uddhacca
Restlessness
[ OOD-dhuch-cha ]
Seeing it in life
Uddhacca scatters the mind and prevents calm. Universal in unwholesome cittas and only fully uprooted by arahantship.
In short
Mental agitation; one of the five hindrances.
The analysis
Uddhacca scatters the mind, preventing it from settling on its object — present in every unwholesome citta as a background agitation, and separately counted as one of the five hindrances in its more pronounced form. It's the last defilement uprooted, remaining in subtle form until full arahantship.
Where it sits
Uddhacca's opposite, in the sense of what calms it, is samādhi and the settling jhāna factors — particularly passaddhi (tranquility).
The mind that can't quite land on the task at hand, jumping from tab to tab without any of them holding attention — that scattered quality, present in every unwholesome moment to some degree, is uddhacca.
Commonly mistaken for
Only anxious agitation. Uddhacca is present as background scattering in every unwholesome citta, not only in states that feel dramatically restless.
Fully eliminated by ordinary calm practice. The texts describe it as the subtlest defilement, uprooted only at the final stage of awakening.
Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha II.
Related terms