“A-kusala means “not kusala”. Just as the opposite to friendship is enmity, or the opposite to greed, etc. is disinterestedness, etc., so “akusala” is opposed to “kusala”...
...lobha has the characteristic of grasping an object, like birdlime (lit. “monkey lime”). Its function is sticking, like meat put in a hot pan. It is manifested as not giving up, like the dye of lampblack. Its proximate cause is seeing enjoyment in things that lead to bondage. Swelling with the current of craving, it should be regarded as taking (beings) with it to states of loss, as a swift-flowing river does to the great ocean.
And what, monks, is the satisfaction in pleasures of the senses? These five, monks, are the strands of sense-pleasures. What five? Visible objects cognizable by the eye, agreeable, pleasant, liked, enticing, connected with sensual pleasures, alluring. Sounds, cognizable by the ear ...Smells, cognizable by the nose ...Tastes cognizable by the tongue ...Touches, cognizable by the body, agreeable, pleasant, liked, enticing, connected with sensual pleasures, alluring. These, monks, are the five strands of sense-pleasures. Whatever pleasure, whatever happiness arises in consequence of these five strands of sense-pleasures, this is the satisfaction in sense-pleasures.
And what, monks, is the peril in sense-pleasures? In this case, monks, a young man of family earns his living by some craft ...He is afflicted by the cold, he is afflicted by the heat, suffering from the touch of gadflies, mosquitos, wind, sun, creeping things, dying of hunger and thirst. This, monks, is a peril in pleasures of the senses that is present, a stem of ill...If, monks, this young man of family rouses himself, exerts himself, strives thus, but if these possessions do not come to his hand, he grieves, mourns, laments, beating his breast and wailing, he falls into disillusionment, and thinks: “Indeed my exertion is in vain, indeed my striving is fruitless.” This too, monks, is a peril in the pleasures of the senses that is present...And again, monks, when sense-pleasures are the cause ... kings dispute with kings, nobles dispute with nobles, brahmans dispute with brahmans, householders dispute with householders, a mother disputes with her son, a son disputes with his mother, a father disputes with his son, a son disputes with his father, a brother disputes with a brother, a brother disputes with a sister, a sister disputes with a brother, a friend disputes with a friend. Those who enter into quarrel, contention, dispute and attack one another with their hands and with stones and with sticks and with weapons, these suffer dying then and pain like unto dying. This too, monks, is a peril in the pleasures of the senses that is present...
“And what, monks, is the satisfaction in material shapes? Monks, it is like a girl in a noble’s family or a brahman’s family or a householder’s family who at the age of fifteen or sixteen is not too tall, not too short, not too thin, not too fat, not too dark, not too fair - is she, monks, at the height of her beauty and loveliness at that time?”“Yes, Lord.”“Monks, whatever happiness and pleasure arise because of beauty and loveliness, this is satisfaction in material shapes.And what, monks, is peril in material shapes? As to this, monks, one might see that same lady after a time, eighty or ninety or a hundred years old, aged, crooked as a rafter, bent, leaning on a stick, going along palsied, miserable, youth gone, teeth broken, hair thinned, skin wrinkled, stumbling along, the limbs discoloured......And again, monks, one might see that same lady, her body thrown aside in a cemetery, dead for one, two or three days, swollen, discoloured, decomposing. What would you think, monks? That which was former beauty and loveliness has vanished, a peril has appeared?”“Yes, Lord.”“This too, monks, is a peril in material shapes...”