You may be wondering why, in the middle of exploring the four skills a meditator needs to develop (Calming the heart and mind, moving closer to experience, moving farther from experience, keeping the three universal characteristics in mind), we have gone on a two month tangent with the Hindrances? The answer is two-fold:

First, in order to accomplish skills one and two, you need to be able to work with the Hindrances. That is, to not have them totally running the show all the time.

Second, is that if there were to be a fifth skill a meditator needs to develop, it would be working with the Hindrances!!

Here are the details of working with the Hindrances I spoke of during our May 13, 2017 practice together:

Desire

• Name it

• Feel the suffering in the body at the wake up moment. Clearly see it as a suffering state.

• Relax the body

• Cultivate Samadhi and know the pleasure of that. Begins with noticing the simple joy of being present in any given moment.

• If you tend towards desire, feel how compelled the mind is to move in that direction. See how you are not in control and how that feels.

• Be aware if you are judging yourself for being desirous.

• Remember that all things are impermanent. (five daily reflections)

• Notice when you are in the grips of desire that your attention is on you. Having the attention on yourself excessively, what does that lead to?

• Remember, what the mind frequently ponders becomes the inclination of the mind. Is this what you want your mind to become?

Aversion

• Name it

• Feel the suffering in the body at the wake up moment

• Relax the body

• If you tend towards aversion, Feel how compelled the mind is to move in that direction. See how you are not in control and how that feels.

• Practice loving kindness towards yourself and then towards the person you are angry with.

• Be aware if you are judging yourself for being angry.

• Anger is a secondary emotion. Contemplate: “If I didn’t have the ability to get angry, what would I have to feel right not?”

• Remember, what the mind frequently ponders becomes the inclination of the mind. Is this what you want your mind to become?

• See the anger as a form of trying to control your world. Contemplate: “How does that work out for me?”

Sleepiness / Low Energy

• Get to know the very first signs of low energy for you. How does it start to manifest in the body? In the mind?

• Name this hindrance clearly. “This is sleepiness/low energy.”

• Notice your relationship to this hindrance. Is there resistance in the form of aversion, fear or frustration?

• Feel the pleasant physical sensations associated with the energy dropping. Make those pleasant sensations your meditation object. Ie, meditate on sleepiness.

• Check and see if there may be any difficult emotions that are present that mind is not wanting to feel, and instead, resorting to checking out.

• Raise the energy by:

• Paying more attention to the in breath

• Breathing a bit more deeply

• Move the attention around to different parts of the body

• Open your eyes

• Raise you arms over your head

• Stand up

• Fall asleep as mindfully as possible.

Restlessness

• Name it

• Notice, if the restlessness is in the mind, body, or both.

• If it’s in the mind, have a clear intention to stay with the meditation object, but in a very relaxed way.

• Induce calm by relaxing the body and paying more attention to the out breath.

• If it’s in the body, find a place in your body that doesn’t feel restless so you can move away from the restless sensations if you want/need to.

• Induce calm by relaxing the body and paying more attention to the out breath.

• Move the attention from the breath or body to sounds.

• Open the eyes

• Stand up

• Remember, all things are impermanent, including restlessness. Can you sit through it?

Doubt

• Name it, Name it, Name it. Doubt is strongest when we are not aware it is present. This is true for all the hindrances, but especially with doubt.

• Do not believe anything that passes through your mind while the doubt is present.

• Don’t connect with the Doubt through the content of the doubt, but connect with it as a habitual mind state that is not you. Just something that is conditioned to arise.

• Notice when it passes and how it feels.

• Get to know all the different manifestations of how Doubt arises for you.

R.A.I.N.

This is a structure for being with anything that arises, and really excels with things that are difficult, like the Hindrances. So, you can use RAIN with any of the Hindrances.

Recognize - This includes the process of naming what is present. Being clear about what is arising is the first step in not being identified or overwhelmed by the experience. That which is knowing an experience is not the experience.

Accept/Allow - When conditions that are arising are unpleasant or difficult, especially with the inner life (thoughts, emotions, mind states), there can be a tendency to judge the experience, think it’s wrong, think we’re wrong for having it, etc. Working with this aspect of RAIN, we consciously take stock of how we are relating to the experience. Is there acceptance or is there judgment? How does accepting experience feel? How does judging experience feel?

Interest/Investigation - If we can allow experience to happen, we can then move closer to it. Does anger lead to happiness or to suffering? How does say, anger, feel in the body? What are the thoughts that tend to arise from this mind state? What are the thoughts that tend to give rise to this mind state? What helps it to dissolve? What tends to keep it going? Etc.

Non-Identification - This is not something that we practice so much, but that is a natural bi-product of Allowing and Interest in an experience. It’s not our desire, but simply desire arising and passing due to conditions that support it and then that don’t support it. It’s not an excuse for letting the Hindrances run wild. “Oh, there not me, so I don’t need to pay them any attention.” Rather, it’s wisdom that knows with discernment (as opposed to judgment) that the Hindrances are empty of self as all phenomena are. This gives us the space to actually be interested in them, learn from them, and come to know their true nature.

With non-identification, we come to understand this quote from Sayadaw(revered teacher in Burmese) U-Tejaniya: “Your mind is not yours, but you are responsible for it”