Inspired by the legendary Shaolin teacher Shi Heng Yi
Within the shaolin school of thought there are 5 main hindrances that prevent a person from achieving self-mastery. These 5 hindrances are explained below so that a person can challenge and work making efforts to overcome these aspects within their day to day lives so that the process of repetition of work and exercises towards reaching and achieving your goal can be realised, the process is where the mastery is gained and throughout the journey a person will discover new aspects of themselves and their environment and also about other fellow travelers on your journey.
So what are the 5 hindrances that the shaolin monks describe that prevent a person from achieving self-mastery:
- Sensual Desire
- Ill will / Aversion
- Dullness / Heaviness
- Restlessness
- Skeptical Doubt
- Sensual Desire: When a person embarks on a particular challenge or travelling on their journey towards a certain destination for example a person sets out to travel to the top of a mountain so that they can experience the view from above and appreciate the natural landscape, then during the journey that maybe difficult and exhausting travelling upwards they come across halfway up the mountain a scenic resort. From this place there are the different experiences that a person can have with regards to their five senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. So their maybe an exquisite sense of smell from preparation of food, and a person decides to indulge in the food experiencing the delightful taste of the dish and also enjoying the view of the resort its surroundings and the sounds of music playing, what happens is that these sensual desires these senses have already prevented the person from reaching his goal and destination of the top of the mountain. Similarly the analogy can be placed within different situations in everyday life that makes a person side track from their true goal or destination that they are trying to achieve or get to. So sensual desire is a hindrance to achieving your objective, it can however be also the means through control and discipline of the senses the way to achieving the objective. This is where a person has to master themselves and not indulge in the temptations of that which causes a person to be derailed from their course or track towards their destination.
- Ill will / Aversion: A person who harbours ill feelings and ill behavior towards other people they will have an aversion towards that which someone maybe calling them towards good. Ill will usually results in the problematic issues of a person by creating and spreading corruption within the life of the person. Another example if we go back towards the journey towards the top of the mountain, a person might feel that the path is too rocky or bumpy and that it is also raining and a person may not like a rocky road to travel on and they may also see the natural element of rain as something that they are averse to and do not like being within such an environmental state. However if there is no other path a person has to take the rocky road and also bear the elements of rain and cold wind and continue trekking one step after the other to achieving their destination of the top of the mountain. So ill will in the sense of feelings of that which are detrimental towards other people and aversion to different aspects of lifes journey are hindrances towards reaching the goal of the objective that the person has set for themselves. This requires again discipline, making efforts, bearing the difficulties and enduring the hardships of the journey, providing the way towards gaining control over the self that allows a person to reach their destination.
- Dullness / Heaviness: The state of dullness created by a foggy mind usually from confusion arising due to complexity of the living lifestyles of that which causes a person to be slow and heavy from carrying too much burden upon themselves by incorporating those attributes that cause the dullness to perpetuate within their lives. The heaviness of being arises from consuming that which is harmful for example too much meat or excess of any type of food that brings a person to be weighed down with heaviness that causes a hindrance towards achieving their goal. Dullness also arises from not knowing oneself and bringing those habits into a person’s life that causes slow reactions, unclear thinking, loss of clarity and loss of clear thinking processes that confuse and slow the mind. This dullness can be removed by practicing breath control with physical forms of exercise that lighten the body exerting physical exercise in the form of various stances and movements that limber up and stretch and strengthen the tendons, joints and muscles with repetitive forms of different exercises that work the upper body and lower body bringing equilibrium and maintaining balance even in difficult adverse circumstances. Balance is key to strengthening the individual as we take the example of trekking up the mountain once again, the slopes and steep path ways the uphill struggle takes much effort and when a person is slow, dull and heavy they will find it an opposition towards taking each step onwards to their goal. Being light, fluid, dynamic, flexible and agile will make the journey much more enjoyable and easier to reach the summit of the mountain that even the most difficult paths can be traversed and easily overcome with time making the entire journey which is where the mastery is enjoyable and fun and exciting as the person reaches their destination. This however requires regular efforts and practice of physical body movements preparation and also strengthening the mind with working on the physical body.
- Restlessness: When a person is restless they feel anxious and agitation they have an unsettled mind and are moving to and fro from one moment to another not being present in the here and now, not being present in the moment. They are constantly worrying about the future or living in the past due to a particular event that happened to them in the past. This restless state causes them to miss the actual present moment making them behave like a monkey that swings from one branch to the next agitated and not being in the now. This results in a restless mind that is unsettled and disturbed causing the objective to be missed or not met due to not being in the moment achieving clarity and clear calmness which brings the fruit of true living. To overcome this restless state a person needs to centre and ground themselves, calming the mind that may be behaving like a storm that is throwing the person out of the now. Different breathing and grounding exercises, spending time in natural environment in the green pastures of the gardens, absorbing the goodness of the natural environment, not consuming foods or intoxicants that agitate the mind and cause restlessness such as coffee and alcohol or junk food. What a person consumes effects the state of the stomach which brings about changes to the physical body and the mind is closely linked to the stomach and any type of food and drink that a person consumes. Practicing regular exercises will bring strength to the body and calm the mind along with good clean diet that calms the entire nervous system and brings emotional balance and nourishment to the body.
- Skeptical Doubt: This state of being is very closely linked to indecisiveness, it results in a person thinking that they may not be able to achieve the desired outcome or goal due to having doubts about a particular objective. This also is a state of mind that causes the person to doubt themselves whether they can see through to the end of the destination. A person has uncertainty within their lives, they know not the path or the steps to take or they may seem to think that the destination is unclear or too far-fetched in the form of something unattainable. These doubts that a person has is due to lack of knowledge, not knowing themselves, not understanding the nature of the existence of the creation and also not being honest with themselves and others. When a person sets on the path to acquire the knowledge of what needs to be done, how it is to be done and how to get to the destination, then he has to back that up with action based on the sound knowledge that will allow the person to make efforts with reaching an understanding of what needs to be done, and knowing their strengths and weaknesses and building on these attributes with sound honest good intentions that are based on truthfulness which brings the person to try their utmost to achieve the desired goal or objective. So having the knowledge, applying how to take the steps based on that sound knowledge, understanding what needs to be done within the environment and with oneself, knowing yourself and others, being truthful with yourself and others will eventually lead you to the desired destination that is the success and objective of the person. A close understanding is based on the Islamic way of life where a person seeks the reward of the permanent abode of the paradise hereafter, which requires the above attributes and how a person can reach that destination which is the long term and final objective and goal of any successful believer. Once a person embarks on this journey the uncertainty, the doubts the skeptical attitude will be removed with the sound knowledge of the Islamic way which is the only way acceptable to Allah SWT. A persons efforts are what are appreciated and if death takes over along the journey it matters not and what is important is that a person is living and travelling within the scope of what the Creator Allah SWT has ordained within obedience and virtue towards attaining the success of the reaching the destination.