..续本文上一页ting any effort in, or you try to resist this mental dullness.

　　On the moon days in Thailand we used to have to sit up all night till dawn. At first, like a typical competitive American, I would like to look good in front of others. So I”d sit there and, just through sheer will power, hold myself up all night. And I”d see the Thai monks, some sinking down, some almost falling over, and contempt would arise: ”I”m better than that! I won”t allow myself to give in to sleepiness or dullness.” But after a while the will-power would fade out, and I”d find myself sinking down and falling on my face on the floor I would feel aversion at this mental state and make myself stay awake by will-power.

　　With this, you find yourself going into a state where you don”t know what”s going on and you start hallucinating. So I reflected on this hindrance - if it”s something you don”t like, that”s the real problem. Trying to get rid of something you don”t want is dukkha. So I thought: ”I”ll just accept it; I”ll investigate the feeling of sleepiness and dullness.” Even though I thought that I would fall asleep and disgrace myself in front of all the other monks, I found that one can concentrate on the feeling of sleepiness itself. I would contemplate the sensation around the eyes, and the feeling in the body, observing the mental condition and my habitual resistance to it. In this way, that hindrance soon ceased being a problem to me.

　　In life, wisdom arises within us when we understand the things that we are experiencing here and now. You don”t have to do anything special. You don”t have to experience all kinds of extreme pain in order to transcend pain. The pain in your ordinary life is enough to be enlightened with. All these feelings of hunger or thirst, or restlessness or jealousy or fear, of lust and greed and sleepiness all these we can regard as teachers. Rather than resenting them, saying, ”What did I do to deserve this

　　”, you should say, ”Thank you very much. I”ll have to learn this lesson some day; I might as well do it now, rather than put it off”

　　Footnotes:

　　[1] The Buddha spoke of "Five Hindrances" on the spiritual path: 1 -- sense desire (greed, lust); 2 – ill will (anger); 3 -- dullness (sloth/torpor); 4 -- restlessness (agitation) and worry; and 5 -- skeptical doubt.

　　[2] Sotápanna: is the first stage (of our stages) of the realization of liberation. Arahant is the culmination of that realization.

　　[3] Mudita: happiness at another”s good fortune; ”sympathetic joy”.…

《The Five Hindrances》全文阅读结束。