Have you ever sat down to meditate with every intention of being calm and mindful, only to discover that your mind seems determined to do anything else?
I certainly have.
During the first year of Covid, I began paying much more attention to the Five Hindrances in my meditation practice. I was trying hard to practise walking meditation early each morning, but something wasn’t working.
At first I thought I simply wasn’t very good at it.
Perhaps my technique was wrong.
Perhaps I wasn’t concentrating enough.
Then I began to realise that the problem wasn’t my ability to meditate at all.
My mind was agitated.
The Hindrances
The Buddha identified five mental states that can obstruct mindfulness and meditation:
- Desire — wanting something other than what is happening now.
- Aversion — anger, irritation or resistance towards what is happening.
- Sloth and torpor — heaviness, tiredness or lack of energy.
- Restlessness and agitation — an unsettled mind that cannot remain still.
- Doubt — uncertainty about ourselves, our practice or the path.
The word hindrance is useful because it means an obstruction or impediment.
And that’s exactly what I was experiencing.
The world was living through a frightening global pandemic. Every morning I would set out for my walking meditation while my mind was already processing news, uncertainty and potential dangers.
How could I expect to be completely mindful when my mind was constantly sounding an alarm?
My Five-Hindrance “Security App”
Since then, I’ve come to think of the Five Hindrances rather like a security app for the mind.
When I sit down to meditate, I can ask:
What’s getting in the way today?
Is there desire?
Aversion?
Tiredness?
Agitation?
Doubt?
I don’t need to get rid of the hindrance before I can meditate.
Recognising it is already part of the practice.
This has become particularly important for me because my greatest hindrance is usually restlessness and agitation.
I have a tendency to overthink, I plan and I organise.
I think about what needs doing and I make lists.
Even when I’m sitting quietly trying to follow my breath, my mind can suddenly announce:
“You really should weed that border.”
“Don’t forget the pharmacy.”
“What about that blog post?”
😂
The mind has its own agenda.
Awareness Is the Beginning
I’ve gradually learned not to become annoyed with myself when this happens.
Instead, I recognise it.
“Agitation.”
“Planning.”
“Wanting.”
“Thinking.”
And then I return to the breath.
The thought doesn’t have to disappear immediately.
I don’t have to fight it.
I simply recognise what is happening and allow it to settle.
For me, awareness really is more than half the battle.
Once I recognise the hindrance, I am no longer completely lost inside it.
I can observe it.
And observation creates a little space.
What About Your Mind?
Perhaps the most useful question isn’t:
“How do I stop my mind from wandering?”
but:
“What is getting in the way of mindfulness right now?”
That changes the whole relationship with meditation.
The restless mind isn’t necessarily failing at meditation.
It may actually be showing you what needs to be seen.
The Five Hindrances give us a useful way of recognising it.
And once we recognise the obstruction, we have already taken the first step towards moving beyond it.
Perhaps that’s another example of the Buddha’s invitation:
Come and see.
Not come and make your mind perfect.
Simply:
Come and see what is happening.
The restless mind is perhaps the biggest obstacle when starting out in a meditation practice. We all find it in our own way, but the answer comes in the recognition that noticing any distraction, whether it comes from one of the traditional ‘hindrances’ or otherwise is at the heart of practice. It is noticing (and mentally noting ‘distraction’ if that helps) and allowing the disturbance of the mind to just dissolve as we return to our meditative focus that does a significant part of the ‘work’ of mindfulness practice.
Later, the fruits of the mental training that our practice represents better equips us to maintain a steady state of focus and calm-abiding – but agitation, or any hindrance can arise (and does arise) even to those of the highest meditative attainments. I hold to two ideas: that there was nothing to attain in the first place (an idea deeply entrenched in Zen practice), and more practically, that we should cultivate our ‘beginner’s mind’. Continuing to see the mind with simple, open curiosity, is the best possible antidote to getting bogged down. We need to recognise that our thoughts have been captured, and then gently let them disperse by starving them of the attention that they crave.
A thought that captures our attention behaves like a cheap firework: it fizzes a bit, makes some smoke and then goes out – usually without a bang.
Thank you Clive as insightful as ever. You have definitely added to my post.🙏🕉️
Agitation is definitely my greatest hindrance, the classic monkey mind seems to be a strong facet of my personality 😥
To be flippant, the bad news for the monkey is that you’ve spotted it!
To be extra flippant the trouble is that I can never spot the buggers around Swayambhu Stupa in Kathmandu grabbing the offerings out of my hands when I’m not watchful🤣
Working on my breathing helps me. Long deep breaths before meditation.
Thank you for this, I always like to know what other folks DO related to my writing whether it’s meditation, mindfulness or Buddhism specifically. I’ve just had a quick look at your own site and like generally what you write and your style. I see you have been blogging for many years too. When I get out of bed finally I’ll read some of your writing specifically.
If you meditate have you ever thought of writing about how and why and your experiences with it?
Thank you friend, I like your writing too. I’ve written a couple on meditation going back a few years, I’ll try to dig them out. Lovely to meet you!