The Three Unwholesome Roots, or Three Poisons, are three mental states that are the chief causes of suffering. The Buddha taught that these kleshas, or mental states, are at the root of the dukkha that we experience. They arise in and out of meditation, and often pervade our moment-to-moment experience.
When we first begin investigating the Three Unwholesome Roots, we may not see just how much they are affecting our experience. As we continue to meditate and investigate this teaching, we find that these roots drive quite a bit of our thoughts, actions, and speech.
The Three Unwholesome Roots are essentially that we want to be somewhere other than we are, we don’t see things clearly, and this leads to suffering.
Craving, Attachment, Clinging
The first of the Three Unwholesome Roots is craving, attachment, or clinging. This is a mental state that arises in response to pleasant stimuli and is also related to the first of the Five Hindrances. We have a pleasant experience, a pleasant memory or fantasy arises, or we lose something pleasant, and we cling to it.
Sometimes we are resting in an unpleasant experience, and craving arises as a result of the desire to be experience something else. This is rooted both in our biology and our conditioning. Our survival instinct is to move towards things that feel happy and safe, and the culture of the world today is to seek out more happiness.
This unwholesome root is sometimes translated as “desire,” and its important to distinguish between healthy desire and unwholesome desire. In Pali, there are two separate words: chanda and tanha.
Chanda is a healthy desire, a wanting that is subtle. We want to grow, find happiness, and be safe. We can think of it as an orienting or pointing in a direction.
Then, we have tanha, which can most accurately be translated as “thirst,” and is the unwholesome root of which we are speaking here. This craving or thirst can be understood as the idea or thought that “I will be happy once I get _____.”
When we look at our desires carefully, we can see when chanda turns into tanha. Craving and attachment have a feeling in the body that is different from simple desire. IF you look at your own experience, you will see how tanha feels in both the mind and body.
This creates suffering because we are in a constant state of wishing we were somewhere else. Sometimes the suffering is great and obvious, like with drug addiction and the craving that comes with it. Sometimes the suffering is more subtle, such as the craving of different weather.
Either way, the craving and clinging to pleasant experience creates suffering because every experience is impermanent, and these experiences won’t lead to true ease and happiness. We constantly wish we were someplace else, that something else was happening, and are discontented where we are.
Aversion, Ill-Will, Hatred
The second unwholesome root may be seen as the opposite of the first (more on that later). Aversion arises out of an unpleasant experience, and it is the mental state of wishing some experience was not present.
We hear an unpleasant noise, have an unpleasant physical sensation, or are plagued by unpleasant thoughts, and we avert. We push things away or try to pull ourselves away from these experiences. It happens very quickly, and we often don’t notice it. Something unpleasant arises and we almost immediately label it as “bad.” Just as we run toward pleasant experiences, we run away from the unpleasant experiences.
Although this root may be seen as the opposite of craving, it actually is the other side to the same coin. Aversion and craving are actually very similar, but they have different manifestations often.
When we are in unpleasantness, we avert from it by craving a pleasant experience. The two often arise together. Any time we are in aversion, we are craving to be without the unpleasantness. Any time we are in craving and clinging, we are averting from something unpleasant, real or imagined.
Delusion, Ignorance, Confusion
The word ignorance may seem abrasive because of the way it is often used in the English language. The connotation is not great, but the actual meaning of the word ignorance is “lacking knowledge or wisdom.”
This third unwholesome root is the lack of understanding about experience. We see things through a distorted lens. We don’t see things as they actually are. We get lost in our cravings and ill-will. We are deluded or confused about true ease and happiness.
At the core of the teaching on delusion is not understanding or knowing the Three Marks of Existence. These three characteristics are anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering), and anatta (non-self).
In some commentaries, ignorance is sometimes cited as the true root poison. With ignorance, we crave impermanent experiences or avert from unpleasant ones when we identify too strongly with them. The lack of understanding of the Three Marks leads us right into suffering.
Practicing with the Three Poisons
Much like other Buddhist teachings, we are not called to just read about the Three Poisons. Instead, we are to truly know them in our own experience. We are also called to cultivate qualities that keep us from watering these three roots.
I’ve shared quite a bit over the years teaching that my passion lies in how to actually practice with these ancient teachings. Luckily, this is a very pragmatic teaching and one we can apply clearly to our practice.
The Antidotes
In the Akusalamūlasutta, the Buddha outlines three skillful roots. It’s remarkable how much these are forgotten in favor of remembering the three uwholesome roots. These are three mental states or qualities that can be seen as the opposites and therefore antidotes.
First we have alobha, which is often translated into English as contentment. The word itself means non-greed. As such, it can be understood specifically as contentment with what we have or what we are experiencing.
Traditionally we cultivate alobha through the practices of detachment and generosity. We can do this by being generous and detached both in our daily lives and in our meditation practice. More on this in the next section.
The second wholesome root is adosa, or non-hatred. We often use the term “goodwill” when talking about this root. Adosa is the quality of not averting from or wishing to be rid of any experience or person.
We are taught to cultivate adosa through metta (loving-kindness), and compassion. These are likewise qualities we can cultivate both in and out of formal meditation practice.
Finally, there is amoha, or understanding. The word itself means non-delusion in Pali. We work to cultivate an understanding, specifically of the Three Marks of Existence. This is done through wisdom and insight practices and practicing Wise Mindfulness.
In Meditation
The core of working with the Three Unwholesome Roots lies in mindfulness or insight practices. Whether you’re working with mindfulness of the breath, a body scan, or a general vipassana practice, you can observe these six roots (the three unwholesome and three wholesome) in your experience.
Much like many aspects of the path, we can make progress with the roots by simply observing them. We do so without judgement, getting to know the actual experience of the them. When we notice an unwholesome root arising we can notice its passing as well, allowing space for a wholesome root to arise.
We also can specifically cultivate loving-kindness through metta practice. This helps with the poison of aversion specifically. I’ve left a guided metta meditation below from our YouTube channel.
In Daily Life
In daily life, we can likewise tune into the arising of the unwholesome roots. One way I like to do this is by first paying attention to vedana, or feeling tone. Being able to clearly see when an experience is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral gives us a gateway into the three poisons.
When something pleasant arises, we can watch for the clinging and craving that often follows naturally. When something is unpleasant, the aversion or hatred comes. By watching the feeling tone, you can prepare yourself for the arising of these two roots.
To counter greed and ill-will, we can also practice generosity and loving-kindness respectively. Give your time, resources, energy, and words lovingly. You also might try what I call “stealth metta” which I cover more here.
To work with delusion, there are plenty of things we can do. We can study the dhamma, question experience, and investigate more deeply what is going on. One of my favorite simple questions we can ask ourselves to build understanding is, “Is this true?”
