Kausīdya

Kausīdya (P. kusīta; T. le lo ལེ་ལོ་; C. jietai 懈怠) is translated as "spiritual lethergy", "spiritual laziness," "laziness", etc. It is defined as clinging to unwholesome activities such as lying down and stretching out, and to procrastinate, and not being enthusiastic about or engaging in virtuous activity. Kausīdya is identified in the following contexts:

• One of the twenty subsidiary unwholesome mental factors according to the Abhidharma-samuccaya
• One of the six omnipresent afflicted factors according the Abhidharma-kosha
• One of the five faults or obstacles to shamatha meditation according to the Madhyāntavibhāga

Kausīdya is similar to the Pali term thina, that is identified as one of the fourteen unwholesome mental factors within the Pala tradition.

Explanation

The Khenjuk states:

Laziness (kausidya) is to cling to unwholesome activities such as lying down, resting, or stretching out, and to procrastinate, without taking delight in and engaging in what is virtuous. It is the opponent of diligence (vīrya).

The Abhidharma-samuccaya states:

What is laziness (kausidya)? It is an unwilling mind, associated with bewilderment-erring, relying on the pleasures of drowsiness, lying down and not getting up. Its function is to obstruct and hinder one in applying himself to positive things.

B. Alan Wallace explains that kausidya (lelo in Tibetan) refers to a very specific type of laziness, that is concerned only with virtuous activity. Wallace explains:

[...] lelo in Tibetan, is often translated as ‘laziness,’ but it is much more specific. If a person is working sixteen hours a day, hellbent on earning a whole lot of money with absolutely no concern for virtue, from a Buddhist perspective you could say that person is subject to lelo. A workaholic is clearly not lazy, but such a person is seen as lelo in the sense of being completely lethargic and slothful with regard to the cultivation of virtue and purification of the mind. Our translation of this term is ‘spiritual sloth,’ which we have taken from the Christian tradition, where it is very comparable to the Buddhist notion.

The Buddhist Psychology of Awakening states:

Laziness (kausidya)...is defined as not having the energy of engagement with what is positive. It is spiritual lethargy and is associated with being bewildered, being spaced-out, and being deluded. The form that this spaced-out deludedness takes is being habituated to being drowsy. We want to resist just cutting through something. One form of spiritual laziness is to obsess about our current situation. We can be extremely energetic about it. But here, we are exploring spiritual laziness. We just want to lie down and wallow in our current problems. We do not want to get up from them. If somebody suggests to us, “Cut through it, get on with your life, do something different, and go for it,” this laziness changes to one of the other factors of upset.

In all this immersion in our problems, we have totally forgotten that there is a way out. Whenever we are obsessing like that, where is the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha in that obsession? We do not have a refuge then, temporarily. I think spiritual lethargy or spiritual laziness is a much better translation than simply being lazy because this can be a highly energized state, a self-indulgent state. It means we just do not have the energy for making a difference in our lives. If someone comes along and suggests, “Here is something you can do,” we will resist this. We may fall asleep and continue to sleep our whole lives.

Three types

The Sanskrit tradition identifies three types of kausīdya: not wanting to do anything; discouragement; and busyness.

1. kausīdya of not wanting to do anything

Tenzin Palmo states:

First there is the kind of laziness we all know: we don’t want to do anything, and we’d rather stay in bed half an hour later than get up and meditate.

2. kausīdya of discouragement (or feeling ourselves unworthy)

Tenzin Palmo states:

Second, there is the laziness of feeling ourselves unworthy, the laziness of thinking, “I can’t do this. Other people can meditate, other people can be mindful, other people can be kind and generous in difficult situations, but I can’t, because I’m too stupid.” Or, alternatively, “I’m always an angry person;” “I’ve never been able to do anything in my life;” “I’ve always failed, and I’m bound to fail.” This is laziness.

3. kausīdya of being busy with worldly things.

Tenzin Palmo states:

The third kind of laziness is being busy with worldly things. We can always fill up the vacuum of our time by keeping ever so busy. Being occupied may even make us feel virtuous. But usually it’s just a way of escape. When I came out of the cave, some people said, “Don’t you think that solitude was an escape?” And I said, “An escape from what?” There I was—no radio, no newspapers, no one to talk to. Where was I going to escape to? When things came up, I couldn’t even telephone a friend. I was face-to-face with who I was and with who I was not. There was no escape... This is the point—we fill our lives with activities. Many of them are really very good activities but if we are not careful, they can just be an escape. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do good and necessary things, but there has to be breathing in as well as breathing out.

Antidotes

According to the Princeton Dictionary, the antidote to kausīdya is virya (diligence).

In the scheme of five faults and eight antidotes presented in the Madhyānta-vibhāga, four antidotes are identified:

• Faith (śraddhā)
• Intention (chanda)
• Effort (S. vyayama; T. rtsol-ba) - an engaged mind that moves toward the act of meditation
• Suppleness (praśrabdhi) - means that one's mind is ready at any moment to meditate

Alternate translations

• spiritual laziness (Goodman)
• spiritual lethargy (Goodman)
• spiritual sloth (Wallace)
• laziness (Kunzang, Guenther)
• sloth (Rangjung Yeshe wiki)
• torpor (Rangjung Yeshe wiki)
• attached to evil deeds (Rangjung Yeshe wiki)

See also

• Mental factors
• Thina

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Goleman, Daniel (2008), Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Bantam, Kindle Edition 
• Goodman, Steven D. (2020), The Buddhist Psychology of Awakening: An In-Depth Guide to the Abhidharma (Apple Books ed.), Shambhala Publications 
• Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (1993), The Practice of Tranquility & Insight: A Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Mediation, Snow Lion, Kindle Edition 
• Mipham Rinpoche (2004), Gateway to Knowledge, vol. I, translated by Kunsang, Erik Pema, Rangjung Yeshe Publications 
• Traleg Kyabgon (2001), The Essence of Buddhism, Shambhala 
• 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 

External links

• Three Kinds of Laziness, by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, Tricycle
• Mind and Mental Factors: The Fifty-one Types of Subsidiary Awareness
• le_lo, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• Laziness, Rigpa Shedra Wiki