The 16 imperfections, as tool for reflexion & checking before, while & after act

[Samana Johann]

Useful to reflect before, while and after acting, by mind (thoughts), speech (incl. signs and gestures), body:

Imperfections

   

from "Saṅkhitt'ovād: Exhortations in Brief, by Ven. Tan Chao Khun Upālī

Those 16 imperfections, the tainting and sullying of the heart, are:

• abhijjhā visaṁ-lobho – greed – intent on wanting to acquire the belongings of others – makes the heart tainted and sullen in one way
  
• doso – thoughts of ill-will toward others
  
• kodho – anger and annoyance with others
  
• upanāho – being set on revenge
  
• makkho – disparaging and insulting others who have benefitted us
  
• palāso – to falsely raise oneself above others
  
• issā – envy and jealousy of others
  
• macchariyaṁ – stinginess, miserliness and possessiveness – withholding one's belongings, knowledge or dwellings
  
• māyā – covering up and concealing the evil one has done
  
• sātheyyaṁ – bragging and boasting about oneself having better qualities than we have
  
• thambho – hard-heartedness and stubborn obstinacy when others teach us, encouraging and explaining things to us correctly
  
• sārambho – to not accept or follow – to take issue and become argumentative in various ways – when others explain things correctly according to Dhamma
  
• māno – arrogance, thinking 'us', 'them', 'me', 'myself'
  
• atimāno – pride, overly disparaging other people
  
• mado – intoxication and delusion with regard to the body which is deteriorating through aging every day, insisting that one is still a young man or woman, heedless; deluded in the body which is constantly getting sick and needing to take medicine – that is, food and drink – every morning and evening, insisting that we have no disease, living healthy and at ease, heedless; and deluded in life which is uncertain, quickly snuffed out like a lantern having been lit out in a clearing, insisting that we won't yet die, heedless.
  
• pamādo – muddled and intoxicated all-around: with some endearing objects, to fall deludedly in love with those objects; or, with some disagreeable objects, to become deludedly hateful and angry toward those objects
  

All these are the 16 imperfections that taint and make sullen.

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