Disclaimer: This translation does not guarantee complete accuracy, please confirm with the original page text.
## Chapter 32: The Dasha Shruta Skandha Sutra
**32**
**The Dasha Shruta Skandha Sutra**
Any blemishes that have been indulged in should be removed by the corresponding atonement. However, even the slightest blemish should not be allowed to remain; because just as a small hole in a pot allows all the water to leak out, so too, a small remaining blemish in the pot-like being is sufficient to drain out the water of restraint. Therefore, one should strive with a determined mind to remove blemishes as much as possible, so that there is not even an atom of blemish in the character-dharma.
**1**
**The Second Stage**
Just as a potter creates a pot with precise actions like rotating the wheel, so too, one should protect restraint with precise actions, but not allow blemishes to arise. Like a white cloth painted with many spots, one should not allow the cloth of restraint to be painted with blemishes. In other words, one should always strive for the purity of restraint.
Because lack of concentration causes all the states of the soul to lean towards unrestraint, this stage has been created with the main objective of generating concentration.
Although "blemish" is a single word, according to the practical perspective, the scripture writer has fixed the number of blemishes based on the pure thought of the inquisitive, special knowledge, and the welfare-wisdom of the people.
The scripture writer himself describes it:
"I have heard, O venerable one, thus has the Blessed One spoken: Here, indeed, twenty-one blemishes have been declared by the venerable ones, which are those twenty-one blemishes declared by the venerable ones? These, indeed, are the twenty-one blemishes declared by the venerable ones, namely:..."