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By Root 1037 0

path that leads us away from the dissatisfaction of conditioned existence and toward the end of craving known as nirvana. This path is known as the Noble Eight-Fold Path to Enlightenment, and it reflects the Buddha’s specific instructions on how to purify one’s heart and mind by living an impeccable and enlightened life. This is about living the Dharma day to day through everything you do. We Westerners often just grab hold of one meditation technique from the entire Dharma teaching; then we may wonder why our lives haven’t changed as promised. Of course it helps to train our minds by meditating every morning, but it helps a lot more if we try to round out our lives by assimilating all of the various elements of the Dharma. Following this path is the way of the spiritual hero.

CHALLENGES, HANG-UPS,

AND HINDRANCES ON THE

EIGHT-FOLD PATH

The one who has conquered himself is a far greater hero than he who has defeated a thousand times a thousand men.

—FROM THE DHAMMAPADA

(SAYINGS OF THE BUDDHA)

The Buddha taught that the spiritual seeker could expect to be confronted with some classic hindrances on his way. As you walk the inner path of awakening, recognize that it is most definitely a heroic and mythic journey. Like all heroic journeys, yours will be filled with awe-inspiring mysteries, fearful difficulties, and outstanding adventures. But you must be prepared to meet and overcome obstacles; you must be prepared for roadblocks; you must be prepared to go places that at first seem frightening and incomprehensible. You must be prepared to make sacrifices, and yes, of course you must be prepared to change. Just as a caterpillar must shed its familiar cocoon in order to become a butterfly and fly, we must be willing to change and shed the cocoon or hard armor of self-centered egotism.

As compelling as the inner journey is, it can be difficult because it brings you face to face with reality; it brings you face to face with who and what you really are. Trying to embody the Dharma and live truly must have its perilous moments because there will always be challenges to meet, leaps and stretches to be made, and obstacles to overcome.

A spiritual journey inevitably includes low valleys as well as high mountains, dense forests as well as seemingly barren deserts, plateaus, and plains. This is the landscape and territory of your own being. It is all-revealing and it all needs exploration. Everything you experience along the way can be a way of helping you awaken the Buddha within.

As you journey, obstacles will attempt to get in your way—for you are in your own way. Recognize the ways that difficulties and challenges are born from your own hang-ups, obscurations, fears, and karma. Whether the path on which you find yourself is momentarily steep or level; rough, smooth, or slippery; turbulent or calm, you will prove to be your own greatest asset, as well as your greatest stumbling block. How will you help yourself, and how will you hinder yourself? Which habits and patterns will you let go of easily, and which will have the tenacity of superglue? Are we desperate enough to really undergo total change and transformation?

The Buddha’s teachings were initially directed to disciples and serious students, and his instructions were specifically addressed to those living, or preparing to live, the monastic life of simplicity and renunciation. The stumbling blocks or hindrances that these ancient seekers confronted sometimes took a different form than the challenges we meet today. Nonetheless the underlying themes are exactly the same. Then, and now, the hindrances, or challenges, all have the power to distort the seeker’s view of reality.

How do you know that you are confronting a classic “hindrance” on your spiritual path? Just ask yourself: Am I losing my sense of balance, my sense of priorities, and my sense of what’s really important? Am I being carried away by temporary reactions, by destructive emotions? That’s what challenges do; they obstruct your insight and prevent you from seeing things as they really are. They stand between