..续本文上一页s is changing, unsatisfactory, not-self (anicca, dukkha, anatta).

　　Restlessness is the opposite of dullness; this is the fourth hindrance. You”re not dull at all, you”re not sleepy, but restless, nervous, anxious, tense. Again, it may have no specific object. Rather than the feeling of wanting to sleep, restlessness is a more obsessive state. You want to do something, run here ... do this ... do that ... talk, go round, run around. And if you have to sit still for a little while when you”re feeling restless, you feel penned in, caged; all you can think of is jumping, running about, doing something. So you can witness that also, especially when you”re contained within a form where you can”t just follow restlessness. The robes that bhikkhus wear are not conducive to jumping up into trees and swinging from the branches. We can”t act out this leaping tendency of the mind, so we have to watch it.

　　Doubt is the fifth hindrance. Sometimes our doubts may seem very important, and we like to give them a lot of attention. We are very deluded by the quality of it, because it appears to be so substantial: ”Some doubts are trivial, yes, but this is an Important Doubt. I”ve got to know the answer. I”ve got to be sure. I”ve got to know definitely, should I do this or should I do that! Am I doing this right

　　 Should I go there, or should I stay here a bit longer

　　 Am I wasting my time

　　 Have I been wasting my life

　　 Is Buddhism the right way or isn”t it

　　 Maybe it”s not the right religion!” This is doubt. You can spend the rest of your life worrying about whether you should do this or that, but one thing you can know is that doubt is a condition of the mind. Sometimes that tends to be very subtle and deluding. In our position as ”the one who knows”, we know doubt is doubt. Whether it”s an important or trivial one, it”s just doubt, that”s all. ”Should I stay here,or should I go somewhere else

　　” It”s doubt. ”Should I wash my clothes today or tomorrow

　　” That”s doubt. Not very important, but then there are the important ones. ”Have I attained Stream Entry yet

　　 What is a Stream Enterer, anyway

　　 Is Ajahn Sumedho an Arahant (enlightened one)

　　 Are there any Arahants at the present time

　　” Then people from other religions come and say, ”Yours is wrong, ours is right!” Then you think, ”Maybe they”re right! Maybe ours is wrong.” What we can know is that there is doubt. This is being the knowing, knowing what we can know, knowing that we don”t know. Even when you”re ignorant of something, if you”re aware of the fact that you don”t know, then that awareness is knowledge.

　　So this is being the knowing, knowing what we can know. The Five Hindrances are your teachers, because they”re not the inspiring, radiant gurus from the picture books. They can be pretty trivial, petty, foolish, annoying and obsessive. They keep pushing, jabbing, knocking us down all the time until we give them proper attention and understanding, until they are no longer problems. That”s why one has to be very patient; we have to have all the patience in the world, and the humility to learn from these five teachers.

　　And what do we learn

　　 That these are just conditions in the mind; they arise and pass away; they”re unsatisfactory, not-self. Sometimes one has very important messages in one”s life. We tend to believe those messages, but what we can know is that those are changing conditions: and if we patiently endure through that, then things change automatically, on their own, and we have the openness and clarity of mind to act spontaneously, rather than react to conditions. With bare attention, with mindfulness, things go on their own, you don”t have to get rid of them because everything that begins, ends. There is nothing to get rid of, you just have to be patient with them and allow things t…

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