Vihiṃsā
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vihiṃsā (T. rnam par 'tshe ba རྣམ་པར་འཚེ་བ་; C. hai 害) is translated as "malice," "hostility," "harmful intention," "cruelty," "violence," etc. It is the desire to cause harm to others.
It is identified as:
- one of the twenty secondary unwholesome factors within the Abhidharma-samuccaya of the Sanskrit tradition
- one of the ten minor unwholesome factors within the Abhidharma-kosa
Definitions
The Khenjuk states:
- Vihiṃsā belongs to the category of anger (pratigha). Its function is to be uncompassionate an to cause harm[1]
Yeshe Gyeltsen states:
- It is the desire to treat others abusively without having kind feelings towards living beings.[2]
Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics (Vol. 2) states:
- Associated with anger, this is a mental factor that, in opposition to loving kindness and so on, wants to inflict injury on others. The Compendium of Knowledge says: “What is vihiṃsā? Associated with anger (pratigha), it is to be unloving, uncompassionate, and unempathetic. It functions to be thoroughly injurious.” Here:
- “unloving” is when one wants to inflict injury,
- “uncompassionate” is when one wants another to be injured, and
- “unempathetic” is when one relishes hearing or seeing someone else inflict injury.
- The function of vihiṃsā is to injure or to harm.[3]
StudyBuddhism states:
- Cruelty (rnam-par ‘tshe-ba) is a part of hostility (dvesha) and has three forms.
- Hooliganism (snying-rje-ba med-pa) is a cruel lack of compassion with which we wish to cause mischief or harm to others.
- Self-destructiveness (snying-brtse-ba med-pa) is a cruel lack of self-love with which we wish to cause mischief or harm to ourselves.
- Taking perverse pleasure (brtse-ba med-pa) is cruelly rejoicing when seeing or hearing of others’ suffering.[4]
References
- ↑ Mipham Rinpoche 2004, s.v. Cruelty.
- ↑ Yeshe Gyeltsen 1975, s.v. rnam par 'tshe ba.
- ↑ Thupten Jinpa 2020, s.v. The twenty secondary mental afflictions.
- ↑ Berzin (2006)
Sources
- Berzin, Alexander (2006), Mind and Mental Factors: The Fifty-one Types of Subsidiary Awareness
Mipham Rinpoche (2004), Gateway to Knowledge, vol. I, translated by Kunsang, Erik Pema, Rangjung Yeshe Publications- Thupten Jinpa, ed. (2020), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 2: The Mind, translated by Rochard, Dechen; Dunne, John, Wisdom Publications
- Yeshe Gyeltsen (1975), Mind in Buddhist Psychology: A Translation of Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan's "The Necklace of Clear Understanding", translated by Guenther, Herbert V.; Kawamura, Leslie S., Dharma Publishing
