Good Morning,
Well all week I’ve been writing about the five hindrances that keep us from fully realizing our potential. Today I am going to try and cover the three remaining hindrances Sleepiness (or sloth), restlessness, and doubt in this single post.
Let’s start with sleepiness or sloth. This is a dullness or heaviness in the mind. It’s not so much sleepiness in the traditional meaning, but more akin to murky, confused and disconnected states of mind. Sloth has many causes, sometimes it is simply an energetic imbalance. We as humans are always walking a fine line between calmness and tranquility and alertness and presence. It’s quite common for our minds to develop the relaxing, being at peace mode faster than the interested, energizing, alert aspects of the mind. This makes it easy to fall off into a dreamy, drifting state, oozing along enjoying the movie and images playing out in your mind. There is nothing wrong with us for this state of mind we just need to be aware that when we are in that state we simply are drifting along with no clear definition or precise sense of what is happening. This leads us to boredom. Boredom has been my all time personal arch enemy. Ever since I was a child I hated and feared being bored (just ask my mother). Boredom is a form of sloth. It has taken me many years and countless lessons to finally recognize and welcome boredom into my life. Funny thing about boredom – It is not caused form a lack of stimulus, it is caused from a lack of attention. Don’t believe me? Try it next time you’re bored. Just find something, anything and focus really hard on it. Look at it as though you have never seen it. Where did the boredom go?
The fourth hindrance is restlessness and it is the opposite of sleepiness. Like sleepiness, restlessness comes from an energetic imbalance, but in this case it is the alert, enthused aspects of the mind that are dominate. Sometimes we feel as though we are going to jump out of our skin and we can feel this same sensation emotionally, mentally, or psychologically. I use to try and find security through control. I thought that if I could control everything, I could control the outcome of every situation. The reality was that there was very little I could control so my mind would fight it and move faster and faster to try and overcome it. Believe me when I say it can become compulsive. Restlessness can bring on guilt – our jumping minds start recalling things we said or moments we are not particularly proud of and our minds begin tumbling with guilt. Having these memories is not a problem, but their discomfort can make us feel very restless. So how do we work with restlessness? One way is to simplify your experience and slow down the mind by literally coming back to the moment. Feel and notice your breath or the breeze as it blows across your face. Forget about the giant overall experience and just get present with whatever you are doing. The restlessness will not go away but become more focused more direct. At this point what is restlessness?
The last and final hindrance is doubt. This is probably the most prevalent and powerful of all the hindrances. Doubt in the context of a hindrance is defined as “great indecision.” The doubting mind is like a horse in the pasture – it runs all over the place. Doubt is the inability to make a commitment or take a the risk of finding out for yourself where a certain decision may lead you. When we let doubt hold us back from meeting the consequences of our choices, we never learn to make better ones. There is one aspect of doubt that is wholesome and that is the ability to question. We should never accept anything as a truth until we question and discover it’s answer for ourself. Most forms of doubt are detrimental and they remove us from the process of discovery. How many times have you not tried something new in front of others because you are afraid of how you or they may respond? In todays modern world we are bombarded with so many choices we start to doubt even the most basic decisions. The mind starts playing out the which one is better, which is faster, should I get this or should I get that? We begin to worry and doubt that we are making a “good” decision. Doubt is seductive, we believe strongly that doubt is speaking the ultimate truth and we give it a lot of power. Yet with devotion and confidence in our ability to awaken we can cultivate our capacities to understand doubt and put it in its place.
I will summarize all the hindrances and more ways to deal with them in my next post. Until then take care, have a meaningful weekend and remember this as you journey through it: Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.
Peace and Love, Jim
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