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煩惱

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: affliction

Senses:

  • Affective disorders, defilement(s); mental disturbances; emotional negativity, evil afflictions, carnal desires (Skt. kleśa; saṃkleśa; Tib. nyon mongs pa, kun nas nyon mongs pa, Pāli kilesa). Also commonly rendered as ; kleśa is transliterated as 吉隷捨. All of the thoughts, words, actions and emotions which arise and cease based on nescience and desire which keep human beings trapped in the cycle of birth and death, and which result in suffering. Therefore, Buddhism teaches methods for attaining nirvana/enlightenment as a means of eliminating the afflictions.

    Depending upon their specific function in a given situation, the Chinese term 煩惱 has a wide range of synonyms, including: propensities 隨眠 (anuśaya), mental disturbances (cognitive distortions), pollution , bindings , bindings and instigations 結使, fetters , snares , yokes , raging currents 暴流, obscuration , knots , predilections 使, filth , stumps 株杌, burning pain 燒害, darts/arrows , thicket 稠林 (a metaphor for the great number and density of the afflictions), fatigue 塵勞, objective filth 塵垢, adventitious taint 客塵, roots of strife 諍根. Also, afflictions are termed in their substance as defilements proper 正使, and when the substance of the afflictions have been extinguished, the remaining habitual tendencies are called 'karmic impressions'  習氣. According to the Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya 倶舍論 all afflictions are produced based on the three factors of (1) causal power 因力 (previously functioning afflictions), (2) environmental power 境界力 (the appearance of objects according to desire) and (3) power of application 加行力 (incorrect mental orientation toward objects). According to the Prakaraṇa-abhidharma-avatāra 入阿毘達磨論 on the other hand, afflictions can be produced based on environmental power alone.

    Both Sarvâstivāda and Yogâcāra schematize the afflictions into the two main categories of primary (fundamental) 根本煩惱 and secondary (or derivative) 枝末煩惱 (枝末惑, 隨煩惱). The fundamental afflictions are the basic substance , and are usually expressed in Chinese with such terms as 本惑, 根本惑, or simply 煩惱, but in Sarvâstivāda are also called 隨眠 (underlying, latent tendencies). In Sautrāntika 經部 however the term 隨眠 is used to refer to the seed aspect 種子 of the afflictions, positing at the same time the distinction of afflictions in their manifest activity 現行, also called ( 'actively binding' ); this usage of terminology was adopted by Yogâcāra. Their quality, as described in the Yogâcāra system, is either unwholesome 不善, or obstructive without a determinable moral fruition 有覆無記.

    The fundamental afflictions include the six of craving , aversion , delusion (or nescience 無明), pride , doubt and [mistaken] views (having the connotation of wrong views 邪見, 惡見), and so these are listed as the six afflictions 六煩惱 (or 六隨眠). [Mistaken] views are distinguished into the five kinds of view 五見 of identification 有身見, attachment to extremes 邊執見, non-Buddhist religious views 邪見, view of attachment to views 見取見, and incorrect attachment to precepts 戒禁取見. When these are added together with the other five afflictions of desire and so forth, they are termed the 'ten afflictions'  十煩惱 (or 十隨眠, 十使). Among these, the first five (desire, etc.) do not have the basic character to seek and imagine, so their function is relatively slow and dull, and they are termed the 'five dull facilitators'  五鈍使 (or 五惑). The five views, on the other hand, have the character of imagination and seeking, and so their function is relatively fast and sharp, thus the label 'five sharp facilitators.'

    Additionally, the category of craving from among the basic six propensities can be distinguished into the category of the craving of the desired realm 欲界, and another kind of craving that subsumes the two upper realms of form 色界 and formlessness 無色界. Thus the appellations of desire-craving 欲貪 and form-craving 有貪. With these two added to the initial set, they are called the seven propensities 七隨眠 (七使), or, when added to the ten propensities as three separate types (欲貪, 色貪, 無色貪) they are called the twelve propensities 十二隨眠 (or 十二使).

    In Yogâcāra, among the ten basic afflictions, there are four that are directly derived from the view of self, and thus always arise together with the seventh consciousness 第七識. These are (1) self-delusion 我癡 (nescience of the principle of no-self, which leads to the next affliction—self-view). This is synonymous with the terms 愚癡 and 無明. (2) Self-view 我見 (or attachment to self 我執). The mistaken view of assuming and attaching to an unchanging, continuous self; also expressed with slightly different connotations as 有身見 (view of identify). (3) The conceit 'I am'  我慢—the fundamental sense of pride that accompanies the mistaken perception of self and serves as the basis for the seven kinds of pride 七慢. (4) Attachment of self 我愛 (also expressed as 我貪, 貪愛, and 貪着)—the addiction to things that are pleasing to oneself. These are called the four afflictions 四煩惱 (or four fundamental afflictions 四根本煩惱, four mental disturbances 四惑). Also, since the three most fundamental afflictions of craving , aversion , and delusion are seen to be the source of all derivative afflictions, they are named with such terms as the three unwholesome roots 三不善根, three poisons 三毒, three stains 三垢, three fetters 三縛, etc. The secondary, or derivative afflictions 枝末煩惱 arise as variants, or as combinations of the fundamental afflictions, and are referred to by various terms such as 隨惑, 枝末惑, and 隨煩惱.

    [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, YBh-Ind, JEBD, Yokoi, Iwanami]
  • (Skt. kliṣṭa, aṅgaṇa, ādhi, āśaya, āśrava, utkileśa, upakileśa, upakleśa, upadhi, kileśa, kilbiṣa, kleśa-kośa, kleśa-doṣa, kleśa-bandhana, kleśôpakleśa, tapasrāga, reṇu-kleśa, vikṣrpa, vyasana, saṃyojana, saṃkileśa, sāṃkileśika)

    Reference:

    Ahn, Sung-Doo. 2003. Die Lehre von den Kleśas in der Yogâcārabhūmi. Stuttgart:  Franz Steiner Verlag.

    [Charles Muller; source(s): Hirakawa]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 993

    Bulgyo sajeon 216a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 1167a

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 752

    A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki) 18, 146

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 20a/21

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 31

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1273c

    Fo Guang Dictionary 5515

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0794

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)4703a,1397c, (v.9-10)1008b,480a,552c,1092b

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 221-1-5*1638-1*1721-2-10

    Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)



    Entry created: 1993-09-01

    Updated: 2017-10-27