How to Overcome Common Obstacles to Meditation

Introduction

First of all, I would like to thank you for your research on common obstacles to meditation. It is not common for everyone to research this topic online. I did some research and found that this is a rare phenomenon. People do not search for articles like this on the internet. This shocked me. It suggests that they either do not care about the topic or that they do not see any obstacles. I find it hard to agree with the last statement.

If you have practiced before, you know how difficult it is to make regular practice a habit. It’s not easy to build meditation into your life. I have struggled with making it a part of my life. But eventually and somehow you get there. In this short article, I want to explore this topic. I want to share some thoughts based on my personal experience. Because I have read some articles on the internet that have been shared so far.I believe I can make some personal comments on them so that anyone who is looking for it can benefit from it.

My Goal

My goal in sharing this article is always for the one person who wants to change. That’s why, even if the topic doesn’t have an audience, I write in the hope that it will help someone in the world who might need it. Because I also found good articles on the internet, and based on those articles, I started my journey in this field.

I always respect those who share their experiences with others. Because if you do not share it with others, how will they know that there is a way to solve the problems? Even Buddha could not hold back, he was still helping people the day he took his last breath. Even on his last breath, he taught the Dhamma. That is why I have established the practice that if a single person can be helped by these words, these words must be written for that person.

Common Obstacles To Meditation

Let us discuss and find out what are the most common meditation problems you may encounter during meditation. And how you can prevent them from holding you back from your meditation progress. It’s important to understand each obstacle to combat or hold it back so that you do not give up on your practice in the first few days.

How To Meditate

First I need to understand how you meditate. You think you know how to meditate, but the truth is that the majority of people do not know how to meditate properly. They need proper guidance from meditation teachers. That’s why in all my articles on meditation, I always suggest finding a good teacher first before you start your practice. A good teacher will make your path easier. You can spend 5 years traveling around the world to find the right method, but a good teacher can enable you to find it in a few days.

The infographic above is a simple method for beginners. You can follow these steps for a basic meditation practice. However, if you want to understand more, please read my articles on A Beginner’s Guide to Morning Meditation – Practical Tips or others that fit your criteria. In these articles, I have shared tons of information. These articles will guide you to the right approach. However, this article is about overcoming the obstacles on the path to meditation. We will not go into how to meditate in this section. Please read the article I have provided to strengthen your foundation.

List of obstacles and their solutions for meditation

Let us now find out what obstacles you might encounter in the initial phase of your meditation. And how you can overcome these obstacles so that you can continue your practice for a long time and lead a happy and healthy life.

Sensual Desire: Common Obstacles To Meditation

One of the first problems you face during meditation is the wandering of the mind. However, if you look closely and understand what is happening, you will find that the mind wanders off into different areas. In this section, we will look at what could be the reason for the mind wandering and how to deal with it.

Desire For a Beautiful Sight

As you meditate, you may think of a vacation spot you would like to visit. Or another place you have recently seen on TV or the internet that you would like to visit.

Longing For a Pleasant Sound

It could be that you love music, and while you are meditating you may think of some music you like, or the lyrics are playing in your head. It could be anything that could hinder your practice.

Craving For Delicious Food

Maybe you think of a food you have always wanted to eat, or you want to go straight to the kitchen and eat it. You can’t seem to control yourself.

Craving For Physical Sensations

When you meditate, maybe it’s winter and it’s cold, and you are thinking about warm weather, how nice it would be to be in the warm right now.

Solution for Sensual Desire

There could be many other factors that hinder your practice. So how should you protect yourself so that you can continue practicing without falling into these traps and wandering around them for a long time instead of around your object of meditation?

Remember that everything that comes into your mind is impermanent and subject to decay. Nothing in the world is permanent, everything is constantly changing. Even you yourself change from moment to moment. Therefore, it is pointless to long for a place or a delicious meal. It is merely a habitual pattern of the mind.

In meditation, it is important that you do not focus on the issues that the mind puts before you. That is the job of the mind. The ideal way is to focus your attention on the object of meditation. By focusing your attention on the object, you train your mind to let go of all previous habitual patterns. As long as you are not preoccupied with the mind, you will be perfect.

You must realize that it is not possible to do this all the time, you will lose control of your attention, this is normal, but holding your attention for 10 seconds is a great achievement. Because you have been thinking about it for a long time, it will take some time before you can focus your attention on one point. Every moment you are practicing and bring your attention back is a sign of progress, even if you do it for 5 minutes, you are making progress along the way.

ILL-WILL: Common Obstacles To Meditation

If you meditate, it will bring out the darkest parts of you that you were not aware of before. This is a good sign because now you are aware of what is causing your unhappiness and you can tackle it bit by bit. In the following, we will find out what the possible obstacles are that could prevent your meditation progress.

Anger

If you have had an argument with someone, whether it was recently, a year ago, or decades ago, those feelings of anger will surface in your mind. This is normal because these feelings were there before, you just were not aware of them. Now you know that these feelings are there.

Cruelty

You will be surprised to find at some point in the initial stages that the mind is cruel, does not care to punish someone you do not like, or feels no compassion or kindness towards someone who is not well-disposed towards you. This is also normal because all these feelings were there before, you just were not aware of them. Now you know that these feelings exist and you can heal them over time. If you do not know what the cause of your unhappiness and misery is, how are you going to treat it? Meditation helps you to recognize these problems and offers you the opportunity to solve them once and for all.

Hatred

One such element of ill will is the hatred that is present in our minds. Some of us hate something in our lives, be it a person, a TV show, a web series, food or anything else, this hate object will pop up in our mind and make us restless and we will find it difficult to focus on our object, know that this is also a good sign because you have identified it.

The hidden issues of the mind are now coming to the surface, you have the opportunity to deal with them with training so that they no longer exist within you. How good it would be to have a kind and compassionate heart. We all strive to be kind.

Solution for ILL-WILL

Everything we have covered in this section has to do with our habits. So how do we deal with them or how can we get rid of them. It will be a long road to deal with these emotions, but with care and training you will be able to free yourself from these habitual patterns.

Practice Love and Kindness

Use positive emotions to dampen the mind. If your feelings are connected to hatred for someone you do not like, simply wish them love and kindness, pray for them so you can break the chain and let go of the feelings. Note that wishing them well is not only good for others, but also an excellent way to help yourself.

Good wishes help you to become kind and remove the burden of hatred from your mind. Hate, cruelty and anger only serve as fuel to increase your misery. The more you free yourself from these feelings, the better, kinder and more compassionate you become.

I hope you have understood the connection. Sometimes people find it hard to wish good things on those who have done terrible things to them. You simply forgive them because it’s the right thing to do, it’s good for them and for yourself. Hate, anger, cruelty only harm your health, your body and your whole self, they never bring you peace.

Laziness and Torpor: Common Obstacles To Meditation

In this section, we will discuss some of the most common issues that affect meditation beginners. If you do not break the chain and keep interrupting your session, these obstacles can hold you back for a long time. In this section, let us find out the individual problems and how to solve them.

Obstacles and Solutions For Laziness And Torpor

Sleepiness

This is one of the most common parts of meditation. Many beginners to meditation struggle with this obstacle because in the beginning stages the body is not ready to handle the training and it revolts with its weapons, one of those weapons being sleepiness. You will feel sleepy, because how is the body supposed to deal with you closing your eyes and watching your breath, it has no idea what is happening, this is a new routine for the body, give it some time.

And keep practicing, if you feel sleepy you can put some water on your face to wake yourself up. Note that sometimes when you meditate in the morning you feel sleepy, but what could be the reason, you just woke up from sleep. This is just an obstacle on the path. With the right exercise and practice, this sleepiness will disappear again.

Disinterest

Another common obstacle to meditation is disinterest. It may be that you have no interest in the process. The mind usually seeks pleasure, it does not love discipline and regular practice. This is common to all. What should you do? Continue with the practice. The disinterest will disappear after some time. With your practice you will convey to the mind that it has to be there, rebelling will not solve the problem. This practice will also help you in your daily life. You will become more diligent and passionate about your regular work.

Fears And Worries: Common Obstacles To Meditation

The mind does not like to be silent, for that threatens its existence. What is the mind, if it does not speak, the mind does not exist. The only element that keeps the mind alive is its feedback and conversation. Let us talk about what other obstacles you may encounter during meditation.

Incidents From The Past

During meditation you may be confronted with past events or stories from the past, sometimes these events can evoke emotions, sadness or anger in the mind. This is also part of the meditation process. We encounter them every day, but because we are not aware of them, we do not know that they exist in our mind.

Future Events

You can also imagine the future. What would life be like if X happened or what would life be like if Y happened. This constant imagining takes place in our mind. There is no end to it.

Solution For Fears And Worries

In both cases, when past or future events come to mind, simply bring them back to the present with the anchor point of your breath. Understand that none of these past or future events are real. They are merely a memory and an imagination. If you can’t change the past, what good is it to brood over it. And if you don’t know the future, what good is it to imagine it.

To avoid regret and resentment, always live morally and do not hurt yourself or others. Lead a moral life, do not lie and do not deceive anyone. These basics will help you become happy in the present moment. And it will make the memories of the past bearable. Living a moral life is the ultimate solution to avoid regretting your actions in the future or in the present moment. I will probably write about this in detail in my future articles. This topic requires more attention. Today we will not discuss this topic further.

Doubt: Common Obstacles To Meditation

Doubts could be another reason why you do not continue your practice. You may have doubts about the method, you may have questions about whether the practice is right or wrong, whether it works for you.

To solve this problem, I always suggest finding the right path that is ideal for you and then sticking with it. One way to understand whether the practice is working for you or not is to assess your reactions to everyday events. If you react to everyday events in the same way as before, then you have not made any progress or the method is not working for you. You may also not have understood the method properly. It is better to have an open discussion with your teacher about the method and clear up your doubts so that you do not give up your practice.

Physical Discomfort: Common Obstacles To Meditation

Meditating for long periods of time can cause physical discomfort, sitting for hours sometimes causes pain in the body. It is also part of the process, your body is not adapted to the habit, so it is in a new territory.

To let go of the discomfort, observe the periods of pain without getting attached to them. Remind yourself that these sensations are also insignificant and will disappear after a while. Everything in the world is impermanent. If you feel uncomfortable and want to leave the sitting posture, please do so with mindfulness so that you know and understand what you are doing. It is an exercise, like any other exercise, it takes time to get used to the routine, but eventually you will get used to the process.

Attachment To The Results: Common Obstacles To Meditation

Meditation is a process of improvement, each session brings you closer to the end goal. However, if you find that you are anticipating the results of your meditation, I strongly recommend that you avoid doing so. Attachment to the outcome can lead to restlessness and anxiety. Let the process take its own course. Your job is to simply do what is required and leave the rest to nature, which will do what is best for you.

Monotony: Common Obstacles To Meditation

If you sit down and do the same meditation process every day, you may feel monotonous. In such cases, remind yourself of the higher purpose of why you started meditating and how it changes your life. Otherwise, you can also read books on meditation and online articles; these steps will engage you in the process. Reading books about meditation masters will energize the practice. Keep practicing to break this chain. After a while, sitting down to meditate will no longer be a problem for you. You will look forward to sitting every day. Because you will understand that this is an aspect of life that will help you in the long run.

Conclusion

Verse 145: Farmers channel the water; fletchers straighten the arrows; carpenters work the timber; the wise tame themselves. – Dhammapada Verse 145²

If you have read this article up to this point, I would like to congratulate and thank you. You have patience and take your regular practice seriously. I want to tell you to keep going, because obstacles are part of the process. Meditation works like a magic that changes your life. You develop certain qualities that you never thought possible. Only your diligent work is the solution to all your problems. Please keep the process going because one day when you look back, you will be in a better state than you are today. I pray and wish for you to keep your practice alive and achieve your goal.

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References

1. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.17.budd.html ↩︎
2. https://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/verseload.php?verse=145#:~:text=Verse%20145%3A%20Farmers1%20channel,.%2C%20makers%20of%20irrigation%20canals.&text=While%20residing%20at%20the%20Jetavana,to%20a%20samanera%20named%20Sukha. ↩︎