The Five Hindrances In Buddhism

In this talk, I go over the five hindrances in Buddhism which are mental states which can impact your meditation practices. These 5 hindrances are sensory desires, ill-will/hatred towards others, sloth/laziness, restlessness/worry and doubt.

I go over the antidotes for each hindrance that you can carry out to deepen your meditation practice.

Transcript

Hey,

This is Ish,

And today I want to talk to you about the five entrances.

So these are five mental states,

According to Buddhism,

Which can negatively impact your meditation practice.

So this is classically found in the Theravada,

Which is the oldest branch of Buddhism,

And also the Mahayana,

Which is a set of teachings which have made the Buddha's teaching a bit more accessible.

And these five entrances are sensory desire,

Which is trying to seek happiness through the five senses,

So trying to see more or eat more or try to hear more things and clinging for external stimulus in the environment.

The second is ill will,

So hatred towards other people,

Which can negatively impact your meditation.

The third is sloth or laziness.

So this is a general sense of heaviness when you try to sit in your meditation practice.

And in Ayurveda or yoga,

They call it the tamasic or tamas energy,

Which is very dull and heavy.

And then the next one is restlessness or worry.

So this is where you can calm your mind and your mind is always racing.

And then the last will be doubt,

Which is the lack of trust in your meditation or your teacher.

So you're always doubting things.

So in my opinion,

Most people nowadays tend to struggle with more of that sensory desire problems where they're chasing things a lot.

Nowadays,

We have social media,

So you're always trying to get the next best thing or you're constantly distracted by sensory things.

And the second is that they tend to get into meditation because they have such a racing and anxious mind.

So this is a common problem that they'll have.

So these two things are typically what I see most.

And the ways to handle the five entrances are generally you want to accept it.

So just not fighting it,

But rather understanding that you are experiencing the state and then explore it with a curious mind.

So actually notice the feeling sensation of each hindrance and then what subtle qualities do they have and notice it come and go.

So these hindrances aren't permanent,

Rather they are a temporary state that you'll experience.

So just notice it come and go.

And for sensory desires,

The main thing that you want to focus on is being very present and noticing what the sensation or the urges that you feel come up and how do they actually feel like.

So you'll notice that a craving will have a certain kind of quality to it or an urge to do something is a certain quality.

So you'll just notice that sensation rise and fall throughout your body without any kind of judgment.

And it's from that point you can then start to redirect your attention back to your breath or whatever object of meditation you were focusing on.

And then the next tip you can do is to realize the impermanence of the body.

So just the body itself,

There's different cycles and things that are going on.

One day,

One minute you're hungry,

One minute you're not.

And then you're breathing one moment,

You're breathing in and then exhaling the next moment.

So things are just coming and going and the body is not going to stay forever.

And there's a lot of things that are coming in,

Going,

And there's a lot of change going on.

So realizing the impermanence of the body itself can help reduce that hold of the sensory desires that are happening.

The next is to eliminate the input proactively.

So for example,

If you were tempted by alcohol,

You would remove it from your house to begin with so you don't have that urge to just go in the fridge and reach for a beer or whatever it is.

And then the second could be maybe you can remove junk food in your house so you don't have that craving to go out and actually just go to your fridge and pick up a hamburger or whatever it is.

And I have a different kind of approach also because classically Buddhism will tell you to completely abstain from those things.

But I think that you can enjoy certain material things in the world without having a sense of attachment.

So if you're constantly trying to label yourself as this meditator or someone who doesn't indulge in different things from time to time,

You tend to build up this resistance.

And that actually causes more attention towards the subject.

So rather a different approach is to see if you can enjoy things without having to completely fall into it and go overboard.

So being more mindful when you do decide to indulge in those things.

Now the second hindrance is ill will or hatred towards other people.

So this is where you will apply loving kindness practices or metta practices to help alleviate that.

And the thinking behind this is that everyone is just like you and they're all sentient beings who would like to have happiness and love in their lives and they go to the bathroom just like you,

They go to work and they have a lot of the same dreams or at least same motivations in life as you.

So even though you might have a certain hatred towards another person,

You can recognize the commonality that you have.

And the way to perform loving kindness exercises is to first think of yourself and say,

May I be happy,

May I be free and may I be free from suffering.

Then you repeat that to close family members or people you're closest to and then expand the circle to friends and then acquaintances and then people you don't know well at all.

And then lastly,

The people that you hate because it's a gradual process of expanding that circle and then you can include them as part of everyone else too.

So that's a really good practice.

Now the next hindrance is sloth.

So with this,

You can start to take action proactively and assess why you are in a state of heaviness.

So maybe is this your diet that needs to be changed?

Are you eating foods that make you feel very sluggish or tamasic?

And instead you can incorporate more sartic foods,

Which are like things like spinach and leafy green vegetables that will make you feel more light inside.

Now then you can also look at your posture.

How are you sitting?

So obviously if you're slouched over with your head forward and your back curved,

That will cause you to feel a bit more heavy or at least a little bit lethargic.

And then if you're sitting for meditation a bit too long,

It is advisable to go for a walking meditation or some kind of movement.

Also check into your sleep.

Are you sleeping enough?

So sometimes as I described in another talk,

You have what is called makyo,

Which are a feeling of sleepiness that you get in your meditation,

But that's due to concentration,

Not because of like a biological need of not getting enough sleep.

So if you're not actually sleeping,

Then you need to obviously get rest.

Then also one piece of advice from the late Tibetan Buddhist,

Tralag Kyo Bon,

He said that when sloth happens,

Instead of persisting in the meditation,

It's better to refresh ourselves by going for a walk,

Washing your face before resuming the practice.

So rather than pushing through it,

It can actually be helpful to take a quick break,

Walk around and then come back.

Now the next hindrance is restlessness or worry.

So this is like our monkey mind jumping from thought to thought and idea to idea.

And the way to handle this is to be fine with less content in your life and simplifying a bit more.

So this can work to your,

Apply to your phone,

Your meditation practice,

Simplifying the material objects and things in your house.

So generally being fine with less things and you have less to jump around from too.

And then also reflect on why you're worried to,

Why you're worried to begin with.

So one common piece of advice in the self-help community is that action kills worry.

So if you start to take a lot of action,

That tends to ease your mind a bit more so you're not constantly thinking of different things.

And then once you've taken action,

Then let go.

Don't think about it anymore.

Obviously a little bit easier said than done.

Then the next is to be virtuous.

So this is a whole idea that our thoughts have different seeds and whatever actions that you take will sprout the seeds a bit more.

So if you're obviously doing bad actions like robbing a bank,

There's no way you can have a deep long meditation practice because you're now thinking of the implications of reactions and the consequences.

Meanwhile,

If you take a lot of good deeds and you're doing a lot of good actions,

Then that actually supports your meditation practice and you don't have that excess karma that you're building up.

And that's actually why yoga in general starts off with the yamas and niyamas,

Which are the ethical observances and the personal practices before you actually go into the higher and more subtle realms of concentration or meditation absorption because you want to have that solid foundation before you get deep into your meditation practice.

And then with the last hindrance,

Which is doubt,

You might have thoughts like,

Is this worth it and all that.

And the way to kind of handle these thoughts is to first have a good relationship with a teacher that can help guide you.

So typically this is a teacher that has a lot more years of experience than you and has been in the same situation as you and they can help ease your concerns that you have.

And the next thing is also just to have faith and sit because you understand that,

Hey,

If I continue with my practice,

I can actually attain some of the qualities that my teacher has or my teacher has promised and you just have faith and just sit.

And you can also study any kind of masters of any craft,

So it's not just meditation,

But anything in general.

And you can generally understand that if you follow the same actions of this particular teacher that is teaching you,

Then there's a good chance that you can take on some of the qualities that they have later on because you're taking the same steps.

So it is a good idea to,

If you do find a teacher that you really admire and you like her qualities and how they carry themselves,

Then you can start to practice with them and know that if you practice long enough in the same way that they're teaching you,

Then you can actually adopt some of the qualities that they're imparting on you just through osmosis naturally.

So I hope this helps and the five entrances again are different mental states that hinder your meditation progress.

So understanding how to deal with it can help your practice a lot more.

Hope this helps.

Thank you.

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