5 Obstacles to Meditation

The 5 obstacles to meditation are laziness, forgetting the instructions, dullness/excitement, not applying antidotes and over-applying antidotes.

This post is a supplement to the 9 stages of shamatha meditation series.

• Preparation: How to Meditate Properly, part I
• Early meditation: How to Meditate Correctly, Part II of 9 stages
• Stability: How to Meditate in Buddhism, Part III of 9 stages
• Clarity: Samata Meditation, Part IV of 9 stages
• Power: Samadhi Meditation

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The 5 hindrances, a different teaching, are sensual desire, malice, sloth, restlessness, and doubt. There is some overlap between the two explanations: Doubt and sloth are forms of laziness. Desire and malice distract, causing forgetfulness of instructions. Restlessness is similar to excitement in meditation but is a coarser form and less focused. We’ll look at the 5 obstacles approach as it is most useful for establishing good meditation.

obstacles to mindfulness, barriers to mindfulness meditation

In the preparation for meditation (stages 1-3, struggle), the only obstacle that applies here is laziness. Laziness encompasses a lot more than just lying around not wanting to do anything as we commonly look at it. It’s also a sense of the mind sort of cunningly not wanting to meditate, coming up with different excuses to not meditate.

Types of Laziness

• Apathy
• Negativity
• Sneakiness
• Disheartenment

Obviously, the first one apathy means – I just can’t be bothered, I would rather just lay on the couch and eat potato chips.

The next category is being habituated to negative, having negative habits that you can’t give up. You’re rude to people, you’re sloppy in social relationships, just aggressive, and so forth, and thinking you can’t change. Laziness is the unwillingness to change negative behavior.

The third sneakiness, convincing yourself you’re so busy, you’ve got more important things to do when really you could make time for meditation.

The last one, which is considered somewhat less negative, is disheartenment or giving up. You’ve been trying and suddenly it just seems so hard. You’re not getting anywhere. At the more subtle level, and this is where the problem really comes in, laziness is actually going and sitting in the cushion and not making it happen, not putting the effort to follow the breathing, not bringing the mind to the meditation again and again.

It is hard work, it’s difficult and we think we’re doing something, we think we’re trying, but we’re really not trying in a determined and focused way. So we just sit on the cushion and let our mind wander. Laziness is probably the most significant obstacle to meditation.

Arguably most people who attempt meditation, even in a long-term way, never get past this obstacle because they don’t understand it, they don’t see what’s happening, and they don’t realize that they’re not really putting the effort to maintain a focus on the object of meditation. No one’s actually given them the correct instruction, so in that case, the laziness would be not really understanding what meditation truly is at a deep level.

difficulty meditating – Laziness

Laziness is not a value judgment. It’s just a way that the mind operates, so you have to see it clearly and overcome it without any judgment.

The antidotes to laziness are

• Faith
• Aspiration
• Exertion
• Shinjang, or processed. Laziness can be seen as the absence of faith, aspiration, and exertion, and shinjang is the presence of those.

Faith is believing that there is something worthwhile in the process and knowing that it is worthwhile. An additional component of faith is the faith of longing, really, really wanting it at a deep level. This is huge in overcoming laziness. This overcomes the outer forms of laziness, like sitting on the couch and being too busy. It gets you to the cushion.

Aspiration is a long-term commitment to this. It’s similar to faith, but faith can be less stable. It’s also somewhat emotionally driven. Aspiration is more of a determined sense of confidence, a sense of conviction, almost a vow, “I am going to do this. I’m going to learn to meditate.”

Exertion or effort is a sense of appreciating what we’re doing as a virtuous activity, knowing that it’s good, and wanting to constantly redouble that effort and strengthen it, because it feels good. It feels positive. It feels wholesome, and we’re beginning to see some results, some lungta or energy, coming out of it.

When these three come together, each one strengthening and increasing the next, and you have them all together, you have a sense of faith, you aspire to become a good meditator so that you can meditate on objects of virtue, and you have a sense of delight in it, in the exertion, the effort. Effort is delighting in the work. It’s being willing to do the spade work of turning over the garden.

When you have those three things, then that would be shinjang. It would be the processing of the mind. The mind is flexible, capable of moving through difficult situations and coming back to them.

mental obstacles, mindfulness challenges

The second obstacle after laziness is forgetting the instructions, and not really understanding what you’re doing in meditation. This is very, very common. Most people do it. As a matter of fact, everyone goes through this stage. It’s not a failing. In fact, none of these are failings. They’re simply the obstacles that sentient beings have to work with.

Obviously learning what meditation is is important. This is the key aspect. You need to know what meditation is and a lot of people don’t. Learn the instructions to begin with and learn them well.

Remind yourself often during meditation. For example, think or say, “I am meditating on the breath. My posture is erect but relaxed. I notice thinking, then return focus to the breathing, allowing thoughts to dissipate.”

There should be no judgment or negative, only a clear saying, “This is an obstacle and in order to meditate properly I must overcome it or else I will not meditate properly.” It’s just like going for a long hike. If you want to go for a long hike, you need to get your shoes on and your clothes on. Then find your car keys. If you can’t do those simple things, then you can’t go on a hike. So let’s say your keys are lost, the obstacle is lost keys. Finding the keys is the antidote. It should be treated just that simply and straightforwardly.

Meditation challenges, problems with mindfulness

The other antidotes are remembering the instructions or mindfulness, which counter forgetting the instructions. The third is introspection. This overcomes the wildness and dullness of the mind, the shi shin, or the inner seeing awareness, the awareness that knows the mind, overcoming the wildness and dullness of the mind. The fourth to counter not applying the antidote is to apply the antidote. And if the antidote is being over applied, if the mind is somewhat too busy, this makes it a little too tight, this is in the very highest stages, then resting in equanimity is the final antidote. So at this stage, we’re at the first stage.

faq

May all beings be happy

May all beings be peaceful

May all beings be safe

May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature

May all beings be free