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Āsavas

The Corrupting Influences, The Cankers, The Effluents, The Taints

Seeking sense pleasure; seeking existence; and blindness to the pain inherent in living, it's source, what needs to be done to end it, and how to accomplish it's ending — (The Four Truths) — sometimes with 'Opinions' as a fourth: The highest-level, or 'most-generalized' terms for that which must be got rid of to realize Nibbana, or the other way around the things that bind one to the world and rebirth. When 'diṭṭhi' is included it is sometimes translated as 'erroneous views', but all views are to be abandoned by the Arahant.

References:

[DN 33]
The Compilation 3s#20, Olds, trans.
Puremind, M. Punnaji, Awakening Meditation, pp8-56
[MN 2]
All The Asavas Outline of Majjhima I:#2: Sabbasavasutta
AIT: All the Fermentations, MN I:2, Thanissaro, trans.
[AN 5.075]
ATI: AN 5.75: The Warrior 1
[SN 5.45.163]
BD: SN 5.45.163: Issues, Olds, trans.

The 10th Lesson: The Destruction of the Asavas
S.B.E. XI: [MN 2] All the Asavas
AN 6.58: The Cankers

Āsavas (1st 3 older than 4th)
Pāḷi MO Hare Horner Punnaji Bodhi Nanamoli Rhys Davids (Mrs)Rhys Davids Thanissaro Walshe Woodward
Āsavas Disrupting Influences, Interuptions, Eruptions, Corrupting Influences, Corruptions, No-Goods, Influences, Issues Cankers Cankers influences, inate impulses, compulsion taints taints intoxicants, poisons intoxicants, poisons effluents, fermentations corruptions asavas
kāmāsava Sense Pleasures, Pleasure seeking lust sense pleasure sense pleasure craving for sense pleasure, sensual desire craving for sense pleasure, sensual desire sensuality sensuality sensuality sense desire sensual delight
bhavāsava living, being, becoming becomings becoming urge for existence, being craving for being craving for being future life, becoming future life, becoming becoming becoming becoming
avijjāsava blindness ignorance ignorance unconsciousness ignorance ignorance ignorance ignorance ignorance ignorance nescience
diṭṭhāsava View, view theories, perspectives, hypotheses, thesis, opinion view view Perspective view view erroneous opinion, view eroneous opinion, view view views view

 

Pāḷi Text Society
Pāḷi English Dictionary
Edited by T. W. Rhys Davids and William Stede
[EDITED ENTRY]

 

Āsava: that which flows (out or on to) outflow and influx. 1. spirit, the intoxicating extract or secretion of a tree or flower, O. C. in Vin IV.110 (four kinds); B. on D III.182 (five kinds).... - 2. discharge from a sore, A I.124, 127.... - 3. in psychology, t.t. for certain specified ideas which intoxicate the mind (bemuddle it, befoozle it, so that it cannot rise to higher things). Freedom from the "āsavas" constitutes Arahantship, and the fight for the extinction of these āsavas forms one of the main duties of man.... - The 4 āsavas are kām-, bhav-, diṭṭh-, avijj-, i. e. sensuality, rebirth (lust of life), speculation and ignorance. - They are mentioned as such at D II.81, 84, 91, 94, 98, 123, 126; A I.165 sq., 196; II.211; III.93, 414; IV.79.... - The set of 3, which is probably older (kāma-, bhava-, avijjā-) occurs at M I. 55; A I.165; III.414; S IV.256; V.56, 189....
Referring specially to the extinction (khaya) of the āsavas and to Arahantship following as a result are the foll. passages: (1) āsavānaṃ khaya D I.156; S II.29, 214; III 57, 96 sq, 152 sq; IV.105, 175; V.92, 203, 220, 271, 284; A I.107 sq., 123 sq., 232 sq., 273, 291; II.6, 36, 44 sq., 149 sq., 214; III 69, 114, 131, 202, 306, 319 sq.; IV.83 sq., 119, 140 sq., 314 sq.; V.10 sq., 36, 69, 94 sq, 105, 132, 174 sq., 343 sq.... - (2) khīṇāsava (adj.) one whose āsavas are destroyed... S I.13, 48, 53, 146; II 83, 239; III.199, 128, 178; IV.217; A I 77, 109, 241, 266; IV.120, 224, 370 sq.; V 40, 253 sq.... - (3) anāsava (adj.) one who is free from the āsavas, an Arahant Vin II.148 = 164; D III.112; S I 130; II.214, 222; III.83; IV.128; A I.81, 107 sqQ, 123 sq., 273, 291; II.6, 36, 87, 146; III.19, 29, 114, 166; IV.98, 140 sq., 314 sq., 400; A V.10 sqQ, 36, 242, 340....

 


 

A Dictionary of the Pāḷi Language
Robert Caesar Childers
[EDITED ENTRY]

Āsavo. Oozing, scum; misfortune; human passion, sin, corruption, depravity. ... The three Āsavas are kāmāsavo, bhavāsavo, avijjāsavo, "the lust of the flesh, the love of existence, and the defilement of ignorance" ... The first of these is explained by pañcaguṇiko rāgo, the second by "attachment to existence in the rūpa and arūpa worlds," and the third is the defilement arising from ignorance of the Four Great Truths (ariya-saccāni). There are also four Āsavas, kāmāsavo, bhavāsavo, diṭṭhāsavo, avijjāsavo, sensual pleasure, existence, heresy and ignorance ...

 


 

Pāḷi Text Society
A Dictionary of Pāli
Margaret Cone
[EDITED ENTRY]

Āsava. "inflowing", influence (the concerns, attitudes, predispositions, listed as kāma, bhava, avijjā and, sometimes, diṭṭhi, which form an obstacle to the realisation of the truth of things, and so, in themselves and through the actions they motivate, bring about further existence; their ending or destruction is in fact arahat-ship

 


 

Access to Insight
A Glossary of Pāḷi and Buddhist Terms

Asava. Mental effluent, pollutant, or fermentation. Four qualities — sensuality, views, becoming, and ignorance — that "flow out" of the mind and create the flood of the round of death and rebirth.


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