Mike Reads AN 5.51 - Five Hinderances

0:00Welcome to the virtual Sangha podcast from virtualsangha.org. Looking to learn more about Buddhism and connect with friends on the path, or maybe you're an experienced practitioner and you enjoy keeping a beginner's mind. Wherever you're at in your journey, you're invited to visit virtualsangha.org to browse our resources there and connect with our supportive and inclusive community on Discord. Find a link in the show notes for more information and now on with the show. I take refuge in the Buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life.

1:02Buddha M. Saranam Gashame. I take refuge in the Dhamma, the way of understanding and of love. Dhamma M. Saranam Gashame. I take refuge in the Sangha, the community that lives in harmony and awareness. Sangha M. Saranam Gashame. homage to the blessed one, the exalted one, the fully enlightened Lord Buddha. Namotasa Bhagavato Rahato Samasambhara. Namotasa Bhagavato Rahato Samasambhara. Namotasa Bhagavato Rahato Samasambhara. Thank you for joining me today. We're going to be reading from Angutara Nakaya 551. This is a discourse on the five hindrances.

2:05If I were teaching somebody about Buddhism, this would be one of the very early things that I would include after maybe an introduction to the four noble truths and the eightfold path. Because once we start to practice, then challenges come up for us. And it'll be different for each person. I may have certain habits or past karma or traumas that create a certain obstacle for me that cause some sort of doubt or hesitation. For somebody else, they might not have those same habits, karmas, traumas. They might have a certain tendency towards laziness

3:05or some other obstacle to get in their way. I think that's part of the reason why there are so many different books on Buddhism and courses on Buddhism. It's because we all come at it with different ideas that we're holding on to. And if we start at point A from my journey and go through everything that I had to overcome in order, that might be very different from your journey. The first thing that I need to overcome might be the last thing that you need to overcome and vice versa. So teachings like this one of the five hindrances that lays them all out at the same time and then allows you to identify and apply to your own practice and say,

4:05okay, I see this hindrance is present when I try to meditate or maybe this other hindrance is present. And then you can dive deeper on that particular hindrance, whatever it is for you. So this is sort of a starting point for you to explore what might be more beneficial for you in your practice. So this is Angutara Nakaya 551. Thus have I heard, at one time the Buddha was staying near Savati in Jetta's Grove, Anatapandika's monastery. There, the Buddha addressed the monks, saying monks. Yes, venerable sir, they replied. The Buddha said thus, mendicants, there are these five obstacles or hindrances. These are like parasites of the mind that weaken your wisdom.

5:06What five? First there is sensual desire, then there is ill will, then dullness and drowsiness, then restlessness and remorse, and finally doubt. These are the five obstacles or hindrances like parasites of the mind that weaken wisdom. Consider a disciple who has feeble and weak wisdom. Not having given up these five obstacles or hindrances, these parasites of the mind that weaken wisdom. It is quite impossible that they would know what's for their own good, the good of another, or the good of both, or that they would realize any superhuman distinction and knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. Suppose there was a mountain river that flowed swiftly, going far, carrying all before it, but then a man would open channels on both sides,

6:12so that the river's current would be dispersed, displaced and separated. The river would no longer flow swiftly, going far. In the same way, consider a disciple who has feeble and weak wisdom. Not having given up these five obstacles or hindrances, these parasites of the mind that weaken wisdom. It is not possible that they would know what's for their own good, the good of another, or the good of both, or that they would realize any superhuman distinction and knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. Consider a disciple who does have powerful wisdom, having given up these five obstacles and hindrances, these parasites of the mind. It is quite possible that they would know what's for their own good, the good of another, the good of both, or that they would realize any superhuman distinction and knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones.

7:15Suppose there was a mountain river that flowed swiftly, going far, carrying all before it, but then a man would close up the channels on both sides, so that the river's current would not be dispersed, displaced or separated. The river would keep flowing swiftly for a long time, carrying all before it. In the same way, consider a disciple who has powerful wisdom, having given up these five obstacles and hindrances, these parasites of the mind that weaken wisdom. It is quite possible that they would know what's for their own good, the good of another, or the good of both, or that they would realize any superhuman distinction and knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. So that concludes Angutaranakaya 551.

8:15It talked about the five hindrances, and those hindrances, again, were sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt. A few notes on these five desires, when it says sensual desire, we tend to think of that as being illicit or sex-related. It can be anything, it can be food, it could be comfort, it can also be distraction, entertainment, because although we typically think of five senses in Buddhism, the mind itself is a sixth sense. So things that we enjoy doing with our mind, such as being distracted or being entertained, is a form of sensual desire.

9:17Ill will is, of course, hate ill will, wishing evil on another person. Doleness and drowsiness, that's pretty self-explanatory. Restlessness and remorse, this is an unhealthy form of regret with repentance. There is a healthy form of regret where we recognize that our unskillful actions have caused suffering for ourselves or others, and we see the results of that, we acknowledge that we can do better and we resolve to do better. That's healthy, remorse and regret. Unhealthy restlessness and remorse, this obstacle to practice, is wishing that we had done something differently in the past and dwelling on that and replaying it in our minds and thinking, man, I wish I had done this or I hope I do something different in the future, but not in that kind of healthy way, but in a sort of ruminating kind of way.

10:28That's something that I personally struggle with a lot and that can come from trauma as well as we replay things in our minds and try to think of ways that we wish they had been different. But of course, as normal of a response as that is, it's not really helpful. And then finally, there's doubt and doubt can come in a couple different forms. It can be doubt in the Dharma or in our teachers. It can also be doubt in ourselves. So you may have full faith in the Dharma, but not necessarily in your own ability to practice it. So there are those two kinds of branches of doubt in this hindrance. So you can look at your own practice and see which of these five hindrances is coming up for you. When you go to meditate, do you have a sense of that sensual desire that desire to be entertained, the desire to be fed, the desire to be comforted?

11:40Is there something about your physical senses or your mental activity that makes you not want to be present in your meditation? Do you have some anger or ill will that is blocking your compassion? Do you have some dullness or drowsiness that is causing you to just be lazy? Same thing for restlessness and remorse and doubt. So if one of these hindrances is something that you can easily identify in your practice, if this is something that when you have a hard time making a healthy choice, and you can see, okay, this is why this hindrance is coming up for me, then you can go and read or study or talk about it with your peers, and having that language of being able to identify, I have a problem with dullness and drowsiness, I have a problem with doubt.

12:41What can I find in the suitas about this subject or how have my friends overcome this in their own practice or what are they, what's their experience or their insight with it? So having that language and being able to identify it and use that as an entry point to find more resources to have for the conversations is extremely helpful. And it's something that will change from time to time, so you may feel like dullness and drowsiness is your biggest obstacle right now. And maybe you'll overcome that and then ill will or central desire will be your greatest obstacle. So as we learn these things, we eventually face all of them. And as we as we practice with them, we'll be able to share our practice with others and benefit from them sharing as well. So I hope that this has been a helpful introduction. I shared in the Dharma study channel, some links to the Zen Studies podcast by Domeo Burke, where she does a really, really great job, like a three part exploration of the five hindrances in much more detail.

14:01And so if that is something that may be helpful for you, I'd highly recommend checking out her podcast. And that does it for today's Suta reading. Thank you very much for joining. I'm going to dedicate the merit and then close out. Reciting the sutras, practicing the way of awareness gives rise to benefits without limit. We vow to share the fruits with all beings. We vow to offer tribute to parents, teachers, friends and numerous beings who give guidance and support along the path.