nyon sgrib spong ba

Skt. kleshas. Emotions, conflicting/negative/obscuring [RY]

affliction [thd]

klesha, emotions, emotional (responses, imbalance, disturbing processes, instability, upset, obscuration), gloomy, depressed, worried, vexed, (conflicting, turbulent, disturbing, negative) emotions, instinctive forces, passions, affliction, defilement [JV]

klesha[s] [IW]

klesha[s] [sems kyi rgyu'am byed pa ma zhi ba, [turbulent] emotion, negative, emotional defilement [klesha] passions, affliction, emotionality, delusion, affect, bad thought, addiction, conflicting emotions [Gd-mk] disturbed/fettering passions, something that is difficult, hardship, that which muddies the stream of awareness lus sems gdung ba'i dka' las sam ngal dub dang, mi dge ba'i las bskul bas rang rgyud rab tu ma zhi bar byed pa'i sems byung [IW]

afflictive emotion; emotionally tainted [RB]

klesha 1) disturbed, weary/ troubled/ miserable; turbulent. 2) disturbing emotions, negative emotion. passions, affliction, emotionality, delusion, affect, bad thought, conflicting emotions, fettering passions; [something that is difficult which muddies the stream of awareness], hardship; Def: sems kyi rgyu'am byed pa ma zhi ba [RY]

Afflictive mental factors, or negative emotions (Tib. nyon mongs, Skt : (klesha) : all mental events born from ego-clinging, that disturb the mind and obscures it. The five principal afflictive mental factors, which are sometimes called "mental poisons", are attachment, hatred, ignorance, envy and pride. They are the main causes of both immediate and long term sufferings. [MR]

Discussion

Afflictions. They are sometimes characterized as that which disturbs the mind. It is often translated as "emotion" or "negative emotion," but these are inadequate translations because not all emotions (as understood by English-speakers) are afflictions, and not all afflictions are emotions. An example of the first is undefiled love. An example of the latter is wrong view. Furthermore, "negative emotion" is unwieldy and verbose. The word afflictions has the additional advantage of flexibility: it has related adjectival and verbal forms that make it easy to use as a translation. The Sanskrit word klesha carries no meaning to English speakers; it becomes a piece of jargon. DKC