The Eight Stains

Monks, there are these eight stains (pollutions).

What eight?

(1) Non-recitation is the stain of chanting.

(2) Lack of upkeep is the stain of houses.

(3) Laziness is the stain of beauty.

(4) Heedlessness is the stain of a guard.

(5) Misconduct is the stain of a woman (a person).

(6) Selfishness is the stain of a donor.

(7) Evil unwholesome qualities are stains in this world and the next.

(8) Ignorance (unknowing of true reality) is a stain more significant than these, the very worst of stains.

These, Monks, are the eight stains.

(Reference: AN 8.15)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares eight stains or pollutions of mind that will cause struggles and difficulties in this life. The Ten Fetters explain all the pollutions of mind that keep one in the unEnlightened mental state and in The Cycle of Rebirth. However, this specific Teaching relates to other topics beyond those found in The Ten Fetters.

1.) A Practitioner lacks the ability to recite The Teachings in chanting.

During the lifetime of The Buddha, it was required to be able to memorize The Teachings and recite them every two weeks with the other Practitioners within The Community. They did not document The Teachings in written format until after the death of The Buddha. Therefore, the only way to learn, reflect, and practice these Teachings was to memorize the discourses shared by The Buddha.

The Buddha encouraged Practitioners to recite the discourses verbally every two-weeks to deepen their memory, thus, improve their life practice through being able to apply The Teachings in daily life.

Today, we do not need to memorize The Teachings and recite them as they did during the lifetime of The Buddha. During his lifetime, this was strictly an oral tradition. Due to the oral tradition, these Teachings have experienced impermanence that has affected their understanding and practice within The Community of Practitioners. But, the solution is that we now have the ability to record these Teachings in written, audio, and video format. These same methods were not available to The Buddha during his lifetime or else he would have surely used them to preserve his Teachings for future generations.

There would be no better resource to learn, reflect, and practice these Teachings than those created by an actual Buddha. For an actual Buddha to be able to document their Teachings through their own efforts in written, audio, and video format would prove highly useful for countless generations. The Teachings of a Buddha captured in this way would be directly from the mind of an actual Buddha, with the exact words and phrasing needed to attain Enlightenment, and they could be preserved long into the future benefiting countless beings.

While direct memorization of The Teachings is not needed, a Practitioner will need to memorize their understanding of The Teachings so that they are able to readily apply The Teachings in daily life. Without deeply penetrating The Teachings to acquire wisdom, a Practitioner would be unable to apply The Teachings in daily life.

While books, audio recordings, and videos make it easier to capture The Teachings, a Practitioner cannot consult these resources constantly throughout their day and as they are in need of Teachings to be immediately applied to their daily life. Therefore, we use these resources to learn and reflect but as a Practitioner is implementing these Teachings into their daily life, they will need to be able to recall The Teachings from memory. This will need to be developed over time as the mind clears out its pollution, the ability to remember these Teachings will be enhanced. The mind will become more crisp, clear, focused, concentrated, and deep memorization will all improve. This beneficial result is accomplished gradually over time as the Practitioner clears out more and more pollution of the mind.

Then, where a Practitioner observes they need to consult these resources for further clarification or they need guidance from a Teacher, they can do so once a situation is over. But during an actual circumstance where immediate recall of The Teachings is needed, a Practitioner will need to be able to recall The Teachings. While they will not need to verbally recite The Teachings, mental recall is required and as one progresses on The Path to Enlightenment, this will become easier.

2.) The Buddha teaches that a Practitioner should maintain their home in good working order. If one does not maintain their home, it will be a real struggle and weigh on the mind to have an “unkept” home.

As a Practitioner is actively working to clean out the mind of its pollution, it helps to reside in a home that is well kept in a neat and orderly fashion. Through one’s environment being well kept, neat, and orderly, this will put the mind at ease and make it easier to function. If one’s home is cluttered and not well maintained, this will create challenges in the mind to focus on the needed tasks in daily life that will lead to wise decision making and wholesome results.

3.) The Buddha guides Practitioners to apply effort towards the attainment of Enlightenment and practice The Enlightenment factor of Energy.

Energy: (Effort, determination, ambition, initiative, motivation, vigor, and enthusiasm; willingness to do something.)

Through practicing The Enlightenment factor of Energy, one can eliminate laziness. If the mind is dull, lethargic, and complacent in its application of effort and energy towards the attainment of Enlightenment and daily tasks, then one will find it a real struggle to accomplish specific goals in life.

The Buddha provides Teachings in The Seven Factors of Enlightenment that help to guide a Practitioner away from laziness and complacency and towards being active in daily life and the attainment of Enlightenment.

Through a Practitioner being lazy, they will observe this affects one’s appearance. With the mind being dull, the skin and facial features will also be dull. The condition of one’s mind affects our appearance. Therefore, The Buddha describes that “laziness is the stain of beauty”.

Even anger, hostility, aggression, frustration, irritation, and other discontent feelings affect one’s appearance and beauty. Conversely, when the mind is peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy, this always affects one’s appearance in a positive way.

4.) The Buddha explains that heedlessness is a stain for one who is a guard.

The meaning of “heedlessness” is: careless, thoughtless, inattentive, un-calm, unaware, or unmindful.

To perform the role of being a guard of people or material possessions, one would need to ensure they are thoughtful, attentive, calm, and aware. If a guard were to be heedless, they would lack the mental qualities needed to perform their role sufficiently and in a way that would produce wholesome results for one’s career or profession.

Likewise, practicing Right Mindfulness is the “guard” over one’s mind to eliminate unwholesome qualities and arise wholesome qualities. If the mind is heedless, then it is unable to function in a way that is cultivating wholesome qualities and eliminating unwholesome qualities.

When an individual has decided to ingest substances that cause heedlessness, this only produces the effect of reducing one’s ability to guard the mind with Right Mindfulness. Practicing Right Mindfulness, among many other aspects of The Path to Enlightenment, will ultimately lead to purification of the mind. An individual who is looking to attain Enlightenment to experience a peaceful, calm, serene, and content mind with joy where there is focus, concentration, deep memory, and clarity of mind would not ingest substances that cause heedlessness because this only reduces the ability to practice these Teachings, in such a way, that would produce the Enlightened mind.

5.) The Buddha shares that bodily, verbal, or mental misconduct is the stain of a person. Through conducting one’s daily activities with unwholesome bodily, verbal, or mental conduct, they will experience unwholesome results. It will be a constant and daily struggle as one causes harm in the world, that harm will be returned to them. Through learning and practicing wholesome moral conduct, a Practitioner can experience wholesome results as individuals choose to treat us the same way we treat them.

6.) The Buddha explains that selfishness is a stain for a donor.

Through a Practitioner’s mind being selfish, they are not interested in giving and sharing, therefore, craving/desire/attachment continues to persist in the mind causing one continuous discontentedness. Through training the mind to be willing to openly give and share without any expectation of anything in return, a Practitioner can experience liberation from the pollution of selfishness that can obsess the mind.

7.) The Buddha shares how “evil unwholesome qualities” of mind are stains for a Practitioner in this world and the next.

He is explaining that evil unwholesome mental qualities will cause struggles and difficulties in this life and future lives as one continues to roam and wander through The Cycle of Rebirth.

A Practitioner is unable to escape the results of their unwholesome decisions produced through unwholesome mental qualities. The only escape is to train the mind to acquire the wisdom to eliminate unwholesome mental qualities so that one can experience Enlightenment to eliminate discontentedness and escape The Cycle of Rebirth. We will continue to experience the results of our unwholesome decisions until we acquire the needed wisdom to extinguish the unwholesome mental qualities that motivate unskillful and unwholesome decisions. In doing so, a Practitioner can experience the peace, calm, serenity, and contentedness with joy of the Enlightened mind.

8.) The Buddha explains that the most significant and very worst stain in the mind is ignorance (unknowing of true reality).

The unknowing of true reality keeps a being trapped in the continuous cycle and rounds of discontentedness in this life and future lives. Through training the mind to eliminate the pollution of ignorance (unknowing of true reality) a Practitioner will have the wisdom to transform the mind from unEnlightened to Enlightened. Ignorance (unknowing of true reality) will continue to motivate misperceptions, false truths, confusion, and a diluted mind that has constant struggles and difficulties in the world through its lack of wisdom.

The only way to escape the continuous and ongoing struggles is to acquire the wisdom of The Natural Laws of Existence to train the mind to function based on these natural laws. In doing so, a Practitioner is able to then experience the brilliance and brightness of the Enlightened mind as it is liberated from strong feelings and has the wisdom needed to make wise decisions leading to wholesome results.