(Wylie: brjed ngas;
Muṣitasmṛtitā (Sanskrit; Tibetan phonetic: jengé) is a Buddhist term that is translated as "forgetfulness". In the Mahayana tradition, muṣitasmṛtitā is defined as forgetting or losing our focus on a virtuous object and instead focusing on an object or situation that causes non-virtuous thoughts or emotions to arise.
Muṣitasmṛtitā is identified as:
- One of the twenty secondary unwholesome factors within the Mahayana Abhidharma teachings
Mipham Rinpoche states:
- Forgetfullness [muṣitasmṛtitā] is to be unclear and forget a virtuous object. It is the erroneous mindfulness that accompanies a disturbing emotion, and it is the opposite of being mindful. It forms the support for distraction of mind.
The Abhidharma-samuccaya states:
- What is forgetfulness? It is it fleeting inspection which is simultaneous with and on the same level as the emotions. It functions as the basis of distraction.
Alexander Berzin explains:
- Forgetfulness (brjed-nges). Based on recollection of something toward which we have a disturbing emotion or attitude, forgetfulness is losing our object of focus so that it will wander to that disturbing object. Forgetfulness serves as the basis for mental wandering (rnam-par g.yeng-ba).
- Guenther (1975), Kindle Locations 976-977.
- Kunsang (2004), p. 28.
- Berzin (2006)
- Berzin, Alexander (2006), Mind and Mental Factors: The Fifty-one Types of Subsidiary Awareness
- Guenther, Herbert V. & Leslie S. Kawamura (1975), Mind in Buddhist Psychology: A Translation of Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan's "The Necklace of Clear Understanding" Dharma Publishing. Kindle Edition.