นิวรณ์ 5 เป็นเจตสิกฝ่ายอกุศล จะขจัดได้ต้องขจัดที่ต้นตอคืออย่าให้อกุศลจิตตั้งขึ้น ด้วยการเจริญสมถะและสัมมาสติกำหนดรู้อยู่เสมอไม่เผลอ เมื่อดวงสติตั้งขึ้น ธรรมฝ่ายกุศลย่อมตั้งขึ้นตาม นิวรณ์ก็เบาบางและหมดไปThe five hindrances are unwholesome mental factors. Overcoming them means stopping unwholesome mind from arising in the first place, through calm meditation and right mindfulness practiced continuously. When awareness arises, wholesome qualities arise with it, and the hindrances fade away.
Someone asked how to overcome the five hindrances (nivarana).
The five hindrances are unwholesome s. To remove them, you must go to the root — prevent mind from arising at all. Calm meditation purifies directly. If you wish to clear away these obstacles to goodness, you need to practice , take up a meditation object, and maintain continuous, unforgetting awareness. This is — it causes the "orb of awareness," itself, to arise. When mindfulness arises, wholesome qualities arise together with it, because mental factors are the natural properties of a wholesome mind. Unwholesome mind, likewise, always arises together with unwholesome mental factors. Day by day you can notice: whenever you think, speak, or act wrongly, causing trouble for yourself and others, that is the moment unwholesome mind has arisen along with the hindrances and unwholesome roots.
How each hindrance operates
Sensual desire arises when consciousness carries the unwholesome mind out to engage with the world through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. The resulting like and dislike become the material unwholesomeness uses to cause further trouble; accumulated dislike develops into ill will. Sloth and torpor arise when the mind is saturated with stains from accumulated liking or resentment, leaving it foggy, dull, and heavy even after adequate rest. Restlessness and worry mean the mind cannot settle into anything meaningful — the more stain accumulated, the more restless and irritable it becomes, a state that is genuinely hard to bear. Doubt arises because we dwell in unwholesome mind rooted in , which keeps us from understanding. All five hindrances leave the mind agitated and confused, unable to reflect or understand anything clearly. Freedom from this confusion requires freedom from the unwholesome mind itself, which depends on practicing right mindfulness — continuous, unforgetting awareness.
Dealing with a short temper
A follow-up question asked how to help someone who is easily irritated. He explained that irritation comes from a stain rooted in aversion, triggered when things don't go as we wish. The remedy is to correct the underlying wrong view: accept that everyone carries a different proportion of unwholesomeness, and that others can only help us as much as their own capacity allows — expecting things to always go our way is unrealistic, whether with a beloved child or an employee we hired.
Another approach is to notice whether we keep getting irritated with the same person, the same issue, the same situation, over and over. Unwholesomeness reuses whatever has worked before to draw demerit into us, stirring up displeasure in those around us and creating bias and division. Only by reflecting carefully enough to see this pattern can we actually fix it — otherwise we keep failing the same test again and again. Accumulated resentment crystallizes into completed demerit placed on our life's timeline, becoming an obstacle down the road if left unaddressed; a small matter left unresolved only grows larger.