KARMA:
SUFFERING AND ITS CAUSE

Meditation is important, indeed, but one has to learn the Truth beforehand. One has to learn the cause of suffering.

Everything has a cause. Death has its cause in birth. Birth has as its condition the reaping of karma. Of what is karma formed? Various desires. The causes of desires are obstacles. The cause of obstacles is ignorance, which is to see untruth as Truth.

The mental suffering of many modern ailments arises from a loss of the Truth. The covering up of wounds does not aid their complete healing. What is nowadays, in the West, called "psychotherapy," was structured within religions in the East. This was the role of religion. This means that monks were "psychologists." The Lord Buddha was called the greatest doctor.

Whatever the problem may be, one must understand the truth of karma. It is causation, to reap the fruits of one's actions.

This world is full of suffering. The four major sufferings are: old age, sickness, death, and the fourth, birth, which is the cause of the previous three. No one can avoid these sufferings.

There are four more: the suffering of being separated from loved ones, the suffering of being with despised ones, and the suffering of being unable to attain what one wants. The world is not at your disposal.

Lastly, the fourth suffering is the mind's thoughts and samskaras which are impure. This suffering is the cause of these previous three.

The mind's thoughts are formed by the emotional understanding received into the mind through experiences. They are also formed by the imperfect recognition and knowledge in response to personal experiences. The thoughts and knowledge within your mind are imperfect; the samskaras which are the memories of all these are impure.

There are five obstacles described in yoga philosophy, stated in Part II of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali: avidya (ignorance,) asmita (egoism,) raga (attachment,) dvesa (aversion,) and abhinivesa (clinging to life.) First, you must know that these obstacles are the reality of this world; all human suffering can be categorized as one of them.

So then, what is the real cause of suffering? The cause is in one's mind. Because of one's desires or attachments, results are then received. This is suffering. It means all causes are desires in the mind, and the cause of desires is samskaras. The only way to erase samskaras is to learn the Truth and to meditate.

Like an iceberg, samskaras are much deeper than what one can conceive of. There are many samskaras at the bottom of one's mind. But if one seeks for the Truth earnestly and practices rigorously, the heat of one's sincerity can melt the ice. This is the fervor for the perfection of Yoga and Self-Realization.

The causes of samskaras are called vasana, which have formed over a long period of time. Vasana is translated as "tendency" or "habit." Let's say there is a piece of garlic in a pot; even after removing the garlic from the pot, the smell of garlic still remains.

Ignorance is the cause of the formation of obstacles. This is clearly written in the Yoga Sutras. There are four main types of ignorance: to see the non-eternal as eternal, to see the impure as pure, to see pain as pleasure, and to see the non-Self as Self. To see the non-Self as Self means the mind identifies the ego as the True Self.