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The five hindrances
followthepath
Explorer
Greetings everyone. I read How to Wake Up: A Buddhist Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow by Toni Bernhard. It was a great book, but I'm still having a little difficulty understanding some of the concepts.
Skeptical doubt is one of the five hindrances. Does it only apply to Buddhist teachings or can one be doubtful about other things, such as what career to pursue, what person to get involved with romantically, etc.?
Also, desire for sense pleasure is another hindrance. I think it's natural for human beings to want pleasure. Are all sensual desires hindrances? Should I be mindful of all my sensual desires or actively try not to pursue things that gratify me?
Thanks!
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Comments
The hindrances(nivaranas) are specific to the practice of meditation.
There are 5 hindrances to achieving a successful condition for a good meditation session.
Doubt about the practice or its efficacy is a hindrance. So is desire for sense pleasures while doing meditation. Instead of just observing the primary object eg. breath, one indulges in pursuing one's fantasies for example.
I feel this is referring to doubt about the teachings. This includes any meditative tradition. Not only Buddhism.
How can one progress in meditative practice if one has no faith in the words of the teacher?
Initially we must have faith in the words of those who know from living that life. We must trust that their guidance will lead us in the right direction. By teacher I mean those we know personally and those whose writings we have read who claim to know directly.
If their words feel true in our hearts and after close analysis, they make sense intellectually. If they suit our character, we must have faith they will guide us in the right way. We have no experience ourselves. So this means we need external guidance to begin our journey.
After we have gained some insight and experience as practitioners; faith plays a lesser part. Because we know from having practiced ourselves that the teachings are valid. We know those words are true because we've experienced directly. No need for faith anymore, we know for ourselves because we live it.
Yes all sensual pleasures are hindrances. They hinder because they cause us to seek pleasure in the world. When an object causes gratification We attach to it.
We seek it. We desire more of it. It becomes an escape. If We are seeking pleasure then when do we have time to practice living meditatively? The desire for pleasure; for quick gratification may cause us to turn away from our journey. We forget about practicing and seek pleasure.
The main function of practicing is to overcome old habitual tendencies. We want to create New beneficial tendencies which promote more practice. Practicing more will lead to the dissolution of more tendencies and on and on and on in this way. We work to uncondition Consciousness of its old tendencies which promote suffering.
Did you know that even moments of happiness are considered moments of suffering? Why is this so? Because consciousness shifts between extremes. One moment we're happy. The next we're sad. Like a bouncing ball. Changing moment to moment never being stable. Shifting states of consciousness is the cause of suffering. Consciousness shifts because of our perception of objects within our mental and physical world. If there is complete acceptance, if there is always neutrality, How can we suffer? What is there to suffer from? We are neutral towards all objects.
When We desire an object which gives us pleasure and its not available we suffer. We suffer because we want that which we cannot have. And we crave continuously until it becomes ours. But it only gives us temporary satisfaction. Then we seek some other object or situation for happiness. None of which is permanent.
The practice of meditation is to bring that cycle to its end. To create neutrality or even mindedness in consciousness towards every object that appears and in everything we do.
This has been my experience. Others may differ. But don't take my word for it. Practice! Practice! Practice! and you also will realize this most essential truth.
No, they apply to practice generally.
Skeptical doubt is like a chronic lack of confidence in teachings and methods. For example if you don't think that meditation will be of any benefit it's unlikely you'll be motivated to do it regularly. But of course if you don't meditate regularly it's unlikely that you'll feel any benefit.
No ice cream for you!
It is a question of knowing. The nature of experience is transitory. There is also freedom in our samsara or dukkha BUT this is further along for most of us. It is difficult to practice without calm, equanimity and a stabilised life and/or practice. Nobody needs a tight ass.
Relax dude, otherwise we might have to set the Buddha to practice on you ...
http://www.fodian.net/world/1325.html
Too wikid?
Agree. And meditation should not be limited to cushion time only. Come to think of it, the whole of one's life can be a meditation practice.
@followthepath
I'll just add a little, you got some great advice up there ^^^.
As you deepen your practice, I find doubts come up. It's the mind dictating what I should do. Trust your instinct rather than mind sometimes.
I heard a great quote! Can't remember who from.
Aversion Is like grabbing a snake by the head, bites you straight away.
Craving (sense pleasures) is like grabbing the tail. It will bite you eventually.
Unless your a snake wrangler.
I think it's primarily referring to doubt in the context of our practice, but it can be applied more broadly, as well. That said, I don't think it means that all doubt is bad.
In AN 3.65, for example, the Kalama's doubt and uncertainty about various doctrines leads them to a search for truth. Moreover, according to the Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, the Pali term vicikiccha, which is often translated as 'skeptical doubt' and 'uncertainty,' is described in the Visuddhimagga as "the lack of desire to think (things out i.e. to come to a conclusion; vigata-cikiccha, desiderative to √ cit, to think); it has the nature of wavering, and its manifestation is indecision and a divided attitude; its proximate cause is unwise attention to matters of doubt."
So the hindrance or fetter of doubt (vicikiccha-samyojana) isn't necessary doubt so much as doubt that leads to indecision and extreme skepticism.
As for the attitude of Buddhism towards skepticism in general, I think it attempts to navigate a middle way between absolutism and extreme skepticism, as well as between the more well-known extremes of sever asceticism/self-mortification and excessive self-indulgence. For example, David Kalupahana offers an interesting perspective when he concludes in A History of Buddhist Philosophy that:
When it comes to sense desires, I don't think one has to run away from pleasurable experiences so much as be mindful of the greed and covetousness that arises in relation to them.
On a meditation retreat I was once on, the theme of one of the talks centred on a comparison between the process of building a fire using the bow method and the process of developing mindfulness, and how consistency of effort and the right materials are the key.
Essentially, our minds aren't really conditioned to focus on a single object for long periods of time and are easily distracted, especially by the five hindrances, i.e., sensual desires (covetous or greed for pleasurable sense experiences), anger/ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and skeptical doubt/uncertainty. Ajahn Sudanto, who was leading the retreat, gave the image of them (taken from Ajahn Sona) as things pulling the mind, pushing the mind, the mind rising up, the mind sinking down, and the mind spinning around.
To counter these mental states, which are like trying to use wet, rotten logs and grasses to start a fire, the meditator seeks to develop the five factors of the first jhana, i.e., applied thought, sustained thought, happiness, joy, and one-pointedness of mind, which are like using nice, dry logs and grasses to start a fire when consistent effort and energy is put into vigorously sawing the drill until it starts to heat up and ignites the kindling, which here represents using applied and sustained thought with consistent effort and energy to keep the meditation object, the breath, in mind.
And the smoke in the analogy is the beginning of mindfulness and the accompanying joy and happiness that arise when the mind starts to become one-pointed, a combination of mental and bodily pleasure that can eventually be used to develop even more refined states of concentration and enjoyment, free the mind of the hindrances, and open it up for arising of insight.
I think it does not mean that you don't carefully consider what you are receiving in the way of teaching and observation in meditation. What it means is that you ignore the monkey mind saying that you are wasting your time.
Thank you @Jason for those lovely explanatory paragraphs. Very well relayed and received. =]