What Are Habitual Obstructions and Afflictive Habitual Tendencies?

Afflictive hindrances are vexations pertaining to the nature of mind, corresponding to greed, hatred, and delusion; they obstruct one's path of practice. Habitual tendencies are the inertial forces accumulated in the mental faculty since beginningless kalpas. Four-fruition Arhats can only eliminate the manifestation of afflictions like greed, hatred, and delusion, but cannot eradicate habitual inertia. Thus, their ingrained habits may still inadvertently surface at times, yet these pass very quickly, leaving no trace in the mind—they do not remain angry or resentful for long, nor harbor lasting grudges.

Ordinary beings, however, fully manifest their afflictions. This is concretely expressed through actions driven by greed, actions driven by hatred, and actions driven by delusion, which directly embody and reveal the afflictive nature of greed, hatred, and delusion within the mind. Habitual tendencies are like a car continuing forward for a distance due to inertia after braking; it does not stop immediately, though this force is relatively weak. This "distance" represents the cultivation process from the First Ground Bodhisattva to the Eighth Ground Bodhisattva. Before reaching the First Ground, afflictions remain manifest and are not fully severed. Prior to the third fruition, without attaining the first dhyāna absorption, afflictions like greed, hatred, and delusion are merely suppressed—not eradicated at all. Only after attaining the first dhyāna does one gradually begin to sever afflictions.

Those who have neither realized the mind's nature nor attained any fruition, even if they cultivate the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, cannot sever afflictions but only suppress them. When their meditative concentration later degenerates, all afflictions will inevitably manifest again. Therefore, the merit of attaining fruition and realizing the mind's nature is immense: it enables sentient beings to sever afflictions in the future, liberate themselves from the suffering of birth-and-death cycles, and dwell in profound ease and freedom life after life.