91. The Five Things Keeping You Stuck: An Introduction to the Kleshas

Ninety seconds of Instagram scrolling. Five distinct forces firing inside you, so fast you experience them as a single feeling: “I’m not good enough.” But it’s not one feeling—it’s five. Yoga philosophy named them twenty-five hundred years ago.

In this episode, I’m walking through the five kleshas from Book Two of the Yoga Sutras: avidya (wrong-seeing), asmita (ego), raga (craving), dvesha (aversion), and abhinivesha (clinging to the familiar). These five obstacles to clear seeing are the most undertaught framework in the Sutras—and I think they’re the most useful one for modern teaching life.

I’ll show you exactly how each klesha operates—why the confidence gap, imposter syndrome, burnout cycles, and creative stagnation all trace back to specific combinations of these five forces. Then I’ll give you a five-question diagnostic checklist you can run on yourself this week, plus classroom cues you can use right away without ever naming the Sanskrit.

This material comes from chapters 15–17 of Yoga Off the Mat, my new book with Alexandra DeSiato, available July 14 wherever books are sold.

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Transcript

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Can I tell you something? It's a little story. Let me know if this feels familiar. You're scrolling Instagram. You're not even looking for anything specific. You're just scrolling, and then you see it. A yoga teacher you follow has posted a reel. Beautiful studio, perfect lighting, a sequence that looks effortless and creative, and somehow both accessible and advanced. The comments are glowing, the shares are climbing, and something shifts in your chest. It's subtle at first, a little tightness, a little heat, and then the thoughts start."Why can't I come up with sequences like that? My classes are so boring compared to hers. She makes it look so easy. I've been teaching for five years, and I still spend hours planning. Maybe I'm not cut out for this." Now, in the space of about 90 seconds, five different things just happened inside you. Five distinct forces fired, one after the other, so fast you experience them as a single feeling, "I am not good enough." But they're not one feeling, they are five, and yoga philosophy named them 2,500 years ago. They're called the kleshas or kleshas, the five obstacles to clear seeing. And I think they might be the most useful framework in the entire Yoga Sutras for modern life, and the most under taught because they're about our shadow sides, and yoga culture often spiritually bypasses them, leaning toward love, and light, and good vibes only. Today, we're unpacking all five kleshas, exploring how they operate in your teaching life, and giving you a practice you can use immediately for yourself and in your classroom. This comes from chapters 15 through 17 of my new book with my friend Alexandra DeSiato, Yoga Off the Mat. It's available July 14th wherever books are sold. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher. The kleshas are described in Book 2 of the Yoga Sutras. Patanjali names five of them, and they're not random. They have a structure. Think of them as a tree. There's a root and four branches that grow from it. Every klesha traces back to the root, and once you see the root, then you'll see everything differently. Let's start there with seeing. The first klesha is avidyā, wrong seeing. Avidyā is the root of the tree. It's the trunk. Every other klesha grows from it. Avidyā is usually translated as ignorance, but I prefer wrong seeing because it's more precise. That A in avidyā is a negative prefix like un or non, and vidyā is a cognate for vision, wrong seeing, non-seeing. Avidyā isn't stupidity, and it isn't a lack of information. It's misperception. You're seeing something, but you're seeing it wrong. You're confusing the impermanent for the permanent or mistaking someone else's highlight reel for the whole picture. Back to that Instagram scroll. Avidyā is what made you look at a 90-second reel or a 45-second reel or a ten-second clip and conclude that this teacher has it all figured out. You saw a curated slice, and you treated it as the full story. The second klesha is asmitā, ego, I-ness. Asmitā is the I that attaches itself to everything. It's the force that takes a neutral event and makes it about you. Another teacher has a beautiful class. That's an observation. Asmitā turns it into, "I am not as good as her. My classes aren't enough. What does this say about me?" For yoga teachers, asmitā is the voice that cannot separate the craft from the craftsperson. It's what makes you feel with wrong seeing like your students are judging you, and it makes everything harder because every piece of feedback, good or bad, lands on your identity and your ego instead of on your skill and serving your students. Klesha three is rāga, craving or attachment. Rāga is the pull toward what you want. It's the craving for the pleasant. In the modern teaching life, rāga often looks like wanting the full class, wanting the five-star review, wanting the confidence to arrive now, wanting the planning to feel easy already. Rāga is also the force behind the shiny object syndrome that so many of us yoga teachers experience. Taking a new training, taking a new methodology, taking a new Instagram strategy, the craving for the thing that will finally make it all click for us. Klesha four is dvesha, aversion. Dvesha is rāga's mirror. If rāga is the pull toward what you want, dvesha is the push away from what you don't want. For yoga teachers, dvesha is the avoidance of discomfort. It's the reason you don't ask for feedback. It's the reason you don't try a new class format, and it's the reason you keep teaching the same sun salutations instead of risking something unfamiliar that might actually serve your students better. Dvesha is also what keeps teachers on the sidelines thinking they aren't ready. The aversion isn't to teaching, it's to the vulnerability of teaching. Remember our comfort zone philosophy. We have to push beyond the comfort zone into the growth zone so that we can expand our comfort zones. Dvesha is the force that keeps you from making that push. Klesha five is abhinivesha, fear of the unknown or clinging to the familiar. Abhinivesha is the deepest and the most primal of the four branches. It is usually translated as fear of death, but I think it's more accurately understood as fear of the unknown, clinging to what's familiar, even when what's familiar isn't actually serving you. For yoga teachers, abhinivesha is the reason you stay in the teaching situation that's draining you instead of making a change. It's the reason you keep pricing your workshops too low, the reason you haven't published your website advertising your availability for private lessons, not because you enjoy it, but because the known, even when it's painful, even when you know it isn't working for you, it still feels safer than the unknown. Now, let's go back to that Instagram scroll and trace all five kleshas in real time. Avidya, you saw a curated reel and mistook it for reality. Asmita, you made it about you. What does this say about me? Raga, you craved what you think she has, the ease, the creativity, the engagement. Dvesha, you pushed away the discomfort of where you actually are. And abhinivesha, you clung to the familiar narrative, "I am not enough," because it is a groove, it is a samskara that you have worn smooth. That's five forces in 90 seconds or less, and they all land as one feeling,"I'm stuck." But now you can see the machinery, and seeing the machinery is the first step to interrupting it. Here's why I think the kleshas are the most undertaught framework in the Yoga Sutras. They aren't about poses or meditation technique. They are about the human operating system. They describe the default patterns that keep people cycling through the same suffering. And for yoga teachers specifically, the kleshas explain so much of what we struggle with. The confidence gap, that's asmita welded to avidya. You're over-identifying with your ego, with your teaching, and you're seeing the situation wrong. The imposter syndrome, avidya, misperceiving your own competence, your own ability, plus dvesha, avoiding the situations that would prove you wrong. The burnout cycle for yoga teachers, raga, craving the full schedule, the approval, meeting abhinivesha, fear of what happens if you slow down. The creative stagnation, abhinivesha, clinging to the familiar, plus dvesha, avoiding the discomfort of trying something new. But here's what really matters. The kleshas aren't moral failings or character defects. They are universal human tendencies. The goal isn't to eliminate them. It is to see them and to name them. If you listen to episode 86 on the two arrows, this is where it all connects. The kleshas are what load the second arrow. The kleshas string the bow and pull it back. Avidya loads the misperception. Asmita makes it personal. Raga and dvesha create the emotional charge, and abhinivesha keeps you holding on. Here's a practice from the book, Yoga Off The Mat. When you notice a strong emotional reaction, any reaction, pleasant or unpleasant, pause, take a breath, and ask, "Which klesha is this?" You don't need to judge it or fix it, but try to identify it. You don't even need the Sanskrit at first. Use the English. Am I seeing this wrong? That's avidya. Am I making this about me? That's asmita. Am I craving something? Do I want something that isn't here to be here now? That's raga. Am I avoiding something? Do I want something that I perceive to be here to go away? That's dvesha. And am I clinging to what's familiar? Am I staying only in my comfort zone? Abhinivesha. Five questions, like a diagnostic checklist. You run through them, and I bet one or two of them will light up immediately. For you, the teacher, here's how you could bring this into your classroom. The kleshas are a little bit more abstract than the two arrows that we talked about or the gunas, so I would recommend building up to them. But you can teach the kleshas without ever naming them. Here are some cue-level entry points. For avidya, you could say, "What are you actually feeling right now versus what you're telling yourself you're feeling?" For asmita, "Can you let this pose be about the experience of the pose, not about you? Can you release the need to do it right and instead look to do it honestly?" For raga, "Notice if you're reaching for something in this pose, a deeper stretch, a straighter line. What happens if you stop reaching and just arrive?" For dvesha, "Notice if you're pulling away from this, not because it's unsafe, because it's uncomfortable. Can you stay for one more breath?" For Abhinivesha, we're going to try something different today. Notice what comes up when the sequence isn't what you expected. For a workshop or for a multi-week series, the kleshas are gold. You could go for five weeks doing one klesha per week with physical practices that illuminate each one. If building workshops and series like this is the kind of work that calls to you, that's the heart of what we do in the Mastering the Art of Yoga Sequencing Mentorship Membership. Sometimes you'll hear me call it MMM, three Ms. Visit sagerountree.com/mentorship to learn more. Here's your takeaway. You're not stuck because something is wrong with you. You're stuck because five universal human forces are doing what they always do, misperceiving, over-identifying, craving, avoiding, and clinging. That's the human condition. It's not a character flaw unique to you, and the Yoga Sutras mapped it out for us 2,500 years ago. The practice itself is simple, even though it's not easy. When you feel stuck, run the checklist. Which klesha is loudest? If you can name it, that is the beginning of a journey toward moksha, liberation, and freedom. And remember, the kleshas aren't just something that you conquer once. They're going to come up and be seen by you over and over, but each time with increasing clarity. The grooves don't disappear, but they lose their grip when you can say, "Ah, that's asmitā. I see you, ego." We go much deeper on this in Yoga Off the Mat, where Alexandra and I unpack each klesha fully. We connect them to samskara and habit patterns, and we offer you practices you could start as soon as you read the book. It will be in your hands on July 14th if you pre-order now at the links in the show notes. And if you want to do this work alongside a community of yoga teachers who take the craft seriously, who are willing to look at their own patterns and want to keep growing, join us in The Zone, my free community at comfortzoneyoga.com. Please rate and review the show if this was useful. It really helps other teachers find us, and that matters a lot. Thank you so much for joining me today. This is Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'm Sage Rountree. I'll see you next time.