
The Five Kleshas
The Five Kleshas can also be effectively viewed as individual “rays” which emanate from a common mechanism or source. This mechanism is hard wired into all human beings and is much connected to our inbuilt mechanism of perception and the five senses. This inbuilt aspect of our humanity interprets sensory information, relative to our individual “I” and give rise to our personal limited identity and experiences. Our sense of Ego, the (Me, Myself and I) maker is the basis of this inbuilt mechanism and all of the other kleshas are relative to, and emanate from, this principle source.
The idea of the Kleshas relative to spiritual development is greater than the consideration of kleshas as individual things or problems. An example of this would be the perception, “I’m having trouble with aversion.” It is implicit in this consideration that there is a fixed identity, “Ego” perceiving that it has a problem or is working with “aversion.” Since the root kleshic condition is only being considered or worked with as a reflected and partial aspect, we should expect only limited results.
The Five Kleshas as a “spiritual problem” can only be addressed by the movement or transit of our limited Ego identity back into the Divine Consciousness of the Spirit. This is the Path of Return. The method is Yoga (Union, Yoke or Reunion). Success in Yoga requires an individual to offer, during the period in which they exert to Return, all that they Are. This approach begins to cut to the root of the limited self identity in a radical and transformative Way.
At some point, there is no “I” left to exert. One is then solute and suspended in the Supreme Substance. This juncture signals the beginning of Attainment or Success in Yoga.