Distraction

Distraction (Skt. vikṣepa; Tib. རྣམ་པར་གཡེང་བ་, Wyl. rnam par g.yeng ba) — one of the fifty-one mental states defined in Abhidharma literature. According to the Compendium of Abhidharma, it belongs to the subgroup of the twenty subsidiary destructive emotions.

Definitions

Tib. རྣམ་པར་གཡེང་བ་ནི་དུག་གསུམ་གྱི་ཆར་གཏོགས་པ་སེམས་ཡུལ་ལ་གཡོ་ཞིང་འཕྱན་ཏེ་དགེ་བའི་དམིགས་པ་ལ་རྩེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་མི་གནས་པར་བྱེད་པ་སྟེ།འདི་ལ་ཕྱི་དང་ནང་དང་མཚན་མའི་གཡེང་བ་སོགས་ཀྱི་དབྱེ་བ་ཡོད་དོ།
Distraction is a mind which wanders and moves to an object, which prevents one from focussing one-pointedly on a virtuous object. There are divisions such as outward distraction, inward distraction, distraction caused by desire for fame and so on. It belongs to the categories of the three poisons. (Rigpa Translations)
Distraction belongs to the categories of the three poisons. It is the mental motion or wandering towards an object which causes the inability to remain one-pointedly on a virtuous objective. It can be defined as distraction towards the outer, the inner, and towards status. (Erik Pema Kunsang)