Talk: The Hindrances To Meditation And The Joy Of Freedom From Them

So I've mentioned the hindrances a few times thus far and I'll go into detail with them about them every session every session from here on for the next five sessions I'll be talking about one of the hindrances.

So the five hindrances are these and please excuse me repeating them to those people who know them very well.

No harm in hearing it again.

First hindrance is called sensual desire and it is an obsessiveness with sensual pleasures basically,

Things of the senses anything from anything that you know we can consume through the senses and in the senses there are six senses in Buddhism sight,

Sound,

Smell,

Touch,

Taste and mind.

So just understand it things that are pleasurable watch your addictions to them.

These sensual desire or desire for something pleasurable is very is a hindrance to meditation it pulls us out of the moment it pulls us out of being present with things as they really are and we cloud our experience we color our experience with our desires.

I'll go into details about that that particularly hindrance tomorrow morning but just be aware of it for the moment.

The next hindrance is ill will actually I haven't I've got things on the net but it probably best to stay stay within the retreat for the moment.

There's the next hindrance is ill will.

Ill will is a kind of ill will and often it's called anger as well but I think anger is the way it manifests.

Ill will is the hindrance.

Ill will is this rejection,

Aversion,

Pushing away,

Condemnation,

Struggle with.

It is limiting,

It's divisive,

It's when you judging everything and you're feeling irritable with things and frustrated and nothing quite right.

That's ill will,

It's a hindrance.

Be aware of it.

There are ways we work with it and we'll explain these ways a little bit later.

The next one is called sloth and torpor.

It means this kind of thickness and dullness of mind usually manifests as sleepiness and there are antidotes for this as well.

Probably the best antidote is just to open your eyes and stand up if that's the case and do something that'll clarify your mind.

It's a hindrance but also be aware that we are often sleep deprived.

If you're feeling really sleepy in the meditations it may be because you just need to have a rest.

You need to have a little lie down anyway.

You're probably working really hard and you know we come on a retreat.

The first thing we notice on a retreat is sloth and torpor.

We just kind of want to have a lie down.

If you're feeling really sleepy and you just can't stand up,

Can't wake up,

Go off and have a little rest.

We've got a long lunchtime period.

That's a good time to have a rest to catch up.

But also you know don't beat yourself up about that one.

We're so sleep deprived we need to have a rest and you'll find the first couple of days often it's you'll be feeling a little bit of sloth and torpor.

But when it becomes when you no longer need a rest,

It becomes a hindrance,

You need to work with it.

And as I said before some of the best ways of working with it is actually getting up,

Moving outside,

Looking at light,

Opening your eyes,

Moving around,

Doing activities that energize you and clarify your mind.

The next hindrance is restlessness.

Restlessness is this mind that's going all over the place.

Scattered mind,

Thinking a lot.

Often it's also called restlessness and worry,

But probably should be called restlessness and rumination when you're thinking about things that happened in the past and feeling regret and remorse about activities that things you've done in the past.

Look just know them for the moment.

And the last hindrance is called paralyzing doubt.

It's this sense of uncertainty about what you're supposed to do.

I'm just briefly giving you an explanation of these hindrances right now.

The paralyzing doubt is uncertainty about what's going on.

What should I be doing?

Or even kind of wondering about why are we sitting here meditating,

Being aware of our bones in our body.

How is that going to work with being free from my particular issue?

This is rubbish,

This is stupid.

And you look up,

Open your eyes and see all these people meditating away and you think,

Oh this is dumb,

I'm not gonna do this.

So paralyzing doubt is paralyzing because it stops us moving forward.

So I'll give you more details about that later.

But for the moment just to acknowledge those hindrances is enough.

And as a way of finding some joy and I'll talk about this more later as well,

To find some joy in when you're free from the hindrances,

To notice when you're free from the hindrances,

Albeit temporarily brings joy and utilize that joy for your practice.

Like for example right now I bet you're not,

Well I can't bet anything actually I'm not sure,

But you could say right now I'm not obsessed with the chocolate in the fridge.

So you're free from,

Temporarily free from central desire.

Isn't that wonderful?

Pat yourself on the back,

Fantastic.

Being free from central desire has been compared to someone being free from debt.

Right now I bet you're not feeling like you want to murder everyone on this retreat,

Is that right?

You probably feel pretty good towards one another.

So you're free from ill will.

Isn't that lovely?

I bet you're not,

Well I can,

I'm taking a guess here,

I'm hoping that you're not having any ill will towards me and I place a good bet that you're probably not,

You're probably not thinking that you want to murder me or you know get me out of the road or rub me out or anything like that.

Celebrate in that,

That's freedom from ill will.

Fantastic.

Freedom from ill will has been compared to overcoming a horrible illness.

So take joy in that.

It's like ill will is considered as a horrible affliction.

Celebrate in the fact that temporarily you're not experiencing any ill will.

Isn't that fantastic?

Overcoming sloth and torpor,

Like for example,

All of you I think you've got your eyes open and you're paying attention to me right now.

So you're temporarily,

I'm not sure of some of you because I can't see your faces,

But temporarily you're free from sloth and torpor,

Your mind is clear.

You're not falling off to sleep and your mind is not completely dull.

This has been compared to being released from prison,

Getting out of prison.

So the fact that you're free from sloth and torpor right now,

You can rejoice in that.

It's like being free from prison.

The next one,

Restlessness and worry.

I'm not sure how your minds are,

But if you've experienced a moment of peace,

A moment of quietude when the thinking mind and the discursive mind and the prattling on and on and on and on and on,

It's just a little bit at a distance.

You have some temporary freedom from restlessness.

That's been compared to being freed from slavery and I would imagine being a slave and then suddenly being freed.

I mean I can only imagine that from movies that I've seen and so on,

But it's been compared to being free from slavery.

And freedom from paralyzing doubt has been compared to arriving at a destination after an arduous and dangerous journey.

Actually it goes on to details about this.

It's arriving at this destination and not having lost any of your possessions along the way.

Arriving at this destination and being safe and sound and getting there,

That's been,

That is compared to what it's like to be free from paralyzing doubt.

Isn't that wonderful?

So please celebrate and rejoice in even the temporary freedom from the hindrances.

All right?