It is helpful to connect with our deeper aspirations to practice - at the beginning of a retreat as well as before practice sessions. Twelve different responses to the question of why we practice are explored.
The latent defilements are the base from which they manifest as either obsessive or transgressive defilements. Their abandoning, temporary or complete, can be acheived by the threefold training in virtue, concentration, and wisdom.
Once pleasure becomes a determined pursuit, the world divides itself into a pleasure/pain polarity. We now pursue pleasure, both to sustain a pleasant feeling and to avoid the discontent of pain.<br />
