Defilement awareness (Buddhism)

Tsung-mi, a chronicler of Ch'an (Zen), indicated the process whereby, in the unenlightened aspect of alaya-vijnana, intrinsic enlightenment is gradually overlaid by delusion and, in the enlightened aspect, the delusion systematically removed. One is defiled by the three poisons - greed, anger and folly - as the eighth stage step in the downward process. This is comparable to desiring things that one sees in a dream and likes and feeling aversion to things one sees in a dream and dislikes. It is counteracted by spiritual development.