Diminishing the Five Hindrances to Meditation in Early Buddhism

In a recent video (linked below) I discussed the five hindrances to meditation from early Buddhism. In this video I'll discuss ways we find in one early Buddhist text to diminish them skillfully, as well as some of my own thoughts on the matter.
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[@DougsDharma]

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[@mattcook8930]

I cannot believe this video was published just three days ago. I have been living my life only within these hindrances. I have been to doctors over depression and anxiety and all they offer is medication. I feel like implementing these loving kindness meditations is my only hope for change. I appreciate your videos and you may have saved my life with this one

[@DougsDharma]

Well I'm very glad that this is helpful to you Matt, thanks for your comment! 🙏🙂

[@deela262]

It's even more amazing and beautiful that you got the picture in the first go!! Relief surely is not far away for someone with that much readiness to receive relief.. ❤. metta meditation ( thoughts of loving kindness) is the direct antidote for thoughts due to ( mild or strong) aversion. According to Buddhas Teachings anxiety, depression, disgust, sadness, anger, rage, hatred, jealousy etc are all variations of root of unskilful mental state called "Dwesha" / "Dosa"...

[@mattcook8930]

@@deela262 thank you! I am looking for an online course or something I can do to further my growth. The temple in my town is closed due to COVID 😔

[@xiaomaozen]

In my experience, the most powerful way to overcome sense desire is to face it directly, to accept it as it is (to let it come, be, and go) - without acting on it. Focusing upon the ugly "side effects" is not a bad practice, but it's far from being as thoroughgoing and in-depth - at least according to my own experience. Thanks for the splendid video. 🙏🏻

[@DougsDharma]

You're very welcome xiao mao! Yes, allowing the difficult states to arise and pass is a great practice.

[@wiseone1013]

The Mind Illuminated is an excellent book about meditation and they expertly deal with all the hindrances to meditation and their antidotes. I highly recommend this book to all serious meditators.

[@xiaomaozen]

I agree. It's the best and most profound book on meditation that I've ever read.

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks for the recommendation wiseone101!

[@andrew7008]

Another great video, Doug. As always, I appreciate the straightforward and balanced way you're able to communicate the teachings. My sense is that it's relatively rare that a teacher is able to seem both thoroughly scholarly and relatable when discussing trickier topics, like body and corpse contemplation for example. Your status as a lay teacher probably helps reach a more skeptical audience on these topics than someone like Bhikkhu Analayo could. Best regards!

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks Andrew, very kind of you to say. Of course, so much of what I discuss in these videos is due to the scholarship of people like Bhante Anālayo so they are in a way his too ... 🙂

[@137bob3d]

Hi Doug , may 24 2023 these 5 hindrances came to mind yesterday. and my TNH m/m book is misplaced so i keyword-ed 'buddhist 5 hindrances' here on u-t and your site came up . and in less than a minute they were found. and a bonus was learning of your site. and i'll be returning here later. to learn more about how your presentations can be applied in my remaining life as an aside , recent reading in 'stella maris' has un-expectedly led to a host of developmental ideas. she . Alicia, even mentions mantras and breath counting as a means to quiet the mind and empty it of thoughts. and it is notable how often the Grey Man author has his characters taking a long , or slow , or calming breath when the circumstances call for some stress mgmnt practice adieu

[@137bob3d]

2 more varieties of a breath have shown up in his 'sierra six' book ... 'measured' and a 'slow cleansing' one. an idea with them all is has he slipped in the 'ha' - breath that dr richard brown promotes and been missed. adieu

[@book3311]

I try to live by principles of Buddhists. I was drawn to this belief system after my other ended. Glad to be here.

[@DougsDharma]

🙏😊

[@neilchhibber2946]

I feel I am a bit late to the party, but I still wanted to share my gratitude to you, dear Doug, for your efforts in disseminating the dharma.

[@DougsDharma]

You are very welcome!

[@marcosantagata5847]

Thanks again ! I was just reading some of Zen master Dogen's thoughts on this subject earlier today. Stay well 🙏

[@DougsDharma]

Great! Glad to hear Marco.

[@PabloVestory]

Thank you so much🙏

[@DougsDharma]

My pleasure!

[@autodidacticasaurus]

I think sleep is the long-term solution while redoubling effort is the short-term solution.

[@DougsDharma]

Yes, that is often the case.

[@srinathgunaratne6307]

Thank you for great presentation. Very valuable views and ideas explained in simple terms that are extremely valuable to a peaceful life. We all have to think that this life will have a end and try to live a peaceful way to make our time in this world is happy. Everything in life is impermanent, changing and can not be controlled.

[@DougsDharma]

That's right Srinath, you're very welcome! 🙏🙂

[@Prem.N.]

Thank you so much ❤️

[@DougsDharma]

You're very welcome Samila! 🙏

[@paulomoreira995]

Perfect

[@DougsDharma]

Glad you found it useful, Paulo. 🙏

[@nickscurvy8635]

I have a great deal of trouble, especially as of late, with drowsiness. I think some of my medications are causing might be exacerbating it. But I've actually found counting breaths with a mala is somewhat helpful. It adds physical action alongside a little bit more mentally demanding practice since counting demands a bit more concentration. I hope that over time this hindrance starts to dissolve. It's very challenging though.

[@DougsDharma]

Yes, it can be challenging. Another suggestion would be to do walking meditation.

[@marcusfossa6695]

My realization about the five hindrances was that you don't have to overcome them, you just have to note them. Believe it or not, you can get to enlightenment without meditating or controlling yourself. Just note everything you experience ("this is lust", "this is thinking", "this is anger") and live your life normally in every other way.

[@samatha1994]

Helpful, thank you. The multiple adverts through the video were a good example of a "hindrance" and an opportunity for all sorts of things:)

[@Giantcrabz]

Just remember that ads, like all things, are impermanent 😄

[@samatha1994]

@@Giantcrabz as you say, like everything:)

[@DougsDharma]

Yes, you should be able to click through them anyway, which is something we often can't do with stuff in our daily life!

[@SnakeAndTurtleQigong]

☀️🐸💙

[@wyattwanders]

Great videos!

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks Wyatt!

[@paulomoreira995]

Amazing :-)

[@paulomoreira995]

Thats me again hehe

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks Paulo! 😄

[@Lee-Van-Cle]

It is easy to fall into a dilemma when dealing with spiritual matters. “Do Nothing during meditation,” is just like “forget about monkeys during meditation.” The more one emphasizes it, the less one could attain. However, it is reasonable to believe that the Buddha had boiled down all the practices to one single way, i.e., the mindfulness of breathing (as the foundation in M10 & M.118), since the transgression of Migalaṇḍika.

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks, David. Mindfulness of breathing is kind of the bedrock practice.

[@westsidesmitty1]

While Buddhadhamma is not a philosophy nor some grand theory about ''reality'', one can't help but notice the incredible scientific validation of so many Buddhist perspectives (and not in the ''fuzzy'' New Age manner of the 70's nor even in the speculative fashion of former classics like The Tao of Physics or The dancing Wu Li Masters). Thanks to fMRI's, there is a whole new section of the library whose new name has not even been settled upon (contemplative neurology?!). The Dalai Lama has written several surveys of this convergence. ''Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying is my favorite. Kingsland's ''Siddhartha's Brain'' is an easy survey; ''Altered Traits'' by Goleman and Davidson, is far more ponderous! Dr. Smith reviewed ''Why Buddhism Is True'' some time back, I believe. My suggestion is that the hinderance of doubt, has never been less troublesome to the scientific Western mind. Then too, I think the efficacy (and presentiments of the joy) of the Buddhist way of life becomes apparent almost immediately. Many come to deep practice after sustaining damage and the healing begins immediately. Also, consider visiting a Buddhist country or just spending a day visiting the nearest Buddhist community. One will immediately notice how different the feeling tone is to (any!) stroll through the acrimonious wreckage of our own failed state and ''way of life'' (sic). Now if I could just get a handle on my (admittedly feckless!) remorse that I did not pursue the path of liberation earlier in my life! Thanks for another grand and very to the point video. Metta!

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks Smitty, well said! I do see the Buddhadhamma as a philosophy, among other things of course, and the Buddha as a philosopher, among other things of course! I did a video on that a long time ago now: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hobVXotuhpJ7mbs

[@westsidesmitty1]

@@DougsDharma I overstated my case with the ''not a philosophy nor a grand theory'', for sure! It was PRECISELY the former that attracted me in my twenties and EXACTLY the latter that has me so excited about all the new research that seems to show the prescience of so much of what the Buddha said 2500 years ago (and makes up a good 20% of my reading these days). Tellingly, I was just, no doubt, ''psyching'' myself out with my current intent to accept that it is time for me to ''get down to it'', make a choice, and begin the practice, even with regard to issues like rebirth. Despite the whole thesis of my comment, doubt IS still a hinderance! The ''I am'' (Vedanta approach) of Nisargadatta, is some of the most elegant writings I've ever known and I seem to have these feelings while meditating (and some respected Theravada teachers like the great Jack Kornfield quote Nisargadatta and seem to encourage the ''I am'' ''view''). But my reading of anatman indicates that ''I am'' (the big ''I'') is a ''view'' and the middle way is to avoid the philosophical antipodes and stick to the discipline (as a disposable ''raft'', even, perhaps an efficacious fiction and artifact of discursion). This single mindedness is a radical change from the dalliances of my younger days, and I'm still trying to convince myself! It is instructive how I tell on myself sometimes!

[@zhuwentao5935]

Great!

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks very much!

[@monikaolausson4158]

Thanks Dough again for another great video. What is your opinion about the sense hindrance when it comes to having beautiful things but not being committed to them. if they go away it does´t affect you. The main thing, I suppose is that one shall feel just as comfortable with ugly things etc as with beautiful things. Do you agree? :)

[@DougsDharma]

Yes the main point is to cultivate equanimity with the senses. I think though that we have to see this as a difficult and long practice, and that for most of us in lay life the goal may be to work a little way towards equanimity rather than get all the way there.

[@maddiewadsworth4027]

Hello Doug I enjoy your videos. I assume you've already been asked this multiple times but do you ever plan on doing videos that entail a systematic sutta study?

[@DougsDharma]

Well my more "systematic" videos are my courses over at onlinedharma.org/ . Most of them do include detailed looks at one or two suttas. The problem is that detailed sutta study is very niche: most people coming to practice aren't interested in it so much. (Bhikkhu Bodhi has wonderful in depth sutta study videos if that's what you're after). And it takes a long time to go through many really good suttas in depth.

[@maddiewadsworth4027]

@@DougsDharma thank you

[@danieljozefczyk8666]

Do you not think that a trip of a lifetime as in I'm looking forward to going to Everest base camp I've not booked it yet because of covid but I do plan on maybe over stretching myself but is short term pain not worth the memories

[@jaked5144]

There is nothing wrong with travel, I too find it remarkably inspiring and beneficial in that it helps widen my world view. I think the danger being our clinging to it - clinging to an identity of a traveller - pushing ourselves too far physically, emotionally, or financially to make the next trip bigger and better - using travel as an escape, etc.

[@danieljozefczyk8666]

Do you know what I honestly don't want to do it for ego it's just a lifetime experience sort of thing

[@danieljozefczyk8666]

I do get what you are saying I'm trying to open my mind and I'm just starting out sorry thanks for the advice

[@DougsDharma]

Yes it's impossible to say without being in your shoes. Some travel can be helpful and skillful, we can get a lot out of going to new places and meeting new people. Other travel is more about boosting the ego. It depends on the case, and only you can find out which that is. Make it part of your practice to investigate! 🙂

[@fa18superhornt46]

Jai bhim 🙏 Namo buddhay 🙏

[@DougsDharma]

🙏🙂