"covetousness and displeasure” is short for all five hinderances?

Q & A
21

I’m with @Clarity that the phrase refers only to two things—longing and aversion (in some form)—not to all five hindrances.

The phrase abhijjhādomanassā also occurs in descriptions of sense restraint, as a part of right effort. For example in AN4.14 (my translation):

Since you could be overcome by bad, unwholesome qualities of longing and aversion if you left the sense of sight unrestrained, you practice restraint over it, you protect it, you undertake its restraint.

By restraining the senses, you reduce your mental reactions towards experience, whether reactions of attraction or repulsion. Sense restraint doesn’t really affect all hindrances directly, such as doubt or sleepiness. (In a way it does, but that is clearly not intended in the above statement.)

Now, right effort leads to right mindfulness (e.g. AN10.121). So when you have right mindfulness, you have abandoned these two things (abhijjhā & domanassa) completely. That abandonment is what vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassā I think refers to. And in this context abhijjhādomanassā refers particularly to the coarser forms of the first two hindrances: sense desire and ill will.

Also, in the standard description of right mindfulness, the phrase is loke abhijjhādomanassā. The world (loke) seems to me quite clearly to refer to the world “out there”, the sensual world. And while it makes sense to abandon longing and aversion with regard to this world (loke), I don’t know what it would really mean to abandon sleepiness or doubt with regard to it… :upside_down_face: So these hindrances don’t seem to be part of abhijjhādomanassā.

Consider also texts like SN35.247:

And how are you restrained? Then, when you see sights with the sense of sight, you do not get attracted to (adhimuccati) pleasant ones or become averse (byāpajjati) to unpleasant ones. You are non-‍forgetful [or mindful] about the body.

While the words here are different, I think they reflect abhijjhā and domanassā. The passage reflects the practice of right effort (particularly sense restraint) leading to right mindfulness.

I agree vineyya means “having removed”. That’s another reason abhijjhādomanassā can’t refer to all five hindrances, because the removal of the five hindrances is the purpose of right mindfulness, not it’s prerequisite. (See e.g. AN9.64)

So I agree with the sutta commentaries (relying on to Piya Tan) that abhijjhādomanassā refers to (the courser aspects of) the first two hindrances, especially longing and aversion regarding the sensual world. It includes the kind of emotions and thoughts that distract you from being able to keep a single thing in mind, to have some basic form of mindfulness. In the scheme of the eightfold path, the job of abandoning those kinds of emotions and thoughts is that of right effort, not so much right mindfulness.

22

With all of these comments in mind, I’ve carefully read and considered MN51 backwards and forward. It appears to me now to be a vivid description of the gradual path where the two hinderances of covetousness and displeasure are dealt with together at one point for a specific purpose.

After describing the first three ignoble persons, the Buddha focuses on a person in the gradual training. There’s a long paragraph on sila based on right intention, speech and action then a section on contentment of simplicity which culminates in:

When they have this entire spectrum of noble ethics, they experience a blameless happiness inside themselves."

It’s at this point in the gradual training that covetousness and displeasure becomes the focus in practicing sense restraint in the context of each khandas:

When they see a sight with their eyes, they don’t get caught up in the features and details. If the faculty of sight were left unrestrained, bad unskillful qualities of covetousness and displeasure would become overwhelming. For this reason, they practice restraint, protecting the faculty of sight, and achieving its restraint.

It appears that at this juncture, the practice is specifically restraint to prevent getting caught up or overwhelmed specifically by covetousness and displeasure, to ultimately achieve restraint of the senses.

For this reason, they practice restraint, protecting the faculty of mind, and achieving its restraint. When they have this noble sense restraint, they experience an unsullied bliss inside themselves.

It’s only after achieving sila, contentment, noble sense restraint (from covetousness and displeasure) and situational awareness are they able to give up and meditate rid of each and all of the five hinderances, cleansing the mind.

When they have this entire spectrum of noble ethics, this noble contentment, this noble sense restraint, and this noble mindfulness and situational awareness, they frequent a secluded lodging—a wilderness, the root of a tree, a hill, a ravine, a mountain cave, a charnel ground, a forest, the open air, a heap of straw.
After the meal, they return from almsround, sit down cross-legged, set their body straight, and bring mindfulness to the present. Giving up covetousness for the world, they meditate with a heart rid of covetousness, cleansing the mind of covetousness. Giving up ill will, they meditate with a mind rid of ill will, full of sympathy for all living beings, cleansing the mind of ill will and malevolence. Giving up dullness and drowsiness, they meditate with a mind rid of dullness and drowsiness, perceiving light, mindful and aware, cleansing the mind of dullness and drowsiness. Giving up restlessness and remorse, they meditate without restlessness, their mind peaceful inside, cleansing the mind of restlessness and remorse. Giving up doubt, they meditate having gone beyond doubt, not undecided about skillful qualities, cleansing the mind of doubt.

So, based on this, my thinking is that, in this case, abhijjhādomanassaṁ probably isn’t referring to all five hinderances, but rather specifically just covetousness and displeasure for the purpose of training in sense restraint in order to ultimately overcome all of the five hinderances for the arising of samadhi where one would then be quite secluded from the senses.

Your thoughts?

23

Yes, thank you, Bhante for leading me in the right direction!

24

I am not quite sure who this question is meant for, but I’ll assume I’m a possible recipient!

First of all, I am not entirely sure what Ajahn Brahm means when he says that abhijjhādomanassa is a shorthand for the five hindrances, so I can’t really speak for him. There are, however, a number of ways this could be true. Let me go through some possibilities:

  1. Abhijjhādomanassa could be a shorthand for the five hindrances in the sense that the two expressions are synonymous. However, I am not aware of any Sutta evidence for this.
  2. Abhijjhādomanassa could be a shorthand for the five hindrances in the sense that it is an abbreviated version of them. Again, I do not think there is any Sutta evidence for this.
  3. Abhijjhādomanassa could be a shorthand for the five hindrances in the sense that the two are closely correlated. It is in this sense that I would argue Ajahn Brahm is right. The point here is simply that the hindrances are not standalone but tend to arise together. If there is sensual desire, there will be restlessness, etc. If there is anger, dullness often follows along. Conversely, if sensual desire is reduced or entirely overcome, then the remaining four hindrances will also be reduced.

The last of the above does not imply that one can remove the five hindrances entirely merely by overcoming abhijjhādomanassa. But it does mean that one can overcome them partially in this way. The full overcoming of the five hindrances happens later, especially through meditation.

25

That’s how I understand it, too.

Of course, we could say that if someone removed abhijjhā and domanassa, they also reduced the other hindrances. But even if that’s true (which I don’t think it always is), then it’s a pragmatic issue. This doesn’t say anything about the technical meaning of abhijjhādomanassa, which your question was about.

It’s like, if somebody overcame the flu, they are less likely to have a fever. But that doesn’t make it true that “flu” technically means “fever”. Likewise, if somebody removed abhijjhādomanassa, that doesn’t mean that the term abhijjhādomanassa in itself refers to the five hindrances.