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"