Kleshas: The five afflictions

Kleshas: the 5 afflictions

 A kleśa (Klesha) is an afflication, caused by identifying with that which we are experiencing.

Klesha “obstacles, pain, affliction, distress, pain from disease, anguish, wrath, anger, worldly occupation, care, trouble. We see it introduced in the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:

avidyā-asmitā-rāga-dveṣa-abhiniveśā kleśa || YS 2.3

Ignorance, egoism, attachment, hatred and clinging to bodily life are the five obstacles. (Swami Satchidananda translation). The root causes of suffering (kleshas) are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to bodily life (Rev. Jaganath translation).

Avidyā is ignorance; nonwisdom, delusion, unlearned, unwise, foolish, not educated, spiritual ignorance. From the root word a = not and vid = to know, feel, experience, being, existing, obtaining, to declare to be, understand, seize, visit, discover, recognize.

Asmitā is egoism; literally, I-am-ness, the fundamental sense of ‘I’ before it takes on identifications. From the root word asmi = first person singular indicative of as (be) and ta = meaning to have the quality of

Rāga is attachment; any feeling or passion, affection, love, or sympathy for, vehement desire, act of coloring or dyeing, color, hue, tint, red color, inflammation, delight in, loveliness, beauty. From the root word ranj = reddened, be attracted

Dveṣa is aversion; repulsion, hatred, dislike. From the root word dviṣ = hate

Abhiniveśā = clinging to bodily life; desire for continuity, application, intentness, study, affection, the determination to realize a purpose or attain an object, tenacity, adherence to. From the root word abhi = to toward; ni = down, into and veśa, from viś = enter

When we are bound to these afflictions or - as Eddie Stern presents them in one of his talk - distractions, we suffer greatly. “Distractions when we focus on them, or give them too much attention turn into habits, habits turn into obstacles.” Eddie Stern.

When we give attention to these 5 kleshas - desires, aversions, fears generated by the Ego and mistaken for reality by ignorance, they transform our actions into a low consciousness responses which bind us to more future suffering. They begin to cloud our perceptions and become behaviors we identify with. 

In practice we learn to cultivate focused attention. living free from these 5 afflictions requires enormous amounts of attention to all areas of our lives, the more vigilant we are the more we can clearly see them arise in our field of consciousness.

In a recent lecture Eddie Stern pointed out that the words Dristhi (gazing place), dharma (an aspect of truth or reality, also our purpose in this lifetime), and dharana (focused attention) all share the same root word Dr or to hold. This brings me to conclude that we can focus our attention full heartedly on the present moment and become absorbed in the task at hand, we begin to fulfill our life’s purpose and therefore remember the truth of who we are and can from this open, spacious awareness free ourselves from these other states that arise, like the 5 kleshas. We begin to not identify, we begin to understand that there is an “i” who is suffering, but that there is also something beyond that.

With practice we learn to hold our attention in steady and channel it in a 'sukha' good direction. 

Longing for this freedom from suffering, or to reunite with this state of peace that we experience in deep practice, is where the deep growth really happens. It's the most important byproduct of practice done right. It arises naturally as a result of our efforts and is what helps to keep the willingness to come back alive. It helps us to build discernment, bringing more awareness of our actions - there's a pause between wanting and doing.

Being able to discern and recognize:

  • How the state of your mind will be affected.

  • Judgement and guilt may arise

  • Increase or decrease of prana needed to do my duty well

  • Is this action binding me to future karma and future suffering 

  • How any action may impact practice  

and then striving to align our actions to give us:

  • Greater ease

  • Alignment with my values

  • Ease of body- increse my prana

  • Enhance practice,  ability to wake up and show up

  • Sukha, sattva

  • leading to a state of greater freedom 

These are things that begin to arise naturally from a dedicated practice. We start to doubt patterns and habits we mindlessly leaned into our whole life and we effortlessly begin to clean the up. But naturally, without forcing. 

The process may look like this:

  • Transitional uncomfortable time which is necessary for practice to establish

  • Samskara is still alive and fighting against what is naturally arising 

  • Eventually the discomfort that comes after leaning into the egos preference due to past impression begins to burn 

  • When it burns it leaves space for the new pattern to settle and then there is ease, clarity

That's when transformation happens. And we cycle through these constantly. Sometimes we fall back but once the samskara is burned it only takes a few days to come back. Because the practice is deeply established. 

Blog Post by Bibi Lorenzetti

Previous
Previous

Diwali

Next
Next

100 Club: Natalie B.