Five Roadblocks to Meditation, and How They Apply to Westerners
The first hindrance to meditation is desire for sense stimulation. This can range from obsessive sexual lust, to compulsive socializing, to addictive intellectual pursuits. In the West, we tend toward the addictive intellectual pursuits because we have usually disciplined ourselves regarding lustful sex and compulsive socializing before becoming interested in meditation. There are, however, always subtle, lingering desires for sense stimulation regarding sex and socializing, and they manifest when we choose the group with which to belong. If we hope to meet that certain someone, or if we want to socialize and make friends, we will join a group where we can pursue those goals. Then, meditation many times become secondary, no more than a ritual to promote the hidden goals, which might not be to release us from the bondage of worldly illusion. Instead of a goal of emptiness, the goal becomes activity. One goal abandons the worldly life and its illusions, the other abandons any hope of true freedom. Even if we see the fallacy of sex and socializing when it comes to serious practice, we Westerners many times fall prey to the main sense desire, which is our love of mind, or intellectual stimulation. The mind loves to solve problems, and even though the problem of enlightenment is far beyond the mind's capability to solve, Westerners try to figure it out, and inadvertently escape from the stillness, that holds the key to enlightenment, and into their books. Attempting to solve the problem of humanity through books stimulates our sense of mind. It's pleasurable, and offers an escape not much different from sex or socializing. We justify it, incorrectly, because we believe that we are pursuing truth, even though truth can never be found secondarily through books or lectures. If one's practice is sincere and dedicated, then a lecture or a phrase from a book can trigger insight. However, if the tendency is to rely primarily on books rather than meditation, then true insight is prohibited and delusion is fostered. When we read too much, then even the important things we run across become so watered down that no progress will be made, which inhibits insight and only promotes delusion. Not reading or listening at all to meaningful lectures is incorrect as well, because essential reading and discussion ease us back onto the correct path in case we have strayed. A good guideline for Westerners is that only distilled reading should be done. For every hour of reading or listening to lectures, one should meditate at least 10 hours. Then, the reading becomes balanced, and less of an entertainment and stimulation of the mind. It then becomes more of a guide to one's meditation practice, and the reading will automatically become serious, distilled, and relevant to one's practice because frivolous reading wastes that precious one hour that the mind has to escape! The second hindrance is anger or ill will. This one is particularly relevant to Westerners because our culture is so angry. If you have driven anywhere lately, you know what I mean; it's as if everyone is a hidden explosive device such as those found under the sea that has long spikes protruding from its body, just waiting to go off, and if anything or anyone even slightly touches one of the spikes . . . boom! It is not possible to calm the mind when in the presence of such anger and ill will. We will just sit there and simmer. Pretending to be peaceful with an angry mind is just lying to ourselves, which we become pretty good at, but still, we are only faking ourselves out. Only a loving mind can go deeply into meditation, therefore, how does one become loving? One can only become loving when the one who hates disappears, and only when the one who hates disappears can true progress be made in the spiritual life. This all begins when the focus on one's breath becomes more important than ones opinions and ideals, one's thoughts and emotions; and one's attachments and aversions. It all starts and ends with concentration on the breath, and an acknowledgement that whatever opinions and thoughts we might have; they are irrelevant for the short time that we have decided to meditate. Of course, the more we meditate, the longer we can forgo our anger and aversion. In the meantime, we get so used to being peaceful during meditation where the angry thoughts and emotions are replaced by the breath, that we carry a little of that peacefulness out into our lives. By overcoming our anger and aversion, our meditation not only begins to deepen but we protect ourselves when out in the world. Instead of a situation looping into violence where two inflated egos fight for control, we can sit back and relax, knowing that such a thing as ego is merely a construct of mind with no substantial reality. Just through the simple process of meditation, we begin to get to know ourselves as we have never known ourselves before. The third hindrance; sloth and torpor, is the less troublesome one for Westerners, in the beginning at least, because we tend to go at things at breakneck speeds. We are usually keen to practice and rarely become disinterested because we are tired or lazy. What does happen, however, is that many times we become sleepy in meditation because when our minds calm down, the natural response is to go to sleep if we are sleep deprived, and most of us are because we keep ourselves so busy. Sloth and torpor can be solved quite easily, however, and it doesn't involve getting more sleep; it involves passion. If you are involved in something that you love, for example establishing a new business, or beginning a new relationship, the energy levels become so high that sleep is almost unnecessary; or eating for that matter. This kind of passion develops in th spiritual life once one begins to get some results from their meditation, and begins to understand the depth of the practice. The best advice here is to concentrate with all of your might so that a shift in consciousness can occur, remembering that shifts in consciousness are the only things that will matter when a last breath is taken. Seldom does one become sleepy when a bear is outside of their tent. And what's worse than a bear outside your tent - rounds and rounds of rebirth into the physical realm. Restlessness, the fourth hindrance, ranks right up there with intellectualism when it comes to Westerners. We have little patience for anything, and less tolerance for things that don't agree with the views and opinions that we accumulate, many times, by second hand information. We are very gullible when we read anything, and tend to accept it as truth. Since more often than not it isn't truth, just a smattering of truth disguised as wisdom, we eventually see through it and go on to our next adventure. Hence, spiritual window shopping becomes a way of life where we never stop long enough to practice seriously. This restlessness is very much tied into sensual desires, where if we are not entertained and stimulated physically and mentally every moment, we are not happy campers. We never stop long enough for the mind to begin clarifying, and as a result, we seek our pleasure from externals. We think that it is good that externals always provide instant gratification (or almost always, until one gets older), and bad that internal observation and investigation provides nothing, as far as our deluded minds are concerned. It's only after hitting that wall of emptiness, the one we have been running from for so long, that we begin to see what an untainted mind can be like, and this is where the restlessness stops. In the meantime, however, when the mind decides to settle down and stop its restless ramblings, there will be mental pain no different from an addiction that is suddenly stopped. The withdrawal can be quite severe. However, if the mind does not withdraw from its addictions, such as attachment and aversion, love and hate, then when the opportunity to bounce from one thing to another is no longer available, the mind will not only no longer have an escape through external channels, but since it has not invested any effort in internal understanding, it will be cornered with no escape. Now the pain can become unbearable, catapulting one into lifetime after lifetime of unknown consequences. And the fifth and last common hindrance is doubt. As Westerners, we are bombarded constantly by half truths and untruths, and are thus, perhaps justifiably, cynical. We don't believe anyone, even ourselves at times, and doubt, misgivings, uncertainty, and suspicion make life, and finding a spiritual practice, downright miserable. We can doubt many things when we decide to look for a path, such as whether or not the practice we have decided to embrace really gets results, if the practice doesn't require much from us. Or we can doubt our own capacity to successfully follow and apply the practice, especially if the practice requires everything from us. We just can never find that perfect practice, or that perfect teacher. We can doubt that the teacher of the religion or philosophy is telling us the truth, as well as doubting the modern day validity of the practice. The list goes on almost indefinitely regarding the things that the mind can come up with to get out of meditation. Not all doubt is bad, however. We must always use discernment, and not only faith, when choosing between the world, and the promise of transcending this world. First, we must be experienced enough in the world to see how in the world we cannot really count on anything. If we doubt that this is true, then we must become more open minded so that we can really see what is going on in our lives, and in the lives of those around us. When we see life as it is, and not how we perceive life to be, then we are seldom blindsided by disaster, for there are no disasters. Disasters are only perceived as such because of unrealistic expectations, for example; that we are going to live forever in happiness just as soon as this or that happens, and that our friends and relatives will fare the same, without ever having to suffer old age, disease and eventual death. And that we will never suffer an accident, or a streak of bad luck. If we do see enough about life that we feel that in fact we can't trust life, then we must be very careful where we go to escape from life's uncertainties, because if we go the wrong way, we could end up more entangled in life than ever, and thus more uncertain than ever. Therefore, the best antidote for doubt is understanding and wisdom, approached with an open and stable mind. Meditation can provide these when we use our own clear discernment to clear out the delusions that we have built up in our own minds. This then enables us to ferret out truth from fiction, and to remove all of our doubts. So these are the roadblocks we all face as Westerners, and as human beings, not only in meditation, but in life as well. Our life always reflects our meditation practice, and our meditation practice reflects our life. But these hindrances and roadblocks are not insurmountable. Just knowing about them, understanding them, and not underestimating their power to distract us can be a beginning for us to conquer them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IaGlAad8c0&feature=youtu.beIn the match Watson scored 64 runs off 66 balls, When Wahab Riaz was bowling his fiery spell against Shane Watson, he was dropped at 4 runs by Rahat Ali at fine leg off a 145kmh Riaz bouncer. Australia won the match by six wickets but after the match Wahab Riaz became a trend on Twitter. Brian Lara tweeted "I want to meet with this Riaz guy," adding that he would pay the fine imposed on Wahab by the ICC for his verbals at Watson. Wahab then invited Brian Lara to Pakistan through Twitter. Butt, who sits on the ICC, said the governing body's handling of the investigation was "terrible" and called for the chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, to be fired. But it is understood that Butt dined with Lorgat on Saturday night and did not mention any of his concerns at that meeting. Their bowlers, barring Mohammad Amir, were hammered all around the park. The fielding was far below international standards. And, their batting unit could only muster 164 runs in response to India's mammoth total of 319 runs. http://www.happyindependenceday2017images.com/2017/08/happy-independence-day-images-wallpapers-pictures-photos.html Hakim Jun 06, 2017 08:43pm Wahab Reaz needs a rest and Pakistan needs to rely on other bowlers who are more economical. It is probably a win-win situation for both, Wahab and Pakistan. Recommend 0 Nayyar Jun 06, 2017 12:48am Why do we keep bringing him back. It's time to move on and we should be looking at new natural talent rather keep working on tried and tested. I feel for the guy as the whole world is talking about his inconsistent performance. Having said, he should hang up his boots, perhaps big cricket is just not for him like it was not for M. Sami. Both highly rated but something not right about them. Not only bowlers, there have been a few batsmen in the past who were not right for big cricket. I would imagine it's more of personal attribute than just skill. It's about carrying yourself at that level. Talent itself is not enough. I think PCB need to incorporate human development area with their academy. Recommend 0 We've noticed that you are using an ad blocker. Advertising helps fund our journalism and keep it truly independent. It helps to build our international editorial team, from war correspondents to investigative reporters, commentators to critics. Click here to view instructions on how to disable your ad blocker, and help us to keep providing you with free-thinking journalism - for free. Thank you for your support. “We have a lot of good bowlers, we have Mohammad Amir, Imran Khan, Rahat Ali and everybody is really good in these conditions. did give us good confidence. We have seen teams coming here and struggling. We have come here and done well so that gives us confidence going into the first Test.” Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive. Let's work together to keep the conversation civil. \"One of the fastest spells I have seen in a long time\", this is what Michael Clarke had to say during the post-match presentation on Wahab Riaz after his onslaught with the ball against Shane Watson in the quarter finals of the 2015 World Cup. Defending 213, Wahab forced Warner into a fatal upper cut and bounced Clarke into submission forcing his creaking back to arc back further. Watson though saw the brutality of a Pakistan fast bowler who exploded with bouncers hurled at 150 km/hr. This certainly was one of the highlights during the World Cup down under. The big stage and owning it is no big deal for Wahab. During the 2011 World Cup, Riaz had scalped a fifer in the semi-finals against arch-rivals India to give Pakistan a more than sniffing chance for the finals. But a batting mishap, so common for Pakistan in big games, cost them the game. But Wahab was in the limelight. Pakistan had lost Amir and Asif a year earlier to fixing. But Wahab's arrival showcased the Pakistani speedster coffers are replete with quality and quantity. But the 2015 magnus opus over from Wahab to Watson made him a first choice selection in almost every format. There were murmurs of him being the next skipper as Misbah hung his boots post the World Cup. However, since then, one thing for sure was Wahab and a magic round the corner with the red or white ball hasn't been looked upon as a surprise or shock. It is just a Wahab thing! Uninhibited, raw, quick and extremely harmful to the fate of a batsman. Wahab's trysts with serious cricket began in early 2000's as he made his first-class debut in the 2001-02 season. But the national selectors picked him for the ODI side in 2008. And after the magical fifer against India in the 2011 semi-finals, one of his balls, a toe-crushing yorker swirling in to beat the defences of Yuvraj Singh will remain a career highlight for the man from Lahore. As a lower order batsman, he is highly under-rated but is never shy to have a stomach for a fight with the willow in his hands. A stronger and fitter Wahab in years to come will keep the batsman on the back foot for sure! By Kumar Abhisekh Das He made his one-day debut in February 2008, against Zimbabwe, and first made a real mark in a one-dayer against India in Bangladesh when, after 9.2 expensive overs, he was removed from the attack for bowling two beamers. BIRMINGHAM: Pakistan will seek to bring in a replacement for Wahab Riaz after the fast bowler was ruled out Monday of the remainder of the Champions Trophy with an ankle injury. The 31-year-old left-arm quick suffered the setback while bowling during Pakistan's crushing 124-run defeat by title-holders India at Edgbaston on Sunday in what was the first match of the one-day international tournament for both the arch-rivals. A miserable match for Wahab, flayed by India's batsmen for a hugely expensive 87 runs in 8.4 overs, ended when he fell in his delivery stride and sustained an injury that saw him leave the field. It also meant he was unable to bat as Pakistan, chasing a revised target of 289 in 41 overs in a rain-affected match, slumped to 164 for nine after India had piled up 319 for three in 48 overs. "Wahab Riaz twisted his ankle in yesterday's (Sunday's) ICC (International Cricket Council) Champions Trophy match against India," said a Pakistan Cricket Board statement "A scan has confirmed that Wahab Riaz suffered a deltoid ligament complex after an injury whilst bowling during the India v Pakistan match on June 4. "It will take a minimum two weeks to recover from this injury. "Wahab will not be able to continue to play in the remaining games of the Champions Trophy." The statement from the PCB added they had made an official request to the ICC's event technical committee to call-up a replacement for Wahab. Pakistan need to beat South Africa, the world's top-ranked ODI side, in their next Group B match at Edgbaston on Wednesday, if they are to have any chance of reaching the semi-finals of a tournament featuring cricket's leading eight teams in the format. Pakistan conclude their group campaign against Sri Lanka in Cardiff on June 12. In August, Riaz was awarded a category B central contract with the PCB; six players were in category A, eight (including Riaz) in B, and nine in C. When Pakistan toured Zimbabwe in September, Riaz was rested with the selectors taking the opportunity to blood a number of new and inexperienced players. Though recalled to the Test squad for the three-match series against Sri Lanka, he did not play in the series and was dropped from the ODI squad to face the same opponents. Originally rested from the Test team to give younger players a chance, Riaz's hiatus from the squad extended to six months. His continued absence was not explained by the PCB. He was recalled to Pakistan's Test squad to face England for three matches in the United Arab Emirates. While he was out of the side, Riaz played for the National Bank of Pakistan in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy. Before the squad was announced he had taken 30 wickets in the competition at an average of 24.86, and 213 runs at an average of 35.50. Wahab is a stellar bowler, his spell to Watson in Australia was such a treat. It may be that his pace compensates for his accuracy. That begs the question how he should be used - for wickets rather than containment, and if his recent performances have not been up-to scratch AND he has been suitably used in that period, given his strengths, then we should opine for his exclusion. But let us not wish him injury or thank the almighty that he incurred an injury, that to me is just so wrong. Don't throw the bullet on one or two shoulder. He is a fast bowlers and was supposed to bowl with Amir. It's duty of captain when to use and how. Imad bowled last over. May be, Pakistanis doesn't know the power hitting of Hardik Pandya who can hit big sixes and Imad was lucky to not get 4th six which was a miss. Some is blaming coach others are Captain and rest on wahab who is a gully cricketers now but was considered best when he bowled to Watson.You need to back and support in tough time. India have Ishant Sharma but you can't play him all matches. It's Management who needs to understand not bowlers. Also, ex players should stop giving there own example. Let others to speak. I have never seen any Indian players saying..see I had done this and that.. in fact no one across globe is doing.being Indian, I saw YouTube clips of Pak media. Afridi is painful,yohanna citing own great example, amir Sohail saying more about what he did great, mohsin talking about his own coaching style. Pakistan, therefore, go into Sunday's huge clash against India slightly undercooked and with some important and difficult decisions to make regarding their starting eleven against the tournament's reigning champions. The recently recalled Azhar Ali struggled against Bangladesh and coach Mickey Arthur had hoped that left-handed opening batsman Fakhar Zaman would have had an opportunity to impress against Australia, but that was not to be. Strauss said England would complete the one-day series despite their concerns: " recognise our responsibilities to the game of cricket, and in particular to the cricket-loving public in this country, and will therefore endeavour to fulfil these fixtures to the best of our ability." The ECB added that "it would set a dangerous precedent to call off a tour based on the misguided and inaccurate remarks made by one individual". A former PCB chairman had warned today that the match-fixing accusations against England would further isolate Pakistan from the cricket community. "It is ridiculous what he has said," Khalid Mehmood said. "If he had any proof or information about English players he should have gone with it to the ICC or Scotland Yard, which is already investigating allegations against our players. By making such direct accusations, Mr Butt has only ensured we may lose the support of a board that has been very helpful to us since teams have refused to tour Pakistan because of security reasons." Butt reportedly told the undercover journalist that he was close to Riaz and that that the pair had played together for Pakistan Under-17s. "We have been mates since we were schoolboys," he said. "We played for the same club, same team, same city, same department. You know he gives you everything." He certainly did at the Oval as he claimed the wickets of Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Stuart Broad to help dismiss England for 233 in their first innings. He then hit 27 from 75 balls after going in as nightwatchman in Pakistan's reply before his side went on to a four-wicket triumph. But at Lord's he struggled with the slope, taking one for 92 as Broad and Trott mounted their record partnership. He made his one-day debut in February 2008, against Zimbabwe, and first made a real mark in a one-dayer against India in Bangladesh when, after 9.2 expensive overs, he was removed from the attack for bowling two beamers. Riaz, like Butt, hails from a privileged background in Lahore and there were the usual rumours in Pakistan when he was surprisingly selected for the England tour that his family's influence had helped him up the ladder. His performances in the A team were probably more pertinent as he ended up as the leading wicket-taker on tours to Australia and Sri Lanka. One of the fastest bowlers in world cricket, Wahab Riaz is a Pakistani star who is well known around the planet for his exploits. From a family that has roots in Lahore, but with forefathers from a village near Gujrat Pakistan, Wahab’s talent was spotted early on and after playing for school he went on to complete an MSc in Biotechnology from The University of the Punjab. Before long he was playing for the national side and played in a series in Bangladesh. In all he picked up three wickets for 22 runs in just seven overs and then went on to make his high profile Test debut against England in 2010. Riaz went on to take five wickets for 63 runs and made 27 runs when contributing with the bat.From there, Wahab has gone on to play many key innings in Tests against South Africa and in big games such as the Pakistan vs India semi-final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, in which he took a solid five wickets. Wahab often bowls at speeds of 90 miles per hour and has peaked at around 154.5km/h. Domestically, Wahab played for Kent as well as sides like Lahore Lions, Rangpur Riders and Peshawar Zalami. In 14 Test matches he scored 128 runs and took 43 wickets, whilst in One Day International’s he played 63 times, scored 491 runs and also took 90 wickets. As such he is a true star of the modern game who has been right at the very top of his sport as a fine motivational and inspirational figure. Close We've noticed that you are using an ad blocker. Advertising helps fund our journalism and keep it truly independent. It helps to build our international editorial team, from war correspondents to investigative reporters, commentators to critics. Click here to view instructions on how to disable your ad blocker, and help us to keep providing you with free-thinking journalism - for free. Thank you for your support. How to disable your ad blocker for independent.co.uk Adblock / Adblock Plus Click the Adblock/Adblock Plus icon, which is to the right of your address bar. On Adblock click "Don't run on pages on this domain". On Adblock Plus click "Enabled on this site" to disable ad blocking for the current website you are on. If you are in Firefox click "disable on independent.co.uk". Firefox Tracking Protection If you are Private Browsing in Firefox, "Tracking Protection" may cause the adblock notice to show. It can be temporarily disabled by clicking the "shield" icon in the address bar. Ghostery Click the Ghostery icon. In versions before 6.0 click "whitelist site". In version 6.0 click "trust site" or add independent.co.uk to your Trusted Site list. In versions before 6.0 you will see the message "Site is whitelisted". Click "reload the page to see your changes". uBlock Click the uBlock icon. Then click the big power button to whitelist the current web site, and its state will be remembered next time you visit the web site. Then reload the page. a Jun 05, 2017 10:08pm Winning the toss and Not batting was a blunder. Even I know that we have never been good chasers. Anyways, if this team qualifies for the 2nd round I will be really really surprised. Imran Khan is right, if we don't change this management we will keep on losing let alone winning a trophy. Recommend 0 The Pakistani pacer had to leave the game before completing the over, after which he was taken to hospital. He left for the hospital walking with the help of crutches, where he underwent X-ray tests. “I have said it before, but everybody is supportive of Mohammad Amir, no one is reluctant. We all take him as our young brother and he is a part of our family. Everybody is supporting him and we are all behind him. Wahab Riaz, the Pakistan left-arm pacer, has been ruled out of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy after he sustained an ankle injury during the encounter against India in Edgbaston.Wahab sustained the injury in the 46th over of the Indian innings. After being hit for three fours and a six by Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli, the left-armer tumbled awkwardly on his followthrough in the fifth ball and immediately felt his right leg. He could not complete the over and he ended with poor figures of 8.4-0-87-0.This was the fourth time that Wahab had conceded over 80 runs in an ODI innings, the second-most by a bowler behind Lasith Malinga. However, this was the most expensive figures in the history of the Champions Trophy tournament. Wahab’s injury summed up a horror day for Pakistan as they lost the match by 124 runs via Duckworth-Lewis method. This was Pakistan’s second loss in the tournament and it extended their poor run in ICC tournaments to 13-2.Pakistan’s next encounter will be against an in-form South Africa side and a loss in that game could see them exit the tournament early. cricketwatchdogs Wahab got injured in Pakistan’s first Champions Trophy match against India where he conceded 87 runs from 8.4 overs. Pakistan lost that match by 124 runs and Wahab was replaced in the squad by Junaid Khan. However, since then Pakistan has made a spirited comeback in the tournament. It went on to defeat South Africa, Sri Lanka and hosts England to enter the final of the tournament. https://www.cricketwatchdogs.com/2017/06/15/pakistan-beat-england-now-battle-cricket-matches-india-vs-pakistan/ |
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