The sources of the five affictions, kleshas,can be abolished by resolving htem backwards to their origin

I found comments on Patanjali by Osho on the five kleshas which i find very clear and inspiring:

"...The last is abhinivesh: lust for life; the first is lack of awareness. The last has to be resolved to the first, the last has to be brought to the first. Now move backwards: you have lust for life, you cling to life. Why? Patanjali says, 'Go backwards.'

Why do you cling to life? -- because you are miserable. And the misery is created by dwais, repulsion. The misery is created by dwais -- violence, jealousy, anger -- repulsion. How can you live if you have such negative things around you? Through these negativities, wherever you look, life seems to be not worth living. Wherever you look through the negative, everything looks dark, dismal, a hell. Lust for life has to be resolved backwards, then you will find dwais. If you go downwards, backwards with clinging to life, behind it you will find the layer of repulsion. That's why you have not been able to live. All the societies, cultures, they force many repulsions on you.

So Patanjali says, 'Clinging to life is the uppermost layer. Go deep; behind it you will find a layer of repulsion, dwais.' But why are you repelled? Go deeper and you will find attachment. You are attracted towards a thing and if you are attracted, only then can you be repelled. If you are not attracted you cannot be repelled. Attraction can create a repulsion; repulsion is the other pole of attraction. Go deeper -- another layer you will find is asmuta, the feeling of ego, 'I am.' And this 'I' exists through attachment and repulsion. If rag, dwais, attraction and repulsion both fall, 'I' cannot stand there. 'I' will fall with it.

You, your ego, exists through your ideas of good and bad, ideas of love and hate, ideas of what is beautiful and what is ugly. Duality creates the ego. So behind the duality of rag and dwais, you will find the ego. Why does this ego exist? Patanjali says, 'Go still deeper and you will find lack of awareness. The root cause of the whole misery of life is lack of awareness. This is the cause, the primal cause of the whole thing. You cannot find it with abhinivesh, lust for life; that is a fruit, a flower, the last phenomenon. In fact, it is not the cause. Go back.

"...Once you know the cause, everything is resolved. And this is the cause.. lack of awareness. What to do? Don't fight with your clinging, don't fight with your attachment and repulsion, don't even fight with the ego. Just become more and more aware. Just become more and more alert, watchful, mindful. Remember more and more and become alert. That very alertness will dissolve everything. Once the cause is dissolved, the effects disappear.

Ordinary morality teaches you changes on the surface. So called religions teach you how to fight with effects. Patanjali is giving you the very science of religion: the very root cause can be dissolved. You have to be more aware. Live life with alert ness: that is the whole message. Don't live like a sleepy man, or a drunkard living in a hypnosis. Be conscious of whatsoever you are doing. Do it, but do it with full consciousness. Suddenly you will see many things disappear.

Nagarjuna and the thief
A thief came to Nagarjuna, a Buddhist mystic. The thief said, 'Listen, I have been to many teachers and many Masters. They all know me because I am a famous thief, in fact, the master thief of this kingdom, so I am known all over. Just the moment I reach them they say, "First you have to leave stealing, robbing people. First drop your way of life and then something can happen." But that I cannot do. So the thing stops then and there. Now I have come to you. What do you say?

Nagarjuna said, 'Then you must have gone to thieves, not to Masters. Why should a Master be worried about your stealing or not stealing? I am not concerned. You do one thing. you go on stealing, robbing people -- but rob them with awareness.' The thief said, 'This I can do.' And he was caught, trapped.

After two weeks passed, he came back to Nagarjuna and said, 'You are a deceiver, you have tricked me. Last night I entered for the first time into the palace of the King, but because of you I tried to be alert. I opened the treasury. Thousands of precious diamonds were there, but because of you I had to come out of the palace empty-handed.' Nagarjuna said, 'Tell me what happened.'

The thief said, 'Whenever I would be alert and I would try to take those diamonds, the hand would not move. If the hand moved, then I was not alert. For two, three hours I struggled. I tried to be alert and take those diamonds, but it was impossible. Many times I took those diamonds, but then I was not alert so I had to put them back. Whenever I was alert, the hand would not move.' Nagarjuna said, 'That's the whole thing. You have understood the point.'

Without alertness you can be angry, violent, possessive, jealous. These are the offshoots but not the roots. With alertness you cannot be angry, you cannot be jealous, you cannot be aggressive, violent, greedy. Ordinary morality teaches you not to be greedy, not to be angry. That is ordinary morality. That doesn't help much. At the most a little suppressed personality is created. Greed remains, anger remains, but you can have a little social morality. It may help as a lubricant in the society, but nothing much happens.

Patanjali is not teaching ordinary morality. Patanjali is teaching the very root of all religion, the very science of religion. He says, 'Bring every effect to the cause.' And the cause is always unalertness, unawareness, avidya. Become aware, and every. thing disappears.

PATANJALI SUTRA - THE OUTWARD EXPRESSIONS OF THE FIVE AFFLICTIONS DISAPPEAR THROUGH MEDITATION.

Osho - You need not be worried about them; you just meditate more, become more aware. First the outward expressions disappear: anger, jealousy, hatred, repulsion, attraction. Their outward expression disappears first, but the seeds remain with you. Then one has to go very, very deep, because you think you are angry only when you are angry -- that is not true. An under. ground current of anger continues even when you are not angry. Otherwise, from where will you get the anger when the time comes? Somebody insults you and suddenly you are angry. Just a second before you were happy, smiling, and the face changes; you have become a murderer. From where did you get this? It must have been there, an underground current available to you always. Whenever need arises, opportunities arise, suddenly the anger flares up.

First, meditation will help you. The outward expressions will disappear. But don't be satisfied with that because basically, if the underground current remains, then at any time there is a possibility; the flare up can be brought. In a certain situation again the expression can come. Never be satisfied with that outward expression disappearing; the seed has to be burned. The first part of meditation helps you to bring the outward expression to the basic current: on the outside you become silent, but inside, things continue. Then the meditation has to go still deeper.

That is Patanjali's distinction between samadhi and dhyan. Dhyan is the first stage, meditation is the first stage with which outward expressions disappear; and samadhi is the last stage, the ultimate meditation where the seeds are burned. You have reached the very source of being and life. Then, you don't cling to anything. Then, you are not afraid of death. Then, in fact, you are not; then you are no more. Then God abides in you, and you can say, 'aham brahmasmi,' I am the very divine, the very ground of existence.

Source - Osho Book "Yoga, Vol 4"

Kriya Yoga: the path of action

'You carry with you, around you, the atmosphere created by your actions, and if what you do is beautiful, your atmosphere is beautiful, good and harmonious' The Mother

One of the last assignments for my Yoga Teachertraining at Svaha I'm studying the yoga sutras of Patanjali. this means that i'm reading different translations but above all looking at my own life and building my own practice. Yesterday Gosta offered a class where he spoke about Kriya yoga. This gave me new clear insight on the path and the essence of kriya yoga.

Patanjali reminds us that yoga is basically a simple proces:
'All we have to do is work really hard and be devote to the goal of knowing God'.

The path to realization or sadhana, is of no use unless we travel it. Action or kriya is required for most of us to reach samadhi. Yogic action has three components:
- discipline or tapas (provides energy)
- selfstudy or svadhyaya (serves as a roadmap)
- orientation towards the ideal of pure awareness (isvara the destination).

I recognize this. I was truely aware of my longing to be free, truely free 4 years ago and only now my way of living becomes more focused and consistent (though it may not look like that on the outside).

The supreme goal of kriya yoga is to recognize that a transcendent, timeless awareness underlies all phenomenal experience. To disarm the causes of suffering and achieve integration.

Patanjali says that our spiritual practices should transform us in the flames of their difficulty and light a fire within us that burns away selfishness. The main impurity is ignorance of the higher Self or avidya. What is offered into the fire is the ego or lower self. (I have a reminder of this on my shoulder: in 2000 I got a sign on my shoulder which amongst other means be aware of the lower self and go for the higher Self.

Tapas or Purification
Sadhana is tapasic when we practice consistently over a long period of time. In Patanjali's formulation of yogic action one enforces yoking through many levels of human experience. In daily life this means placing realization at the center of your priorities. Not only by practising constantly and with complete engagement to enter the stilling proces (nirodha) through daily meditation, but also by bringing every aspect of your work and relationships into alignment with the awakening process.

In the stilling proces tapas is the energy fueling both the persistent returning to focus (abhyasa) and the willingness to see all experience with clarity instead of reaction (vairagya) AANVULLEN MET PERSOONLIJKE ERVARING.

At physiological and energetic levels tapas is both the heat that rises from the fires of bodily purification (tantric technologies a hatha yoga and the heat of surrender).

Each time we can observe without reacting as an impulse to think or act out according to conditioned and patterns of suffering arises, we are in effect practicing a small but significant austerity that unlocks immeasurable energy.

And only by dying to what we thought we were we can enter the sublime realm of of what truly is.

Svadhyaya or study of the higher Self
The principal method of study of the higher Self is reading the scriptures. These provide guideliness for ethical, righteous, yogic action in the world. Chanting the names of God is another form of svadyaya.PERSOONLIJKE ERVARING VERTELLEN.

Ishvara Pranidhana or Devotion of God
Ishvara is the Lord: God in a form that can be visualised and to which we can offer our devotion. Pran is vitality or life energy. Dhana means to give direct energy. Without this devotion, yoga practices become self-serving and binding. Patanjali recommends that you offer each thought, word and deed to God or pure awareness (I prefer the neutral definition of God like this as people make so much of the word God. As an example my girlfriend hates everything around the God thing because her family history around 'believe'is very painful.

Study of the Self involves determining where need ends and greed begins. We can make the determination only by experimenting with our body and mind until we figure out how to remove clutter and confusion. (MY MAIN CONCERN RIGHT NOW). Clutter means no space! We have all sort of clutter in our head. From the moment we arrived in the body, we have been accumulating habits, attitudes, prejudices, likes and dislikes, affectations and characteristics.

That clutter we are used to and its all contained in your name. That's why 'spiritual warriors' are often given a new name by their master.
I'm not supposed to give myself a new name but if I could it would be: Satya. Satya or Sathya is a Sanskrit word that loosely translates into English as "truth" or "correct".

Satya is the second of the yamas and brings whatever is willed: For one who increasingly practices honesty or truthfulness in actions, speech, and thoughts, his or her will is naturally fulfilled.

The accepted interpretation however, is "the Truth which equals love." This concept of truth is not merely a synonym of fact or correctness, but is more metaphysical, like the difference between brain and mind. This 'bigger picture' notion of truth implies a higher order, a higher principle or a higher knowledge. Satya is what one becomes aware of upon becoming a Bodhi (enlightened or awakened person).

Five vrittis or patterns of consciousness
According to Patanjali, five different thought patterns or vrittis characterize ordinary mental states. Vrittis are the activity of ego-based consciousness.

Vritti literally means 'turning'and the particular way that the patterns of consciousness make reality feel - namely a field of objects observed by a subject- is imparted by their motion. When our experience is shaped by this motion, our view of things is incomplete and we suffer. When our citta-vritti turns us towards stillness, consciousness begins to feel more transparent and mirrorlike, providing a less distorted view (analogy with a lake)

Vrittis arise successively, endowing our perceptual life with a feeling of continuity. These are the vrittis or whirls, the “fluctuations of consciousness” which yoga aims to suspend. The five vrittis are:
1. valid-cognition
2. misconception
3. imagination
4. sleep
5. memory

1. Valid Cognition
Valid-cognition depends upon accurate sense experience.
It has three forms:
- direct perception (closest to sensory experience)
- inference
- reliable testimony

This is the thought pattern of correct knowledge. From direct perception one bites into a fruit and knows through direct sensory contact that it is an apple. Correct knowledge can also derive from inference or the accurate testimony of others. With these, sensory experience is second hand, but still the ultimate source of the valid-cognition.

2. Misconception
In misconception all this misfires and the result is incorrect knowledge. One incorrectly interprets a sense experience, makes false inference or relies on false testimony. This is the vritti of false knowledge.

3. Imagination
With the 3rd whirl, imagination, the process moves inwards to subtler forms of vibration. Here the mind fluctuates with pure conceptualisation, spinning images and fantasies that have no basis in direct sense experience but depend rather upon language.

4. Sleep
In sleep, the 4th whirl, the process continues with even less connection to direct sense experience. In deep sleep, the mind appears empty, but the experience upon awakening of having slept well or poorly clearly relates to some kind of vritti that had been active during sleep, albeit very subtly.

5. Memory
In the 5th whirl, memory, the mind taps into the vasanas or karmic deposits. Of all the vrittis, memory is closest to the unconscious. The store of past actions (from this and maybe even previous lives) feeds the processes of dream, daydream and imagination, supplying raw material in the form of images. Yet memory in itself remains most subtle and deep. These are the whirls most difficult to suspend.

Through meditation, the yogi strives to modify, control or suspend these five types of vrittis. If this state can be maintained, it leads to samprajnata samadhi, the lower form of samadhi, known as object-oriented bliss. It is called “object-oriented” because some vrittis remain.

Not until asamprajnata samadhi, which is “objectless” or without vrittis of any kind, is the goal of yoga reached. However, in the lower states of samadhi, sattvic mind can make for a very blissful existence.

Though vrittis still occur, they are no longer afflicted. It is these non-afflicted vrittis that provide the yogi with the momentum to reach full samadhi. These positive thought waves have great benefit, as they facilitate the process of yoga.

It is through the mind that the mind is set free. The sattvic vrittis of samprajnata samadhi enhance the desire for total liberation. And right action follows, the kind of behaviour that leads towards the ultimate transcendence of all vrittis. It is important to distinguish between afflicted and non-afflicted vrittis.

And each of the five types of vrittis, in principle, can be either afflicted or non-afflicted. Afflicted vrittis perpetuate the wheel of samsara. Non-afflicted vrittis contain the seeds for the transcendence of all vrittis. They infuse everyday life with a high degree of sattvic energy and culminate in their own cessation.

So what causes the ordinary vrittis of the mind? What are the factors that keep one bound in conditioned existence? Here in a sense is the heart of Patanjali’s psychology.

Human suffering arises out of ordinary consciousness itself, Patanjali explains, where attachment to the forms of prakriti obscures the true reality: purusha. Patanjali identifies five qualities of mind that create and maintain these vrittis of ordinary consciousness. They are called the five kleshas or sources of affliction. They are the root cause of the “misidentification with the modifications of the mind” which yoga practice aims to eradicate.

The five kleshas
Avidya is the first klesha. It is the source of all the others. Translated often as ignorance, but implying much more, avidya is the opposite of vidya, which means seeing. True sight sees the truth, and that is vidya.

True sight means realizing Ultimate Reality. Its opposite, avidya, is thus a most severe type of blindness. Avidya is spiritual ignorance, the greatest and most fundamental cause of suffering. All the other sources of affliction derive from avidya.

Yoga practice aims to transform avidya into vidya. This is what “yoga chittas vrittis nirodha” indicates.

“Yogas citta vritti nirodhah” The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali

Inleiding vanuit de schrijfster

The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
Patanjali, the great ancient exponent of Raja Yoga, wrote that the path to enlightenment embraces eight stages. His teaching is also known as Ashtanga, or “Eight-limbed,” Yoga.

In just 196 aphorisms Patajnali spells out succintly how the mind works, and how it is possible to use the mind to attain liberation. The book is a road map of human consciousness and a true guide to the mind states one encounters in meditation, yoga and other spiritual practices (living life ;-)). It answers questions like 'How do we know what we know?' 'Why do we suffer?'And it offers us a way out of suffering.

Timeless wisdom written down 400 years BC
This classic work of Indian philospophy was written by Sage Patanjali 400 years B.C. As the printing technology was not available at that time, the text has been transferred through generations by oral recitations (Shruti). That is why the whole knowledge of yoga is very concisely packed in total 196 lines or Sanskrit Sutras by Patanjali so that students can easily remember these sutras. The  text consists of 4 chapters: Integration (51), the Path to Realization (55), Extraordinary Powers (56) and Freedom (34). 

The eight stages of Ashtanga or “Eight-limbed” Yoga

1. Yamas: external disciplines
2. Niyamas: internal disciplines
3. Asana: sitting posture
4. Pranayama: breath regulation
5. Pratyahara: withdrawal of the senses
6. Dharana: concentration
7. Dhyana: absorption
8. Samadhi: integration

 

1. Yamas: external disciplines

The first two stages of Patanjali’s eightfold path are known as Yama and Niyama. Yama means control; Niyama, non-control. Literally, these two stages mean the don'ts and the do’s on the spiritual path.

Their essential purpose is to permit the milk of inner peace to be gathered in the pail of the mind by plugging holes that have been caused by restlessness, wrong attachments, desires, and various forms of inharmonious living. (Swami Kryanda)

5 rules of Yama (the don’ts):

• Non-violence
• Truthfulness
• Non-stealing
• Impeccable behavior, including sexual
• Non-greed or not being acquisitive

It is interesting to note that all of these virtues are listed in negative terms. The implication is that when we remove our delusions, we cannot but be benevolent, truthful, respectful of others’ property, etc., because it is our nature to be good. We act otherwise not because it is natural for us to do so, but because we have embraced an unnatural state of egoistical inharmony.

2. Niyamas: internal disciplines
5 rules of Niyama (the Do’s):

• Purification
• Contentment
• Intense discipline
• Self-study or Introspection
• Dedication to the ideal of pure awareness

3. Asana - sitting posture
The third stage on the eightfold path is known as Asana, which means, posture. Posture means no particular set of postures, but only the ability to hold the body still as a prerequisite for deep meditation. Any comfortable posture will do, as long as the spine is kept erect and the body relaxed.

A sign of perfection in Asana is said to be the ability to sit still, without moving a muscle, for three hours. Many people meditate for years without achieving any notable results, simply because they have never trained their bodies to sit still. Until the body can be mastered, higher perceptions, so subtle that they blossom only in perfect quiet, can never be achieved.

It is good to practice some of the yoga postures before meditation. These postures help one to attain Asana, or firm posture. The postures are only an aid, though a very great one, to meditation.

4. Pranayama—energy control

The fourth stage of Patanjali’s path is Pranayama … Prana does mean breath, but only because of the close connection that exists between the breath and the causative flow of energy in the body. The word, prana, refers primarily to the energy itself. Pranayama, then, means energy control.

This energy control is often effected with the aid of breathing exercises. Hence, breathing exercises have also come to be known as pranayamas.

Patanjali's reference is to the energy control that is achieved as a result of various techniques, and not to the techniques themselves.

His word signifies a state in which the energy in the body is harmonized to the point where its flow is reversed—no longer outward toward the senses, but inward toward the Divine Self that lies in the hearts of all beings. Only when all the energy in the body can be directed toward this Self can one’s awareness be intense enough to penetrate the veils of delusion and enter super-consciousness.

The very energy with which we think is the same energy that we use to digest our food. To test this claim, consider how difficult it is, after a heavy meal, to think about weighty problems, and how clear the mind becomes after a fast. To divert all the energy from the body to the brain can't but intensify one's awareness, and the keenness of one’s understanding. To direct this energy inwardly is the first step in divine contemplation.

5. Pratyahara—the interiorization of the mind

The fifth stage on Patanjali’s journey is known as Pratyahara, the interiorization of the mind. Once the energy has been redirected towards its source in the brain, one must then interiorize one’s consciousness, so that his thoughts, too, will not wander in endless bypaths of restlessness and delusion, but will be focused one-pointedly on the deeper mysteries of the indwelling soul.

A thread must be gathered to one point before it can be put through the eye of a needle. Similarly with the mind: It is necessary to concentrate one’s thoughts as well as one’s energies, if he would hope to penetrate the narrow tunnel that leads to divine awakening.

6. Dharana—contemplation

Patanjali’s sixth stage is known as Dharana, contemplation, or fixed inner awareness. One may have been aware of inner spiritual realities—the inner light, for instance, or the inner sound, or deep mystical feelings—before reaching this stage, but it is only after reaching it that one can give himself completely to deep concentration on those realities.