About This Answer
Asked how detachment from the body lessens greed, aversion and sensual desire, Ajahn Dtun explains that these defilements arise from identifying with the body as self. As that attachment lessens, they naturally lessen too.
He traces this through the stages of awakening. The stream-enterer (sotāpanna) lets go of one portion of attachment to the body, and the coarser defilements fall away. The once-returner (sakadāgāmī) lets go of another portion, weakening the more moderate defilements. The non-returner (anāgāmī) lets go of all attachment to the body, seeing it as merely elements; greed, aversion and sensual desire then cease completely, and the mind abides in emptiness and happiness.
Greed arises from doing things for the body; aversion and sensual desire likewise depend on identifying with it. To end them fully one must practise to the level of non-returning. Then illness does not sway the mind and death does not perturb it, because the mind is not the body.