Overcoming The 5 Mental States Of Suffering

The ancient yogis talk about the 5 mental states of suffering as the root causes of our personal and collective human suffering. It doesn't matter how much meditation we do unless we get to the source of our fears. We need to understand them intimately and know find the common denominator in what keeps us limited and being small. We were designed to be vast beings who move fully in life unencumbered by limitations. In order to come into our fullest potential, we must get to the bottom of our suffering.

Transcript

Hi,

My name is Johnson and I'm the founder of Sage House and last month I was talking about how to move forward in your life and becoming unstuck.

So for this month I'd like to continue this theme of unpacking the concept of stuckness a little bit further by talking about the five mental states that cause suffering.

So I was raised a traditional Confucian Buddhist in a very traditional Chinese home and what that meant was that in order for me to be considered a good person,

The only purpose of my life would be to make a lot of money,

Be a doctor or banker and have children,

Take my parents in and then die and this would just continue generation after generation.

So it doesn't really matter where you came from and what kind of faith or lack of faith that you were brought up in.

The point is that we have all been conditioned by our parents from the start and so from a young age we hold certain values as true without second guessing them.

I mean why would we?

If mom and dad say it's true and they're okay with it,

Why shouldn't we be?

If our ancestors lived like that for generation after generation,

Why shouldn't we be okay with that?

See,

The problem is that these programs that were taught by our parents and were passed down from their parents are corrupted with agenda.

Now agenda is not necessarily a bad thing.

Agendas are really useful when you need to schedule meetings.

I mean you need to get from point A to point B but the problem with agendas is that they're imposed.

And so my parents had this massive thing about education because they didn't have it.

During the communist revolution in China,

They weren't allowed to go to school.

So understandably they were extremely strict about studying and grades with me and my siblings because they equated that with safety and with a more graceful livelihood.

And now I knew that from a young age that a lot of this didn't really make a lot of sense so I spent a lot of time internally investigating why things are the way they are.

But it wasn't until I started reading Patanjali's Yoga Sutras when I was studying to be a yoga teacher which is one of the oldest texts written about yoga.

It's literally the yoga Bible.

It's then that I started to get a more objective view on how I had been conditioned for suffering from an early age.

Patanjali talks about the five kleshas which are in Sanskrit and means the root causes to all of our human pain and suffering.

So I am going to go through them and as I go through them I would like to invite you to become conscious of how the expectations your parents placed on you as a kid played a huge part on how these mental states developed into your adulthood.

So the first one is called avidya or ignorance.

So for me if I recount all the times in my life when I was hurt by someone I would say that the common denominator was that there was always a part of me that either consciously or unconsciously chose to turn a blind eye to a truth that was already there and because I chose to ignore that truth I created my own suffering.

The second is asmita or egoism and this is when we think we are too big for our britches.

We lose humility.

We start to feel that we are superior to others,

That we can do things independently of others and we don't need other people and when we do that we become disconnected from the reality that we are all connected.

We turn off compassion.

We lose our humanity.

And on the flip side there is the issue of too much humility.

Now I have to be really careful about saying humility in Asia because Asian people,

Especially Chinese people have been conditioned to interpret humility as self-deprecation.

I mean we hear this conversation a lot in Asia.

Hey,

Your business is doing really well.

Oh no no no.

There are so many things that are going wrong that are causing me trouble.

It's not doing as well as it could be.

I mean even when things are really going well there seems to be this constant need to one-up ourselves to prove that we're deserving,

That we're worthy.

So the ego hurts us not only by becoming self-conceited but it can also be the inability to celebrate our successes.

The third and fourth are very similar.

Raga and Devesa.

Attachments and repulsions.

So desire,

When we have desire that innately breeds attachment.

It's a recipe for attachment.

I want that promotion so bad.

I worked so hard for it.

I deserve it.

Then when we don't get it,

What happens?

We start to blame everyone around us.

Then we go find a drinking buddy,

Someone from our circle of friends,

Someone who's going to listen to us and we complain and we bitch about how life is unfair.

That we,

I mean we've all experienced this at some point.

So the same thing actually also happens with people that repulse us.

We don't like a particular person at work.

The chemistry is off.

They rub us the wrong way.

Maybe it's the way they dress or maybe it's the way they behave that reminds us of someone who betrayed us in the past.

I don't know,

Whatever the story is.

We then start to create a barrier and we antagonize that person as someone who doesn't believe in the same things that we do.

We start to create delusional stories that they're out to get us.

And every chance we get,

We make up more stories to make them less human,

Less like us,

Make them other.

So there's so much energy that we spend creating division which adds to our suffering.

The fifth mental state that causes suffering is abhinivesa,

The ultimate fear,

Which is the fear of death.

Now essentially every fear that we have can be traced to the fear of dying.

Or we could also call it the fear of the unknown.

The fear of changing careers for example.

I see a lot of clients who are at this crossroads and they're not sure of what choice to make because they don't have trust.

They don't trust that the universe has got their backs.

That's a fear of the unknown.

They don't trust in the process that they're going to land on their feet.

That's the fear of the unknown.

And yes,

When money is on the line,

You can literally be afraid that you may die because you won't have any means to put food on the table.

But it's also the fear of letting go of the identity that we created for ourselves.

And to let our old self die so we can become a newly defined person,

It's a very scary thing.

Or not,

We don't have to let it be.

The Dalai Lama very beautifully puts it and he said that the only permanent thing in this world and this universe is impermanence.

But somehow we go through our lives ignorant of our true nature.

And then we take actions from swollen or crushed egos holding on to what is familiar for dear life even if that thing that we're holding on to is limiting us.

And then we repel everything we don't know because we fear that it will change our perspective and that that will change our world and the collective world.

And all because we fear that we will cease to exist.

Here's a reality check.

We will all eventually cease to exist in the same way that we are now,

Whether we like it or not.

So instead of resisting it and being miserable about it,

Ask yourself,

What are you not facing?

What are you avoiding?

What are you not wanting to deal with?

The first step to tuning and to turning around these five mental states of suffering so that we can live freer and more authentic lives is to switch on the lights in the basement and see what kind of crap is hiding down there.

Once ignorance has transformed into awareness,

Everything else just will take care of itself.

We have to trust that it will.

And then we won't be moving through life feeling imprisoned by our minds.

So to help you get started on this,

I have a three hour workshop called Inner Guidance,

Which is about breaking through your own barriers through a deep process of self illumination.

It is a full body inquiry method that accelerates and awakens you to your natural state where you exist in peace and you stay connected to your inner wisdom.

So if you feel called to that and you feel you need a little bit more than the advice I gave you about switching the lights off in the basement,

Then please feel free to send a message.

And I hope to see you there.

Reviews

❤️spot on

Very good, soul searching and then acceptance of which of these traits might actually exist within us! Thank you. ☺️🙏🏾

Deep bows

Straight forward to the point guidance.Blessings 🙏

Really relatable and encouraging. Thank you so much. 🙏

That was an amazing and really helpful talk. Thank you!

thank you, Johnson, for your words. I quite identifyed the suffering and it is so healing, to confront it.

Desperately need that three hour class!!!! Hanging on for dear life filled with fear. It is a fear of death. The death of who I think I AM.

WONDERFULLY Insightful and Enlightening❣️
🙏🏻💕

I can totally relate to what you are teaching, thank you.

Great! Thank you!

I wish there were ten stars . Just at the right time for me .. I am trying to find an email contact for you but unable to . Re courses. Is there any message button I am missing? Thank you for your inspirational talk .

Wow
This is so true
I’m so glad I found this lecture

Contemporary presentation of ancient truths. Thank you 🙏🏼

So much truth! 🙏🏼💖💖. I’d love to know more about your three hour session.

I only wish I had seen your Bhutan trip before now! That’s on my Bucket list!

Loved it! Enlightening! Going to study and learn more...
Thank you!

Informative and inspiring

Wise words... well spoken!

Yes. Just yes. Please don’t go be a doctor or lawyer or whatever to make money. We resist change to life as we know it. “Switching on the lights in the basement” is the key. We just need to remember who we are. 🙏❤️