Abhinivesha (fear of death)

Reading from Wednesday, January 29, 2014 yoga class

A few weeks back I brought up the subject of the Kleshas, the five universal obstacles in a blog post.  I find the study of them fascinating.  I am taking them individually for the next five weeks, beginning with the 5th klesha today and ending with the 1st klesha.  Here goes:

Amy Pearce-Hayden at Yoga International put out a challenge regarding the kleshas.  Here are my notes on what she taught:

5th KLESHA  Abhinivesha (fear of death)   Trigger:  Anxiety, anxiousness, worry

Mindfulness is the key start to transformation.  The triggers that you experience during the day show you how the kleshas work against our natural state of balance and happiness.  The study of these universal obstacles traditionally begins with Avidya, (ignorance), the first klesha and ends with Abhinivesha, (fear of death) as the fifth klesha. We are studying them in reverse order so we can see that fear is really an outgrowth of the first or root klesha Avidya, ignorance (judgment).  Remember...your thoughts are NOT you, but patterns we have individually fallen into, mostly from lack of mindfulness.  So with this klesha, practice "what is" rather than "why it is" then allow grace to flow in and be more open to the perfectness of each day!!  To be aware of what we can control and what we cannot control.  It is our reactions and attitudes that we can control.  How others respond are not for us to determine.  Fear is the absence of love.  Remember...the trigger for this klesha is anxiety, anxiousness, worry which is how fear pops up in our daily lives.  We want the people in our lives to be as excited as we are about the things that are important to us, but just to be an example is the most supportive thing we can do for the people we care about...we all arrive on the path at different points in time.

One final comment... I did a google search on the kleshas and I found out that there is a group out there called "Avidya and the Kleshas."  :)