Yoga Sutras 2.3-2.9: Five colorings that veil the Self
- View SourceYoga Sutras 2.3-2.9:
Five colorings that veil the Self
(for more info)
See also the Five Kleshas section of the Witnessing article:
Reducing the colorings: The five kinds of coloring that veil the Self
(2.3) are relate to spiritual ignorance (2.5), I-ness (2.6),
attraction (2.7), aversion (2.8), and fear (2.9). The process of
dealing with these coloring moves through four stages of active,
separated, attenuated, and seed (2.4). (The process of coloring was
first introduced in sutra 1.5)
2.3 There are five kinds of coloring (kleshas): 1) forgetting, or
ignorance about the true nature of things (avidya), 2) I-ness,
individuality, or egoism (asmita), 3) attachment or addiction to
mental impressions or objects (raga), 4) aversion to thought patterns
or objects (dvesha), and 5) love of these as being life itself, as
well as fear of their loss as being death.
2.4 The root forgetting or ignorance of the nature of things (avidya)
is the breeding ground for the other of the five colorings (kleshas),
and each of these is in one of four states: 1) dormant or inactive, 2)
attenuated or weakened, 3) interrupted or separated from temporarily,
or 4) active and producing thoughts or actions to varying degrees.
2.5 Ignorance (avidya) is of four types: 1) regarding that which is
transient as eternal, 2) mistaking the impure for pure, 3) thinking
that which brings misery to bring happiness, and 4) taking that which
is not-self to be self.
2.6 The colorings (klesha) of I-ness or egoism (asmita), which arises
from the ignorance, occurs due to the mistake of taking the intellect
(buddhi, which knows, decides, judges, and discriminates) to itself be
pure consciousness (purusha).
2.7 Attachment (raga) is a separate modification of mind, which
follows the rising of the memory of pleasure, where the three
modifications of attachment, pleasure, and the memory of the object
are then associated with one another.
2.8 Aversion (dvesha) is a modification that results from misery
associated with some memory, whereby the three modifications of
aversion, pain, and the memory of the object or experience are then
associated with one another.
2.9 Even for those people who are learned, there is an ever-flowing,
firmly established love for continuation and fear a of cessation, or
death, of these various colored modifications (kleshas).