In our Dhamma practice, many of us will work with the five hindrances throughout the day—sensual desire, aversion, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt. It is helpful to pay attention to these hindrances and work with them because they are not only an obstruction when we sit in meditation, they’re also concrete manifestations of the underlying tendencies: greed, hatred, and delusion. These are the tendencies that keep us moving through saṃsāra, cyclical rebirth. By examining the hindrances, we can see how these underlying tendencies manifest themselves in our daily lives. They tend to be more obvious to us if we are accustomed to them and start to work with them in a constructive way.
As Dhamma practitioners, we sometimes may think that our sole purpose is to be mindful of a particular state of mind that is occurring for us. This paradigm is correct in some ways, but not complete. We may think that if we’re aware of being with a mind state then that alone is sufficient to deal with it. In other words, if we know that it’s there, then presumably, we can watch its rising, its maintaining, and its cessation. This is a primary skill in our practice we need to develop: a straightforward, nonjudgmental awareness of a particular mind state.
However, there are also concrete and applicable antidotes we can use to work with the hindrances. In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Buddha said that the five hindrances are to be known like all the other objects of mindfulness. In addition to knowing, we can reflect on how an unarisen hindrance arises, how we can deal with a hindrance that’s already arisen, and how we can prevent its future arising. It’s more than bare noting of a particular hindrance—we are learning more about it: how it comes to be, what encourages it, what nourishes it, and what denourishes it. We can understand how to work with it in a real, active sense when it’s overwhelming and doesn’t respond to bare attention.
It’s a significant part of our practice to know how to recognize the hindrances. Although we probably have experienced most of them many times, we can have particular tendencies in regards to which ones we move to first. We might tend toward escaping from discomfort by using sensual gratification and indulgence. Or we may react to challenging situations with immediate irritation, by using a verbal retort, or with resistance, by having an internal sense of heating up. Likewise, we may become confused and doubtful, or shut everything out by annihilating ourselves with sleep, or worry and become restless and anxious.
We take note of where our buttons get pushed and the responses that tend to be most habitual, and start working with these aspects throughout the day. We do this to help prevent the hindrances from arising. One of the ways this is done is by working with a hindrance before it has arisen in the mind. For example, with aversion or irritation, we learn how to develop its antidote: loving-kindness. By developing loving-kindness, we are increasing its strength and availability so we can access it any time we need to use it.
As we become more familiar with our tool bag of antidotes, we weaken and diminish the power the hindrances have over us. We can therefore feel more confident and proficient in dealing with them so that we are not so easily blown off course.