Eight antidotes 八斷行

Eight antidotes or remedies (Skt. aṣṭapratipakṣasaṃskāra; Tib. འདུ་བྱེད་བརྒྱད་, du ché gyé; Wyl. 'du byed brgyad) — the antidotes to the five faults or obstacles to shamatha meditation.

The first four of these are antidotes to laziness:

1. Aspiration, or interest (Tib. མོས་པ་, möpa)
2. Exertion (Tib. རྩོལ་བ་, tsolwa)
3. Faith (Tib. དད་པ་, dépa)
4. Pliancy, or flexibility (Tib. ཤིན་སྦྱངས་, shinjang)
5. The fifth antidote, which is the antidote to the second fault, forgetting the instructions or the object of focus, is mindfulness (Tib. དྲན་པ་, drenpa).
6. The sixth antidote, which is the antidote to dullness and agitation, is awareness (Tib. ཤེས་བཞིན་, shé shyin).
7. The seventh antidote, which is the antidote to the fourth fault, under-application, is attention (Tib. སེམས་པ་, sempa).
8. The eighth antidote, which is the antidote to the fifth fault, over-application, is equanimity (Tib. བཏང་སྙོམས་, tang nyom).

依照敦珠法王《照亮解脫道之炬：前行修持之完整指導》（A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom： Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practice）講述： 對治懈怠的斷行，分別為「欲、勤、信、安」：想要觀修的意樂（欲）、努力觀修以保持意樂的精進（勤）、生起意樂之因的信心（信），以及全然調伏而柔順之身、語、意的輕安（安）──也就是精進之果。對治忘失禪定對境的斷行，為不忘失教誡之正念。接著是警覺，檢視是否有掉舉或昏沉出現（以正知對治沉掉）；當它們出現時，實際運用對治來清除（以思對治不作行）；以及運用對治力度過大的時候，就讓它保持狀態而不再運用對治（以等捨對治作行）。以上共為八斷行。

Further Reading

• Sogyal Rinpoche, A Treasury of Dharma (Lodeve: Rigpa, 2005), pages 191-205.