Klesha

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Klesha ( Sanskrit , m., क्लेश, kleśa , suffering; pali kilesa , ch: fánnǎo烦恼; Tib. Nyon mongs pa ) are passions that cloud the mind. In Indian philosophy , especially in Buddhism and Hinduism , these "defilements" are understood as the cause of suffering.

Meaning of the kleshas in yoga

There are five kleshas in yoga :

  1. Avidya : ignorance
  2. Asmita : identification, ego
  3. Raga : wish
  4. Dvesha : Dislike
  5. Abhinivesha : fear.

Kleshas are certain structures, patterns and forces in the human mind that control the perception and behavior of people and repeatedly bring them into situations that are painfully experienced.

In an article in “VIVEKA - Hefte für Yoga”, the kleshas are compared with “weeds” and the human mind with a garden. While the ornamental plants have to be sown and watered and require intensive care in order to thrive, the "weeds" sprout and grow without any special care. It takes possession of the garden when the gardener becomes negligent or inactive. And so it is with the kleshas: they do not need care to become big and omnipresent and to control the mind, they are just there. Left to its own devices, the mind is shaped by the kleshas.

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali it is said about the kleshas that they can have very different effects: They can “sleep”, be weak, interrupted or very active. It also happens that one klesha is particularly strong, so that it dominates the others.

Avidya

Avidya means as much as not knowing, but not in the sense of ignorance or unknown, but in the sense of existing but false knowledge or deception. Avidya is considered to be the "mother" or "source" from which the other kleshas arise. Like a "veil" it covers the perception and clouds it. People's perception is usually highly subjective , and so it can be right or wrong in a situation. Avidya is a wrong way of understanding, a wrong (subjective) way of interpreting a situation. Avidya is the result of accumulated experiences : In a certain situation, people once felt, thought, understood, acted in a certain way - from then on it is repeated automatically, mechanically, almost blindly. The human being is fixed in his perception and his actions (samskara). This can mean, for example, that ambiguity is confused with clarity: You feel clear and are actually self-conscious. Or the other way around: You distrust your own perception and ultimately it turns out to be correct. A very simple example of how Avidya shows itself in everyday life: a person behaves very dismissively, is grumpy and unfriendly. It is easy to conclude that this person may dislike us or be angry about us. In fact, the actual fact is that this person is currently having a problem with themselves, with their family life, with their health , or maybe they are just having a bad day.

According to the classical Vedantic view, ignorance is the force that builds up the ego and seduces it to mistakenly regard itself and its experiences as real and its behavior as correct and appropriate. This ignorance, it is further elaborated, can neither be called being or existing ( sat ) nor non-being or non-existing (a-sat), but only as inexplicable. For if it were unreal, it is argued, then it would not be powerful enough to conceal the knowledge of the immediate reality of the self from the inner eye of man . On the other hand, if it were really, that is, absolutely indestructible, it could not so easily be undone by knowledge ( Vidya / Rigpa ); the self ( atman ) could then never be discovered as the source of all being. Furthermore, it is said that ignorance cannot be described as being because it is constantly changing. Its shape is therefore fleeting, ephemeral, surmountable. His essence is transitoriness and that the seeker recognizes this at the moment when he reaches beyond the "magic of deception".

Asmita

With Asmita the (overpowering) ego is meant, the identification with the ego. It means taking yourself very seriously. It means both selfishness, arrogance and pride and, conversely, an inferior image of self or self-pity. Asmita always shows up when you have the ambition to want to be better than others or when someone always wants to be right. But also feelings like: "I always feel bad ..." or "I am always being exploited ..." have their origin in Asmita. It means complete identification with a momentary feeling: you experience a failure and then you identify with the feeling of being a failure .

Raga

Raga means desire , craving, or craving - traits that are often the cause of certain behavior. Raga means wanting to have something that you may not necessarily need or that is even not good for you (e.g. overeating, consumption as substitute satisfaction). Man wants something, and when he has it, it is not enough. Raga always demands more, for an increase, for the next "kick". Only the beautiful, bright starry sky is not enough to make things perfect, a good red wine is still missing and a few shooting stars wouldn't be bad either. Raga means the small and large addictions of people who take action even when they don't need something. Raga means attachment to the material world.

Dvesha

Dvesha is something like the opposite of raga: the (unfounded) rejection , fear of change and the unknown. Once there was a negative experience, from now on everything related to it is rejected. Example: The car was broken into and robbed while on vacation in Spain . In future, those affected will hate Spain and the Spaniards and will never go on vacation there again. Or: A person was once bitten by a dog and now rejects all dogs as fundamentally aggressive animals. Older people in particular like to stick to the traditional and categorically reject changes and innovations - this is also a form of Dvesha. It has to be differentiated, however, because not every rejection has to be the same as Dvesha: If someone avoids walking alone through a gloomy neighborhood at night because there could be dangers lurking there , that is not Dvesha, but justified caution, a realistic assessment of the situation .

Abhinivesha

The last of the kleshas is Abhinivesha , which means “the root of fear”. What is meant are all forms of fear and fear: insecurity, doubt, panic, existential fears, fear of the future , fear of illness, and above all fear of death. This klesha is very powerful because in yoga one assumes that the mind determines reality . So if a person is totally dominated by the fear of a certain disease, the likelihood is considered high that the person will actually get that disease.

Buddhism

In Buddhism says Klesha or Kilesa the "impurities", "the spirit turbid passions". There are ten types of mental pollution (italics in brackets are followed by the corresponding Pali terms):

  1. Greed, desire (lobha)
  2. Hate (dosa / dves)
  3. Delusion (moha, avijjā)
  4. (I-) conceit (asmi-mana)
  5. (wrong) views (micchādiṭṭhi)
  6. Doubt, doubtfulness (vicikicchā)
  7. Rigidity, indolence (thīnaṃ)
  8. Excitement, presumption (uddhaccaṃ)
  9. Shamelessness (ahirikaṃ)
  10. Unscrupulousness, recklessness (anottappaṃ).

Numbers 1 to 3 are collectively referred to as mula or the three spiritual poisons .

See also

  • Tanha (Pali: Tanhā, Sanskrit: Tṛṣṇā, Chin: 愛) - "desire", "desire", "thirst" or "want"

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Search results for "kleSa". In: spokensanskrit.org . Retrieved April 28, 2020 .
  2. ↑ www.palikanon.de Explanation Kilesa with reference to text passages in the Pali Canon , last accessed May 2010.

literature

  • TKV Desikachar : Religiousness in yoga. Lectures on theory and practice . University Press, Washington, DC 1980, ISBN 0-8191-0967-3 .
    • German: Yoga tradition and experience. The practice of yoga according to the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali . 2nd edition Via Nova, Petersberg 1997, ISBN 3-928632-00-0 .