anuśaya

(Sanskrit; Pāli, anusaya). ‘Outflows’, or latent negative tendencies that lie dormant in the mind. Seven are recognized in early Buddhist psychology. In Pāli they are known as: desire (kāma-rāga), aversion (paṭigha), speculative views (diṭṭhi), doubt (vicikicchā), pride (māna), craving for existence (bhava-rāga), and ignorance (avijjā). These factors are the dormant predisposing conditions for corresponding forms of manifest conduct (paryuṭṭhāna) which are symptomatic of mental and emotional turbulence. Until the underlying anuśaya is eradicated, the harmful dispositions will subsist as personality-traits. According to Buddhist psychology these dispositions are carried over to the next life and exist even in the newly born infant. On the path to enlightenment (bodhi) they are eradicated in a particular sequence with the disappearance of the last two marking the attainment of Arhatship (see Arhat).

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)

anuśaya: Proclivity. For the Sarvāstivāda, it is one of the synonyms forkleśa(defilement), signifying its subtle nature. For the Sautrāntika and others, it is a latent defilement, the seed of the paryavasthāna.

Sarvastivada Abhidharma, Sanskrit-English Glossary, by Bhikkhu KL Dhammajoti