【英語で仏教を学ぼう】煩悩とは??　Worldly Passions

※親鸞会発行の教学聖典１（２２）の英語解説です。

Question 1-22

Human beings are made up of 108 worldly passions and are called "an aggregate of 108 blind passions." Of all 108, the three most poisonous are known as the Three Poisonous Worldly Passions. When the next three evil passions are added, these are referred to as the Six Major Worldly Passions. List the Three Poisonous Worldly Passions and the Six Major Worldly Passions.

人間は、百八の煩悩のかたまりであるから、煩悩具足の凡夫と言われるが、

中でも三つの恐ろしいものを三毒の煩悩と言われる。

ついで恐ろしい三つを加えて六大煩悩と言う。

その三毒の煩悩と、六大煩悩を示せ。

Answer 1-22:

・Desire・Anger・Envy (Three Poisonous Worldly Passions)

・Doubt・Conceit ・Wrong View (Six Major Worldly Passions)

○貪欲（とんよく）　○瞋恚（しんい）　○愚痴（ぐち）：三毒

○疑（ぎ）　○慢（まん）　○悪見（あっけん）：三毒と合わせて六大煩悩と言う。

・・・・・・・・・・

DESIRE:

If we don’t have something, we desire to have it. But once we have it, we desire more of it.

Since our desire is bottomless, there is no point of complete fulfillment. We always want more.

We are pursuing unlimited desire with a limited life.

* Even if there is a person without a navel, there is no one without desires.

* To fulfill our desires, we commit any kind of evil.

* The true nature of desire is selfish greed. It is expressed as Gari gari 我利我利 meaning my profit, my profit: “As long as I am OK, I don’t care about others.”

#We have various desires and the five major ones are known as the Five Desires.

See Buddhist Study 1 (23)

ANGER:

Anger arises when something gets on the way of fulfilling our desires. The Chinese character for “anger” is written with two elements, one meaning “heart” and the other “that fellow.” We are quick to blame others in anger, complaining that “it’s all that fellow’s fault.” And we cut this opponent into pieces in our hearts.

* We get angry because we think that we are right and others are wrong.

* Directed toward a weak opponent, anger takes the form of reckless lashing out.

* Anger burns everything including our sense of rationality and all years of education.

#There was a guy who got so furious when his wife asked for a divorce. He poured kerosene all over the rooms in his house and set the house on fire. As a result, his wife and children all burned alive. This happened in LA on 12/31/2008. (You can find it at by doing a keyword search for Covina Gunman Led 2 Lives to Plot Killings.)

IGNORANCE (Envy, Grudge, Hatred, Jealousy):

When anger is directed toward someone stronger than oneself, it turns into hatred or grudge.

Ignorance is the mind that is ignorant of the Law of Cause and Effect.

Jealousy and envy arise when we cannot accept the Law that says we reap what we have sown.

Especially when we go through an extremely painful experience, we cannot help but to think that we are suffering because of the deeds of other people. We blame others for our misfortune due to the mind that is ignorant of the Law of Causality.

* When our desires are disturbed, we get angry. If we cannot express our anger outwardly, then anger turns into hatred. If we are scolded severely in front of many people, we feel a sense of humiliation because our desire for fame is greatly disturbed. When we are unable to express our anger directly, it often takes the form of ill will. We hold a grudge against the person who humiliated us.

* We show more interest in hearing stories of other people’s misfortune than stories of their good fortune. The sales of tabloid newspapers never fail to go up when some big celebrity scandal occurs. We secretly enjoy the misery of others due to our envy and jealousy.

Doubt・Conceit ・Wrong View

Doubt is the mental function that doubts people and things.

Conceit is a mind of vanity.

Wrong View refers to observing things in twisted ways.

# In Buddhism, our conceit is classified into seven categories known as the Seven Kinds of Conceit or Shichiman 七慢 . See Buddhist Study 1 (24).

・・・・・・・・・・

・Desire・Anger・Envy ・Doubt・Conceit ・Wrong View

These are the Six Major Worldly Passions that torment us the most.

From morning till night, we are constantly afflicted by our 108 worldly passions.

#For reference: You Were Born for a Reason , GLOSSARY page 209

BLIND PASSION; WORLDLY PASSION (BONNO 煩悩 )

Lust, anger, jealousy, and other delusions of the heart that trouble and torment us.

Buddhism teaches that the human being is an aggregate of 108 blind passions; we humans are made of these passions, and nothing else.