Five faults 止修五過患 / 五過失

The five faults (Tib. ཉེས་པ་ལྔ་, nyepa nga; Wyl. nyes pa lnga) are defects to be overcome by means of the eight antidotes when practising shamatha meditation. They are mentioned in Maitreya’s Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes (Skt. Madhyantavibhanga).

1. 懈怠Laziness (Tib. ལེ་ལོ་, Wyl. le lo) – there are three kinds: (i) lethargy, (ii) attachment to negative behaviour, and (iii) despondency
2. 忘失Forgetting the instructions (Skt. upadeśa saṃpramoṣa; Tib. བརྗེད་པ་, Wyl. brjed pa). These first two faults are obstacles in the beginning.
3. 昏沉與掉舉Dullness and Agitation (Tib. བྱིང་རྒོད་, Wyl. bying rgod) – there are subtle and gross forms to both dullness (Tib. བྱིང་པ་, Wyl. bying pa) and agitation (Tib. རྒོད་པ་, Wyl. rgod pa). These are obstacles during the actual practice of meditation.
4. 不作行Under-application (Skt. anābhisaṃskārapratipakṣa; Tib. འདུ་མི་བྱེད་པ་, Wyl. ‘du mi byed pa) – this occurs when one recognizes the presence of dullness or agitation but fails to apply the antidote
   
5. 作行Over-application (Skt. abhisaṃskārapratipakṣa; Tib. ཧ་ཅང་འདུ་བྱེད་པ་, Wyl. ha cang ‘du byed pa) – this occurs when one recognizes the presence of dullness or agitation, applies the antidote, and then continues to apply it even when dullness or agitation are no longer present. These last two faults are obstacles to the further development of one’s meditation.

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

• Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, The Practice of Tranquility and Insight—A Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1993), pages 39-41.
• Sogyal Rinpoche, A Treasury of Dharma (Lodeve: Rigpa, 2005), pages 178-190.