FIVE IMPURITIES

In modern times government is skilled producing nuclear weapons for waging war and harming each other but government lacks skill to create peace and happiness... world at large is busily laying foundations for conflict and suffering... ~~ Ogyen Drodul Yeshi Dorjee

five impurities ［五濁］ ( go-joku): Also, five defilements. Impurity of the age, of desire, of living beings, of thought (or view), and of life span. The “Expedient Means” (second) chapter of the Lotus Sutra says, “The Buddhas appear in evil worlds of five impurities. . . . In this evil world of the five impurities those who merely delight in and are attached to the desires, living beings such as this in the end will never seek the Buddha way.” (1) Impurity of the age includes repeated disruptions of the social or natural environment. (2) Impurity of desire is the tendency to be ruled by the five delusive inclinations, i.e., greed, anger, foolishness, arrogance, and doubt. (3) Impurity of living beings is the physical and spiritual decline of human beings. (4) Impurity of thought, or impurity of view, is the prevalence of wrong views such as the five false views. (5) Impurity of life span is the shortening of the life spans of living beings. According to The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, the most fundamental of these five are the impurities of thought and desire, which result in the impurity of living beings and the impurity of life span. These in turn give rise to the impurity of the age.