Patanjali identifies five kleshas (afflictions) that cloud judgment; Abhidharma extends this into a comprehensive taxonomy of mental poisons and their causal chains, creating a precise psychology of suffering.
Patanjali's five kleshas—ignorance, ego-sense, attachment, aversion, and fear—directly correspond to Abhidharma's detailed analysis of mental defilements. Where Patanjali provides a foundational framework, Abhidharma expands it into sophisticated patterns. Ignorance (avidya) becomes the fundamental misperception of the three marks: permanence, satisfactoriness, and self. Ego-sense (asmita) connects to the skandhas' false unity. Attachment and aversion become the basis for suffering through repeated conditioning. Fear reveals the existential anxiety beneath all grasping. Abhidharma's innovation is its demonstration that these afflictions operate at the microscopic level of each moment, each dharma. Understanding kleshas transforms from abstract philosophy into precise observation of how hatred, greed, and delusion arise within consciousness. Patanjali's framework provides the structure; Abhidharma's analysis reveals the mechanism. Together, they offer a complete psychology of why suffering arises.
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