Joshua Tree 4 2009 MN 20 Removal of Hindrances - Bhante Vimalaramsi

In this second day of the 2009 Joshua Tree Retreat Bhante reviews Majjhima Nikaya 20 which discusses how to work with Hindrances.

Not to SUPPRESS them but...

How to Recognize them, Release them and then do a step that is not talked about by other teachers which is RELAX and let go of the tension that was an after effect of the hindrance arising.

The Buddha talked about this Relax Step in The Satipatthana Sutta as "When a monk breathes in he KNOWS whether he breathes a long breath or short breath. On the out breath he TRANQUILIZES the Body -not the body of breath but the BODY. Your body! You release any tension left in your mind and notice any additional tension in your body.

Breathe in -Know it, Breath out RELAX and repeat.

This is CRAVING and the solution to eliminating Craving is to ...let go of it. NOT SUPPRESS it as is done in One Pointed Absorption concentration meditation taught by most other teachers.

Bhante looks at where the technique to SUPPRESS the hindrances in MN 36 was actually used as an example of what NOT to DO! And it has been misunderstood now to be what SHOULD BE DONE.

Check out Bhante's book "Life is Meditation; Meditation is Life on Amazon. Just search Vimalaramsi at https://amazon.com

For a complete guide to meditation the way the Buddha taught please visit https://thepathtonibbana.com.

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Sutta translation (C) Bhikkhu Bodhi 1995, 2001. Reprinted from The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya with permission of Wisdom Publications, 199 Elm Street, Somerville, MA 02144 U.S.A, www.wisdompubs.org