Our true nature is perfect. It is pristine and it’s where love and compassion reside. The more we can connect with our true nature, the better it is for us spiritually and in worldly matters too. But how do we get to the true nature of ourselves? First we need to recognise the five Kleshas, or five poisons and go beyond them. These are also known as defilements in Buddhist teachings. They are basically mental states that cause suffering.
The great Tibetan teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche discussed the five poisons in one of his videos. It’s a great video and is highly recommended. The five poisons (defilements) are: Aversion (or hatred, anger), Attachment (desire), Ignorance, Pride (arrogance) and Envy. Perhaps these are not new concepts, most of us probably know it is not ideal to be jealous of others, harbour hatred towards someone or to cling on to things or people. But what’s important here is that these mental states are all concerned with the ego, it’s the part of us that’s defined by titles and the mind. Emotions such as, ‘I like that’, ‘I hate this’, ‘he has a bigger house’, ‘she is not as good as I am’, etc. They are simply labels we give to everyone and everything we encounter in our lives.
Simple acknowledgement or awareness can go a long way. Even just by recognising the five poisons we begin to get closer to our true nature, which is pristine and free from these Kleshas. It is much like the surface of the ocean, it can be turbulent and wavy, unbearably harsh at times, but beneath the surface the deep sea is quiet and still, almost a completely different world. This is our true nature. It may not be easy to describe this inner nature or inner stillness of ours, but by peeling the layers of the five poisons we can get a sense of what it looks like.