If we look into our experience with honesty, curiosity and openness and we wonder what is between us and a state of ease? What is getting in the way? Where is the resistance?

These five hindrances will arise when we question what is the stuff that comes up that keeps our natural awareness from resting as it actually wants to rest.

The Five Hindrances

1. Craving
2. Agression
3. Dullness
4. Restlessness
5. Doubt

Can be broken down into groups, or pairs

1. Craving & Aggression
2. Dullness & Restlessness
3. Doubt

Craving

1. Craving - Desirous and craving, we are not completely at ease, there is an itch to scratch, it’s hard to just be, reaching out to find something in the world
   1. The practice is to just notice the hindrance. We are using insight in the moment to notice the arising of craving

Aggression

1. Aggression - ill will, pushing something away. A crying baby on an airplane, a smell coming in that we want to go away, a person that is difficult to be with
   1. We can then see the desire to get rid of something. This isn’t just unpleasant. There is usually alot of mental stuff going on. This really poitns to the complexity and richness of this fourth foundation
   2. We notice it, we abide with it and allow it to dissolve

Dullness

1. Dullness - Laziness - Sloth: A sense of lethargy (Sloth, being sunken in). We can just note that it is there.
   1. People will always come to us and ask “what do we do when we are tired?“. This simple attitude of noticing, “I am sleepy”.

Restlessness

1. Restlessness - Agitation: Being stirred up.

Doubt

1. Opens the possibility for unseeing our entire meditation practice. We can doubt ourself “Maybe this isn’t for me”, “my mind is too wild”. We can doubt the practice itself, “Maybe this isn’t effective”.
2. This hindrance can be the blocker for people even getting into practice in general. It’s a sneaky one and can really unwind it all

As we work with doubt, we are also developing our innate strength, confidence and worthiness into our human experience. This confidence, fully leaning into and trusting our innate goodness we can take this to Buddhahood.

Sāmaññaphalasutta - 4.3.2.4. Giving Up the Hindrances - Source

Suppose a man who has gotten into debt were to apply himself to work, The happiness of meditation is hard to understand without practicing, so the Buddha gives a series of five similes to illustrate in terms Ajātasattu would understand.and his efforts proved successful. He would pay off the original loan and have enough left over to support his partner. Thinking about this, he’d be filled with joy and happiness.

Suppose there was a person who was sick, suffering, gravely ill. They’d lose their appetite and get physically weak. But after some time they’d recover from that illness, and regain their appetite and their strength. Thinking about this, they’d be filled with joy and happiness.

Suppose a person was imprisoned in a jail. But after some time they were released from jail, safe and sound, with no loss of wealth. Thinking about this, they’d be filled with joy and happiness.

Suppose a person was a bondservant. They would not be their own master, but indentured to another, unable to go where they wish. But after some time they’d be freed from servitude. They would be their own master, not indentured to another, an emancipated individual able to go where they wish. Thinking about this, they’d be filled with joy and happiness.

Suppose there was a person with wealth and property who was traveling along a desert road, which was perilous, with nothing to eat. But after some time they crossed over the desert safely, arriving within a village, a sanctuary free of peril. Thinking about this, they’d be filled with joy and happiness.

In the same way, as long as these five hindrances are not given up inside themselves, a mendicant regards them thus as a debt, a disease, a prison, slavery, and a desert crossing. The five hindrances remain a pillar of meditation teaching. The root sense means to “obstruct” but also to “obscure, darken, veil”.

But when these five hindrances are given up inside themselves, a mendicant regards this as freedom from debt, good health, release from prison, emancipation, and a place of sanctuary at last. Each simile illustrates not the happiness of acquisition, but of letting go.

Seeing that the hindrances have been given up in them, joy springs up. Being joyful, rapture springs up. When the mind is full of rapture, the body becomes tranquil. When the body is tranquil, they feel bliss. And when blissful, the mind becomes immersed. The Buddha did not emphasize technical details of technique, but the emotional wholeness and joy that leads to deep meditation.

Resources

Suttas

Sāmaññaphalasutta - 4.3.2.4. Giving Up the Hindrances - Source

Joseph Goldstein

Desire - https://dharmaseed.org/talks/294/
Aversion - https://dharmaseed.org/talks/295/
Sloth & Torpor - https://dharmaseed.org/talks/296/
Restlessness - https://dharmaseed.org/talks/297/
Doubt - https://dharmaseed.org/talks/298/