Fifty-one mental states
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Fifty-one mental states or factors (Skt. ekapañcāśaccaitasika; Tib. སེམས་བྱུང་ལྔ་བཅུ་རྩ་གཅིག་, semjung ngabchu tsachik; Wyl. sems byung lnga bcu rtsa gcig) as mentioned in the Abhidharma teachings.
Five ever-present factors (Tib. ཀུན་འགྲོ་ལྔ་, kun ‘gro lnga)
- Sensation (Skt. vedanā; Tib. ཚོར་བ་, Wyl. tshor ba)
- Perception (Skt. saṃjña; Tib. འདུ་ཤེས་, Wyl. ‘du shes)
- Intention (Skt. cetanā; Tib. སེམས་པ་, Wyl. sems pa)
- Contact (Skt. sparśa; Tib. རེག་པ་ or རེག་བྱ་, Wyl. reg pa, reg bya)
- Attention (Skt. manaskāra; Tib. ཡིད་བྱེད་, Wyl. yid byed)
Five object-determining factors (Tib. ཡུལ་ངེས་ལྔ་, yul nges lnga)
- Interest (Skt. chanda; Tib. འདུན་པ་, Wyl. ‘dun pa)
- Appreciation (Skt. adhimokṣa; Tib. མོས་པ་, Wyl. mos pa)
- Mindfulness (Skt. smṛti; Tib. དྲན་པ་, Wyl. dran pa)
- Concentration (Skt. samādhi; Tib. ཏིང་འཛིན་, Wyl. ting ‘dzin)
- Intelligence (Skt. prajñā; Tib. ཤེས་རབ་, Wyl. shes rab)
Eleven virtuous states (Tib. དགེ་བའི་སེམས་བྱུང་བཅུ་གཅིག་, dge ba’i sems byung bcu gcig)
- Faith (Skt. śraddhā; Tib. དད་པ་, dépa; Wyl. dad pa)
- Dignity (Skt. hri; Tib. ངོ་ཚ་ཤེས་པ་, Wyl. ngo tsha shes pa)
- Propriety (Skt. apatrāpya; Tib. ཁྲེལ་ཡོད་པ་, Wyl. khrel yod pa)
- Nonattachment (Skt. alobha; Tib. མ་ཆགས་པ་, Wyl. ma chags pa)
- Nonaggression (Skt. adveṣa; Tib. ཞེས་སྡང་མེད་པ་, Wyl. zhes sdang med pa)
- Nondelusion (Skt. amoha; Tib. གཏི་མུག་མེད་པ་, Wyl. gti mug med pa)
- Diligence (Skt. vīrya; Tib. བརྩོན་འགྲུས་, tsöndrü; Wyl. brtson ‘grus)
- Pliancy or flexibility (Skt. praśrabdhi; Tib. ཤིན་ཏུ་སྦྱང་བ་, Wyl. shin tu sbyang ba)
- Conscientiousness (Skt. apramāda; Tib. བག་ཡོད་པ་, bayö; Wyl. bag yod pa)
- Evenness or Equanimity (Skt. upekṣā; Tib. བཏང་སྙོམས་, tang nyom; Wyl. btang snyoms)
- Nonviolence (Skt. avihiṃsā; Tib. རྣམ་པར་མི་འཚེ་བ་, Wyl. rnam par mi ‘tshe ba)
Six root destructive emotions (Tib. རྩ་ཉོན་དྲུག་, rtsa nyon drug)
- Ignorance (Skt. avidyā; Tib. མ་རིག་པ་, marigpa; Wyl. ma rig pa)
- Desire (Skt. rāga; Tib. འདོད་ཆགས་, döchak; Wyl. ‘dod chags)
- Anger (Skt. pratigha; Tib. ཁོང་ཁྲོ་, kong tro; Wyl. khong khro)
- Pride (Skt. māna; Tib. ང་རྒྱལ་, nga gyal; Wyl. nga rgyal)
- Doubt (Skt. vicikitsā; Tib. ཐེ་ཚོམ་, tétsom; Wyl. the tshom)
- Beliefs (Skt. dṛṣṭi; Tib. ལྟ་བ་, tawa; Wyl. lta ba)
When the last state of beliefs or 'views' is divided into the five wrong views, there are fifty-five mental states in total.
Twenty subsidiary destructive emotions (Tib. ཉེ་ཉོན་ཉི་ཤུ་, nye nyon nyi shu)
- Rage (Skt. krodha; Tib. ཁྲོ་བ་, Wyl. khro ba)
- Resentment (Skt. upanāha; Wyl. Tib. འཁོན་དུ་འཛིན་པ་, ‘khon du ‘dzin pa)
- Spitefulness (Skt. pradāśa; Wyl. Tib. འཚིག་པ་, ‘tshig pa)
- Cruelty (Skt. vihiṃsā; Tib. རྣམ་པར་འཚེ་བ་, Wyl. rnam par ‘tshe ba)
- Envy (Skt. īrśya; Tib. ཕྲག་དོག་, Wyl. phrag dog)
- Deception (Skt. śāṭhya; Tib. གཡོ་, Wyl. g.yo)
- Pretension (Skt. māyā; Tib. སྒྱུ་, Wyl. sgyu)
- Lack of shame (Skt. āhrīkya; Tib. ངོ་ཚ་མེད་པ་, Wyl. ngo tsha med pa)
- Disregard (Skt. anapatatrāpya; Tib. ཁྲེལ་མེད་པ་, Wyl. khrel med pa)
- Concealment (Skt. mrakśa; Tib. འཆབ་པ་, Wyl. ‘chab pa)
- Miserliness (Skt. mātsarya; Tib. སེར་སྣ་, Wyl. ser sna)
- Self-satisfaction (Skt. mada; Tib. རྒྱགས་པ་, Wyl. rgyags pa)
- Lack of faith (Skt. āśraddhya; Tib. མ་དད་པ་, Wyl. ma dad pa)
- Laziness (Skt. kausīdya; Tib. ལེ་ལོ་, Wyl. le lo)
- Carelessness (Skt. pramāda; Tib. བག་མེད་པ་, Wyl. bag med pa)
- Forgetfulness (Skt. muṣitasmṛtitā; Tib. བརྗེད་ངས་, Wyl. brjed ngas)
- Inattention (Skt. asaṃprajanya; Tib. ཤེས་བཞིན་མིན་པ་, Wyl. shes bzhin min pa)
- Lethargy (Skt. styāna; Tib. རྨུག་པ་, Wyl. rmug pa)
- Excitement (Skt. auddhatya; Tib. རྒོད་པ་, Wyl. rgod pa)
- Distraction (Skt. vikṣepa; Tib. རྣམ་པར་གཡེང་བ་, Wyl. rnam par g.yeng ba)
Four variables (Tib. གཞན་འགྱུར་བཞི་, gzhan ‘gyur bzhi)
- sleep (Skt. middha; Tib. གཉིད་, Wyl. gnyid)
- regret (Skt. kaukṛtya; Tib. འགྱོད་པ་, Wyl. ‘gyod pa)
- conception (Skt. vitarka; Tib. རྟོག་པ་, Wyl. rtog pa)
- discernment (Skt. vicāra; Tib. དཔྱོད་པ་, Wyl. dpyod pa)
Further Reading
- Herbert V. Guenther & Leslie S. Kawamura, Mind in Buddhist Psychology: A Translation of Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan's "The Necklace of Clear Understanding", (Dharma Publishing, 1975)