Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:11] Welcome to deep in your yoga practice. I'm Lauren Leduc, the owner and founder of True Love Yoga in Kansas City, Missouri. And today we are talking about the Kalishas. So these are the obstacles to enlightenment, or you could think of them as the root causes of suffering as presented in Patanjali's yoga Sutras. So, so my intention here is to explore what the Kleshas are historically, where they appear in the sutras, why they still matter, how they show up in modern life, and how we work with them without self judgment. So my hope is to explore this with a deep sense of self compassion so that we can look at these obstacles and how they show up in our own lives head on. So you might think about why do you keep repeating different patterns in your life even when you know they're not working out for you? Why do you doom scroll even when it makes you anxious? Why do you cling to identities that don't really serve anymore? And why might you fear change, even when change is necessary and vital? Yoga has an answer for this and it happens to be over 1500 years old. So the Kleshas come from the Yoga sutras of Patanjali, written again around 1500 years ago.
[00:01:30] And we typically consider this to be the classical period of yoga. Each period of yoga was developed in technique, in the understanding of the human mind and behavior and the universe as a response to suffering. So these sutras appear in book two, sutras three through nine, before Patanjali introduces the eight limbs of yoga and the actual practices that lead to liberation. Because he wants us to really understand first why we even need this, where what are these obstacles that come up and what are we working with when we are practicing yoga? Klesha means affliction or mental poison, and these are the root causes of suffering or what we might call dukkha. So the Kleshas are not akin to sins, they are just human tendencies. They are things that we all experience.
[00:02:33] They're not something that we even need to judge about ourselves. Instead they are things that we can recognize and then learn to work with. So a little more historical context. These were compiled around 400 CE and they're influenced by Samkhya philosophy, which is a dualist philosophy, meaning there's this separation between spirit and matter and aligning ourselves with spirit is the way to liberation. So this requires this deep sense of psychological clarity. So this is really removed from yoga as any kind of physical practice. It's more about reducing suffering that is caused by misperception. So while we may not typically look at the world in a dualist way like they did through this philosophy. They're There still is much to gain from learning and understanding these obstacles. So Patanjali identifies these five kleshas or obstacles and I'll go ahead and name them. The first is called avidya and this means ignorance or misperception. And we'll go more deeply into what these all mean. So I'm just introducing them right here for a bird's eye view.
[00:03:50] The the second is azmita which is ego identification.
[00:03:55] The third is raga which is attachment. The fourth is devesha or aversion. And the last is abhinivesa or fear of death, clinging to life. So avidya or misperception is the root klesha. All the others branch from it. So let's talk about this the root or avidya. This means ignorance and this is the big one. Avidya means mistaking the impermanent for the permanent, the impure for pure, the painful for pleasurable, and the non self for the self. So what does this mean in modern terms? This might mean that you think your job title is your identity, that you believe your current emotional state is permanent and it's never going to change, that you mistake your productivity for your work, that maybe you confuse your online Persona for your real self. Maybe it's accidentally equating comfort with happiness.
[00:04:56] Avidia is really when we forget what and who we actually are. And this connects us to consumer culture. So this deep desire within us to maybe fill a hole to find happiness because we're mistaking comfort for happiness. Maybe this leads to political polarization because we cling to that so much as identity.
[00:05:19] Maybe it's social comparison as well, misperceiving someone else's status or life. Because maybe what you see through social media or what you see through your limited interactions with that person, it's easy to misperceive what is really going on inside. So that's the first one, Vidya, ignorance or misperception. The second one is azmita and this is the ego. So esmeta equals I amness and over identification.
[00:05:53] So it's not ego in the Freudian sense. It's this identification with roles, with opinions, with narratives.
[00:06:02] So some modern examples might be I am my political party, I am the strong one in my family, I am the wounded one in my friend group, I am the successful one in my community, I am the flexible yogi. Maybe when this identity hardens, our suffering actually increases. And when we connect this to social media, for instance, this curated Identity helps reinforce these loops of I am this, therefore this is what I need to prove over and over again. So yoga actually asks us to hold identity lightly.
[00:06:40] That yes, we can act in many different roles in our lives, but they aren't the permanent state of who we are. And we often forget that which is Asmita. The next is Raga and I'll go ahead and pair Raga and Devesha because they really go together. Raga is attachment and Devesha is aversion.
[00:07:02] So these two run our nervous system constantly. Raga is clinging to pleasure. This is addiction. Addiction cycles. This is feeling dependent on praise and seeking validation. It's maybe over seeking or optimizing comfort. It's choosing pleasure even when it actually hurts us in the end. So we might explore this through what we consume, right? Maybe we're consuming things that feel pleasurable, whether that be food or media. Maybe it is a sexual relationship, but it's not what is actually nourishing and fulfilling us.
[00:07:41] On the other side of that we have Devesha or aversions. These are things we avoid, right? This is avoiding discomfort. This is maybe ghosting others and conflict. Maybe this is going through rage cycles. Maybe we're avoiding grief. Maybe we are doom scrolling outrage. And Devesha is often in modern life really avoiding discomfort. So and avoiding meaningful engagement in life because it feels so comfortable just to stay where we are. So that is also clinging to comfort which is Raga. So you can see how those kind of fit together and go hand in hand. Our modern culture is built on these two. We chase what feels good and push away what feels bad. And we call that freedom. But when we put that in a yoga context, it's really the opposite of liberation. It's actually an obstacle to liberation. The last klesha a binavasia, which is this fear. It's most typically referring to fear of death which can be this undercurrent in our lives and many of the decisions that we make, whether or not we're conscious of them. But it's also fear of change. It's fear of aging, maybe of loss of relevance, loss of identity, loss of control. And even the wise can be very affected by this. It's so normal to fear change even though change is the nature of. Of procreaty or the nature of matter in this life. So maybe we are obsessed with biohacking and longevity to avoid death. And maybe this leads to panic around aging and we really buy into anti aging. Maybe this is clinging to our careers or to our different Tendencies for control. Maybe these are health rituals or family rituals. Maybe we think catastrophically all the time because we fear this death, this ending. So know that yoga doesn't really eliminate fear, but it helps create perspective and acceptance around it.
[00:09:51] Part of yoga really is accepting these cycles of life, of birth, of life itself, of death and perhaps of rebirth. So this profound acceptance can help alleviate these fears. I think it's normal for them to still be there, but it allows us to live our lives in a way that we're not run by these fears, where they're not fueling our conscious and subconscious actions, where they're not shaping our destinies. So let's continue to talk a bit about how these five clashes operate in modern life. So they operate absolutely through politics. They push us toward pleasure and away from discomfort. Maybe we just fit into the political role or party that we grew up in because it's easy and because we don't have to look outside of this trained perspective because it's very uncomfortable. Maybe we don't put ourselves in the shoes of others. Maybe we avoid hard conversations that can change our hearts and our minds. We might experience the Kleshas through social media, through this chase of pleasure and dopamine. And maybe through this over identification with Persona. Maybe we experience it through productivity culture by misperceiving our worth and equating it to our productivity. Or maybe we are so productive that it's a way to avoid thoughts of death. My goodness. Or thoughts of change. We might come against these in the wellness industry.
[00:11:24] Maybe we're chasing raga or pleasure and disguising that as healing. Maybe we are avoiding death by wellness natural. Maybe these come up through our personal relationships, through pleasure and avoidance. That can come up so many ways in short and long term intimate relationships and friendships. Maybe we experience this through parenting, through abenive and control. We are so afraid of our children to change and grow and become their own person. We might try to over control these situations. So know that if you are connecting with any of these and the way that these Kleshas show up, that it is normal, that it is human and that although this ancient philosophy, it is extremely relevant to everyday life and just being a human. So how do we work with these Kleshas in a practical way?
[00:12:22] I think we can't really eliminate them, but we can reduce their grip on our lives so we can do things like witness our consciousness. So really awareness is the first step. So being able to step back and notice when this is happening. And this can be a practice of Self study or swadhyaya. Maybe we notice this through practices like meditation. Or maybe our yoga practice on the mat, which includes movement, helps us become more aware of our thoughts and our actions in our daily life. Maybe we can pause before reaction. We can insert a breath between trigger and response. So instead of responding out of conditioning, which is often where these Kleshas come up, we're responding from a place of regulation and discernment and wisdom. Maybe also we're embracing non attachment or viragia, which you can also think of as allowing things to be as they are. So it's not being in denial of reality, of life, but seeing it and accepting it, of letting go of the outcome. And this doesn't mean that we don't try, that we don't show up, that we don't practice. But it goes hand in hand with practice itself. Maybe we explore this through self inquiry so we can think about what am I attached to right now? Maybe what am I avoiding right now that I do need to confront? Maybe we can work with the Kleshas by practicing discomfort gently. So that could be something like tolerating a cold shower or having a hard conversation or allowing yourself to be in silence even when it's uncomfortable. And perhaps we can explore these Kleshas and work with them and let their grip loosen through practices like meditation. So we recognize our thoughts as fluctuations of the mind rather than this absolute truth. And we could go back to number one of witnessing consciousness that is very much a part part of meditation and why it is such an important and empowering practice. Because it's not really an invitation in modern life to fully withdraw from the world and go in to yourself forever and ever. Instead it is noticing the fluctuations of the mind, noticing habitual patterns and then being able to make empowering choices in our thoughts, words and actions. So do know that the Kleshas are universal. They're not proof you're failing at yoga. They are just proof that you are human. And humans have clearly been facing these same things for a long time. Know that awareness is progress. Even noticing. That's my ego. Ooh. That's my attachment. Or maybe that's my fear that noticing is liberation beginning. So you might ask yourself today, where am I clinging? Where am I resisting? Where am I mistaking something temporary for permanent? So thank you so much for taking this time to listen and to learn with me today. I think if we are pursuing liberation, it's so good to know what can get in the way of that and to develop relationship around it, to see it clearly, even to befriend these clashes so that we can grow and navigate our lives with less suffering. So thank you so much for joining me for this episode. If there are any other philosophical deep dives you'd love for me to go into, please let me know. I'm so happy you're here. Until next time. Om Shanti. Om. Peace.
