Saturday, May 26, 2012

Making Friends With the Hindrances

They pop up in my mind, just like that. Flashes of clarity in the midst of unpleasantness. Words of wisdom that spell it like it is: 'greed', 'restless', 'fear', 'anger', 'depressed', 'envy', 'self-pity', 'craving', 'aversion', 'lust', 'wanting', 'anxiety', 'dullness', 'doubt', 'addicted' . . . Labels with the power to free the mind from its own trappings. 

Earlier, I saw the arising of envious thoughts. 'Envy', this is 'envy', I told myself, a bad weed to be eradicated at once. Being mindful, I could actually see the effect of 'envy' right now, right there, in the form of mental and physical unease. I could also remember all the other times before when I had felt 'envy', and the waste of happiness that had ensued. That was enough to drop the troubling thoughts. 

All day long, watching the arising of hindrances in the mind, and this process of mind disentangling itself.  And each time, reaping the joy. 

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