The hindrance of doubt is about being perplexed,
Being uncertain about something and it becomes a hindrance in life and it becomes hindrance in meditation.
It's this sense of procrastinating,
Being uncertain about things,
Thinking that one's not quite sure and because one's not quite sure about something one doesn't put forth energy to go along that pathway.
So when we get blocked with this hindrance we get stuck,
We get paralysed in our movement forward and I was mentioning that last night as being stuck in the fork of a road,
Not being able to move,
Going,
Not knowing which direction to take so we don't take any direction at all.
We're paralysed.
So that hindrance that we didn't talk about,
We've mentioned a couple of times and it's been a real hindrance is doubt,
Uncertainty,
That sense of being perplexed about the path forward and doubt relates to both our meditation practice and our lives.
So doubt is this feeling of being stuck,
It's this uncertainty about something and it's a lack of confidence in a direction that we're going.
So we can relate this back to ourselves,
We can relate it to our lives,
We can relate it to for example lack of confidence about doing something.
This is at a say an ennobling level and a mundane level and at a meditation level it's not trusting the path is okay,
Not trusting the path's going to go in a direction that we feel is right for us.
So we get stuck,
We get paralysed.
I notice this at a subtle level,
Sometimes I'll be in meditation and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing.
I'm not sure whether I should be paying attention to my breath or being mindful of mind states or what I'm supposed to be doing and I kind of,
My progress seems to get frozen for a bit.
So what happens is I just,
Ah there's doubt.
So I notice it,
I acknowledge it,
I see it and then I make a decision to move forward on a particular pathway.
So that's at a very subtle level but at a gross level it can be almost catatonic.
You know you could just get frozen in the middle of a space not being able to move forward.
So the antidotes,
The antidote in meditation is to reflect on dependent arising.
In other words reflect on the way things are,
Reflect on causes and effects,
Reflect on the connections between things,
Understanding how things arise and how things pass away.
So that's at that broad level.
At another level it is being able to understand something,
Look into something and research it,
Reflect on it,
Talk to other people or talk to yourself,
Read and so on.
So your understanding about something is developed.
So we can have confidence in whatever we're doing.
Do some research into something.
Like for example people might have doubt about getting vaccinated for example as an example and I won't go into the debate about whether people should get vaccinated or not.
I have my views which are in line with probably the scientific view and but I think when we're uncertain about something it's good to research.
So I did my research about the vaccinations and I was satisfied.
So I was able to move forward in terms of getting a vaccination.
This is the same with paralysing doubt.
At a sort of a basic level and if it's about self-confidence it's about reflecting on what we can do and what we have done.
Reflecting on our lives for example and our capacity to be able to do things and accomplish things rather than believing our doubts about ourselves.
Rather than believing this idea that we're not good enough or we're not capable or whatever.
It's being realistic.
It's about seeing the reality of the way we are and how we can move forward and judging from our past experience.
One way we can talk,
Some of the antidotes for this is by developing confidence and by developing trust.
Trust and confidence are what we talk about when we talk about something called sattar.
Sattar in Pali means faith and it's not this blind faith.
It's confidence in the path for example.
So confidence and trust are slightly different.
I could go to Lisa's yoga class,
Lisa's yoga in the morning and become very relaxed.
Feel really have a good workout,
Like a good stretch and all the rest of it.
Do the yoga,
Feel really good and so come the next day I'm confident that Lisa's yoga class will be able to be helpful for me to arrive at a state of relaxation and also a state of physical ease.
So I've had this experience before and I'm confident that I can move,
I can go into it again,
I can have it again.
Trust is like hearing someone else talk about Lisa's yoga class and they say to you,
Look this is a really good yoga class,
It helps you go into some really good postures and poses.
It's really healthy for your body,
It's really lovely for your physical well-being and it's also very relaxing,
Especially when you do the yoga nidra.
And knowing this person and knowing that they speak the truth to me and they're a good friend,
I have trust that Lisa's yoga class will be good.
So sattva is considered a power,
It's one of the powers,
One of the spiritual powers.
It's faith and it gives us the impetus to put forth energy into something.
So sattva is the direct antidote for paralysing doubt,
Having confidence in something.
