Nyanaponika Thera, in his Buddhist writings, states: “Unshakable deliverance of the mind is the highest goal in Buddha’s doctrine. Here, deliverance means the freeing of the mind from all limitations, fetters, and bonds that tie it to the Wheel of Suffering, to the Circle of Rebirth. It means cleansing the mind of all defilements that mar its purity; removing all obstructions that impede its progress from the mundane (lokiya) to the supermundane consciousness (lokuttara citta), that is, to Arahatship.”
Life’s spiritual path is paved with many hindrances and obstacles. Out of these many obstacles, Buddhism stresses five recurring hindrances (Nivaranas) that impede a person’s spiritual progress. They are:
1. Sensual desires (Kamachanda) derived from gratification from the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and physical sensation.
2. Ill will (Vyapada) – feelings of hostility, resentment, hatred, and bitterness.
3. Sloth and Torpor (Thina Middha) – half-hearted action with little or no effort or concentration.
4. Restlessness and Worry (Uddachha Kukucha) – inability to have a composed mind and focus one’s energy.
5. Skeptical Doubt or Indecision (Vicikiccha) – lack of conviction or trust in one’s abilities.
These five hindrances are potent negative forces in the mind that make a person lose mindfulness, hinder their ability to see things as they are, and become mentally focused and concentrated. Moreover, the five negative states of mind prevent a person from seeing clearly and making the right decisions, derailing them from their spiritual path to liberation. These hindrances are forces of distraction encountered by a person engaged in meditative practice and daily life. They prevent the development of concentration (Samadhi), which is a cornerstone of the path to liberation from suffering. It is only by constant and earnest efforts that the harmful influence of the five hindrances could be avoided.
Contaminated gold
The Buddha, using analogy, stated that the mind with five mental hindrances is comparable to gold contaminated with five impurities such as iron, copper, tin, lead, and silver, which make the gold not pliant, wieldy, or luminous but brittle and unable to be wrought well. But the mind that is free from such hindrances will be malleable, wieldy, luminous, and pliant and be able to concentrate properly by eradicating mental impurities and attaining wisdom. It is believed that the five mental defilements (kilesas) are not inherently wrong as they can provide opportunities for deeper insights into the nature of life’s suffering, compassion, and deliverance. The hindrances occur to a greater or lesser extent in every person.
The first hindrance, sensual desire, is the craving derived from the gratification of our five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. It is normal for an average person to get tempted by alluring sensual objects. Lack of self-control results in the inevitable arising of passions. They arise from positive emotions associated with our senses but tend to cause us to lose track of our goals. It is in the very nature of sensual desires that they can never be satisfied, as the mind is constantly detecting objects that are coming in through our five senses.
There is no end to the seeking of our enjoyment of pleasurable objects and their sensation. These sensual objects arise and disappear as do all other phenomena. Once you enjoy them, you are left with the same unsatiated desires for more gratification. As soon as a person experiences one object of sensual delight, rather than finding contentment and satisfaction from it, he becomes obsessed with new desires. A person who is obsessed with sensual pleasures assumes that happiness consists in submitting to the dictates of sensual desires, but real happiness eludes him as craving for sensual pleasures becomes insatiable.
This drives him to ceaseless pursuit of new sensual gratification. When the mind is attached to sensory experience, it gives rise to too many attachments in the world and it becomes completely entangled in worldly ways, and you become so trapped in delusion that you cannot see things in their true perspective. Attachments to sensual objects increase our greed, clinging, and grasping, and keep us bound to the wheel of samsara.
Sensual pleasures
Although the five hindrances cannot be eradicated before achieving stages of Awakening, they can be lessened to a great extent through mindfulness. The misconception that Buddhism gives an unfair valuation to sensual pleasures, to the neglect of their positive aspects, is not sustainable as the Buddha never dismissed sensual desires outright but admitted that sensuality can give a person a certain measure of happiness and satisfaction. But he declared that happiness based purely on sensuality is ephemeral and short-lived. It is the constant pursuit of sensory pleasures that bars inner peace and mindfulness, distracting us from our spiritual goals, that Buddhism does not approve of. Seeking pleasure is natural but excessive craving can tether us to the wheel of samsara, preventing deeper spiritual fulfillment. When that happens, the hope of reaching the end of suffering would become dismal until you overcome the sensual desires that cloud your mind.
Antidotes to sensual desires include renunciation, turning away from distracting stimuli, and investing the experience of desire with mindfulness that clouds our mind and prevents us from seeing the true nature of things. Similarly, when we are overcome by sensual desires, we should reflect and meditate on the true nature of our life and its ephemerality, knowing that one day we are all going to end up as decaying corpses. This kind of reflection weakens lustful thinking as we realise the imminence of our death (Joseph Goldstein). Regarding sensual desires arising out of taste, a person is expected to indulge in moderate consumption of food solely for maintaining and sustaining the body, not for enjoyment, beautifying, or adorning the body. Association and maintaining friendships with wise and noble friends also tend to mitigate sensual desires.
The second hindrance, ill will, is characterised by negative emotion towards a person, object, or situation. It refers to feelings of resentment, anger, and hostility. It is an unwholesome mental state that wishes harm and misfortune on others. It clouds our judgment, prevents us from looking at situations from their true perspective, and hampers our ability to feel compassion and empathy. A specific way of dealing with ill will when it is overpowering is to generate loving thoughts, wishing happiness and love to all beings everywhere and the specific person towards whom you direct your anger. Although initially, you may find it difficult to cultivate those wholesome thoughts, eventually anger is bound to dissipate and the mind becomes calm and collected. Another insightful way of dealing with anger and aversion is to reflect upon the law of karma and understand that we are all heirs to our actions. Karma is an immutable law of cause and effect, and we cannot avoid the consequences. The underlying intentions behind our actions determine the nature of their results.
The third hindrance is sloth and torpor, a compound word that combines both the emotional and somatic aspects of excessively low energy. It is a morbid state of the mind that refers to physical laxity, mental dullness, and callous indifference. It can manifest as sleepiness, a lack of motivation, and depression. It should not be understood as bodily drowsiness because Arahhants who have conquered these two states also experience bodily fatigue (Narada). An antidote for strong sloth and torpor would be refreshing the body by giving it a rest so that our mind becomes clear-headed and focused. Engaging in walking meditation and vigorous bodily movement will also act as an antidote.
The fourth hindrance is restlessness and worry. It is another impediment to spiritual progress. Here, the restless mind is likened to flustered bees in a shaken hive so that the mind cannot concentrate and focus on wholesome things. Moreover, an agitated and flustered mind prevents calmness and blocks the spiritual path. Similarly, worry is just as detrimental. People who worry over one thing and another, over things done or left undone, and over misfortunes are unable to have peace of mind. These unwholesome states of mind prevent concentration.
The fifth and last hindrance is skeptical doubt. It refers to a loss of trust and faith in Dhamma. There are two types of doubt: an unhealthy and unwholesome doubt that undermines a person’s spiritual practice, and a healthy doubt that informs the spiritual practice. A person entertaining healthy doubt should seek intelligent clarification and investigation of Dhamma as Buddha expounded in Kalama Sutta, while a person nursing unhealthy doubt is so prejudiced and cannot be convinced by any reasoning.
A person engaged in meditative practice sometimes tends to evaluate his practice, pondering constantly whether any benefit would accrue to him by it. Any doubt and lack of confidence entertained by a person in this regard are bound to impede his spiritual practice. When a doubt arises in a person, it is important to recognise it as a doubt and realise that it is constantly changing. Another way to resolve a doubt concerning meditative practice is to seek clarification from a knowledgeable teacher. Any doubt entertained about any person or matter can evidence itself in a person’s behavior and conduct, as a result of his unsettled state of mind.
In brief, to subdue the hindrances, a person has to develop five psychic factors known as jhana. Sense desire is subdued by ekagatta, one-pointedness or unification of the mind. Ill will is subdued by joy (piti), sloth and torpor by applied thought (vittakka), restlessness and worry by happiness (sukha), and doubt by sustained thought (vicara). These psychic factors raise a meditative person from lower to higher levels of mental purity (Piyadassi).
