พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่ามลทินเกิดจากการที่ฝ่ายอกุศลและอัพยากตะแย่งชิงครอบครองใจเรา ปรุงแต่งความคิดความรู้สึกให้เป็นบาปที่สำเร็จแล้วสะสมเป็นระเบิดเวลา ส่วนวิธีกำจัดมลทินคือการดำรงอยู่ในระบบกุศลธรรมผ่านสัมมาสติ ศีล สมาธิ ปัญญา จนถึงวิมุตติและวิมุตติญาณทัสสนะPra Ajarn explains that defilements (malatin) arise when unwholesome and neutral forces seize control of our minds, shaping our thoughts and feelings into completed unwholesome karma that accumulates like a time bomb. The remedy is to dwell in the wholesome system through right mindfulness, morality, concentration, and wisdom, all the way to liberation and the knowledge-and-vision of liberation.
Someone asked Pra Ajarn to explain defilements and how to remove them, in order to clear away life's obstacles and hardships.
How Defilements Arise
Pra Ajarn explains that defilements arise when and neutral natural forces seize control of our minds, pulling data from our memory to shape unwholesome thoughts and feelings, building a kind of "simulated scene" in the mind — and then having us play out the assigned role while we believe every bit of it is our own thinking. When we act on it, whether in speech or deed, unwholesome energy is continuously drawn in and accumulates as "completed unwholesome karma," stored within , waiting for the right moment to yield its result as suffering and hardship — like a time bomb set on life's timeline. The neutral force, while not directly harmful, destroys over ninety percent of our precious time each day without producing any benefit at all.
The Remedy: Dwelling in the Wholesome System
Pra Ajarn explains that dwelling in system is itself, by nature, the cleansing of defilements. It begins with cultivating — clearly recognizing body, feeling, mind, and mental objects as the Buddha taught — to eliminate delight and distress toward the world. Mindfulness must always pair with wisdom: without , takes over; without wisdom, we come to see things wrongly.
Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom: Tools We Already Carry
Morality protects us from being forced into wrong speech or action. Once precepts are undertaken, the sphere of morality brightens and continuously draws in pure energy. The five precepts protect against the unwholesome; the eight precepts protect against both the unwholesome and the neutral. Concentration refines the mind so it can seize ever-finer slivers of time, though it can develop only as far as the formless s. Only wisdom can carry us further, all the way to nibbana. Once morality, concentration, and wisdom are studied fully together, the sphere of liberation can begin to function, freeing us from all defilements — and the sphere of -and-vision of liberation then carries us into ever-greater goodness beyond that.