197: Beautiful Mental Factors 'Sobhana Cetasika' (Part 4) Abstinence
Update: 2025-08-27
Description
In this episode, we explore the second subgroup of the beautiful mental factors — Abstinence (Vīrati). This group consists of three mental factors: Right Speech (Sammā Vācā), Right Action (Sammā Kammanta), and Right Livelihood (Sammā Ājīva).
While these three also appear in the morality group of the Noble Eightfold Path, here we understand them as specific mental factors — wholesome states that arise when one volitionally refrains from unwholesome actions.
We learn how:
- Right Speech means refraining from false, harsh, divisive, and idle speech.
- Right Action means refraining from killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct.
- Right Livelihood means refraining from deceit or harm in one’s profession.
The talk also explains three ways abstinence can occur:
- By occasion — choosing not to act unwholesomely when tempted.
- By undertaking precepts — abstaining through moral commitment.
- By eradication — when an enlightened being has completely uprooted defilements.
Through understanding and mindfulness, we see how true abstinence purifies the mind, leading toward wisdom and liberation.
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