Ignorance – innate clinging to I and mine

Acharya Mahayogi Sridhar Rana Rinpoche

So the neurosis (Kleshas) are only blocked from being manifested but not really destroyed and thus the person is not really free from it. Thus such a person is not even a Srotappana; forget the higher stages of the Buddhist enlightenment like the Arhat or the Buddha. Hindu mythical stories (Puranas) more than amply testify to the fact that seers (Rishis) who were supposed to be in deepest Samadhis for thousands of years and so on often flared up in anger, destroyed cities and were ridden with emotions like jealousy etc. Since ignorance which in Buddhist terminology is the innate clinging to the concept of self (Atman) and mine (Atmiya); and all the neurosis that branches out of it is are only suppressed and not uprooted in even deepest levels of Samadhi. So, no matter how blissful the person is, he is not liberated yet at the deepest levels and thus is not enlightened. This ignorance is technically called Sahaja Atman Graha. Here we are talking about deep levels of Samadhi which reach delta levels, forget about the superficial practices which heighten awareness and make mind thoughtless temporarily which is mistaken for the ‘no mind of Buddhism’ by many who have no real knowledge of Buddhism. Needless to say such practices can take you only to the surface levels of alpha waves, which is just the beginning. Many are led to believe that such awareness without thoughts is the enlightened state. Well, it must be said clearly that this is not Buddhist enlightenment. And people who have reached the genuine Samadhis have not yet freed themselves from hatred, passion, self clinging and so on. They have only been thoroughly suppressed temporarily and can come out any time given the cause and conditions. If a person is fully enlightened these are uprooted and cannot appear again no matter what the outer circumstances are. There is more to be said about this later as this is a very subtle point and crucial to understand correct Buddhism. So the big question is