Page 131 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

guard at the gate to examine the credentials of everyone who

presents himself. Similarly, you watch the doors of the six senses
and try to see what impressions, what thoughts or ideas, are

presenting themselves and seeking admission, and in this way
the enemy is kept out.

Watchfulness and awareness with regard to the workings of the
physical senses and the lower mind must be kept up all the time.

As we all know from experience, unskillful thoughts usually take
us unawares: we don't even see them coming — don't see them
entering the door. Before we know where we are, there they

are, right in the midst of the mind — sitting down in the house,
as it were, very much at home — and we wonder how they got

in! Well, they got in through the door. They got in through one
or another of the six senses. This is why we have to watch the
doors of the senses if we want to keep out unskillful thoughts.

(b) Eradicating Arisen Unskillful Mental States

In this connection we can discuss unskillful thoughts in terms of
the Five Hindrances, a very well known Buddhist teaching. The
Five Hindrances are:

(i) The Hindrance of Craving for Material Things. Comprising as it

does craving for such things as food, clothings, and shelter, this
is a very strong craving indeed. It is all right so long as we keep it
within limits, but we don't usually do that. We usually want more

material things than are really necessary, and in this way craving
very often gets completely out of hand. From being just the

means of living and functioning in the world, material things
become a definite hindrance to any kind of higher mental or
spiritual life — even, we may say, a hindrance to cultural life.

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