Before we explore the remaining forms of subtle deception in the mind, let’s briefly recall what we covered in Part 1. There we looked at how unwholesome states can masquerade  as wholesome qualities: how attachment to lust might feel  like loving-kindness, how grief can appear  as compassion, how even equanimity can be shadowed by indifference and so on. The Buddha’s teachings point out these deceptions so that we become more aware of how easily the mind can be led astray when we mistake the...

The Buddha said: “Pāpasmiṃ ramati mano — the minds of people delight in what is unwholesome.” Pāpa does not only mean unwholesome deeds; it can also mean the mind delights in the unwholesome qualities that arise within it.  If you look honestly, you will notice this in yourself. The mind delights in lobha, but not in alobha. It delights in dosa, but not in adosa. It delights in moha, but not in amoha. These are all unwholesome qualities. And when māna (conceit), issā (envy) and macchariya...

Māna (conceit) is a stubborn and deeply rooted fetter (saṃyojana) that can only be fully uprooted at the fourth and final Path Knowledge: Arahatta‑magga. Until then, it can hide beneath the surface, arise actively, or lie latent within the continuum of beings. It always arrives with lobha — grabbing onto an idea, thought, memory, object, sensation or experience. Why is this so? Because it is through clinging that a sense of “I”, “me”, or “mine” is formed: all of which are expressions of māna....