Working With Hindrances In Meditation

This guided practice explores ways of recognizing and working with the five classic hindrances that arise in meditation: sensual desire, anger, sloth and torpor, restlessness, and doubt. We observe how hindrances arise, and learn how to respond wisely to them.

Transcript

In this meditation session I'd like to explore the hindrances and how they may or may not manifest.

The five classic hindrances include sensual desire,

Ill will,

Sloth and torpor,

Restlessness,

And doubt.

In order to work with the hindrances,

First we establish our attention,

As we normally would in a meditation practice.

Perhaps the experience of sitting and breathing.

Bring the attention to experience in a relaxed and alert way,

Whatever you're experiencing Release into a more À À.

Hinderances can arise at any time.

Sometimes they're sparked by sensory impacts like hearing,

Seeing,

Tasting,

Smelling.

And though they may arise in conjunction with the impact at the sense doors,

It's not a sensory experience that causes a hindrance.

Hinderances arise because of unwise attention,

Because of the way that our mind meets that experience.

So irritation and anger and ill will might arise when we hear something from a perspective or with an attitude that is inclined towards ill will.

And sensual desire might arise not because there's a beautiful sight that is seen,

But because we meet that experience of seeing with the mind inclined towards clinging,

Towards lust,

Towards craving and attachment.

And so when we work with the hindrances,

We can work with them in conjunction with any perception and any meditative practice.

What is the quality of mind that is knowing your experience?

Is it affected by lust or hate?

Is it dull or agitated?

Is it confused?

Should you notice a hindrance arise,

What do you do?

Do you throw in the towel and say,

Okay,

I'm done for today.

That was enough.

If we did that,

We'd never progress.

And we would never understand the qualities and functioning of this mind body process.

And so when a hindrance arises,

We notice it.

We say,

Ah,

I see you hindrance.

This is a hindrance.

This is a,

This is desire,

Sensual desire or lust.

This is irritation,

Aversion.

This is dullness or restlessness.

This is doubt.

So we recognize the hindrance and it can help to sometimes name it,

To expose it,

To see it.

And then immediately look to see what your attitude is towards the hindrance arising.

Because sometimes a hindrance arises and we get more aversion.

We react with anger and hatred because the hindrance arose.

And we know that's not going to help.

So we have to see if the arising of the hindrance caused another layer of hindrance to arise.

And then just notice that.

See if we can recognize the arising of the hindrance as just one hindrance,

One layer,

One level of hindrance without heaping on more agitation or more judgment or more doubt and more despair.

Oh,

Look,

It's just hindrance.

There's a mental state that is obstructing the flow and the development of concentration and mindfulness.

That's all a hindrance is.

It's a mental state.

It's not a permanent personality characteristic.

It's an impermanent mental state that arose,

Can be known and will pass.

So the first challenge is to recognize the hindrance.

The second challenge is to recognize the hindrance with the wisdom that knows it's just a hindrance.

It's sensual desire is just sensual desire.

Aversion is just aversion.

And leave it at that.

So we look at it,

We face it,

We know it,

But with an attitude of mind that does not deepen the entanglement.

So in this meditation practice,

I'd like you to be interested in the occurrence of hindrances.

Should there be a sensation that's unpleasant or a sound that is unwanted?

Notice if aversion arises and if it does,

Now become mindful of the aversion.

Turn your attention to meet the reaction and see if you can notice what the quality of your experience is that is affected by that hindrance.

Does the temperature in your body change when you're experiencing lust or hate,

Wanting or not wanting desire or aversion?

Do different muscles contract or relax?

Do you feel different sensations?

So notice the experience in the body.

And then notice what happens to the hindrance as you observe it.

Does it last?

Does it disappear and then reappear?

Does it increase?

Does it diminish and weaken?

Just notice.

So see what you can learn about the hindrance and how you experience the hindrance.

Observe with an attitude that is relatively neutral.

Like standing back and watching.

So that we're not enhancing the hindrance.

We're not bolstering it so that we can see it more clearly.

We're not adding fuel to the lust so that we can truly experience the sensations more vividly.

We're not adding fuel to the anger or irritation so that we can really have a full-fledged experience of that hindrance.

We're recognizing it but then we're stepping back to get a good view of it and to see what is this dynamic in the body and mind that occurs when a hindrance arises?

How does it affect the body?

How does it affect the quality of the attention?

How does it affect our capacity to know the experience that is happening now?

Do we go off into a story to justify our desire or our aversion?

Do we react in one way or another?

Sometimes there's aversion so we react to try to seek pleasure.

There's so many things the mind can do and what we do as meditators is we just take one little it's not a physical step back of course because we're sitting but it's an illusion to a sense of stepping back and watching.

What's happening now?

And from that perspective we can meet the experience with the balanced equanimous mind and from that perspective we can gain a view that brings wisdom to the situation.

And so then with mindfulness and wisdom look to see is the hindrance still there?

Not always but very often we'll find that the hindrance will have passed.

It will have ended because now there's mindfulness and wisdom that is stronger than the force of that hindrance.

So in the passing of the hindrance we can be mindful of that,

We can be mindful of the passing of the hindrance not just the arising and occurrence of the hindrance we can be aware of its ending,

Its ceasing.

And then experience the quality of mind in the absence of the hindrance.

Now both parts are very important.

The recognizing of the presence of the hindrance that's important we have to know that investigate it.

Understand how it arose,

How the attention met the situation that allowed that hindrance to proliferate.

But we also must be mindful of the absence of the hindrance,

Of the ending of the hindrance and be mindful and aware of those conditions in which the hindrances do not arise.

So what is the quality of the mind affected by the hindrance and what is the quality of the mind that is unaffected by the hindrance where the hindrances are not affecting it.

I mentioned desire and aversion because these for many people are the strong ones,

They're the vivid ones,

They hurt the most and so they're the easiest to see.

I think it may be more common though in meditation to experience the subtler hindrances of sloth and torpor and restlessness,

That energetic imbalance of when the mind dulls out or gets a little bit restless and distracted and starts thinking and wandering and then gets dull again and then wanders off and gets dull again and wanders off.

That movement may be more subtle,

It may be harder to see but we can investigate it in the very same way.

We recognize the presence,

We identify the hindrance,

We see the conditions that allow that hindrance to arise and we experience how it affects the body and mind.

We lean back,

We look at,

We observe,

Aha,

Look at this hindrance,

What can I learn from it?

And we notice that it also will at some point pass or we'll notice sometime later,

Oh,

It's not present,

It's absent.

And so we get to know that state also.

And in this way there's a balance of mind in working with the hindrances.

We work skillfully to understand their arising so that we can free the mind from them.

And then when we see the mind free from the hindrances,

Ah,

What joy,

A wholesome joy.

Experience that joy.

A mind free from the hindrances is not just kind of a blank mind where nothing's happening.

Notice that there'll be some degree of ease,

Some degree of calmness,

Of peace,

Some degree of pleasure.

And it's a kind of pleasure that isn't going to be stimulating the lust of sensual pleasure.

It's going to be the joy associated with the wholesome mind,

A balanced mind.

Let your mind be enriched by that,

Be nurtured by that wholesome state.

When the hindrance of doubt arises,

It often arises in conjunction with proliferation of thoughts and views and beliefs.

It's often beliefs about ourselves or beliefs about the practice and how we can't meditate or we're no good and the practice doesn't work and it's no good.

We can go sometimes into a sequence of speculative thoughts that only entangle ourselves in confusion where one query leads to another fruitless query and then another fruitless query and then another,

Each one kind of bringing us into a greater state of agitation.

It may be you've at some point in your life seen your mind go down that track.

To come out of doubt,

We usually have to really take that step back and see the thoughts and views as just thoughts and views.

See how we're giving them more reality than they merit,

How we're buying into and investing and believing in very self-destructive ideas.

And as those ideas and tanks circle around and get tied up in knots,

Our own potential gets thwarted and we get sunk in doubt.

It can paralyze us from being able to take the action that we most want and that is most needed,

To take the wise action,

The compassionate action.

The most important thing in working with doubt is to not believe it.

Whatever those doubting thoughts are,

Just say,

I see this as doubt.

It's not true,

It's doubt.

And then work with it as you would any other hindrance.

See the effect that it has on body and mind.

Take that step back to understand its dynamic.

Notice when it's present and notice when it is absent.

And don't believe the doubting mind.

It's just a thought.

And often it's a thought that is not based on any reality other than fear or insecurity or worry or anxiety.

They're not the thoughts we want to put forward in our lives.

They're not the thoughts that we want to reinforce.

And so as we sit in this meditation session,

Should any hindrance arise,

Sensual desire,

Ill will,

Sloth and torpor,

Dullness or restlessness and agitation and distraction or doubt,

Notice that it's present.

And should they not arise,

You'll still be working with the hindrances to notice that they are absent.

Notice that they are absent.

And let that joy inform your experience and continue to fuel your development of mindfulness,

Mindfulness of sitting,

Mindfulness of breathing,

Mindfulness of feelings,

Mindfulness of mind,

Mindfulness of your entire experience right now,

Right here.

Reviews

Helpful practice in recognizing and working with hindrances.

Currently enrolled in Shaila’s online course about overcoming the hindrances. Very helpful!

This perspective of meditating on hindrances has been a revelation to me. Helping me deal with feelings that arise. Much thanks

Wonderful objective. Observe and let go.
Thank you

Love this one !!!!

Nice combination of guidance and silence, thank you.

I loved this! Will be re-listening for sure! Thankyou💚

Gold content, the format might decide between podcast and guided meditation. The current in between is slightly frustrating.

I hope you have more meditations in the future,you have a calming and peaceful voice! Shaila thank you your friend Rudy 🌿

Just what I needed to hear. 🙏🏻🌺

The rhythm of your words kept bringing me back to stillness. I recognize my own hinderances as they appear. Thank you.

Welcome, accept and learn from hindrances. Mine are torpor and restlessness and I so appreciate a different way to respond to them. Thank you.

What a refreshing, insightful and extraordinary practice! Bookmarked. Namaste!