Which hindrance?

General discussion of issues related to Theravada Meditation, e.g. meditation postures, developing a regular sitting practice, skillfully relating to difficulties and hindrances, etc.
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Which hindrance(s) cause you the most trouble?

Sensual desire (any desire based on the five senses)
11
23%
Ill-will
5
10%
Sloth and Torpor
9
19%
Restlessness and Worry
14
29%
Doubt (about the Dhamma and/or about yourself)
9
19%
 
Total votes: 48

Reductor
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Which hindrance?

Post by Reductor »

Has this poll been done before? Anyway, I was wondering which of the five are your biggest stumbling blocks in meditation. You can pick more than one. For me I regularly wrangle with all but the first two (the fifth one is where I doubt my ability to attain concentration that day - due to any number of issues). But for me personal doubt comes up to often for comfort, while the others are much less frequent.
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Ben
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Re: Which hindrance?

Post by Ben »

I chose all because they're all still active unless one is in jhana or have attained arahantship.
And for different reasons, they're all as difficult as each other.
kind regards

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

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retrofuturist
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Re: Which hindrance?

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

Sloth and Torpor is the #1 for me... a perfect case in point being the meditation session I had a couple of hours ago. Ten minutes in and I switched postures to be lying down. About a minute later I was asleep.

:zzz:

It's not laziness though, just tiredness.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Kenshou
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Re: Which hindrance?

Post by Kenshou »

Ben wrote:I chose all because they're all still active unless one is in jhana or have attained arahantship.
And for different reasons, they're all as difficult as each other.
Hm, are all 5 necessarily active at all times? (excluding the two you mention) I was under the impression that normal consciousness doesn't necessarily involve the hindrances, though most likely at least a few are present most all the time.

Of course they all have their moments, but the one that I habitually run into more often is definitely restlessness. That urge to "accomplish something" doesn't always shut up easily.
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Ben
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Re: Which hindrance?

Post by Ben »

Hi Kenshou
I didn't mean to suggest that all hindrances are active mental concommitants simultaneously in each and each successive citta during meditation.
kind regards

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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Kim OHara
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Re: Which hindrance?

Post by Kim OHara »

Sloth, definitely.

It's one of the Christians' Seven Deadly Sins, too - must be bad. :tongue:
:meditate:

Kim
Reductor
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Re: Which hindrance?

Post by Reductor »

Kim O'Hara wrote:Sloth, definitely.

It's one of the Christians' Seven Deadly Sins, too - must be bad. :tongue:
:meditate:

Kim
It is easy to fall for, because it feels nice to lay down and sleep (either you are not yet awake or you've been awake a long time).

For a while I suffered sloth and torpor badly. Rather than just closing your eyes, which might lead a tired person to sleep, you close your eyes and 'look' at the inside of your eye lids: you focus slightly and look into the darkness. As my focus on the breath picks up steam I start to notice that it is not that dark under my eyelids, and I feel completely awake (and I'm meditating at 1am a lot of times).

That helps me a lot, anyway.
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Cittasanto
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Re: Which hindrance?

Post by Cittasanto »

I chose all!
each has to be dealt with and until they are they are all a problem.
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
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Monkey Mind
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Re: Which hindrance?

Post by Monkey Mind »

<----- Loves fine dinning, fancy coffee, exotic beer, good sex... I will be reborn as mongrel dog who does whatever is pleasing with his body...
"As I am, so are others;
as others are, so am I."
Having thus identified self and others,
harm no one nor have them harmed.

Sutta Nipāta 3.710
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