The Cause of
Suffering (continued)
Klesha (mental defilement)
Karma results from klesha—mental defilement. Karma
and klesha are both considered avarana. Avarana
literally means "covering"—an avarana covers the mind, obscuring the
realization of nirvana. Karma and klesha together make up
kleshavararna. There is also another kind of avarana, which remains
even in the arhat stage after karma and klesha have disappeared. This is
called jneyavarana, "the covering of what can be known," or
obscuration to omniscience.
Klesha is the immediate cause of karma; karma causes
suffering. If we can remove klesha, we can stop the flow of karma, prevent
suffering from arising, and reach nirvana—though not the ultimate nirvana.
Jneyavarana still remains in varying degrees in both arhats and
bodhisattvas, and is finally removed only when the buddha stage is
attained.
In the scriptures, kleshavarana is said to have
eighty-four thousand different forms. They can be simplified into three
main categories, from which the others come or in which the others are
included: desire, aversion, and ignorance. 9
Desire
Desire is easily distinguishable from aversion. Desire
must have an object and it makes the object seem more beautiful and
attractive than it really is. Desire causes unskilful karma in any of
the following ways. If we desire to eat meat, we kill animals; if we
desire property, we are inclined to steal it; if we desire intercourse,
we may commit, sexual misconduct. In the desire to create a false
impression, we may lie; to obtain a desired object or goal, we may
slander others; although aversion is more usually the cause, desire too
may cause us to speak harsh words; in the grip of attraction to foolish
things, we waste ourselves in irresponsible talk. Desire is the direct
cause of greed; desire for the possessions of others can produce harmful
thoughts. In brief, then, if any being, from a human down to the
smallest insect, desires something and this desire produces an unskilful
action, that action has arisen from the klesha of desire.
Aversion
Aversion is the opposite of desire: it makes its object
seem worse than it is. Aversion can easily produce killing, and out of
spite or the wish to deprive someone, it can cause stealing or sexual
misconduct. Lying and slander are commonly caused by aversion, and harsh
words usually arise from it. Irresponsible talk too can be the result of
aversion, as when a person talks at length in a derogatory manner about
another. Although greed is not produced by aversion, malice usually
is.
When we have desire it is not as painful as aversion. It
can bring temporary happiness with it, and this makes us want to be very
close to the object. Aversion always produces pain immediately; we want
to be very far from its object. In the scriptures, desire is likened to
a flower, which is very beautiful at first but soon changes and becomes
ugly, while aversion is likened to a wasp, which only stings. The face
of a person filled with desire is bright and shining; the face of a
person filled with aversion is grim and dark.
Ignorance
All unskilful actions except wrong views, which are
always produced by ignorance, can result from desire and aversion.
Although we can be misled by the ignorance of our teachers, wrong views
are, fundamentally, the result of our own ignorance. Desire and aversion
are active, making things seem better or worse than they are; ignorance
is the failure to realize the nature of things. If we kill, not out of
aversion or desire, but because we don't think it wrong or perhaps even
think it good, this is the direct result of ignorance. Any unskilful act
that arises from not knowing that it is unskilful is partly rooted in
ignorance. For instance, people who make animal sacrifices think that
they are doing something good—they have no ill-will toward or desire for
the animal; they simply believe that killing the animal will please
their god.
Fear can be good, bad or indifferent.
If we have done a bad deed and repent out of fear of the karma-fruit, the
fear is reasonable and wholesome in its effects. That very fear can lead
us to practise Dharma and thence toward enlightenment. If we are afraid to
practise Dharma because we are afraid that the practice will prove harmful
in some way, this fear is the fruit of ignorance. When children are afraid
of the dark, fearing ghosts and so on, this is neither good nor bad.
Similarly, while the fear of death is produced by our desire of clinging
to life, the fear itself is neither good nor bad.
Desire and aversion are both produced by ignorance. We
experience them because we do not know the real nature of things.
he reason for practising meditation is to overcome
suffering; to overcome suffering we must overcome karma; to overcome karma
we must overcome desire and aversion; to overcome desire and aversion we
must overcome ignorance. Meditation overcomes ignorance.
Ignorance 
desire or aversion unskilful karma three sufferings
No beings want suffering; they all want to remove it. Most
do not know how to, and some even create suffering in their efforts to
remove it. People take medicines that cure sickness temporarily but cannot
remove it forever. To remove suffering permanently, we must find its
cause—karma; we must remove the cause of the cause —desire and aversion;
we must remove the cause of these—ignorance. Ignorance is the deepest root
of all suffering. If ignorance is removed, all that stems from it will
automatically disappear. Escape from samsara is impossible unless
ignorance is removed. If we sit in meditation without understanding the
real reason for doing so we will achieve only limited results.
If we want to remove ignorance, we must first discover its
nature and that of its opposite, shunzyata (emptiness). Then,
through meditation on emptiness, we have to remove ignorance.
There are two different kinds of ignorance: ignorance
regarding the ego and ignorance regarding external phenomena. 10
Ignorance regarding the ego
From devas to the smallest insects, all beings in samsara
are subject to this kind of ignorance, from which the other mental
defilements arise. This ignorance causes us to perceive our own nature the
wrong way. To remove it, we must realize the true way we exist.
What we call "ego," or "self," can be divided into either
the body (caused by the parents) and mind (caused by past existences), or
the five skandhas (aggregates). These skandhas are the five
elements of sensory existence:
- Physical form (rupaskandha). This includes air,
blood, semen, bone—anything material, composed of atoms. The sound of
the voice is included in this skandha, because sound is form.
- Feelings (vedanaskandha). These arise from
bodily contacts and mental contacts (with ideas, concepts, and so on),
and can be pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent.
- Cognition, perception, differentiation
(samjnaskandha). This skandha is the mind that recognizes objects
through seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and
thinking.
- Volitional formations (samskaraskandha).
Samskaras are the qualities or tendencies of mind, produced by karma,
that control the various kinds of conditioned mental factors, or
"caitta." (Caitta are in an inseparable relationship with
the essential mind, "citta." These factors can be beneficial—for
example, concentration, intelligence, wisdom, confidence, energy,
tranquillity, friendliness and sympathetic joy at the success of
others—or harmful—ignorance, desire, anger, greed and all that is
unprofitable in the spiritual sense. Caitta are mental karma; karma of
body and speech arise from caitta; most caitta are included in
samskaraskandha. The sequence of time and the changing nature of things
are included in this skandha.
- Consciousness (vijnanaskandha). The function of
this skandha is the awareness of an object. It allows the other skandhas
to operate.
The five skandhas together
support the concept of ego. This concept cannot be supported by any of the
skandhas in isolation; it depends on all of them, just as the wheels,
windows, steering wheel, engine, and other parts together make up the
concept of "car." Any of these parts in isolation is not the car. If all
the parts are piled together in a heap, it is still not a car. Those parts
arranged in a certain order comprise what people recognize and think of as
a car. If people did not give it this name and did not recognize it as
such it would not be a car.
The collection known as a particular human is built in the
same way as is a car. A child is born composed of five skandhas and with
all the usual qualities; his parents call him "Tashi." Then this
collection of skandhas and qualities becomes generally known and
recognized as Tashi.
In samsara there are three planes of existence: the desire
realm (kamadhatu), the form realm (rupatdhatu), and the
formless realm (arupadhatu). In the first two realms no being can
exist without all five skandhas. In the formless realm, beings have no
physical form – rupaskandha—but do have the other four skandhas. Without
these there is no ego.
All beings exist as a combination of skandhas and cannot
exist without them. Buddha is also a combination of these skandhas, but
ones that have been purified and transformed.
There are two ways of looking at the ego:
- Through ignorance, negative understanding of the ego.
This produces aversion and desire, unskilful karma, and
suffering.
- Through realization of shunyata, understanding
the emptiness of the ego. This is positive understanding of the ego.
Meditation on shunyata removes ignorance and thus ail the other mental
defilements and their results.
As soon as we
think of "I" as an entity existing independently, our ignorance has
apprehended the ego in the wrong way. When we are aware that the ego does
not exist independently, we can find right understanding. Without this
understanding, our ignorance persists. This is the main point about
shunyata, or emptiness: that the ego does not exist independently. This
emptiness is the emptiness of the ego as an entity existing independently.
Ego exists only as a combination of the skandhas.
Ignorance regarding outer
phenomena
Ignorance about the five elements, mountains, seas, and so
forth constitutes ignorance regarding outer phenomena. If we consider a
biscuit, for example, it is a combination of various things—wheat, water,
oil, fire and the activity of the baker. We recognize it as "biscuit," but
really it is a combination of forces and qualities. This analysis applies
to all external phenomena; ultimately we will understand that there is no
difference between the ego and outer phenomena. But when we look at either
of them without thinking carefully about what they really are, we see them
as existing independently. Everything changes subtly in a split second of
time. Scientists can see very subtle changes in things with instruments
such as microscopes (though not the most subtle changes), but when they
are not studying these changes, these same scientists see things as
existing independently.
This twofold ignorance about the ego and outer phenomena
is the root of all defilements, karma and suffering. To remove suffering
we must remove this ignorance completely. The only way to do this is to
meditate on emptiness. There are many other objects of meditation, but
emptiness is the most important.