The Five Hindrances: Unlock Your Practice

When we're on the spiritual path,

It's not always plain sailing,

Which means that now and again we are going to come up against some obstacles,

Or as we call them in Buddhism,

Hindrances.

These are things that we come up against that stop us doing our spiritual practice,

Especially when we're trying to do meditation or mindfulness.

So the more that we get these sort of hindrances,

The more that it knocks us off our path a little bit.

So I want to talk about the five main hindrances that we talk about in Buddhism,

And also mention some antidote that is going to help us to get over that.

So the first of the hindrances is what we call the desires of our senses.

So the greatest part of our day is consumed by what we see,

What we hear,

What we smell,

What we taste,

What we touch,

What thoughts are going on in our head.

So when we start,

These senses start to get attached to something.

So maybe,

You know,

It's food,

Maybe it's drink,

Maybe it's another person,

Or it's just a thought that,

You know,

Is stopping us from moving forward.

So these hindrances,

They activate the senses when we come into contact with any sense objects.

So anything that,

Any sound,

Any smell,

Any taste,

Any touch,

Anything that we can see outside of us.

So our minds become fascinated by these things,

Which then,

If we're trying to meditate,

Or if we're trying to be mindful,

This fascination can take us off in the wrong direction because it starts us telling stories.

We have those stories going over in our head about how wonderful this object is,

Or even the opposite,

How awful this thing is.

So either way,

When our minds get stuck on these sense objects,

They start to become a hindrance to us.

Our mind starts to focus on them,

It can't think of anything else.

We're trying to focus on the breath,

Or we're trying to stay present in the moment,

But our mind keeps wandering off all the time,

Thinking about these wonderful sense desires that we have.

So remember I said before that not all desires are bad.

I mean,

If we have a desire to help people,

Then this is good.

But what I'm talking about here is those desires that we want something,

Our mind keeps fixating on that.

So the antidote to this is to think about the impermanent nature of objects.

So yeah,

We see this object and our mind is fixating on it,

But we need to understand that that object,

That thing that is disturbing us is impermanent.

And if we constantly allow ourselves to keep focusing on that,

Then it's going to distract us.

So we need to understand these things are impermanent,

They're not going to last.

And so there is no benefit of us,

You know,

Wasting our time when we're trying to be spiritual or meditate or be mindful.

So if you're consumed by this type of desire,

Look at it,

Try to make it something that is dissatisfactory because it's not going to help you because it's impermanent.

And you need to,

If you constantly keep getting this same sense desire,

You need to just ask yourself,

Why am I always wanting new things?

I mean,

It's a good question to ask ourselves anyway,

Whether we're being pulled by that hindrance or not.

Why are we always wanting new things?

Now,

Sometimes it's because,

You know,

We want to better our life,

Okay.

But other times it's just through greed.

We just want something new.

So of course,

These desires are unwelcome to us when we're on the spiritual path,

When we're trying to focus our mind on meditation,

Or while we're trying to,

You know,

Stay mindful.

So just understand that all of those sense desires,

All of those things that are pulling your mind in a certain direction are impermanent.

And if we see it that way,

We're able to let go.

Another hindrance that we come up with is a sort of hostility towards other people.

This is when we have ill will in our mind.

Maybe somebody said something to you that was unkind,

Or maybe they made you angry.

So when you go to sit down in meditation,

What is the first thing that pops into your head?

It's this person and what they said or what they did.

So again,

That is distracting you,

Because it's giving you destructive thoughts about another person.

So when we sit down and try to do practice,

Or even during the day when we're trying to stay mindful,

Our mind keeps wandering back to this person who upset us,

Or this situation that upset us.

And actually,

Sometimes,

You know,

This hostility can even be aimed at ourselves.

You know,

Maybe we didn't perform very well.

We have this thought in our head that we need to be perfect.

We need to do things perfectly.

But of course,

You know,

There is no such thing as perfection.

So sometimes that hostility is towards ourselves,

That,

You know,

I'm not good enough,

Or I didn't do this,

Or I made a mistake.

Whenever we have these hindrances,

They're extremely powerful hindrances,

Especially,

You know,

When we're trying to tame our mind,

Calm the mind,

Keeps taking our mind off in the wrong direction.

So it can plant a seed of doubt in our minds.

So the antidote to this is to develop compassion towards other people and compassion towards yourself.

You see,

When we have compassion towards somebody,

It's really difficult for us to think negative things about them.

You know,

You would never,

If you went into a village,

If a soldier went into a village and he met everybody in the village and got to know everybody in the village,

And then he was told,

Now you have to kill these people.

It's so hard because we've built up empathy and compassion for them.

And that's the type of thing that we need to do when we have this hindrance,

When we sit down and we have these negative thoughts towards somebody or towards ourself.

We need to start to develop a sense of compassion towards people.

Remember that everybody's in exactly the same boat as you.

Everybody is trying to have a peaceful life,

Be happy,

Not suffer.

So if we can start to see people like that,

Even the people,

Especially the people who have hurt you or upset you or,

You know,

Did something that has gone against your will or gone against things that you stand for,

Then it is at that point we need to build compassion so that these ill will,

These negative thoughts are not going to disturb us on the spiritual path.

The third one is a lack of enthusiasm.

So yeah,

We all know this one.

I mean,

This is a key one.

There are moments where we feel apathy or laziness,

And it just makes our mind numb.

You know,

There are times when we need to meditate,

But I have this apathy,

This laziness,

And it just becomes virtually impossible for me to focus,

To concentrate,

Whether it's on or off the meditation cushion.

So apathy makes it difficult for us to arouse any interest in the meditation or the practice we're doing.

And laziness makes us feel sleepy and lethargic.

So both of those things are maybe one of the key things that come up when we're trying to do spiritual practices.

So if we feel,

You know,

We're feeling a little lazy or we're feeling,

You know,

A bit of apathy,

We need to ask ourselves,

What is making us lazy and disinterested?

The more that we understand ourselves,

The more that we can change.

I've said this many times before,

But if you want to change,

First you have to understand something.

If we don't have any awareness,

Then of course we can never change.

So it's about understanding why.

Why do I feel apathy,

Lazy,

Disinterested?

So,

I mean,

It could be boredom.

It could be that you're feeling unwell.

It could be it's too hot or it's too cold,

You're too busy.

I mean,

There's so many different excuses that come up that makes us feel lazy and disinterested.

So when that happens to us,

We need to question it.

It could even be that we don't really understand what we're supposed to be doing.

So,

Or we don't really understand what the benefits are from doing these practices.

All of this can actually stop you from moving on with your practice.

So if you are feeling disinterested,

You're feeling lazy,

Or just can't be bothered,

Ask yourself,

Why is that?

And once you understand why it is,

Then you can ask yourself,

Then what do I need to do?

What do I need to do now to make myself more interested or less lazy?

It could be that,

You know,

You need to just get some good oxygen inside of you,

Take some deep breaths and,

You know,

Really waken yourself up,

Or maybe you go for a walk or splash water on your face.

I mean,

There are many,

Many things we can do that are going to stop us feeling disinterested,

Lazy,

And apathetic.

The next one is emotional strain.

And again,

This is another big part of today's world,

Anxiety,

Stress,

And tension.

They're real prominent hindrances on our spiritual path.

Being anxious,

Being stressed,

Having tension are all part of being a human being.

So it's not that we shouldn't have a little bit of stress,

Anxiety,

And tension,

Because they're sort of wake-up calls.

I know something is happening here.

I need to look at it.

So it could be that we're stressed from work.

It could be money problems.

It could be worried about the future.

It could just be that our mind is on overload,

That so much is going on at the moment that I just can't focus on anything.

That happens a lot to us,

Yeah.

So what I would say,

Again,

To this one,

The antidote to this one is,

Which is going to help to bring you back into the present moment.

So remember,

When we're stressed,

Anxious,

We have tension,

A lot of it is to do with something that we're projecting into the future,

Or it's something to do with something that's happened in the past.

So we need to be bringing ourselves into the present moment,

So then we can look clearly at what is making me stressed,

What is making me anxious,

Or have this tension.

So again,

It's about taking three calming breaths,

Or even just doing one round of the nine round breathing,

Focusing on a breathing awareness practice,

Just gently breathing in,

Bringing in good oxygen into your body,

Slowly breathing out,

Calming yourself down,

Slowing your breathing down.

That is going to help to bring you into the present moment.

When you're in the present moment,

We are calm.

When we're calm,

We can actually look at what is actually going on here?

What is happening?

What is making me feel this way?

So the more that we feel stressed,

Anxious,

Tension,

The more that we need to just gently do an exercise to bring ourselves into the present moment,

Calm ourselves down,

And then look at what is making me stressed,

Anxious,

Or have this tension or pressure.

Again,

The more that we are aware of what is happening,

The better it is for us to be able to change that,

To bring that anxiety and stress under our control.

And the final one is a lack of confidence.

So this is about having doubts.

Now,

Doubt is another obstacle on our spiritual path,

And it usually occurs when we have a lack of confidence or a lack of understanding about what actually we should be doing,

And maybe even what the benefits are.

Or it may be that we just don't,

Deep down inside,

Believe that.

So the most effective way to clear up any doubt is to ask questions.

If you have a doubt,

Ask the question.

Try to clear that doubt up.

It is no good pushing that doubt down and just say,

Okay,

Well,

The teacher said this,

So they know better than me,

So I'll just go with it.

Because if you just go with it,

It just means that deep down inside,

In the back of your mind,

You don't really believe it,

And that doubt is going to just gnaw away at you.

It's going to stop you from doing your spiritual practices.

So asking questions,

Reading books,

Going on the internet.

Of course,

We have to be careful with the internet because it's also full of misinformation.

Even we have AI now to help us to try and clear up our doubts.

Don't allow doubts to stay there,

And if you have a doubt,

It is okay.

I know that in many spiritual practices,

They encourage us not to have doubt,

But I mean,

That's a ridiculous thing,

A ridiculous concept,

Because if we have doubt,

We have doubt,

And there's nothing that we can do about that.

So it is much better to clear up that doubt,

To sort out the doubt and make sure that,

You know,

We've cleared it up,

Our mind is clear,

I know what I'm doing,

I understand it,

I understand why I'm doing it and the benefits of doing it.

So these are five of the main hindrances,

The obstacles that we have.

I mean,

There will be more,

You know,

Where the spiritual journey is a personal journey.

So that means that,

You know,

We're all different and we'll all have different versions of these doubts,

But not just doubts,

These hindrances,

But when you have a hindrance,

Don't allow it to grow,

Face up to it.

So whether it's having compassion or understanding impermanence or asking questions,

Whatever it is,

Don't allow those hindrances,

Those obstacles to become a brick wall that we just can't get through.