Insight Meditation teacher JoAnna Hardy returns to the BHNN Guest Podcast for a dharma talk about the five hindrances and why they are like dust in our eyes that keeps us from seeing clearly.
Dust In Our Eyes
JoAnna begins this dharma talk by recounting some of the Buddha’s journey and how he ultimately found the Middle Path. For her, one of the Buddha’s most profound teachings was around the five hindrances and how they keep us from seeing what is true in life and on the path.
“There are five hindrances that block us, that keep us from seeing clearly, that keep the dust in our eyes.” – JoAnna Hardy
The Five Hindrances (16:00)
JoAnna covers the five hindrances: desire, aversion, sloth and torpor, restlessness, and doubt. She talks about the need to recognize how desire arises, how aversion keeps us separate, the ways sloth and torpor can be the poor man’s nirvana, experiencing what’s beneath our restlessness, and why doubt is possibly the biggest hindrance.
“It’s important to me to watch my aversion and how I disconnect or push away or ignore or neglect, instead of holding close.” – JoAnna Hardy
Joseph Goldstein offers some remedies for sloth and torpor on Insight Hour Ep. 95
Faith and RAIN (33:30)
JoAnna explores the concept of blind faith versus verified faith, and how verified faith came about in her life from dealing with an aversion to loneliness. She talks about how we can learn something about ourselves through the hindrances, that there is vital wisdom to be found in them, and shares Tara Brach’s RAIN practice as a means to wash away some of the dust in our eyes.
“We talk about [practice] in such broad terms, but what are the practical terms? The practical terms are it makes our life better, it just does.” – JoAnna Hardy
Images via Paradise studio and @crew_street on Twenty20