6 habits that keep us from awakening:
Q. What are the traits of character that we have to avoid, that is to say, which are the obstacles in the path of one who seeks Liberation from the cycle of Birth and Death?
A. The six, the Ari-shadvarga:
1. Kama (Desire):
Desire for riches, property, honor, status, fame, children; why list the lot? Attachment to all things of this sensory world, this false, temporary, impure world.
2. Krodha (Anger):
Yearning to harm others and cause ruin to them.
3. Lobha (Greed):
Determination that no one else should partake of even a small fraction of what one has earned or what one has; also, that even in times of distress, one's possessions should not be diminished by use.
4. Moha (Attachment):
The delusion that some people are nearer to one than others and the desire to please them more than others, leading to exertions for earning and accumulating for their sake.
5. Mada (Pride):
Mada means the swagger that develops when one feels that he or she has either scholarship or strength or riches or fame, more than others. Even when one has NOT got these, Mada makes people move about without reverence for elders and consideration for others' feelings and craving only for one's own comfort and security. Mada is extreme egoism.
6. Maathsarya (Jealousy):
When others are as happy as yourself, Maathsarya makes one miserable; one cannot tolerate it.
All these are called Inner Foes. So long as man is caught in this net of delusion spread by these Foes, the yearning for liberation will not dawn in their mind.
