How does the Abhidhamma classify the asavas?
They are one classification of the defilements:
Nina Van Gorkom - Cetasikas
One of the groups of defilements is the āsavas. Āsava can be translated as canker, poison, or intoxicant. There are four āsavas (Dhammasaṅgaṇī §1096–1100):
- the canker of sensuous desire — kāmāsava
- the canker of becoming — bhavāsava
- the canker of wrong view — diṭṭhāsava
- the canker of ignorance — avijjāsava
The Atthasālinī (I, Part I, Chapter II, 48) explains that āsavas flow from the senses and the mind. In all planes where there is nāma arising, āsavas occur—even in the highest plane of existence, which is the fourth arūpa-brahma plane. The āsavas are like liquor that has fermented for a long time, the Atthasālinī explains. The āsavas are like poisonous drugs or intoxicants.
The Visuddhimagga (XXII, 56) states that the āsavas are exuding “from unguarded sense-doors like water from cracks in a pot, in the sense of constant trickling.” The āsavas keep on flowing from birth to death—they are also flowing at this moment. Are we not attached to what we see? Then there is the canker of sensuous desire, kāmāsava.
Seeing experiences visible object, and shortly after seeing has fallen away, there are most of the time akusala cittas rooted in attachment, aversion, or ignorance. When the object is pleasant, there is likely to be attachment to the object because we have accumulated such a great deal of attachment. We are attached to visible object, sound, odour, flavour, and tangible object. We are infatuated with the objects we experience through the senses, and we want to go on experiencing them.
Because of our foolish attachment to what is actually impermanent, we have to continue to be in the cycle of birth and death. We have to be reborn again and again until the cankers have been extinguished. The arahat has eradicated the cankers; he does not have to be reborn again.
We may not understand that birth is sorrowful, but when Right understanding has been developed, we will see that all that is impermanent is sorrowful. We cling to all we experience through the senses—we cling to life. Clinging is deeply accumulated; even the first javana-cittas of our life were lobhamūla-cittas, cittas rooted in attachment, and this is the case for every living being.
The canker of desire for rebirth, bhavāsava, is another one of the āsavas. The Atthasālinī (II, Book II, Chapter II, §370) explains that this “arises by way of aspiring to rebirth in rūpa and arūpa forms of life.” Even the anāgāmī, who has eradicated all clinging to sensuous objects, can still have clinging to rebirth, which is the result of jhāna. So long as there is attachment to any kind of rebirth, one has to continue in the cycle of birth and death.
The canker of wrong view, diṭṭhāsava, comprises, according to the Dhammasaṅgaṇī (§1099), the conceiving of all speculative theories such as eternalism, annihilationism, and theories about the world, the soul, and the body. So long as one has not attained enlightenment, one tends to cling to the concept of self—and this is so deeply rooted that it is extremely hard to eradicate.
The canker of ignorance, avijjāsava, is moha cetasika—ignorance itself. It is ignorance of the Four Noble Truths, of the past, the future, or both, and of paṭiccasamuppāda (dependent origination) (Dhammasaṅgaṇī §1100). We have innumerable moments of ignorance. Ignorance is dangerous; at the moment it arises, we do not realize that there is ignorance.
We are time and again overcome by the āsavas. It is hard for us to see their danger. We cannot help being attached to the objects we experience through the senses. How could we prevent ourselves from liking pleasant objects? The Buddha warned people of the danger of sense-pleasures.
We read in the Middle Length Sayings (I, No. 22, The Parable of the Water-Snake) that the Buddha explained about the things which are “stumbling blocks” to the monk Ariṭṭha, who had wrong understanding of the Dhamma. The Buddha stated about sense-pleasures:
“…Sense-pleasures are said by me to be of little satisfaction, of much pain, of much tribulation, wherein is more peril.
Sense-pleasures are likened by me to a skeleton… to a lump of meat… to a torch of dry grass… to a pit of glowing embers… to a dream… to something borrowed… to the fruits of a tree… to a slaughter-house… to an impaling stake…
Sense-pleasures are likened by me to a snake’s head—of much pain, of much tribulation, wherein is more peril…”
When one is still infatuated with sense-pleasures, such words are hard to grasp. We may not like to hear that sense-pleasures are as sorrowful and dangerous as the things the Buddha compares them to. At the moment of attachment, the object which is experienced seems to be so pleasant, and we fail to see that we are lured by attachment. It is wisdom, paññā, which sees the danger of sense-pleasures.
The anāgāmī and the arahat fully understand the danger of sense-pleasures; they have no conditions for the arising of the canker of sensuous desire, kāmāsava, because it has been eradicated. When understanding of realities begins to develop, it cannot yet achieve detachment from sense-pleasures. Some people are inclined to think that they must first of all become detached before they can begin to develop right understanding of nāma and rūpa. However, this is not the right way of practice. Right understanding of whatever reality appears—even if it is attachment—should be developed. Only paññā which knows nāma and rūpa as they are can eventually bring about detachment.
The Visuddhimagga states about the āsavas that they “exude from unguarded sense-doors.” The sense-doors are “guarded” through the development of satipaṭṭhāna. We read in the Gradual Sayings (Book of the Threes, Chapter II, §16, The Sure Course) that a monk who possesses three qualities is “proficient in the practice leading to the Sure Course” and “has strong grounds for the destruction of the āsavas.” These three qualities are: moderation in eating, guarding of the six doors, and vigilance.
We read concerning the guarding of the six doors:
“And how does he keep watch over the door of his sense faculties?
Herein, a monk, seeing an object with the eye, does not grasp at the general features or at the details thereof. Since coveting and dejection, evil, unprofitable states might overwhelm one who dwells with the faculty of the eye uncontrolled, he applies himself to such control, sets a guard over the faculty of the eye, attains control thereof…”
The same is said about the other doorways. The six doorways should be guarded. How does one, when seeing an object with the eye, not “grasp at the general features or at the details thereof”? By being mindful of the reality which appears. This is the way to see realities as they are—to see them as impermanent, dukkha, and anattā (non-self).
However, even the sotāpanna, who has eradicated the canker of wrong view, diṭṭhāsava, still clings to sensuous objects. Even someone who has realized the arising and falling away of visible object which appears, of sound which appears, may still cling to them. Clinging has been accumulated from life to life—how, then, could one become detached at once?
There are four stages of enlightenment, and at each stage defilements are progressively eradicated. Paññā has to grow keener and keener in order to be able to eradicate them. The lokuttara magga-citta (supramundane path-consciousness), which at the first stage of enlightenment—the stage of the sotāpanna—experiences nibbāna for the first time, eradicates only the canker of wrong view (diṭṭhāsava).
The sotāpanna still has the canker of sensuous desire (kāmāsava), the canker of desire for rebirth (bhavāsava), and the canker of ignorance (avijjāsava). He still has desire, but it has become less gross than the desire of the non-ariyan, the “worldling” (puthujjana).
The magga-citta of the sakadāgāmī (one who has attained the second stage of enlightenment) does not eradicate desire, but desire has become more attenuated.
The magga-citta of the anāgāmī (one who has attained the third stage of enlightenment) eradicates the canker of sensuous desire (kāmāsava), but he still has the canker of desire for rebirth (bhavāsava) and the canker of ignorance (avijjāsava).
The magga-citta of the arahat eradicates both the canker of desire for rebirth and the canker of ignorance. The arahat is āsava-free—khīṇāsava—one in whom the cankers are completely extinguished.
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