2 Timothy 3:6 Meaning For Some of These Are People

Pāpamitta: The bad friend A companion whose closeness leads you downward. The method here is a quiet entrance through a household door rather than an argument in the marketplace, because someone sitting in your front room shapes you far more than someone debating you in the street. Weigh anyone with that kind of access by where their company lands you over a year, since nearness turned the other direction, toward a good friend, carries the whole of the holy life.

Yoniso manasikāra: Wise attention Attention that works down to the root of what it meets. Credulity is a missing step: the pause in which a claim gets turned over before it is swallowed, and that pause is open to anyone, schooled or not. An outward show of piety is exactly the thing that cannot be tested by looking at it, so she can set the smooth teaching beside what she can watch for herself: does following this dry up greed and ill will, or feed them.

Anusaya: The underlying tendency Sleeping inclinations that wake the moment something touches them. A stranger's pitch takes hold only where something inside already leans that way, the way a match needs dry tinder. The load was carried into the house long before he crossed the threshold; his work is mostly to strike the match.

Taṇhā: Craving Thirst pulling toward what it wants. Being led away is exact about the direction of force: the various lusts are out in front holding the rope, and the person walks behind. The man at the door supplies a handle, and the pull was already there before he offered it.

Mārapāsa: Māra's snare The noose that keeps beings circling. Taken captive describes the outcome better than any story about clever deception, since a snare asks no consent from the animal, only its appetite and one wrong step. Māra will work through whoever agrees to carry the errand indoors, and the way out stays ordinary: watch the appetite closely, and the noose finds nothing to tighten on.