This talk provides information about how to identify and set aside the five hindrances to concentrated and tranquil awareness, preparatory to developing the process of Awakening through the practice of vipassana, insight into the conditioned nature of the mind.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Renouncing The Five Hindrances
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During this talk, Lezlie Laws initially provides an overview of the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, Mindfulness of Mental Phenomena. She then describes how the Five Hindrances are recognized and effectively set aside. This talk also includes a period of time for questions to be discussed.
The focus for the next talk will be the next category of the Fourth Foundation, the Five Aggregates.
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This talk begins an extensive review of Dhammanupassana, the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, first with an analysis of Mindfulness of Mental Phenomena, followed by a review of the Five Hindrances. Cultivating insight into the way these factors condition the mind is a core practice that fosters the process of Awakening. Future talks will review the other factors in the Fourth Foundation: The Five Aggregates of Clinging, the Six Sense Bases, the Seven Awakening Factors and the Four Noble Truths. This recording is longer than usual in order to adequately review the topics involved. The accompanying notes provide even more information regarding the hindrances.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Reviewing What Conditions The Mind-Five Hindrances
Next week’s focus will be a review of the Five Aggregates of Clinging, Buddhism’s form of what contemporary psychology would term a Theory of Personality.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:29 — 61.8MB)
This is the first of a series of talks about panca nivarana, the five hindrances described in the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness. In this talk, Peter described how an initial stimulus is transformed into a hindrance through craving and clinging. A “seed moment” of stimulation is dynamically organized into a selfing process that hinders the creativity and adaptive capabilities of the mind. He described how the panca indriya, the five faculties of Buddhist psychology, provide a an influence that counters the hindrances. This was followed by discussion of how these concepts are realized through the practice of mindfulness of breathing meditation.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: THE FIVE HINDRANCES
The topic for next week’s discussion is the hindrance of sensual desire.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:16 — 108.5MB)
During this talk, Peter described the Five Hindrances, the primary afflictions that distort our perceptions about reality. They are sense desire, aversion and ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and skeptical doubt. Peter described how, in the Satipatthana Sutta, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness discourse, there are instructions to notice the presence, absence, causes and solutions for the hindrances. He mentioned the Seven Awakening Factors as antidotes for the hindrances. He emphasized that experience is a process, and energy flow that can be free and adaptive, while the hindrances operate as “energy dumps”.
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