Agony and Ecstasy

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virtue, then in mere seeing what is there will be a new understanding
which is not knowledge but insight. To see things thus with the
vision of insight means seeing without reliance on traditions, without
dependence on the authority of teachers, seeing without hope
or fear. Then the truth can be seen even in the false. And in that
understanding whatever is false will fade.
What the Buddha did was pointing out the false, and if we understand
that, there will be no more false to cling to, no more delusion
to support us, no more ideals to crave for. Such is the essence of
this negative approach. And in the following pages we shall consider
this approach in the removal of the hindrances (nīvaraṇa). But that
alone cannot lead to a realisation of freedom, when such hindrances
are removed and avoided in search of peace and tranquillity. The
search for peace is a striving for an ideal state of mind which we do
not know; for that is the reason and the cause of the search. If we
know, the search is over. And so we meet with the strange parallel
which involves the overcoming of the hindrances and the culture of
peace of mind.
It is this parallel which is the theme of this study. For, the hindrances
(nīvaraṇa) are mental obsessions which prevent a free movement
of independent observation. They are the lust of the senses
(kāmacchanda), the hate of aversion (vyāpada), sloth and torpor
of mind and body (thīna-middha), agitation in hope and worry in
fear (uddhacca-kukkucca) and the doubt of perplexity (vicikicchā).
These obsessions (pañca nīvaranāni) can so preoccupy the mind,
that life becomes a real agony.
Then, when in mind-culture (bhāvanā) a way is shown of peace
and tranquillity (samatha), which could change this agony into an
ecstasy of mental absorption (jhāna), the parallel is clear and needs
only a step by step illustration, comparing the five hindrances with
the five states of mental absorption in this world of sense and form
(kāma-loka, rūpa-loka). While the five hindrances are the result of
indulgence and indiscipline, the five stages of mental absorption are