Understanding the Causes of Suffering

Avidya

Our daily experience of life suggests that there is a truckload of causes for suffering, but ultimately they are grounded in only one cause—avidya, “ignorance.” All the other kleshas are born from ignorance of our True Identity. – Reverend Jaganath Carrera

Yoga Philosophy explains avidya to be the fundamental cause of suffering. The most common way that avidya is described is as an error in spiritual perception—regarding the non-self as the Self.

MISTAKING THE BODY FOR OUR SELF

[Avida is…] regarding the non-Self as the Self… The Self is the eternal, never-changing One… When something changes it can’t be the Self. For example, our own bodies are changing every second. Yet we take the body to be our Self and speaking in terms of it, we say, “I am hungry.” … We touch the truth when we say, “My body aches,” implying that the body belongs to us and that therefore we are not that. Unfortunately, we often add, “I am very sick.”… If the body aches, then the body is sick, not you. Whenever we forget this truth, we are involved in the non-Self, the basic ignorance. – Sri Swami Satchidananda

See more: Kleshas: Avidya

Teaching Nuggets

Notice any tendency here to identify with the conditions of the body or the mind. Return to simply observing with compassion.
Silently finish the sentence, “My body or the body…” Silently finish the sentence, “My mind or the mind…”
See also: Guidelines for Teaching with Themes

Dukha & Sukha

In Yoga philosophy, suffering is described in teachings on dukkha and sukha.

Dukha

Dukha means “suffering” or “obstructed space.”
T.K.V. Desikachar explains that dukha is “a certain state of mind in which we experience a limitation of our possibilities to act and understand.”
Yoga philosophy describes kleshas as the source of our suffering. In particular, raga and devesha (commonly translated as grasping and repulsion) are examples of what lead to dukha. Trying to get what we want, to repeat a pleasant experience or to prevent something we don’t want ultimately lead to the experience of dukha.
T.K.V. Desikachar points out that seekers of truth become more sensitive “because the eyes must be open, even if what they see is sometimes very unpleasant.” Thus, he notes that “it is precisely those who are searching for clarity who often experience dukha particularly strongly.”

Sukha

Sukha means “happiness” or “open space.”
It is felt as a sense of “lightness and openness within.” (T.K.V. Desikachar)

SUFFERING & HAPPINESS: OBSTRUCTED VS. OPEN SPACE

The word for suffering in Sanskrit is “dukha,” but it means much more… The real meaning of dukha has within it the seeds of recovery from dukha. Literally, it means “obstructed space.” … Leslie Kaminoff says, “Whenever someone comes to me, whether it’s for depression or a breathing difficulty or a back pain, what I’m assuming is that there is some place in the system that is obstructed, that needs more space.” All the practices of yoga address these blockages and begin to release them. – Amy Weintraub

SEEKERS MAY EXPERIENCE DUKHA PARTICULARLY STRONGLY

The Yoga Sutra states that although dukha can be found everywhere, we do not always perceive it, and indeed there are some people who never become aware of it at all. But it is precisely those who are searching for clarity who often experience dukha particularly strongly. Someone who is searching for clarity becomes sensitive because the eyes must be open, even if what they see is sometimes very unpleasant. Someone who is searching feels or sees things long before other people do. He or she develops a special insight, a particular kind of sensitivity. We should see this positively. This awareness of suffering results from greater sensitivity. – T.K.V. Desikachar

Teaching Nuggets

Where do you feel spaciousness right now? Where do you feel a blockage or a lack of open space?
Become aware of any thoughts of desire or lack. Notice any associated feelings of contraction or stuckness. Rather than identifying with those thoughts, step back and simply notice them.
Right now, what are you aware of or sensitive to? Even when you are aware of something unpleasant, can you see your increased sensitivity as a positive?
See also: Guidelines for Teaching with Themes

Reaction & Resistance

The Buddha & The Second Arrow

TWO PAINS

When touched with a feeling of pain,
the ordinary uninstructed person
sorrows, grieves,
and laments, beats his breast,
becomes distraught.
So he feels two pains,
physical and mental.
Just as if they were to shoot a man
with an arrow and,
right afterward,
were to shoot him with another one,
so that he would feel
the pains of two arrows…

—The Buddha, quoted by Jill Satterfield