PHILOSOPHY

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In Patanjalis Yoga Sutras the core human impulse that prohibits our development in yoga is described as Avidya

THE Root OF THE Problem

What is avidya? As described in the last issue, avidya is the root human impulse that leads to the arising of the other four human impulses, each of which operate to help us feel safe in a big cosmos but get in the way of our yogic development.

The four secondary kleshas we examined were asmita, raga, dvesha and abhinivesha. Avidya is the root klesha and the source of all human unhappiness, suffering and disease. In Buddhist teaching they say ‘passion’ or ‘desire’ is this root. In yoga we say it is ‘avidya’, so what is avidya?

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In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras we find avidya described as: YS 2:3) Avidyasmitaragadvesabhiniveshah kleshah Ignorance of one’s truth as the unborn and undying (avidya), sense of separateness from transcendent reality and confusion of being a doer (ego) (asmita), leading to fixated attachment arising from unconscious desire (raga), fixated detachment arising from unconscious aversion (dvesha), and the terror of termination driving the will-to-live (abinivesha) are the five kleshas.

YS 2:4) Avidyaksetramuttaresam prasuptatanuvichchhinnodaranam The kleshas may be dormant, they may be constrained, they may be interrupted or active in your experience now, yet it is avidya the root cause and field from which they all arise and act.

YS 2:5) Anityashuchiduhkhaaatmasu nityashuchisukhatmakhyatiravidya Ignorance is not seeing that which is eternal, pure, joyful. It is also mistaking that which is impermanent and flowing for one’s essence.

Avidya is identification with the transitional, mistaking the temporary for the permanent, personal misery and temporary nervous system gratification (contextual happiness) for non-contextual radiant joy. It is mistaking the selfish for the Self.

Selfishness is ego-focused, distorted fixation with aspects of the elemental external and changing environment.

YS 2:6) Drigdarshanashaktyorekatmatevasmita Sense-of-self is the misidentification of the essential Self (purusha) with the rational mind and thinking-feeling mind.

YS 2:17) Drastridrishyayoh samyogo heyahetuh Yogic method is to remain uninvolved with changing phenomena, and no longer make the mistake of not identifying as pure awareness. Being wise, end avidya.

YS 2:24) Tasya heturavidya Avidya is the cause of that mistaken correlation (samyoga) between prakriti and radiant purusha.

YS 3:50) Sattvapurusanyatakhyatimatrasya sarvabhavadhisthatritvamsarvajnatritvam cha The Yogin who masters the power of discriminative awareness between personal mind and purusha, gains supremacy over all states of existence and omniscience and is never confused by avidya again. Patanjali is clear that through the cultivation of meditative awareness we liberate ourselves from avidya.

Yoga teaches that personal emotional suffering and its varied expressions, such as depression, jealousy, envy, fear, hatred and anger stem from the desire, attachment, fear and unconscious beliefs, existing in all un-liberated human minds.

These core beliefs form a basis on which all other more individualised neuroses are woven and re-woven through a complex association of desires, attachments, experiences and gratification or pain. Resolving these through meditation, the individual neuroses they support will crumble away. The crystallised thought-forms, kleshas or afflictions are seen in a clear light in meditation and it is through this seeing that they eventually dissolve.

Intellectual mind is not enough for this job. It’s the Ashtanga yoga compromised of yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana and dhyana that leads the mind toward the necessary purification of samadhi.

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CHRISTOPHER GLADWELL CHRISTOPHER HAS PRACTISED AND STUDIED WITH MANY GREATS AND DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO YOGA, MEDITATION AND AWAKENING FOR 35-YEARS. HE IS A CERTIFIED TRAINER AND PRACTITIONER OF HYPNO-PSYCHOTHER-APY AND NLP, WITH A WIDE EXPERIENCE OF MEDITATIVE AND MINDFULNESS PRACTICE, INCLUDING DREAM YOGA AND DZOGCHE, AND TEACHES THE NATURE OF MIND FROM EASTERN AND WESTERN PERSPECTIVES. HE IS THE AUTHOR OF FIVE YOGA BOOKS. CHRISTOPHERGLADWELL.COM

WRI

TTEN

BY

Every road starts with the first step, yoga gradually quenches the desire of the self-sense to be in control. Reading articles like this helps turn the grasping attentions of ego-mind to the profound and sacred practice of svadhyaya, study of the deepest truths of existence.

The primal ignorance of avidya, is experiential, not conceptual, in nature. While the source of existence, all pervasive, immanent, and transcendent, radiates from the core of our being, we don’t automatically see this is the case. Our individualised, confused sensory mind and self-sense are relatively crude instruments compared to the subtlety of pure awareness, and are incapable of directly knowing this inner light.

Our mind’s higher nature (buddhi) is capable of perceiving the radiant and blissful reflection of the Self-no-self, but only when it’s sufficiently clarified through persistent practice over a long enough period of time. Patanjali calls this quality of persistence ‘abhyasa’.

As long as we think that consciousness is limited to bodily existence, we’re forever snatching a little happiness here and there but always aware, even if only at a subconscious level, that sooner or later this body will die and the vehicle of experience will be no more.

Patanjali outlines the stages of meditation, the inner limbs of the Ashtanga system as Dharana. This is fixing your attention on one object. Dhyana sustains focus in that attention and dissolves into it. Samadhi is the complete absorption in the bliss of seer-seeing-seen. This ecstatic state of Samadhi arises when all the waves or fluctuations of consciousness are fully restricted through the practice of meditation. Samadhi comprises a great variety of states; the unifying hallmark of them all is mental lucidity. Genuine Samadhi is always accompanied by supra-wakefulness.

This is powerful wakefulness, with its sense of pure bliss, is presence-being. Concentration, meditation and ecstasy are phases of a continuous process of deconstruction of the self-sense and ultimately unicity. The goal of the sutras through relentless practice is to realise this distinction between false identity and the absolute, that which is uncoloured by the world of changing matter.

This peak of ecstatic unicity or yoga leads to the dropping of the finite body-mind as an arbiter of knowledge. The liberated being abides in ‘absoluteness’, a state of sheer presence and pure awareness, compassion, clarity, love and delight in any and every context.

"This is powerful wakefulness, with its sense of pure bliss, is presence-being."

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