The Difference Between Suppressing Afflictions and Eliminating Afflictions

Suppressing afflictions and eliminating afflictions are two different concepts, representing two levels of practice, and the difference between them is great, or even immense. Those who cultivate non-Buddhist meditative concentration often attain very high levels of meditative concentration (samādhi); they seem to have eliminated sexual desire, and many of them do not give rise to thoughts even upon seeing sensual objects. However, after they die, they still transmigrate through birth and death. Once they take on a new body, the desire for sexual activity arises again, and then they conceive and take rebirth because of that sexual desire. Without realizing the fruits of the path, so-called elimination of sexual desire is not true elimination but mere suppression—temporarily prevented from manifesting. Once meditative concentration fades away, sexual desire immediately reappears.