12.6. The Five Methods for Removing Unwholesome Thoughts

Inclination of mind towards wholesome states is considered as background for pursuing the higher mind in the librated fruits. In the Nikāyas the term ‘higher mind’ (adhicitta) is often repeated over and over to imply the mind of the eight meditative attainments used as a basis for insight. It is called ‘higher mind’ because it is higher than the ordinary wholesome mind of the ten wholesome courses of action (The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, n. 239). In the Vitakkasaṇthāna Sutta ‘The Removal of Distracting’ (Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 20), the Buddha points out five signs which a bhikkhu pursuing the higher mind should give attention.

First, when a bhikkhu is paying attention to some signs and due to that sign there arise in him evil unwholesome thoughts connected with desire, with hate, and with delusion, he should pay attention to some other signs connected with wholesome states. For example, when thoughts of sensual desire arise directed towards living beings, the ‘other sign’ is the meditation on foulness (see Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 10.10); when thoughts of hate arise directed towards living beings, the ‘other sign’ is the meditation on loving-kindness; or when they are directed to inanimate things, the ‘other sign’ is attention to the elements (see Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 10.12); and the remedy for thoughts connected with delusion is living under a teacher studying in the Dhamma, inquiring into its meaning, listening to the Dhamma, and inquiring into causes.

Second, if one after applying the first method still arises in him evil unwholesome thoughts connected with desire, hate, and delusion, he should examine the danger in those thoughts and make a self-criticism that these thoughts are unwholesome, reprehensible, and leading to suffering. “Calling to mind the unworthiness of the evil thoughts produces a sense of shame (hiri); calling to mind their dangerous consequences produces fear of wrongdoing (ottappa)” (The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, n. 241). This is the method of the reflections which was applied by the Buddha when he had been still a Bodhisatta (Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 19.3-5).

Third, having applied the second method, if there still arises in the practitioner evil unwholesome thoughts connected with desire, hate, and delusion, one should try to forget those thoughts and should not give attention to them.

Fourth, having applied the third method, if there still arise in him evil unwholesome thoughts connected with desire, with hate, and with delusion, one should give attention to stilling the thought-formation of those thoughts. This means that when an unwholesome thought has arisen, one should do an inquiring: ‘what is its cause? What is the cause of its cause?’ and so on. Such an inquiry brings about a slackening, and eventually the cessation, of the flow of unwholesome thoughts (The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, n. 242).

Last, if one having applied all the methods above still arises in him evil unwholesome thoughts connected with desire, with hate, and with delusion, then, with his teeth clenched and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth, he should beat down, constrain, and crush the unwholesome state of mind with a wholesome state of mind.

A bhikkhu who is pursing the higher mind if applies properly these five signs, any evil unwholesome thoughts connected with desire, with hate, and with delusion are abandoned in him and subside. On that occasion, his mind internally becomes steadied, quieted, brought to singleness, and concentrated. Such a bhikkhu is then called “a master of the courses of thought. He will think whatever thought he wishes to think and he will not think any thought that he does not wish to think. He has severed craving, flung off the fetters, and with the complete penetration of conceit he has made an end of suffering” (The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, nn. 240-2).