Miserliness

Miserliness (Skt. mātsarya; Tib. སེར་སྣ་, Wyl. ser sna) — 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

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says:

• Tib. སེར་སྣ་ནི་འདོད་ཆགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་ལས་ཡོ་བྱད་སོགས་བདོག་པའི་དངོས་པོ་ལ་དམ་དུ་འཛིན་པ་སྟེ་ཡོ་བྱད་མི་བསྙུང་བར་བྱེད་པའོ།
• Miserliness is to hold tightly onto possessed objects such as utensils and so forth because of desire. It makes one unable to part with one's possessions. (Rigpa Translations)
• Stinginess is to hold tightly onto possessed objects such as utensils and so forth because of attachment. It causes the inability to part with one's possessions. (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Because of attachment, being incapable of enjoying one’s own possessions and other material objects, clinging to them and being unwilling to part with them or share them with others.

Alternative Translations

• Stinginess (David Karma Choepel)
• greed
• avarice (Tony Duff and Dylan Esler for 84000)