Sharon Salzberg’s opening remarks from her Tricycle Retreat on The Five Hindrances, which begins today,
I wanted to talk about The Five Hindrances in this retreat because they are such common experiences that we all have while meditating, simply because they are common experiences we all have while living. Just as our meditation practice mirrors our actual lives, so too we find these same mental qualities coming up.
These states, which are desire, attachment, aversion (anger or fear), sleepiness/restlessness, and doubt, come up so often. We tangle with them a lot. Their arising is not the problem, it’s our relationship with them that’s the problem. When we get overwhelmed, consumed, and/or defined by these states, that’s when they become hindrances.
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