[From Klesa to Bodhi. A Dharma Realm Buddhist University mid-term paper reflecting on how we may transform afflictions into wisdom through self-cultivation. As wise ones say, "If the mountain were smooth, you couldn't climb it."]

Have you ever undergone an excruciatingly painful experience and then a great insight was revealed to you through that pain? When that excruciating pain becomes the center of one’s attention, one’s other mental distractions subside. Thus, one could look deeper into that pain, and an insight might have a chance to surface. As the Sixth Patriarch states in the Platform Sutra, “ordinary people are themselves Buddhas, and affliction itself is bodhi” (27). He assures us that ordinary beings like us all have the potential to awaken to our inherent wisdom that lies in our original Buddha nature, and afflictions are not something to avoid, but nuggets that lead to the untangling of the knots that hinder our practice. Therefore, through deep understanding of afflictions and bodhi, and their interrelationship, we can transform afflictions into bodhi through our self-cultivation toward enlightenment.

K​LESA​, B​ODHI​, and T​HEIR​ I​NTERRELATIONSHIP
Before we go further into this topic, let’s look into the term of “affliction.” Affliction in Chinese is 煩惱, in Sanskrit, klesa, and in English, it means “inclinations and tendencies, often lying deep in the mind, that cause mental, emotional, and physical distress and agitation” (​The Sixth Patriarch​ 27). Both “Inclinations and tendencies” indicate that afflictions (klesa) are, in a sense, predetermined habitual patterns or impulsive reactions, whose seeds lie deep in our mind. Where did they come from? If we cannot avoid suffering from predetermined “mental, emotional, and physical distress and agitation” before we attain enlightenment, at least, we need to find out why and how to diminish, if not completely eliminate, their impact on our wellbeing. Apparently, there is a clue in the Sixth Patriarch’s words, “affliction (klesa) is itself bodhi.” Then what exactly is bodhi and how does it relate to afflictions (klesa)?

Bodhi denotes “not only wisdom, but also the state of enlightenment, in which morality, concentration, and wisdom have been perfected (Mizuno 187).” If bodhi means the state of perfected morality, concentration, and wisdom, while affliction (klesa) causes mental, emotional, and physical distress, then why does the Sixth Patriarch say that “affliction (klesa) is itself bodhi?” This seeming dichotomy between klesa and bodhi naturally begs the understanding of the concept of nonduality: nondiscrimination between two or more things (​Digital Dictionary of Buddhism​). In other words, things that are seemingly opposite are of one essence. To further clarify it, we can use the common analogy of water and ice, both of which are of one essence, but in different states. One flows; the other freezes. Bodhi is like water that flows; klesa is like ice that freezes. Now the question boils down to the agent that makes ice change to water and water change to ice. In this case, as we all know, the agent is the related temperature. Then similarly, what could be the agent between klesa and bodhi that would free us into the flow of bodhi, not “freeze” us into an ice-ball of klesa?

Wisdom! Wisdom can release us from the bonds of klesa and liberate us to “act freely in the ideal way” (Mizuno 205). Those who use the “great wisdom to see through defiling afflictions” are certain to realize their Buddhahood, “transforming the three poisons into morality, contemplative calm, and insight” (​The Sixth Patriarch​ 27). We are trapped, or more dramatically speaking, imprisoned by klesa, and we are not free until we are “released” from it. In order for us to be “released,” we need wisdom. Klesa seems to be both the hurdle on our path of enlightenment, and the gateway, if it is seen through and transformed by wisdom. If bodhi itself means wisdom, then using bodhi to turn klesa into bodhi sounds like using water to change ice into water. It seems to work, but how can we access that initial bodhi to get us started in the first place? “Free of defiling affliction, wisdom constantly and naturally manifests, as it is inseparable from one’s inherent nature” (​The Sixth Patriarch​ 27). Aha! We already have the wisdom in us! We just need to stop being afflicted all the time, then we can access our inherent wisdom and use it. But again, how can we stop being habitually afflicted without accessing the “seed” wisdom? The question seems to be circulating back. But please don’t get frustrated. Remember the example that I used in the beginning--the epiphany one might obtain during a painful experience? Klesa itself could be our wake up call! But the call could be painful, at least initially. As the “ice” begins to melt, we must stop holding onto the “ice,” the familiar state, and let it melt and flow. But what entails might be scary: when we don’t have anything solid and familiar to hold onto, we might feel fear of losing control and being drowned in the flowing “water”-- the melting klesa. How can we make sure that we will wake up, not be drowned, by klesa when it hits us? Now it is high time that “self-cultivation” was introduced into the scene.

SELF-CULTIVATION
In farming, “cultivation” means production of food by preparing the land to grow crops (​vocabulary.com)​ ; similarly, on the mind ground, “cultivation” could mean “production” of enlightenment by preparing the mind to grow bodhi. “Self-cultivation” means that we ought to do it ourselves, because no one else can do it for us. The key here is to prepare the mind, which is occupied by all kinds of thoughts from moment to moment. “In one past moment of confused thought you are just an ordinary person. If the very next thought is awakened, you are a Buddha. Previous thoughts clinging to sensory states are afflictions; and succeeding thoughts unattached to states is bodhi” (​The Sixth Patriarch​ 27). It seems that thought itself is not the problem, but confused thought that clings to sensory states is what blocks us from awakening. The key word is “clinging.” Now we begin to see the essence of cultivation is preparing the mind not to cling to sensory states. In other words, let the mind be unattached.

But six senses are what we use to contact and interact with the outside world beyond our physical body. One may have the same question as I did: if we are “unattached” to our six senses, what is it left for us as living beings? If six senses are the problems, why don’t we just use medical or scientific methods to get rid of our senses of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, touching and thinking all together at birth so that we can all grow up automatically enlightened? Okay, that’s an extreme statement. But the point here is to invite us to look deeper into what the Sixth Patriarch means by “thoughts unattached to [sensory] states.” He doesn’t mean there is no thought, nor eliminating sensory states. He merely says “thoughts unattached to states,” while both thoughts and states still remain in us. Now it becomes clear that self-cultivation boils down to training the mind to remain unattached to what we see, smell, hear, taste, touch, or think. Contrary to eliminating or dulling our senses, we keep our senses open and responsive; meanwhile, be aware that the sharper our senses are, the harder for us to still our mind as we are “programmed” to react; but the more we train our mind to be still, the sharper senses we can handle with equanimity. With consistent, moment-to-moment mind training, one begins to grow awareness of the subtler and subtler signs, emotional, mental, or physical, inside and outside, without discriminating or reacting to them. With such a nonreactive mind, gradually, one stops reacting to old patterns and does not generate new ones. As the Sixth Patriarch continues in the text, “you do not cultivate by grasping at externals. You simply uphold right views constantly in your own mind; the defiling passions never stain you” (29). Therefore, on an experiential level, self-cultivation is to train the mind not to grasp anything inside or outside, but to hold right views constantly, and pay attention to the subtle movement before “grasping,” thus making space for bodhi to come forth. But how does self-cultivation relate to klesa?

Self-cultivation can help us break our habitual “inclinations and tendencies,” which “cause mental, emotional, and physical distress and agitation.” Those inclinations and tendencies keep recurring because we keep clinging to our old views and past experiences. The default setting of an untrained mind propels one to cling to the past automatically, which manifests in us as Klesa in various symptoms. In Yogacarin, klesa is categorized into six fundamental symptoms: greed, anger, ignorance, pride, false views, and doubt about the teachings (Mizuno 209). Take greed as an example: one has the urge to eat lots of chocolate every day. Imagine the urge arises again, one finds it impossible to resist reaching for another piece of chocolate. But with consistent self-cultivation every day through meditative methods such as meditation, chanting, and/or reciting mantras, one’s mind becomes more concentrated and still, and one’s will to be liberated from klesa grows stronger and stronger, “upholding the right views constantly,” and the craving for chocolate will subside overtime (I’m not saying it’s easy though!). As I was imagining that urge, I realized how important it is to uphold right views, right intention, and right concentration at the same time in self-cultivation, as they strengthen each other. In all, through persevering self-cultivation, all the old and new inclinations and tendencies will gradually lose their grip on us, and we are bound to be “released” from our klesa.

CONCLUSION
Klesa and bodhi, two seemingly opposite things, are like ice and water, interchangeable in essence; klesa points us to the hurdle on our path of Awakening, and wisdom enables us to see through Klesa and transform the hurdle into bodhi through self-cultivation, which takes perseverance in our daily practice before we gain spiritual power to break our habitual reactive patterns. The Sixth Patriarch states clearly in the Platform Sutra that we ordinary beings all have the potential to be liberated from our sensory entanglements and to return to our essential nature, if we truly cultivate the Way he teaches us. The liberation we gain from such practice is “born of disciplined self-mastery rather than from desires unrestrained” (University Catalog 7).

Works Cited
Digital Dictionary of Buddhism.​ http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb.
Accessed 13 Oct. 2018.
Mizuno, Kogen. ​Essentials of Buddhism: Basic Terminology and
Concepts of Buddhist Philosophy and Practice​, Translated by
Sekimori, Gaynor, Kosei Publishing Co, 1996, Tokyo.
The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra​ (六祖大師法寶
壇經). ​A New Translation​, Translated from the Chinese of ​Zongbao
Taisho​, vol. 48, no. 2008, Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2014.
University Catalog​. Dharma Realm Buddhist University, 2018-2019, p.
7. Vocabulary.com.​ www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/cultivation.
Accessed 13 Oct. 2018.