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.