Tag Archives: Klesha

The Kleshas (part 4 – Manomaya kosha)…

Mana means mind and Manamaya (or Manomaya) kosha is the sheath responsible for processing thoughts, feelings, mind and emotions. It is in direct control of the operation, through the prana, of the physical body and senses. Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati says of this kosha: “It is like a supervisor in a factory, in that it gives instructions, but is not supposed to be the manager of the factory of life. Because of this, it naturally has doubts, and created illusions. When it receives clear instructions from the deeper level, it functions quite well. However, when it is clouded over by its illusions, the deeper wisdom is clouded over.”

During meditation, we become aware of Manamaya kosha, we can then explore it, and then go inward, to and through the remaining two koshas. This is what we commonly call the “monkey mind” and it is through the lens of this dimension that we perceive the world and our likes and dislikes (raga and dvesha) through the agency of our five senses.

Patajajali tells us in the yoga sutras: “Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah. Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam”. (“Yoga is the mastery of the activities of the mind-field. Then the seer rests in its true nature.”)

The Kleshas (part 4 - Manamaya kosha)...

The Manamaya Kosha forms the mental body. The primary way to impact this kosha is through meditation. It is affected by the 5 kleshas as follows:

  • Avidya (Ignorance): When the Manamaya kosha or mental body has mistakenly identified the Atman with the thinking mind it is easy to get “stuck” in this sheath feeling like we’re abducted by our mind. In order to break this spell, practices like pranayama (breathing) and pratyahara (mental withdrawing of the senses), are quite efficient and effective.
  • Asmita (Ego): When the ego becomes aware of the Manamaya kosha and identifies with all the constant mental chatter, this becomes an obstacle to meditation, forbidding us to evolve to the point where we can work on the remaining two koshas.
  • Raga (Attachment): Thoughts animate the Manamaya kosha and pleasant thoughts inhibit deep meditation. To prevent this we need to go beyond the fluctuations of the mind and master its activities. This is the basis of the Yoga Sutras.
  • Dvesha (Aversion): Just the opposite of the Raga klesha, unpleasant thoughts are repulsive and being stuck in dealing with them also inhibits the deeper stages of meditation. Regular meditation practice settles these disturbing thoughts and lets us advance toward our goal of a mind at peace.
  • Abhinivesha (Clinging to Life): This klesha increases our identification with our mental body, and this causes us to fear that if our thought activity stops, so do we. Our thoughts are unable to accept or deal with our mortality or the immortal aspect of the Self. To overcome this, the life of the spirit must be recognized as transcending this bodily life.

As noted in my last posts as these kleshas are recognized and dissolved (or cleared) from the Manamaya kosha, we move on to the remaining koshas enabling them to be cleansed of these afflictions, then the Atman (or Self), which is indescribable, is gradually recognized and eventually realized by direct experience; this is the goal of Yoga, meditation, Advaita Vedanta, and certain Tantra practices.

Stay tuned, next: Further exploration of each Klesha and how it colors the Vijnanamaya kosha.

Rae Indigo is ERYT 500

The Kleshas (part 2 – Annamaya kosha)…

Anna means food, maya means appearance (usually illusory). All of the physical aspects of life come and go, and are consumed by another aspect of external reality. Thus, the outermost of the koshas is called the sheath of food, or Annamaya kosha. It lives by food and dies without it.

The Annamaya kosha is our physical body; our muscles and our bones, our ligaments and our tendons. This is the kosha most people are concerned about when they begin a yoga practice. They want increased flexibility, they want to tone up their muscles, they want to learn to relax their bodies, and they’re looking to gain strength, improve their balance and find stress relief.

In Vedanta practice, we train this aspect of ourselves, take care of it, and nurture it, so that we can both enjoy our external lives and go inward without it being an obstacle during meditation time. In meditation, we become aware of Annamaya kosha, explore it, and then go inward, to and through this and the other koshas.

The Kleshas (part 2 - Annamaya kosha)

The Annamaya Kosha forms the gross body. The primary way to impact this kosha is through asana. It is affected by the 5 kleshas as follows:

  • Avidya (Ignorance): The Annamaya kosha or gross body is mistakenly seen as the self which colors the Atman (the true Self) and in so doing hides or covers it. This ignorance must be removed before the yogi can proceed to discover their real nature and purpose.
  • Asmita (Ego): This thought form identifies with the gross physical body as the animator of that body, pervading the entire body-mind complex and reinforcing it by becoming attached to it. Recognizing the illusive nature of this klesha causes it to evaporate.
  • Raga (Attachment): This klesha is supported by our desire nature. All of us have experienced this attachment to the body pleasures, the patterns of acquisition that often follow and how easily this can lead to suffering.
  • Dvesha (Aversion): This klesha alludes to a physical identification with what we don’t like. Aversions emerge from previous bodily experiences of pain and suffering. It is the hate or fear which follows the experience of physical anguish or extreme discomfort and can lead to a host psychological afflictions.
  • Abhinivesha (Clinging to Life): This klesha can only increase our identification with our physical/bodily existence, resulting in a fear of bodily death which makes it even harder for us rise above, perceive or identify with our spiritual nature.

As these kleshas are recognized and dissolved (or cleared) from the Annamaya Kosha, the first step is taken. As the other koshas are cleansed of these afflictions, the Atman (or Self), which is indescribable, is gradually recognized and eventually realized by direct experience; this is the goal of Yoga meditation, Advaita Vedanta, and certain Tantra practices.

Stay tuned, next: Further exploration of each Klesha and how it colors the Pranamaya kosha.

Rae Indigo is ERYT 500

The Kleshas (afflictions of the mind)

The Kleshas

These 5 Kleshas (afflictions) affect (or color) each of the Koshas (sheaths). Kosha a Sanskrit word usually translated as “sheath”, of which there are also five, each one representing a covering of the Atman (“Self”, according to Vedantic philosophy). They range from gross to subtle and are often visualized like the layers of an onion. These Koshas, lie one within the other as a set of five sheaths.

This series of articles will address how each Kosha is affected (or colored) by these Kleshas. But first, for those who are unfamiliar with these 5 Kleshas, here’s a recap.

From the perspective of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras it is important to understand that emotional pain and all its varied expressions, such as depression, stem from the desire, attachment, fear and certain unconscious universal constructs (Kleshas) that exist in all un-liberated human minds. These constructs (referred to as “colorings”) form a basis on which all other more individualized neuroses are woven and re-woven through a complex association of desires, attachments, fears and other human experiences. Thus these Kleshas are basic motivational forces which underpin our ability to act, think, and feel. It is these Kleshas which are responsible for the fluctuations (modifications or agitations) of consciousness and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are primarily concerned with the elimination or stilling of these fluctuations.

If and when the Kleshas are removed through yoga practices, all of the individual neuroses which they support will crumble and fall away. These Kleshas (afflictions or colorings) are comprised of five basic constructs or crystallized thought-forms and are described by Patanjali at the beginning of Book 2 of the Yoga Sutras (1, 2, 3 & 4).

Once the Kleshas are seen in a clear light and recognized for what they are, they will disappear. The intellectual mind is not enough to bring about this recognition. Patanjali, insists the “8 limbs of yoga” are necessary to lead the mind toward the required purification and these are:

  • Yama (Sanskrit for "moral discipline")
  • Niyama (Sanskrit for "moral observance")
  • Asana (Sanskrit for "body posture")
  • Pranayama (Sanskrit for "breath control")
  • Prathyara (Sanskrit for "withdrawal of the senses")
  • Dharana (Sanskrit for "concentration")
  • Dhyana (Sanskrit for "meditation")

We all have heard that every journey starts with the first step. So it stands to reason that recognizing the Kleshas is a good way to quench the desire of the intellect. Here is a list of the 5 Kleshas and a brief summary of their attributes:

  • Avidya (Ignorance): This is the primal ignorance which pervades all of creation. This ignorance is experiential, not conceptual, in nature. This affliction results in our lack of awareness and disconnection from Truth.
  • Asmita (Ego): As individuals, we also have what is called ahamkara or "I-maker" (ego). It is a single vritti, (thought form), the idea of individualized existence. This single thought of a limited self is enormously convincing because it pervades the entire body-mind complex. It is the nature of this individual "I-am" sense, or ego, to identify with something and become attached to it.
  • Raga (Attachment): This klesha is all about desire. All of us have experienced this and we are all attached to something. Whether it’s a partner, a friend, a practice, an object, a pet, a food, even an iPhone; it’s okay to need or want things, but you know your desire has become an affliction when it creates suffering.  Raga creates in us a pattern of acquisition: we began to pursue human relationships, knowledge, wealth, status, power-anything which might be capable of enlarging and protecting our fragile individualized existence.
  • Dvesha (Aversion): Patanjali defines aversion as: “Identification with what we don’t like.” Attachments (Raga) arise from our previous experiences of pleasure and happiness. Aversions emerge from previous experiences of pain and suffering. This is the fourth Klesha, "the hate, fear or extreme dislike which follows after experiencing pain."
  • Abhinivesha (Clinging to Life): Because of raga and dvesha, a tremendous, continual, and habitual outflowing of our energy and attention through our senses to the objects of external world has been created. This outflow of all our attention and energy can only increase our identification with our physical existence, resulting in a fear of death and making it even harder for us to perceive or identify with our spiritual nature.

Stay tuned, next: Further exploration of each Klesha and how it colors each Kosha (Sheath), beginning with Annamaya kosha.

Rae Indigo is ERYT 500

Yoga & the 5 Kleshas

Directly following Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra (book II) which describes Kriya Yoga, he explains the five main reasons we are bound, these are known as the Kleshas: [1]

  • 1. Ignorance (Avidya)
  • 2. Ego (Asmita)
  • 3. Attachment to Pleasure (Raga)
  • 4. Aversion to Pain (Dvesa)
  • 5. Fear of Death (Abhinivesah)

These five afflictions are often depicted as a tree. Avidya is the trunk of the tree, and the other four Kleshas sprout from it. The Samkhya emphasis on viveka, knowing the real nature of the universe, is echoed in Classical Yoga’s emphasis on avidya, or ignorance, as the main affliction we suffer. Destroy avidya and all the other afflictions go away.

Asmita is the ego. The problem with ego is not the fact that we have one; it is useful and even necessary to have an ego in order to function and live. The problem arises when the ego believes it is the Self. If all we do is in service of the little self, our life will be sorrowful. When we serve our higher Self, liberation becomes possible.

According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra there are five Kleshas (aka afflictions, colorings) described (Book II-3); those Kleshas, like clever sorcerers, can knock you off balance, sidetracking from your quest for spiritual evolution.

1. Avidya (Ignorance): The inability to see things for what they really are.

Yoga Sutra (Book II-4): “Ignorance is the breeding place for all the others whether they are dormant or attenuated, partially overcome or fully operative.”

(Book II-5): “Ignorance is taking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, evil for good and non-self as self.”

Vidya means spiritual knowledge. The prefix ‘A’ changes the word into its opposite; without (or absence of something). Thus Avidya means the absence of spiritual or Self knowledge.

The following is an excerpt from Gregor Maehle’s commentary on Yoga Sutra II.24: “… Ignorance is the belief system that results from false knowledge (viparyaya). This false knowledge makes us believe that we are the body, that are our emotions and thoughts. Viparyaya is defined in sutra I.8 as wrong knowledge without foundation in reality. Reality is that which is permanent. Returning to the metaphor of the TV screen, we can note that, however many pictures are displayed on the screen; none will ever stick to it. New pictures will always replace them. Once the film is over, the screen will be empty. The only thing permanent here is the screen, which means the screen is the reality, whereas the pictures are only fleeting images superimposed on the screen. Although there exists a certain proximity between screen and images, both will remain forever separate. The screen won’t take on the quality of the images, nor will it altar them.

“Similar is the case with the seer and the seen. There is a certain proximity between our true nature as the immutable consciousness and the constantly changing seen, which is the body, emotions, thoughts, and so on. However, in reality they touch as little as do a screen and the images displayed on it.”

2. Asmita (Ego): The sense of “I-am-ness” or the tendency to identify with your ego.

Yoga Sutra (Book II-6): “Egoism is the identification of the power that knows with the instruments of knowing.”

The problem with ego is not the fact that we have one; it is useful, even necessary to have an ego in order to function and live. The problem arises when the ego believes it is the Self. If all we do is in service of the little self, our life will be sorrowful. Only when we recognize and serve our higher “Self” does liberation become possible.

From a spiritual perspective; identification with the ego denotes considering oneself to be distinct and/or separate from others (and the Divine) due to identification with the physical body and impressions (Samskaras) in various centers of the subtle (energetic) body. In other words, the ego-self is allowed to lead our life by us maintaining the false notion that our existence is limited to our five senses, our mind and intellect, and identifying with them to various degrees.

Gregor Maehle refers to the ego in yoga the following way: “In yoga we first learn to observe the body. Once this observation is established, we know that we are not the body but an observing agent independent of the body. Otherwise we could not observe the body. The next step is that we start observing our thoughts. Eventually, from being established in that observation, we know that we are not our thoughts, since we can detach ourselves and observe them like the thoughts of a stranger. Who are we, then, if we are not the body and not the mind (manas, the thinking principle)? The agent that claims ownership of body and mind is called ahamkara — ego. Its function, which is the erroneous commingling or mixing of seer (pure consciousness) and seeing (the mind), is called egoity or I-am-ness (asmita).”

3. Raga (Attachment to Pleasure): raja is wanting, craving, passionate attachment to beings and things. It’s the flame of desire that causes addiction to pleasure and even negative emotions.

Yoga Sutra (Book II-7): “Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience.”

Raja can take the form of possessiveness, ownership, liking, attraction etc. It also indicates attachment to people, things, and ideas. The sense that “This is ours,” “This is mine.” It’s the most common cause of quarrels, violent conflicts, and even war. In a broader scale it’s often expressed as race, nationality; my country, my money.

In the book “Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy,” Gregor Maehle writes that: “…desire, (raga), and with it all addictions, is a clear form of misapprehension or ignorance (avidya). A drug addict might say ‘I just can’t help it; I need the drug!’ In this statement, the needing of the drug, which is the hankering after a remembered pleasure, is consciously connected with the faculty of I.”

Raga and the following Klesha (Dvesa) are often considered opposite sides of the same coin.

4. Dvesha (Aversion to Pain): The aversion to pain, this aversion emerges from previous experiences of pain and suffering. It can create a quicksand like cycle of misery and self-hatred that sucks you under and suffocates your will to evolve spiritually.

Yoga Sutra (Book II-8): “Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience.”

Oftentimes we can easily become subconsciously driven to avoid previously painful experiences. Our desire to protect ourselves limits our options in life, clouding our ability to see and think clearly. We tend to mistake the person, situation or object that caused us pain with the painful experience itself. When this happens we end up going to great lengths to avoid situations that we are afraid of; regardless of whether they are physical, emotional, or spiritual. Fear and hatred are the inevitable downfalls of excessive aversion.

*Note on both Raja and Dvesha: These excessive ‘attachments’ and ‘aversions’ that are being examined here are very different from the intelligent, careful and well-considered choices we are also capable of making when our perspective changes through the practice of Pratipaksha Bhavanam (a method recommended by Patanjali that helps us catch these destructive and distracting thoughts, and redirects our minds back toward the Yogic path). By cultivating opposite perspectives (by actively cultivating thoughts of the opposite nature) whenever a destructive thought arises, we increasingly expose ourselves to new, uplifting options. It can even be as simple as formulating the opposite thought.

The path of Yoga is one that helps us become aware of our unconscious thoughts and actions; gradually moving toward a life full of consciously chosen thoughts and actions. Each posture and each breath enables us to discover a fresh opportunity to distinguish between skillful, conscious decision making and subconsciously driven motivations of fear and desire.

5. Abhinivesha (Fear of Death): The fear of death (or a clinging to life).

Abhinevesha is the last of the five Kleshas. Georg Feuerstein says of this Klesha: “It is the impulse towards individuated existence and as such is a primary source of suffering.”

Yoga Sutra (Book II-9):“Flowing by its own energy, established even in the wise and in the foolish, is the unending desire for life.”

Many believe that this fear is not limited to physical death; it is the fear of the cessation of the “ego-I” narrative (Asmita) that we as individuals are “creating” during our lifes’ experience. We cling to this “ego-I” narrative because of ignorance (Avidya) of the impermanence of the mind body experience by perpetrating the misperception of ego (Asmita) as being who we are. This subsequently dilutes our focus and interferes with our ability to experience the spiritual freedom that is the goal of Yoga.

Gregor Maehle’s commentary regarding Abhinevesha: “…Vyasa deduces from the fact that all beings are afraid of death that they have experienced death and thus life before. The intensity to which all beings cling to life can only be explained through accepting that we have all experienced death as a process to be avoided at all costs.

“Shankara elaborates on Vyasa‘s argument thus: ‘Unless happiness (pleasure) had been experienced no one would pray for it. Without past experience of pain, there would be no desire to avoid it. Similarly, though the pangs of death have not been (in this life) experienced by a man either directly or by inference, the fact of his lust for life points to experience of death previously, just as there can be no experience of birth unless there has been birth.’”

Final thoughts: If this article seems like deep philosophical stuff, it’s because it is. Keep in mind that yogic philosophy developed over thousands of years of time. During most of that time there were some outstanding thinkers and philosophers in India that had nothing else to do but contemplate these larger questions concerning life and death and where we as humans beings fit into the equation.

When you are able to make peace with everyone in your life every day, then there should be no attachment, no regret, and no unfinished business. To quote the motivational speaker, Zig Zigler: “Live every day like it is your last, and one day you will be right.”

We will see a list similar to the 5 Kleshas in Buddhist philosophy called  “the 5 Hindrances.”