The Buddha taught that there are five hindrances to realizing enlightenment.
They are:
- Sensual desire
- Ill will
- Sloth, torpor, or drowsiness
- Restlessness and worry
- Uncertainty or skepticism
These mental states are called “hindrances” because they bind us to ignorance and to suffering (dukkha). Realizing the liberation of enlightenment requires unbinding ourselves from the hindrances. But how do you do that?
Practicing With the Five Hindrances” rather than “Getting Rid of the Five Hindrances,” cannot be ignored or wished away. Ultimately, the hindrances are states we are creating for ourselves, but until we perceive this personally, they will be a problem.
Much of the Buddha’s advice about the hindrances relates to meditation. But in truth, practice never ceases, and usually what comes up repeatedly in meditation is an issue for us all the time. With every hindrance, the first step is to recognize it, acknowledge it, and understand that you are the one making it “real.
In this moment, I would like to Highlight one of the main antidotes to the Five hinderances.
DO YOU HAVE A NOBLE FRIEND?
The one antidote that is the same for all five main hindrances is to have noble friends and noble conversations. To have the kind of friends with whom one discusses not gossip, not the weather, politics or other people, but the way of emancipation through Dharma. Those kinds of friends are the most important people in one’s life.
When Ananda the Buddha’s cousin and attendant once said to the Buddha, Sir, a good friend is half of the holy life.
The Buddha replied– Do not say so Ananda. A good friend is the whole of the Holy life!!
There is nothing that can take the place of a spiritual friend. This is the most important person in one’s life. The kind of friend who helps one remember to be on the path.
It is a matter of remembering. When we remember, we can do it. Time and time again we forget our temptations. The noble conversations we have with such a person helps us to look at ourselves and see that our problems come from craving and wanting.
We don’t want to eat poisons or fill our bodies with rubbish food. By the same token, we should not fill our minds with poisonous talk, negative media, social media noise and so on. The mind must be fed constantly with righteous talk. The talk that uplifts, the talk that helps, sooths, calms and most of all helps us to see our way out of the problems that beset every human being.
When we have the good fortune to have a noble friend with whom we can have noble conversations, then it is also our way of repaying that goodness by being a noble friend to others.
Noble friends are like a chain reaction. We do not need to search for one. We can also be one.
At Kuadra, we are dedicated to having noble conversations. We understand the importance of finding and staying on the right path. We know that we cannot just talk in theory but we must practice in daily life. We live in strange times, where the one who is your friend today, will become your enemy tomorrow. Many people are isolated with their thoughts and feelings and they simply cannot trust those around them. Even the so called spiritualists, therapists and healers, are unable to practice the hindrances and therefore unable to hold sacred space for others.
Mara (devil) is in the mind and too many times we fall prey to temptation. Keep us as your noble friend and be noble to others along your way.
NAMASTE. I honor the Buddha Nature in You!
