Key Terms/Pratigha
From Bodhicitta
प्रतिघ pratigha
hostility
ཁོང་ཁྲོ་
khong khro
瞋,恚
chēn,\ huì
Sanskrit - Noun
Basic Meaning
A negative mental state of hostility, anger, or aversion. It is an aggressive attitude toward people or situations that one finds unpleasant, with the wish to cause them harm. It is considered one of the primary 'afflictions' that disturb the mind's peace.
Has the Sense of
- Abhidharma (Indo-Tibetan): In both the Abhidharmakośa and the Mahāyāna Abhidharma (such as the Abhidharmasamuccaya), pratigha (T. khong khro) is listed as one of the six root afflictions (mūlakleśa) that cause birth in samsar. It is defined as a mental state that is agitated and malicious in relation to three objects: sentient beings, suffering itself, and things that cause suffering (such as weapons or enemies). Its specific function is to serve as a support for 'unpleasant abiding' and for committing negative actions. Unlike attachment (rāga), which is found in the higher realms, pratigha is said to exist only within the Desire Realm (kāmadhātu). It is categorized as a form of 'resistance' or 'striking back' against people or situations that are perceived to be unpleasant or problematic.
- Pramāṇa (Indo-Tibetan): In the context of epistemology and valid cognition, pratigha is treated as a distorted state of mind that interferes with the ability to perceive reality clearly. It colors the subject's perception, leading to an exaggerated sense of the 'badness' or 'unpleasantness' of an object, which prevents the mind from remaining in a state of neutral or valid investigation.
- Mahāyāna (Indo-Tibetan): In the Mahāyāna tradition, pratigha is viewed as the most destructive of all afflictions, famously described as being capable of destroying the merit accumulated over thousands of eons in a single moment. Since the entire Mahāyāna path si built on a foundation of love and compassion for all beings, the affliction of anger lies in direct opposition to those wishing to benefit beings. The primary antidote taught for pratigha is patience (kṣānti), which is the third of the six perfections. Training in bodhicitta involves transforming the reactive energy of pratigha into the vast equanimity and compassion required to benefit all beings, including those who act as enemies.
- Theravāda/Pāli Tradition Context: In the Pāli tradition, paṭigha is often paired with rāga (greed/attachment) and denotes the 'latent tendency' (anusaya) of aversion or repulsion. It refers to the reactive impingement of the mind against sensory objects that are disagreeable. It is considered a fetter (saṃyojana) that must be abandoned to reach the stages of awakening, specifically being eradicated at the stage of the non-returner (anāgāmin).
| Term Variations | |
| Key Term | Pratigha |
|---|---|
| Topic Variation | pratigha |
| Tibetan | ཁོང་ཁྲོ་ ( khongtro) |
| Wylie Transliteration | khong khro ( khongtro) |
| Devanagari Sanskrit | प्रतिघ |
| Romanized Sanskrit | pratigha |
| Chinese | 瞋, 恚 |
| Chinese Pinyin | chēn, huì |
| Japanese Transliteration | jin, i |
| Korean | jin, hui |
| Buddha-nature Site Standard English | hostility |
| Alternate Spellings | paṭigha, khong khro, anger, aversion |
| Term Information | |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Definitions | |
| Tshig mdzod Chen mo | ཞེ་སྡང་སྟེ། དགྲ་ལ་སོགས་པ་སེམས་ཅན་ཕ་རོལ་པོ་རྣམས་ལ་བརྡེག་ཅིང་གསད་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་གནོད་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་བྱ་བར་སེམས་པ། ཁོང་ཁྲོ་ཟ་བ། ཁོང་ཁྲོ་ཚ་པོ། ཁོང་ཁྲོ་ཞི་བ། ཁོང་ཁྲོ་སྤོང་བ། ཁོང་ཁྲོ་སློང་མཁན་མེད་ན་བཟོད་པ་སུ་ལ་སྒོམ། |
| Dung dkar Tshig mdzod Chen mo | ཡུལ་ཡིད་དུམི་འོང་བའི་དངོས་པོ་ལ་དམིགས་ནས་དེ་ལ་གནོད་འཚེ་བྱ་བར་འདོད་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ཅན་གྱི་སེམས་བྱུང་ངོ། |
