ཉོན་མོངས་ - kleśa - how this is translated

ཉོན་མོངས་ nyon mongs, ཉོན་མོངས་པ་, or sometimes shortened as ཉོན་ (not to be mixed with ཉོན་ listen!) is a very common word we find in Tibetan Buddhist texts. In Sanskrit this is the term kleśa. To understand this word, with a multitude of English translations, kleśa comes from the Sanskrit verb root kliś - to torment, afflict, cause pain, molest, something that is bothering. So it indicates suffering, mental suffering especially. Buddhist teachings is about to remove suffering and provide all happiness, so this is the reason why this term is widely used. 

How this is then translated to English? Well, there are many various interpretations, compared with Tibetan that has just ཉོན་མོངས་ (sometimes ཆགས་པ་ chags pa which is more like attachment), and Sanskrit with kleśa.

Robert Thurman uses the term addiction, for him addiction is a habitual behavior that seems to benefit one's state of being and so seduces the addict, but really causes suffering to the addict and those around him or her. One can be addicted to lust, addicted to hate, addicted to confusion, to a fanatical belief, to pride or envy or avarice. Those addictions then inevitably cause suffering and affliction.

Another common translation is afflictions or mental afflictions, mental disturbances that propel us to perform negative actions and perpetuate samsara. Disturbing emotions is another term used. Translators also use this terms -- based on context -- as emotions, emotional (responses, imbalance, disturbing process, instability, upset, obscuration). When referring to disturbing emotions this is usually referring to the ཉོན་མོངས་དུག་ལྔ་ or just  སྡུག་ལྔ་ five poisons known as desire འདོད་ཆགས་, anger/hatred ཁོང་ཁྲོ་, delusion/ignorance མ་རིག་པ་, pride ང་རྒྱལ་ and envy/jealousy ཕྲག་དོག.

Another term used is (mental) defilements. In the Tsepak Rigdzin dictionary this is defined as a mental state that produces turmoil and confusion thus disturbing mental peace and happiness.

There are various terms associated with སྙོན་མོངས་ such as  སྙོན་མོངས་གསུམ་ - the three delusions: 

1. ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ཀུན་ནས་བསླང་པའི་ཉོན་མོངས་ nyon mongs pa kun nas bslang pa'i nyon mongs (kleṡasaṁkleṡa), delusions arising from other delusions 
2. ལས་ཀྱི་ཀུན་ནས་བསླང་པའི་ཉོན་མོང་ las kyi kun nas bslang pa'i nyon mong  (karmasaṁkleṡa), delusions arising from karma 
3. སྐྱེ་པའི་ཀུན་ནས་བསླང་པའི་ཉོན་མོངས་ skye pa'i kun nas bslang pa'i nyon mongs (utpattisaṁkleṡa), delusions arising from birth.

Another term is ཉོན་མོངས་གཉིས་, the two delusions: ཉོན་མོང་ཀུན་བཏགས་ nyon mong kun btags intellectually acquired delusions and ཉོན་མོངས་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་ nyon mongs lhan skyes innately born delusions.

ཉོན་ཡིད་ nyon yid kleṡa manas is the deluded mind, one of the eight groups of consciousnesses (རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་བརྒྱད་). This is part of the cittamātrin (Mind Only) school of thought: This mind is an obstructed conceptual consciousness that grasps at the foundational consciousness as a focal object and grasps at it as being self-existing.

Watch out for the alternate spelling སྙོན་མོངས་ snyon mongs that is found from time to time.

Let's now look at various translation where ཉོན་མོངས་ is present.

སྐྱེ་བ་སྔོན་བསགས་ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་དང་། །
kyewa ngön sak lé dang nyönmong dang
Karma accumulated in past lives, the mental afflictions,

དེ་ལས་ཉོན་མོངས་དུག་ལྔ་རྒྱས༔
dé lé nyönmong duk nga gyé
Thus, mind’s afflictions, the five poisons, develop,

།ཉོན་མོངས་གང་ཆེ་སྔོན་ལ་སྦྱང༌། 
nyönmong gang ché ngön la jang
Train first with the strongest destructive emotions.

ལུས་དང་ངག་ཡིད་ཉོན་མོངས་དབང་གྱུར་པས། །
lü dang ngak yi nyönmong wanggyurpé
Since my body, speech and mind have fallen under the power of emotions,

རྟོག་ཅིང་ཉོན་མོངས་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག །
tok ching nyönmong kyé ma tak
And the moment destructive emotions arise,

ཉོན་མོངས་གདུལ་དཀའི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐབས་ཀྱིས་འདུལ༔
nyönmong dul ké semchen tab kyi dul
Skillfully you teach them, with their emotions so difficult to tame.

ཉོན་མོངས་ཞི་མཛད་ཞི་བའི་ལྷ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ༔
nyönmong shyidzé shyiwé lha la chaktsal lo
To the peaceful deities who pacify the afflictive emotions, we prostrate!

སེམས་ཅན་ཉོན་མོངས་སྙིགས་མ་ཡིས། །
semchen nyönmong nyikma yi
And my tolerance of beings’ harmful acts

སེམས་ནི་ཉོན་མོངས་དབང་གྱུར་པའི། །
sem ni nyönmong wang gyurpé
Sprung from this mind that is driven by destructive emotions,

འཇིག་རྟེན་དྲུག་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་ལྔ༔
jikten druk dang nyönmong nga
.... the six realms and the five afflictions