The Five Hindrances to Happiness
Buddhism recognizes five hindrances to developing a stable form of happiness that is, to a substantial degree, independent from external circumstances that we encounter in life. By learning — through a Buddhist meditation practice — how to deal with these hindrances in everyday life we can influence our happiness from within and isolate it from external factors. The learning curve, however, can be steep and necessitates a change of perspective on how we see and experience ourselves. It redefines what and who we are, often in most unexpected ways for a Westerner born in a Capitalist society.
Each of us is a creation of our parents, teachers, role models, and other influential figures in our lives. We are also a creation of the society at large into which we are born — but which we have not chosen. Our sense of beauty, of fairness, of good and evil, our values and other facets of our personality, were all shaped by the culture in which we have been raised. Our position on how the society should be organized, on social justice and welfare programs, on tax rates and redistribution of wealth, on crowned heads and private property, have all been implanted during our upbringing. And these positions — supposedly of our own choosing — often work against us. That is because they have been set by our masters, the ruling class. We had little say in the matter, even in democratic societies.
Our sense of self is not really ours. We have nothing to claim, nothing to possess. And that should not be seen as a bad thing. Everyone is a product of the society, first and foremost. Individuality is a myth. It might be difficult for a Westerner to fathom this. But there is, really, nothing that makes us unique no matter how much we tried to stand out. And we do try, incessantly, from the choice of clothes, hairstyles, tattoos, down to smartphone covers. Buddhism has always claimed that our very consciousness is at the same time individual and collective, and that the individual part cannot be separated from the collective. We are essentially like the Borg Hive, each of us is sharing a consciousness with everyone else in the society. And not only consciousness, but everything else.
Consider what you find beautiful? Consider, for example, why do you like or dislike the Pollock paintings? How did you arrive at this attitude? If you think about it (and other such attitudes) you will find out that you share these with your social class and age group (and often with the rest of your society). And what makes Pollock special? Why he seems to stand out? It is our shared sense of beauty that is recognized in these paintings, which are a product of the culture in which he worked. The mark “special” comes from our shared values. We are not individuals, standing apart form the rest. Each of us is a collective at the same time. Once this is fully comprehended, it becomes liberating. And it brings with it a sense of ease.
Buddhism even claims that there is no self, the agent that supposedly experiences the World out there, the individual that is solid and never changing. There is only a process of continuous moment-to-moment transmutation, influenced by the external factors and shaped by the interplay of forces acting within the society. According to Buddha, the person is just a flow of the five aggregates (skandhas) of form, feelings, perceptions, formations and consciousness — in a constant transition from one state to the next. Reality is impermanence and emptiness. Our sense of self, our individuality, is only imagined. It has been created as a byproduct of the biological evolution of our species and then, more recently, heavily reinforced by the consumer-oriented society in which we live.
It was during the recent pandemic that we understood, often in most direct and intimate ways, how connected we all are and how much we depend on each other. We came to understand that cooperation is more important than competition, social cohesion and solidarity than individualism. We learned what is really important in life and we understood that consumerism is just feeding our unhealthy addictions. Many of us decided to change. Many decided that they will not work anymore for their former employers (read exploiters). And, still, our masters would like us to forget it all and go back to our old ways of cut-throat competition and rampant individualism. Socialism once underlined basic human needs better than Capitalist consumerism ever could.
The American government was afraid [back in the 60s] that Thailand was going to become the next Vietnam, so they sent a lot of sociologists to study Thai values, Thai village life. The sociologists came back with the conclusion that Buddhism was not really good for a capitalistic economy … for the sake of developing a consumer economy. — Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Our behavior is, more often than not, being driven by deeply ingrained patterns and by conditioned reflexes, not by our own free will. These habit energies are strong currents running through us, ever pulling us forward in search of happiness, without our awareness or conscious volition. Feelings are behind our thoughts and actions, and those feelings are constantly being manipulated by our consumer society. We are often living with the autopilot turned on, never even truly awake. We live in the Matrix that is shaped by our masters, the ruling class. And this Matrix of ours is being constantly transformed and rearranged, most recently by the modern captains of the Ad Tech industry.
This process of shaping and reshaping of the shared consciousness in a Capitalist society has a twofold objective: control and profit. The ruling class has long since figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger to their rule. At the same time, the feeling we have that work is a moral value in itself—and that anyone not willing to submit themselves to some kind of intense work discipline for most of their waking hours deserves nothing — is extraordinarily convenient for them. This attitude has been implanted into our shared consciousness. Our very lives revolve around our work and we see our work as defining who we are.
If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. — David Graeber
We are living in a society shaped by giant monopolies and increasingly revolving around “Bullshit” (the way that H. Frankfurt defines it), that is characterised by: political populism and demagogy; “bullshit jobs” (D. Graeber) that perform profound psychological violence upon the people who work at them; “gig workers” without even basic human rights; rampant corporate exploitation; terror and spying of the Ad Tech sector; wage slavery; indebtedness; 70-hour workweeks. Relationship between Work & Capital reverted back to where it was during the reign of Vanderbilts, Mellons and Morgans.
We can cast aside this harness and the burden that our masters have put on us (and on our parents) only by fully living in the present moment, by relinquishing our hold on to the imagined individuality, and by renouncing the fleeting pleasures of the materialistic-consumerist subsistence. We can break this bondage of “wage slavery” and debt into which we were born only by practicing mindfulness (sati), upholding the Buddhist precepts, guarding our senses, learning the art of letting go, and by contemplating the Five Hindrances in our daily life. This does not mean a withdrawal from life, it means taking the Middle Way. With this practice, our happiness and well-being can be, to a substantial degree, isolated and made independent from the external circumstances that are beyond our control. We can lead a fulfilled and meaningful life, a Buddhist life, without obsessing about the materialistic culture of the consumer society around us. Less is more. We would not be missing out.
The Five Hindrances
The modern society has perfected many ways of creating the need for material things and fueling it, of eliciting craving for sensual pleasures and feeding it, of generating fear and sustaining it — because that is what drives the digital economy. However, that also creates a lot of unnecessary suffering.
Buddhism recognizes that our state of well-being and happiness depends exclusively on the state of our mind. It is not dependent on external circumstances. Most importantly, it can be influenced and developed by the meditation practice and the Buddhist way of life. In developing it we need to contemplate the Five Hindrances, not only on the meditation cushion but off the cushion as well. How we deal with these hindrances in everyday life becomes crucial for our well-being.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: we are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfish thoughts cause misery when they speak or act. Sorrows roll over them as the wheels of a cart roll over the tracks of the bullock that draws it. — Dhammapada
The Five Hindrances are intimately connected with different elements of experience and, according to Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10), constitute: (1) Desire, (2) Aversion, (3) Sloth & Torpor, (4) Restlessness & Worry, and (5) Doubt.
These are identified as the crucial factors that impede and obstruct our development of well-being and happiness right here and now, regardless of our current circumstances in life — with a tacit premise that our basic material needs (for food and shelter) have been satisfied. This knowledge is over 2500 years old and it has more relevance today than it has ever had. In addition, the hindrances reveal the true meaning of suffering (dukkha) in Buddhism, which is the permanent state of unsatisfactoriness that is intimately connected with the basic human existence. The constant desire for what we want and don’t have, the aversion to what we have but don’t want, the ever present self-doubt, the obsessive worry about the future, the restlessness and the attention deficit disorder from multitasking and distractions of the internet Ad culture, the torpor of depression from endless browsing through the instagram streams. It is noteworthy that many of these hindrances are almost deliberately amplified and reinforced by the modern digital society.
The Buddhist practice of skillfully dealing with these hindrances entails three different aspects: (1) knowing when a hindrance is present and when it is absent, (2) knowing the conditions leading to the arising and removal of a hindrance, and (3) knowing the conditions that prevent future arising of a hindrance. These three aspects need to be practiced, in relation to each of the five hindrances, during our daily goings about and our day-to-day interactions. They also need to be practiced on the meditation cushion. But it is in our daily lives that our skill of dealing with these hindrances can bring most benefits.
Desire
This hindrance concerns our intimate connection with the sensual desire for food, sex, fame, and money, among other things. We have a strong emotional reaction to these things and that is what often leads us into trouble. The Buddha said: “Even if gold coins rained down from the sky, it still wouldn’t be enough for one person’s sensual desires.” We contact and consume these things through our sense doors (eye/seeing, ear/hearing, nose/smelling, tongue/tasting, body/touching and mind/cognising). The Buddha teaches that we need to guard our sense doors very carefully and diligently, because many of the things we consume are toxic and will poison us. There are toxins concealed in Ads, Games, Music videos, Tweets, Memes, News, that we consume on a daily basis. Instagram is designed to arouse sensual desire for sex and fame. Whenever you feel anxiety or depression after browsing through your instagram photo stream, you can be sure that you’ve been exposed to toxins. Long exposure to these toxins will slowly poison you. With mindfulness we can be aware when this hindrance of sensual desire is present and when it is absent. This is a first part of the practice.
The condition leading to the arising of sensual desire is the presence of feelings. Feelings are the center of gravity for most of our thinking. We usually think only about the things that are brought about by our feelings. And these frequently revolve around our self-interest. They are also often rooted in greed, which is a particularly unwholesome mental state. Feelings feed our desires and craving. Craving brings attachment and with it suffering. And our feelings are being constantly manipulated by the society, because it is through feelings that our actions are provoked. We need to be aware of our feelings all the time, noticing those brief stings of jealousy from looking at a photo, registering the sexual arousal from looking at the music video, and so on. This is called “guarding our sense doors”. Noticing the feelings, as conditions underlying desires, constitutes a second aspect of the practice.
In order to prevent a future arising of inappropriate sexual desire we can reflect on the unattractive aspects of the body — which is very un-Western approach to life. This is a third aspect of the practice. But it goes against so much of our cultural conditioning that is focused and obsesses with beauty and youth, and avoids anything that might indicate that we are aging, that the body does get sick and dies. Just from looking at all those grotesque-looking face-lifted Hollywood actresses in their late forties and fifties, it becomes obvious that the Western culture is obsessed with youth and mortified by the fear of dying. Carl Jung, the famous psychoanalyst, once said about the John D. Rockefeller that he had never met a person more afraid of death. He haven’t met Jeff Bezos. Not to mention Walt Disney, who is still lying frozen in some vault, waiting for the cure for immortality to be invented.
The practice of the Five Remembrances can be liberating in the face of the fear of death, Upajjhaṭṭhana Sutta (AN 5:57):
- I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
- I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape having ill health.
- I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
- All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
- My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.
The fifth remembrance is particularly well suited for the members of the ruling class, the captains of the industry, who have gained wealth through exploiting the working class (there is no difference between Ford in 1921 and Amazon in 2021) and are now terrified of the approaching death. There is no tech unicorn that can deliver the elixir of youth, the immortality potion. We have Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos case as a powerful reminder.
Aversion
This hindrance concerns our intimate connection with a wide range of aversive mental states: violent rage and hatred, anger, ill-will, animosity, annoyance, irritation, fear, and in very subtle ways, even sorrow and grief.
Every type of aversion is essentially rooted in powerful, but often concealed, force of hatred, which only rarely erupts into the full-blown violence. Oftentimes, however, hatred just feeds other types of aversion as an underground spring, hidden from plain sight. Anger is particularly detrimental to our well-being and needs special attention. Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh suggest a following approach for dealing with anger:
The Buddhist attitude is to take care of anger. We don’t suppress it. We don’t run away from it. We just breathe and hold our anger in our arms with utmost tenderness … Then the anger is no longer alone, it is with your mindfulness. Anger is like a closed flower in the morning. As the sun shines on the flower, the flower will bloom, because the sunlight penetrated deep into the flower. Mindfulness is like that. If you keep breathing …, mindfulness particles will infiltrate the anger. When sunshine penetrates a flower, the flower cannot resist. It is bound to open itself and reveal its heart to the sun. If you keep breathing on your anger, shining your compassion and understanding on it, your anger will soon crack and you will be able to look into its depths and see its roots.
The Buddha also said that the anger has a “poisoned root and a honeyed tip”. This sweetness of the anger’s honeyed tip often seduces us and we might even enjoy it for a while. It might feel justified to be angry at times, specially when we are feeling self-righteous. But then comes the poisoned root that brings suffering with it. It is inevitable, but we don’t see it while enjoying the energetic rush of anger. The venting of anger sometimes may feel liberating. We might be advised to get anger “out” by punching pillows, but this doesn’t work. It just makes it grow stronger.
Anger, like every other mental formation, is a seed in our store consciousness. We have many seeds, both wholesome and unwholesome. Those seeds in our store consciousness that we water often will grow and become stronger. If we water the anger by indulging in it, it will grow strong and become dominant. It will become our habit energy. And we will become an angry person. We need to cultivate only the wholesome seeds in our store consciousness. We need to water only the positive states of mind. This is called “selective watering” by the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, and that is how the happiness is grown, organically, like vegetables in a garden.
With mindfulness we can be aware when any of the aversive mind states are present and we can take further wholesome steps in removing the particular aversion. We also need to note the relationship of aversive mind states to the emotions that are present at those times. It is often that feelings are feeding aversion. Mindfulness of these feelings, as an underlying layer beneath the aversion, can relieve us from the grip of the aversion itself.
In order to prevent future arising of this hindrance we can practice diligence, which is associated with developing a mental habit of replacing negative emotions/thoughts and nourishing positive states of mind. It consists of four different aspects. The first aspect of diligence is not to invite negative emotions and thoughts, and not allow the environment or other people to bring them forward. The second aspect is to replace the negative thoughts as soon as they manifest with the positive ones. The Buddha used a simile of a wooden peg in order to demonstrate this approach. A carpenter uses a wooden peg to attach two pieces of wood. When the peg is rotten and cannot hold the pieces together, carpenter uses a new peg to drive out the rotten one by hammering it in and replacing the old at the same time. The third aspect of diligence is to always invite positive emotions and thoughts to arise in us. This brings joy and nourishes us with the positive energy. The fourth and last aspect of diligence is to try to keep the positive mental states, after they have already manifested, for as long as possible.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. — Dhammapada
The obsessive desire and aversion are the two main hindrances that we routinely encounter throughout our day and most-often during our lives. We too easily become entranced by pleasurable experiences and dissatisfied or angry with unpleasant ones. Our happiness and well-being is highly dependent on our ability to cultivate wholesome aspects in dealing with these hindrances. It does not depend on external factors. Anger, as one of the most powerful of human emotions, needs to be singled out here, because in one instant of anger lives can be ruined, and health and spiritual development can be destroyed.
Sloth & Torpor
Sloth and torpor here collectively stand for the general lack of energy and dullness or heaviness. These mind states are brought about due to discontent, boredom, laziness and drowsiness, or from overeating. They are the result of unwise attention. The Buddha teaches in Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2) that we need to discern between things that are deserving of our attention and those that are not. By practicing right attention we can prevent arising of sloth and torpor. The Buddha also recommends engaging with good friends and profitable talk. That includes reading Dhamma books, listening to Buddhist podcasts, and watching (with Ad blocker) YouTube videos of inspirational Dhamma teachers. It also means avoiding gossiping and other kinds of idle talk, both online and offline.
With mindfulness we can recognize when any of these states appear and we can breath with them until they pass away. Since every mind state is impermanent, this is only a matter of time and patience. And we don’t engage in feelings that accompany them. When we experience in this way that the discontent is impermanent, it looses some of its grip and becomes more impersonal. And it becomes easier to deal with in the future. The same is true of any mental formation. We learn to confront them all in impersonal, distanced and objective manner, without discursive and obsessive thinking, and without engagement with the underlying feelings that accompany them.
Restlessness & Worry
In our lives, we largely run on energy of stimulation, from interactions with other people, cups of coffee, or the interfacing with the Internet. We are also riding the roller-coaster of sugar rushes from our addiction to junk food. We are restless from juggling so many things in our busy lives, from multi-tasking, binge-watching, Internet surfing, chatting, browsing, online shopping, to the constant stream of notifications on our mobile phones. There are so many distractions around us, keeping our minds unfocused and scattered in all directions.
We are also worried all the time. It may be terrorism, global warming, stock market, our job security, our health (or that of our loved ones), our children or parents, pets, and so on. The list is endless. Sometimes we worry about some imagined future, about things that have not even happened (and may never do). We anticipate problems just to be able to worry about them. We may also feel regret about past unskillful actions or about skillful actions left undone. Then, there is that “general anxiety” that eats us from the inside. There is stress. This is suffering.
Excessive worry can come from unwise attention to our thoughts and mental states, where we get drawn into the content of our minds. This is particularly true for people with a predilection for thinking. It also comes from unwise attention to situations in the world at large. We are constantly bombarded with negative news stories, with toxicity on social media networks, with hate speech and pornography.
We need to guard our senses. And we need to recognize this state of restlessness and worry with our mindful awareness. We also need to recognize the causes of restlessness and worry, which are excess energy, distractions, unwise attention, too much talk, and dwelling on the past or future. We need to be anchored in the present moment. We need to practice ethical conduct, wise reflection on our past actions, upholding the Buddhist precepts, and letting go.
Doubt
This is the mind state of uncertainty, wavering, and indecision. The mind simply wavers back and forth between different alternatives, and we end up nowhere. Doubt can manifest in different ways: doubt in the relevance of the Dhamma in the modern world, doubt in the Buddhist path of practice, doubt in our ability to practice, doubt in the fruits of the practice, doubt in the rebirth and karma (kamma) and so on. We also doubt when we are not able to distinguish between what is wholesome and what is unwholesome.
The antidote to doubt is faith. But, in Buddhism, there is no such thing as blind faith, there are no dogmas and no divine revelations. We are the highest authority. Buddha warns us that we should not believe something because we read it in books or because some teacher (even himself) said it. We need to investigate teachings for ourselves to see whether they are of benefit or not. Joseph Goldstein beautifully put it as follows:
Through hearing and studying the teachings, and then through our own investigation of them, we develop a growing confidence in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Sangha, and in ourselves. At a certain point, we’re no longer beset by the wavering of doubt, and even when we face difficulties and challenges, this confidence gives us the strength and determination to persevere.
This is what faith means in the context of the Buddhist life. It is a growing confidence in the Triple Gem and in our own ability to surmount personal problems and find happiness in life. We are all able to do it. It starts with skillfully dealing with these five hindrances, following the Noble Eightfold Path that is exposed in Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56:11), and with diligently practicing mindfulness in everyday life.
We need to always keep in mind the three aspects for dealing with any hindrance. First is passive (diagnosis); observing mindfully the arisen hindrance. Second is active (cure); if the hindrance persists we investigate it to know the conditions leading to its arising and also to its subsiding. Third is proactive (prevention); when we get to know what pushes our buttons, what hindrance is often arising, we can practice its antidote. For anger it is a loving-kindness (mettā). Each has its own opposite. Happiness is grown with care and wise attention, like vegetables in our garden.
I am offering these thoughts as a humble gift of Dharma, hoping they may be useful, and may incite the reader to start a Buddhist meditation practice. Any merit that it may generate along the way I wish to transfer to readers.
References
- Joseph Goldstein, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, Sounds True, Boulder, Colorado, 2016.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames, Parallax Press, 2002.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm, Parallax Press, 2012.
- Bhikkhu Cintita (John Dinsmore, PhD), Through the Looking-Glass: An American Buddhist Life, Lulu, 2014.
- Bhikkhu Cintita, Buddhist Life, Buddhist Path, Lulu, 2016.
- Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit, Princeton University Press, 2005.
- David Graeber, On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs: A work rant, Strike
Magazine, 3:1–5, 2013. - Joseph E Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012.
- Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Eric Swanson, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, Harmony, 2008.
- Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation (revised edition), Metta Forest Monastery, 2021.
