18 Day 2 Achieving Shamatha And Beyond - 7ptmt (2016)

Alan Wallace - Selected Podcasts

Five Obscurations, Five Jhana Factors.

5 obscurations and its antidotes, which are:
The five factors of stabilization remove the five obscurations
1. The factor of coarse examination removes the obscurations of laxity and dullness.
2. The factor of precise investigation removes the obscuration of uncertainty.
3. The factor of well-being removes the obscuration of malice.
4. The factor of bliss removes the obscurations of excitation and anxiety
5. The factor of single-pointed attention removes the obscuration of sensual craving.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/gunaratana/wheel351.html#ch3.2

Water similes of the five obscurations
1. Sensual craving is like water mixed with various colors.
2. Malice is like boiling water.
3. Laxity and dullness are like water covered over by moss.
4. Excitation and anxiety are like agitated water whipped by the wind.
5. Uncertainty is like turbid, muddy water.

The Buddha declared that, “So long as these five obscurations are not abandoned, one considers himself as indebted, sick, in bonds, enslaved and lost in a desert track” (Sāmaññaphala Sutta). This is clearly a description of mental ill health, and it implies a fundamental, distinctive characteristic of the Buddhist worldview, namely that the mind of a person that is prone to all the above obscurations may be normal but it is not healthy.