Guided Meditation On The Five Hindrances

This is a 28-minute guided meditation on the Five Hindrances. The hindrances were described by the Buddha as the habits of mind that keep us from remembering our mindfulness practice. They are lust/desire, anger/ill-will, sleepiness/dullness, worrying/regret, and self-doubt.

Please note: This audio is ripped from a video.

Transcript

All right,

So we're recording.

So take a comfortable seat or lie down,

Whatever you'd like to do for this meditation.

And as always,

If you feel uncomfortable with the video on,

You're welcome to turn it off.

I'm just allowing your body to be as comfortable as it can be.

And we'll begin our meditation with three sounds of the bell.

So we'll begin just by becoming aware of your body and the position of your body.

Noticing what's supporting you right now,

Whether it's the floor,

Chair,

Cushion.

Become aware that whatever is supporting you is itself being supported by the earth,

The whole earth.

And so you can feel how you are being supported by the whole earth.

And maybe that allows you to release a little bit more fully and let yourself be held by the earth.

And then begin to notice that you're breathing.

And maybe noticing the movement of the breath in your belly or your chest,

Your throat,

Nose,

Or somewhere else entirely,

But just noticing if you can feel the breath in your body.

Just allowing yourself to notice the in-breath from the beginning to the middle to the end and the out-breath from the beginning to the middle to the end of the out-breath.

Allowing that to continue that awareness of the breath.

Breathing in,

I know I'm breathing in,

I feel I'm breathing in,

And breathing out,

I know and feel that I'm breathing out.

And as you're breathing,

Noticing when a thought arises,

And you might just note to yourself thinking,

Just noticing the thoughts that are coming and going.

Notice how the thought arises,

Might linger,

And as you notice it,

About analyzing it,

That it has the tendency to then pass away.

And then,

Invite you,

If it feels right,

To bring to mind a moment in the recent past when something occurred inside or outside of you,

And the response you had was aversion or dislike,

Or even anger or ill will.

Something that came up that just pushed your buttons in that certain way.

And just notice,

Notice what it was like to have that aversion arising in your mind and heart.

Maybe sensing when that aversion began to arise in the situation,

And when it began to pass away,

Move away.

That's an immersive sense of,

I don't want this.

Noticing how that aversion may have prevented you from being fully present in the moment.

You might notice how it felt in your body when it arose.

And there's nothing to really do right now about it.

We're just noticing,

It's becoming familiar with how these states of mind and body arise in a moment.

So no need to judge yourself or anyone else about this.

This has been happening to humans for thousands of years.

It could be natural.

And then release that whole story.

Let that go and come back to your breath.

In this moment,

Here we are breathing in and breathing out together.

And this time,

I invite you,

If it feels right,

To bring to mind a time when something happened and you suddenly realized you needed an escape.

You needed some ice cream,

You needed to go shopping.

You needed some kind of pleasure in order to feel better.

Some kind of sense pleasure to make yourself feel better.

And once again,

This is not at all a judgment.

This is just noting,

Noting how these states of mind come in so quickly.

And we forget.

And we forget our intention to be present because of it,

Get hijacked.

You wanted to turn on the TV and watch something funny.

Any kind of sense pleasure distraction that came as a result of a feeling that you felt that you were feeling.

And you wanted to turn on the TV and watch something funny.

And you wanted to turn on the TV and watch something funny that came as a result of a feeling of discomfort.

And just becoming a little more familiar with how that pathway came to be in your mind and heart and body.

And just being a little more aware of how that pathway came to be in your mind and heart and body.

With compassion for yourself and the fact that you were uncomfortable in that moment.

And just being aware of how that pathway came to be.

And then releasing all of that story,

Just coming back to the quiet of your breath,

Coming in and going out in this moment.

We breathe together.

There's nothing we need to do.

Just breathing together.

And then we'll bring to mind another situation.

And this could be the same situation as one of the other ones.

Sometimes we have multiple escape routes.

And this time when something came up,

You thought,

I just need to go and lie down.

I just need to take a nap or this wears me out.

And just feeling that this situation is making me so tired.

I need to close my eyes.

I need to fall asleep or give up.

I'm just sensing what that felt like in that moment.

What that feeling of heavy sleepiness felt like.

Maybe it was a time during a long meditation when you thought,

I can't do this.

I got to go lie down.

And then you just feel like you're feeling like you're feeling like you're feeling like you're feeling like you're feeling like you're feeling really excited about this trick right now.

Let's hold on I'll just abortion.

I'll get down.

And then I'm going to go back to the thought.

And might manifest as the thought.

I can't deal with this right now.

I can't deal with this.

I'm going to go back to the thought.

And then letting go of this whole story.

Let that go.

You can always come back to these later,

But for now just coming back to the quiet of the breath.

Breathing together here.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Nothing we need to do.

And then bring to mind a time when something you saw or heard or read cause you to get worried or restless,

Anxious,

Or just notice what that was like in your body.

Maybe the thought,

Oh no,

My gosh,

Now this now what's next.

Just noticing what that feels like when that comes in your body and your heart and your mind,

What kind of thoughts,

Stories come in.

Maybe noticing how it eventually ends,

How the story ends,

How does the worry pass away.

And then the whole thing like a show.

Okay.

And then you can let go of this whole story and come back to the breath again,

Back to the moment we're breathing together.

Feeling the inhale from the beginning to the middle to the end and feeling the exhale beginning,

Middle and end,

Feeling what you're sitting on.

And then the last one is bringing to mind a time when something occurred that caused you to really go into doubt.

Is this really going to work?

Is this practice meaningful?

Is this,

Am I really getting this sort of skepticism?

Kind of sense of not wanting to settle onto something but to keep that sense of uncertainty alive.

I don't know.

Not so sure kind of feeling.

Just noticing when that comes up and that might have come up.

See the thought,

Oh,

I can't believe any of this,

Anything,

Anything.

Or I can't trust myself.

So it's not just sort of wondering about something but it's sort of this pervasive feeling of not being able to trust or settle.

It might be like,

Oh,

I did that wrong and that wrong and that wrong or something like that.

Noticing how that arises,

That doubt and gets caught and stuck and we get hijacked.

And noticing how it eventually does pass away.

Noticing how difficult it is to see and be in the present moment when any of these states hijack us.

Letting go of this one too,

This whole story and coming back to the breath.

Breathing in,

I can feel and sense I'm breathing in.

Breathing out,

I feel and sense I'm breathing out.

And as you're breathing,

Noticing how it is to not be hijacked,

To be here.

Notice how different that feels when these states have passed away.

And then lastly,

Noticing which of these states came more easily.

Which stories arose quickly,

Which states felt familiar?

Maybe sensing into which are your current favorites,

Your go-tos.

Or understanding and information purposes,

Not for any kind of judgment.

And just mentally giving yourself a big hug for all the challenging moments you've had to encounter.

And all the ways that your mind and body have found ways to escape.

Nothing wrong or bad.

Maybe that's not how we want to respond.

Just noticing.

And we'll finish with the bell.

Thank you.

Reviews

Such gentle reminders of the hindrances, looking at them a bit more closely.