutta. The term "bojjhanga" is
composed of bodhi + anga. "Bodhi" denotes enlightenment, to be exact, insight concerned with the
realization of the Four Noble Truths; namely: the Noble Truth of Suffering; the Noble Truth of the Origin
of Suffering; the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, and the Noble Truth of the Path leading to the
Cessation of Suffering. ‘Anga" means factors or limbs. Bodhi + anga (bojjhanga), therefore, means the
factors of enlightenment, or the factors for insight, wisdom. There are seven kinds of factors, namely, (i)
mindfulness (sati-saṃbojjhanga), (ii) investigation of Dhamma (dhammavicaya-saṃbojjhanga), (iii)
energy (viriya-saṃbojjhan ga), (iv) zest (piti-saṃbojjhanga), (v) tranquility (passaddhi-saṃbojjhanga),
(vi) concentration (samādi-saṃbojjhanga) and (vii) equanimity (upekkhā-saṃbojjhanga).
There are also included in the aggregate of thirty-seven Factors of Enlightenment (sattatiṃsa-
bodipakkhiya dhammā), the cultivation and development of which is said to result in the realization of
wisdom (bodi). In fact, it is said that one enlightened by the harmony of these seven constituent states
(dhammasāmaggi), thereby attains a “rising” from the slumber of the continuum of the lower nature
(kilesa-santāna-niddāya uṭṭhahati), or a penetration of the Noble Truths (cattāri vā ariya-saccāni
paṭivijjhati) or the realization of Nibbāna (nibbānameva vā sacchikaroti). Therefore, Bodhi or supreme
wisdom has to be realized by the cultivation and development of seven enlightenments. Saṃyutta-
nikāya defined them as factors that contribute to the realization of enlightenment (bodāya samvattantīti
bojjhangā).

Mindfulness factor (sati-sambojjanga)

The first mindfulness factor is the instrument most efficacious in self-mastery and whoever
practices it has found the path to contemplation of the body, feeling, mind and mental objects. Its
characteristic features are alertness and lucidity of mind. Sometimes, it is described as the lucid
retention of both the past and present. In the commentaries it appears under the metaphor of an
inward mentor, discriminating between good and bad prompting choice. In the Dhammasangani, it is
defined as recollecting (anussati), calling back to mind (paṭissati), remembering (saraṇatā), bearing in
mind (dharaṇata), and the opposite of superficiality and of obliviousness (apiḷāpanatā,
asammussanatā).
Right mindfulness, in a way is superior to knowledge, because in the absence of mindfulness it is
just impossible for a man to make the best of his learning. Intelligence void of mindfulness tends to lead
man astray and entice him from the path of rectitude and duty even people who are well informed and
intelligent fail to see a ting in its proper perspective when they lack this all important quality of
mindfulness. Mindfulness is conducive to great profit, that is, the highest mental development, and it is
through such attainment that deliverance from the suffering of cycle of existence is possible.
Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless, heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful do not die, the
heedless are already dead. Therefore, by completing the mindfulness factor, we can overcome Kilesa
(defilement) in this very life.

Investigation of Dhamma (dhammavicaya-sambojjanga)

The second enlightenment factor is keen Investigation of the Dhamma. It is the sharp analytical
knowledge of understanding the true nature of all constituent things, animate or inanimate, human or
divine. It is seeing things as they really are, seeing things in their proper perspective. It is the analysis of
all component things into their fundamental elements, right down to their ultimate. The term vicaya of
the compound dhammavicaya has the meaning of “examination, research, investigation, study.” In the
Dhammasangani, it is explained as research (paricaya), discernment (sallakkhaṇa), discrimination
(upalakkhaṇa), differentiation (paccupa lakkhaṇa), cricticism (vebhavyā), reflection (cintā), and
analysis (upaparikkhā). Thus, it refers to the type of investigation that is characterized by intensity,
force and thoroughness. When we face the Māra’s temptations, can investigate what is unskillful

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mindfulness. Therefore, investigation of Dhamma is very important. For overcoming of all temptations
we have to practice in daily until to attain liberation from saṃsāra (the round of rebirth).

CONCLUSION
I have discussed about Kilesa like different types of Kilesa, arising of Kilesa and the ways of
abandoning of Kilesa from the Pali and Commentaries. Kilesa is one of the main things for creating next
life but there are many kinds of aspects. They are, therefore, difficult to know and wipe out into our
mind.
By understanding about Kilesa in Pali and Commentaries, we can know how to control our mind
and what they happen and how they finish. Based on bad thing or defilement, we can change our mind
into purification. Therefore, this essay is intended to those who are getting change from bad mind to
good mind.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Aṅ guttara Nikāya, ed. R. Morris and E. Hardy, 5 vols., London, PTS, 1885-1900; tr. F. L. Wood-Ward
and E. M. Hare, The Book of the Gradual Sayings, 5 vols., PTS, London, 1932-1936.
2. Dhammasaṅ ganī Aṭṭhakathā (Atthasālinī), ed. Edward Muller, PTS, 1897, 1979; tr. Pe Maung Tin,
The Expositor, PTS, 1976.
3. Dīgha Nikāya Aṭṭhakathā (Sumaṅ galavilāsinī), ed. T.W. Rhys Davids, J. Estlin Carpernter and W.
Stede, 3 parts, PTS, 1968 -1971.
4. Dīgha Nikāya, ed. T. W. Rhys Davids and J. E. Carpenter, 3 vol., PTS, 1890 – 1991; tr. T.W. and C. A. F.
Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, 3 parts, PTS, 1956-1959.
5. Majjima Nikāya Aṭṭhakathā (Papañcasūdanī), ed. J. H. Woods, D. Kosambi and I. B. Horner, 5 vol.,
1976.
6. Majjima Nikāya, ed. V. Trenckner and R. Chalmers. 3 vols., PTS, 1948 – 1951; tr. I.B.

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