How to Master Yourself Like a Shaolin Monk
By: Karolin Wanner
Tags: Mindfulness, Self, Mental Health, Spirituality, Psychology

5 Hindrances Along the Way to Self-Discovery and Personal Growth

The society we are living in holds temptations and challenges at every corner. When we are entangled in our thoughts, we lose sight of ourselves and what matters.

If you are surrounded by fog how can you catch sight of the right path?

Created by the author

Learning about the 5 hindrances will help you to spot the different challenges in your life. Once recognized, you can overcome the hindrances on your journey to self-discovery.

The five hindrances are describing different states of the mind, in those states of the mind, it becomes very hard to see clearly and therefore engage in the right decisions. — Master Shi Heng Yi

What holds us back from finding our path?

Sensual Desire

The first hindrance describes any temptation that stimulates your 5 senses: vision, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

If you follow a temptation then you have lost focus on your path. If the positive emotion is overwhelming and turns into an obsession then you might not be able to return.

Think of how obsessively we are consuming media. We are sitting for hours watching Netflix instead of pursuing the things that add value to our lives. Imagine how much additional time you would have to work on your side business or to spend with your loved ones.

You should enjoy your life with all 5 senses but don’t let the temptations become obsessions. Then you will end up in the fog.

Ill will / Aversion

Negative emotions stop us from enjoying life and seeing circumstances in their true perspective. They make us blind. The only thing we can focus on is our anger or grief. Negative emotions are holding us back and make us weaker if we don’t learn to accept them and finally let them go.

One of the primary reasons we have emotions in the first place is to help us evaluate our experiences. — Psychologist, Jonathan M. Adler Adler

In our lifetime, we will encounter a range of emotions and some of them will be negative. This is human. But only if we learn how to process anger and grief can we find our path.

Whatever it is that you dislike, it won’t make it a pleasant journey, unless you learn to let go of this ill-will. — Master Shi Heng Yi

You can find the silver lining in any negative experience. See it as an opportunity to learn something about yourself and to improve.

Dullness /Heaviness

In the Shaolin culture, dullness and heaviness refer to a lack of motivation and energy to walk the path of life. In modern society, we call it depression whereas Buddhism speaks of imprisonment.

The only way out is to take control of your life and find a way out of your cell. Use the available energy to do things that will make you feel better and finally help you to break out of imprisonment.

Restlessness

Distraction and restlessness are one of the major hindrances for every human being in the modern world.

Higher. Faster. Better. More.

There is so much going on that we don’t know where to focus on first. But it seems this phenomenon occurred even a few hundred years ago. Buddha called it the monkey mind. We need to tame this monkey who jumps from thought to thought, meeting to meeting, message to message. If we have too many things going on, we have no time to see clearly.

The mind acts like an enemy for those who do not control it. — The Bhagavad Gita

Being present requires us to calm down and focus on the here and now. Forget about the past and don’t worry about the future. They are not real. Truth and reality only lie in the present moment.

A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts, so he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusion. — Alan Watts

Skeptical Doubt

Getting lost in your thoughts is often toxic. Do you know the little voice in your head telling you self-destructive lies?

you are not good enough… he is probably with somebody else…your writing sucks, nobody wants to read that sh….

Don’t listen to that, this is not you talking. It is just your mind. This is what the Shaolin call a state of indecisiveness and skeptical doubt. The more you let your mind take over the more you will get disconnected from your goals, dreams, and values.

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. — Suzy Kassem

Your doubts will make you stop right where you are and it is more strenuous to start moving again. So you might never proceed.