I've been studying the Five Hindrances and compiled these discourse references that I found helpful for my own practice. I organized them this way to make sense of the topic and wanted to share in case it's useful to others.
Similes for hindrances (DN 2, SN 46.55)
- Sensual desire: like being in debt, or a bowl of water that was mixed with dye
- Ill will: like having a serious illness, or a bowl of water that was heated by fire, boiling and bubbling
- Dullness and drowsiness: like being in prison, or a bowl of water overgrown with moss and aquatic plants
- Anxiety and remorse: like being a slave, or a bowl of water stirred by the wind
- Doubt: like being lost in a dangerous desert, or a bowl of water that was cloudy, murky, and muddy, hidden in the darkness
Hindrances as the nutriment for ignorance (AN 10.61, SN 46.2)
- "Mendicants, it is said that no prior point of ignorance is evident, before which there was no ignorance, and afterwards it came to be.
- And yet it is evident that there is a specific condition for ignorance.
- I say that ignorance is fueled by something, it’s not unfueled.
- And what is the fuel for ignorance?
- You should say: ‘The five hindrances.’"
Lack of ethics and lack of sense restraint as the nutriment for the hindrances (AN 10.61, SN 46.2, MN 2)
- "I say that the five hindrances are fueled by something, they’re not unfueled.
- And what is the fuel for the five hindrances?
- You should say: ‘The three kinds of misconduct.’
- I say that the three kinds of misconduct are fueled by something, they’re not unfueled.
- And what is the fuel for the three kinds of misconduct?
- You should say: ‘Lack of sense restraint.’"
- ---
- "Mendicants, this body is sustained by food. It depends on food to continue, and without food it doesn’t continue.
- In the same way, the five hindrances are sustained by fuel. They depend on fuel to continue, and without fuel they don’t continue.
- And what fuels the arising of sensual desire, or, when it has arisen, makes it increase and grow?
- There is the feature of beauty.
- Frequent irrational application of mind to that
- fuels the arising of sensual desire, or, when it has arisen, makes it increase and grow."
Specific counters to the five hindrances (SN 8.4, SN 35.247, MN 65, MN 21, AN 4.163, AN 4.198, AN 5.161, AN 5.162, AN 7.61, AN 7.65, AN 11.2, SN 42.8, AN 3.61, AN 3.100, SN 55.7, AN 3.65):
- Sensual desire: perceive unattractiveness (SN 8.4), guard sense doors (SN 35.247), moderate eating (MN 65), see also AN 4.163/AN 4.198.
- Ill will: develop true friendliness and compassion (MN 21), plus AN 5.161–162 (five ways to remove resentment).
- Dullness and drowsiness: perseverance, cultivate the perception of light, change postures, wash face, go outdoors, look at the stars, or just taking a mindful sleep: AN 7.61 ('Nodding Off' Sutta) is the standard checklist.
- Restlessness and remorse: develop conscience and prudence, resolve moral and ethical leaks, fulfillment of virtue prevents remorse (AN 7.65, AN 11.2, SN 42.8).
- Doubt: study, memorize, ask questions, associate with the wise, practice in line with the teaching (AN 3.61, AN 3.100, SN 55.7, AN 3.65).
- ---
- "Mendicants, an ethical person, who has fulfilled ethical conduct, need not make a wish:
- ‘May I have no regrets!’
- It’s only natural that an ethical person has no regrets.
- When you have no regrets you need not make a wish:
- ‘May I feel joy!’
- It’s only natural that joy springs up when you have no regrets."
- ---
- "Mendicants, when there is no conscience (shame) and prudence (fear of consequences), one who lacks conscience and prudence has destroyed a vital condition for sense restraint.
- When there is no sense restraint, one who lacks sense restraint has destroyed a vital condition for ethical conduct.
- When there is no ethical conduct, one who lacks ethics has destroyed a vital condition for right immersion.
- When there is no right immersion, one who lacks right immersion has destroyed a vital condition for true knowledge and vision.
- When there is no true knowledge and vision, one who lacks true knowledge and vision has destroyed a vital condition for disillusionment and dispassion.
- When there is no disillusionment and dispassion, one who lacks disillusionment and dispassion has destroyed a vital condition for knowledge and vision of freedom."
- ---
- "Even if low-down bandits were to sever you limb from limb with a two-handed saw, anyone who had a malevolent thought on that account would not be following my instructions.
- If that happens, you should train like this:
- ‘Our minds will not degenerate. We will blurt out no bad words. We will remain full of sympathy, with a heart of love and no secret hate.
- We will meditate spreading a heart of love to that individual. And with them as a basis, we will meditate spreading a heart full of love to everyone in the world: abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will.’
- That’s how you should train."
The antidote for the hindrances with clear benchmark ( MN 20, MN 22, AN 6.13)
- "Take another mendicant who says:
- ‘I’ve developed the heart’s release by compassion. I’ve cultivated it, made it my vehicle and my basis, kept it up, consolidated it, and properly implemented it.
- Yet somehow the thought of harming still occupies my mind.’
- They should be told, ‘Not so, venerable! Don’t say that. Don’t misrepresent the Buddha, for misrepresentation of the Buddha is not good. And the Buddha would not say that.
- It’s impossible, reverend, it cannot happen that the heart’s release by compassion has been developed and properly implemented,
- yet somehow thoughts of harming still occupies the mind.
- For it is the heart’s release by compassion that is the escape from thoughts of harming.’
- ---
- "Truly, mendicants, it is quite impossible to perform sensual acts (According to the commentary, this refers to sexual intercourse.) without sensual desires, sensual perceptions, and sensual thoughts."
What to practice and in what order -> the gradual training (Snp 2.14, AN 10.46, AN 3.70, MN 61, MN 51, MN 107, MN 62, MN 10, MN 118)
- "A sensible person would avoid the unchaste life, like a burning pit of coals. But if unable to remain chaste, they’d not transgress with another’s partner."
- ---
- “Sakyans, do you observe the sabbath with its eight factors?”
- “Sir, sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.”
- “That’s your loss, Sakyans, it’s your misfortune. In this life with its fear of sorrow and death, you sometimes keep the sabbath and you sometimes don’t.”
- ---
- "When someone is not ashamed to tell a deliberate lie, there is no bad deed they would not do, I say.
- So you should train like this: ‘I will not tell a lie, even for a joke.’"
- ---
- Constantly reflect on your bodily, verbal, and mental actions, whether it's has happened, is happening, or going to happen.
- There are plenty of exercises to be practiced as a perquisite even before attempting breath meditation.
- Be ethical, keeping and respecting the precepts, seeing danger in the slightest fault is the foundation and the start of the practice
- Then you progressively going through: contentment, senses restraint, moderate in eating, dedicate to wakefulness (basically try to eliminate the hindrances 24/7), mindfulness and awareness, frequent secluded lodgings, and have former sittings session to abandon the hindrances, this is what most of the meditation work is, jhanas should be the emergent result of your practice.
- Specifically on the hindrances:
- ---
- "Giving up covetousness for the world, they meditate with a heart rid of covetousness, cleansing the mind of covetousness.
- Giving up ill will and malevolence, they meditate with a mind rid of ill will, full of sympathy for all living beings, cleansing the mind of ill will.
- Giving up dullness and drowsiness, they meditate with a mind rid of dullness and drowsiness, perceiving light, mindful and aware, cleansing the mind of dullness and drowsiness.
- Giving up restlessness and remorse, they meditate without restlessness, their mind peaceful inside, cleansing the mind of restlessness and remorse.
- Giving up doubt, they meditate having gone beyond doubt, not undecided about skillful qualities, cleansing the mind of doubt.
- They give up these five hindrances, corruptions of the heart that weaken wisdom.
- Then, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, they enter and remain in the first absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of seclusion, while placing the mind and keeping it connected.
- As the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, they enter and remain in the second absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without placing the mind and keeping it connected.
- And with the fading away of rapture, they enter and remain in the third absorption, where they meditate with equanimity, mindful and aware, personally experiencing the bliss of which the noble ones declare, ‘Equanimous and mindful, one meditates in bliss.’
- With the giving up of pleasure and pain and the disappearance of former happiness and sadness, they enter and remain in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness."
Results should be expected if you've practiced correctly and put in sufficient conditions, whether you pray for it or not (SN 22.101)
- "Suppose there was a chicken with eight or ten or twelve eggs.
- And she properly sat on them to keep them warm and incubated.
- That chicken might not wish:
- ‘If only my chicks could break out of the eggshell with their claws and beak and hatch safely!’
- But still they can break out and hatch safely.
- Why is that?
- Because that chicken with eight or ten or twelve eggs
- properly sat on them to keep them warm and incubated.
- In the same way, when a mendicant is committed to development, they might not wish:
- ‘If only my mind were freed from the defilements by not grasping!’ Even so, their mind is freed from defilements by not grasping.
- Why is that?
- You should say: ‘It’s because they are developed.’
- Developed in what?
- Developed in the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven awakening factors, and the noble eightfold path."