“Mahāli, if form were absolutely painful—soaked and steeped in pain and not steeped in pleasure—sentient beings wouldn’t be aroused by it. But because form is pleasurable—soaked and steeped in pleasure and not steeped in pain—sentient beings are aroused by it. Since they are aroused by it, they’re caught up in it, and so they become corrupted. This is a cause and reason for the corruption of sentient beings. This is how sentient beings are corrupted with cause and reason.

If feeling …

perception … choices …