Pancha Klesha - The Five Hindrances (page two)
< Continued from page 1
There are four absurd beliefs that accompany the state of ignorance:
The belief that people and objects, all of which are composed of neutrons, protons, and electrons, and which are in a constant state of transformation and change, will remain the same and will not change or disappear;
The belief that the body, which is only a machine which produces waste products; and the mind, which ordinarily contains mostly misconceptions, are pure;
The belief that the high degree of emotional pain and suffering which most people experience throughout life is the state of happiness; and
The belief that the body is humankind's spiritual essence and thus should be worshiped, when actually the body, and the impressions in the mind which constitute the personality, are only inert objects composed or neutrons, protons, and electrons.
The first cause of ignorance, the belief, ‘this body and mind is who I am', occurs when the conscious seer projects its power down into its unconscious body and mind, and then believes that these two things -- consciousness, and the body/mind -- are essentially the same, and thus that mind is conscious.
This leads to the desire to obtain physical and emotional pleasure through external sensory objects, in order to experience pleasure and happiness, which leads to highly charged mental and emotional states of suffering rather than to the happiness one desires.
This leads to aversions and fear that particular persons, objects, or events might think, say or do something that might cause you to feel the dreaded state of unhappiness, which, of course, produces the feared result.
This leads to a tenacious determination to, at all costs, continue repeating the same patterns of attempting to feel continual pleasure and happiness through having one's immature deficiency demands fulfilled through external sensory objects composed of neutrons, protons, and electrons. This driving desire for pleasure is deeply rooted in the creatures of the earth, and arises from remembered experiences connected with the primitive drives that exist in the lower forms of life through which one has evolved, and which one remember and still acts upon. This consuming desire for pleasure flows with a strong current of its own, causing one to often times become engaged in degrading actions when actually one is seeking the lost Bliss and Love which lies hidden within one's own heart.
One thing worth mentioning, at this point, is that Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are rooted in the Samkhya philosophical system -- a system which maintains a strong dualism between purusha (the principle of awareness, that which is sentient) and prakriti (the insentient manifest/objective world, composed of various combinations of the three gunas, viz. tamas, rajas and sattva). The process of liberation, as articulated within this system, is fundamentally one of discrimination between what is real/sentient and what is unreal/insentient, and becoming established in ones true identity as the former as opposed to the latter.
Since the purusha/prakriti dualism remains, one’s True Conscious Self and the World of Nature (to use Swami Savitripriya’s language) remain forever distinct. This tends to give rise to a dismissive if not downright derogatory evaluation of the human body (as belonging to prakriti). So for instance, Swami Savitripriya in one verse describes the body as “only a machine which produces waste products,” and in another the body and mind as “inert objects composed or neutrons, protons, and electrons.”
And it is at this point that the Samkhya system parts ways with, say, a Taoist vision of the body as being as expression of the Tao -- a view much more in accord with Advaita Vedanta. Or perhaps it is not so much a “parting of ways” as it is a taking it one step further. The wisdom contained within Yoga Sutras is a powerful tool for facilitating -- with its neti-neti via-negativa approach -- the movement from “mountains are mountains, and rivers are rivers,” to “mountains are not-mountains, and rivers are not-rivers.”
Because of its commitment to the purusha/prakriti dualism, however, it leaves unexplored what for an Advaita Vedanta or Taoist approach would be the next step, namely of seeing the Clear Light nature of all apparent phenomena, i.e. of realizing that manifest phenomena, the ten-thousand-things, are in their essence none other than Tao, the Divine. Or, bringing it back again to Swami Savitripriya’s language: the “neutrons, protons and electrons” which comprise the subatomic structure of the manifest world are not, in fact, “inert” -- but rather are continuously dancing, as they emerge out of and dissolve back into their Source, which is none other than our True Nature. Mountains are once again mountains, and river are once again rivers -- but are now known/perceived in their True Nature.
Of Related Interest
* Tao & Dongshan’s Five Ranks
* Taoism & Tantra: Flow & Continuity In Taoist Practice
* Guide Review: David Loy’s Nonduality
Verse Five: Four Absurd Beliefs
There are four absurd beliefs that accompany the state of ignorance:
The belief that people and objects, all of which are composed of neutrons, protons, and electrons, and which are in a constant state of transformation and change, will remain the same and will not change or disappear;
The belief that the body, which is only a machine which produces waste products; and the mind, which ordinarily contains mostly misconceptions, are pure;
The belief that the high degree of emotional pain and suffering which most people experience throughout life is the state of happiness; and
The belief that the body is humankind's spiritual essence and thus should be worshiped, when actually the body, and the impressions in the mind which constitute the personality, are only inert objects composed or neutrons, protons, and electrons.
Verse Six: Asmita
The first cause of ignorance, the belief, ‘this body and mind is who I am', occurs when the conscious seer projects its power down into its unconscious body and mind, and then believes that these two things -- consciousness, and the body/mind -- are essentially the same, and thus that mind is conscious.
Verse Seven: Raga
This leads to the desire to obtain physical and emotional pleasure through external sensory objects, in order to experience pleasure and happiness, which leads to highly charged mental and emotional states of suffering rather than to the happiness one desires.
Verse Eight: Dve?a
This leads to aversions and fear that particular persons, objects, or events might think, say or do something that might cause you to feel the dreaded state of unhappiness, which, of course, produces the feared result.
Verse Nine: Abhinivesa?
This leads to a tenacious determination to, at all costs, continue repeating the same patterns of attempting to feel continual pleasure and happiness through having one's immature deficiency demands fulfilled through external sensory objects composed of neutrons, protons, and electrons. This driving desire for pleasure is deeply rooted in the creatures of the earth, and arises from remembered experiences connected with the primitive drives that exist in the lower forms of life through which one has evolved, and which one remember and still acts upon. This consuming desire for pleasure flows with a strong current of its own, causing one to often times become engaged in degrading actions when actually one is seeking the lost Bliss and Love which lies hidden within one's own heart.
Samkhya & Advaita Vedanta
One thing worth mentioning, at this point, is that Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are rooted in the Samkhya philosophical system -- a system which maintains a strong dualism between purusha (the principle of awareness, that which is sentient) and prakriti (the insentient manifest/objective world, composed of various combinations of the three gunas, viz. tamas, rajas and sattva). The process of liberation, as articulated within this system, is fundamentally one of discrimination between what is real/sentient and what is unreal/insentient, and becoming established in ones true identity as the former as opposed to the latter.
Since the purusha/prakriti dualism remains, one’s True Conscious Self and the World of Nature (to use Swami Savitripriya’s language) remain forever distinct. This tends to give rise to a dismissive if not downright derogatory evaluation of the human body (as belonging to prakriti). So for instance, Swami Savitripriya in one verse describes the body as “only a machine which produces waste products,” and in another the body and mind as “inert objects composed or neutrons, protons, and electrons.”
And it is at this point that the Samkhya system parts ways with, say, a Taoist vision of the body as being as expression of the Tao -- a view much more in accord with Advaita Vedanta. Or perhaps it is not so much a “parting of ways” as it is a taking it one step further. The wisdom contained within Yoga Sutras is a powerful tool for facilitating -- with its neti-neti via-negativa approach -- the movement from “mountains are mountains, and rivers are rivers,” to “mountains are not-mountains, and rivers are not-rivers.”
Because of its commitment to the purusha/prakriti dualism, however, it leaves unexplored what for an Advaita Vedanta or Taoist approach would be the next step, namely of seeing the Clear Light nature of all apparent phenomena, i.e. of realizing that manifest phenomena, the ten-thousand-things, are in their essence none other than Tao, the Divine. Or, bringing it back again to Swami Savitripriya’s language: the “neutrons, protons and electrons” which comprise the subatomic structure of the manifest world are not, in fact, “inert” -- but rather are continuously dancing, as they emerge out of and dissolve back into their Source, which is none other than our True Nature. Mountains are once again mountains, and river are once again rivers -- but are now known/perceived in their True Nature.
Of Related Interest
* Tao & Dongshan’s Five Ranks
* Taoism & Tantra: Flow & Continuity In Taoist Practice
* Guide Review: David Loy’s Nonduality