Kleshas (Buddhism)

Klesha (Sanskrit, m, क्लेश, kleśa, Leiden; pali kilesa, ch. Fánnǎo烦恼; nyon mongs pa) are the spirit turbid passions. In Indian philosophy, especially in Buddhism and Hinduism, these " defilements " understood as the cause of suffering.

Importance of Kleshas in Yoga

In yoga five Kleshas be distinguished: Avidya ( ignorance), Asmita (identification, ego), raga (desire), Dvesha ( aversion ), abhinivesha ( fear). Kleshas are certain structures, patterns and forces in the human mind, which control the perception and the action of man, and bring him again and again in situations that are experienced suffering.

In an article in the " VIVEKA - books for yoga " the Kleshas be compared with " weeds " and the human mind with a garden. While ornamental plants must be sown and watered and intensive care need in order to thrive, sprouts and overgrown the " weeds " without any special care. It takes care of the garden in possession when the gardener is careless or idle. And so it is with the Kleshas: You do not care to be large and pervasive and to control the mind, they are just there. Left to itself, the mind is shaped by the Kleshas.

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali says of the Kleshas that they can act very differently: you can " sleep ", weak, interrupted, or be very active. It also happens that a Klesha is particularly strong, so that it dominates the other.

Avidya

Avidya means as much as lack of knowledge, but not in the sense of ignorance or unknown, but in the sense of existing, but false knowledge or deception. Avidya is the "mother " or " source " considered to arise from the other Kleshas. As a "veil" it lies over the perception and tarnishes this. The human perception is highly subjective, as a rule, and it may, in a situation right or be wrong. Under Avidya is defined as a wrong kind of understanding, a wrong ( subjective ) way of interpreting a situation. Avidya is the result of accumulated experience: In a given situation was once perceived in a certain way, thought, understood, acted - henceforth automatically, mechanically, repeated almost blind. The man is set in his perception and his actions ( samskara ). This can mean that ambiguity with clarity is confused: It makes you feel clear and is actually biased. Or vice versa: one distrusts one's own perception and finally she begs out to be correct. A very simple example shows how Avidya in everyday life: A person behaves very resistant, is surly and rude. Partly it is concluded, that person might have an aversion to it or is angry on our behalf. In fact, it behaves but so that this person currently has a problem with himself, with his family life or his health, or maybe she just have a bad day.

According to the classical Vedantic conception ignorance is the force that builds the ego and seduced himself and his experiences mistaken for real and to consider his behavior to be correct and appropriate. This lack of knowledge can, so will continue to run, either as being or consisting (sat ) nor as non- being or non- composed (a- sat) are referred to, but only as inexplicable. Because if it would be unreal, it is argued, then it would not be powerful enough to conceal the inner eye of man the knowledge of the immediate reality of the self. But if this were really the other hand, that is of absolute indestructibility, so it could not be lifted easily from the knowledge ( Vidya / Rigpa ); the self ( Atman ) could then never be discovered as a ground of all being. It is, ignorance can not be described as being, as it is constantly changing. Its shape is so fleeting, ephemeral, surmountable. Its essence is just transience and that this recognizes the seeker in the moment when he passed beyond the " magic illusion ".

Asmita

With the Asmita ( overpowering ) ego is meant to identify with the ego. It means to be very important to take yourself. It means both selfishness, arrogance and pride and, conversely, a low-quality image of the self or self-pity. Asmita shows up whenever you have the ambition to be better than others, or if someone wants to always be right. But feelings like: " It is always just ME bad ... " or "I 'll Always exploited ... " have their origin in Asmita. It means the complete identification with a momentary feeling: You experience a miscarriage and even identifies with the feeling of being a failure.

Raga

Raga means desire, longing or desire - qualities that are the reason for a particular practice often. Raga means wanting to have something that you might not necessarily need or what one even not good at doing (eg, overeating, consumption as a substitute satisfaction ). The man wants something, and if he has it, it is not enough. Raga calls for still more, after an increase, after the next "kick". Only the beautiful, radiant starry sky is not enough to make things perfect, still lacking a good red wine and a few shooting stars would not be bad. Raga means the small and large aspirations of the people who accesses even if he can not use some. Raga means the arrest in the material world.

Dvesha

Dvesha is something like the opposite of Raga: the ( unfounded ) rejection, fear of change and the unknown. It was once had a negative experience, from now on everything will be rejected, which related associations. Example: On holiday in Spain, the car was broken into and robbed. In future, the person affected Spain and the Spaniards, and hates doing there never again leave. Or: A man was once bitten by a dog and now rejects all dogs as fundamentally aggressive animals from. Older people like to keep the traditional fixed and reject changes and innovations categorically - that too is a form of Dvesha. It must be differentiated, because not every refusal must be equal Dvesha: If someone avoids to go alone at night through a dark neighborhood, because there might be lurking dangers, so that is not Dvesha but reasonable caution, a realistic assessment of the situation.

Abhinivesha

The last of the Kleshas is abhinivesha, which means " the root of fear." This refers to all forms of anxiety and fear: uncertainty, doubt, panic, existential fears, fear of the future, fear of disease, especially the fear of death. This Klesha is very powerful, because in yoga, it is believed that the mind determines the reality. If a person is so totally dominated by the fear of a particular disease, the likelihood is considered to be high, that the person just really gets this disease.

Buddhism

In Buddhism Klesha or Kilesa means the "impurities ", " the spirit turbid passions ". The following are ten mental contamination ( italics in parentheses are behind each case the corresponding Pali terms noted):

Numbers 1 to 3 are summarized as mula or branded the three mental poisons.