A prince
named fearless once asked the Blessed Buddha:
Venerable Sir, what is the conditioning cause for lack of vision and wisdom?
Prince, when the mind is obsessed, overwhelmed,
and dominated by
sense-desire,
or when mind is beset by ill-will, plagued, enraged,
and fully conquered by anger,
or when mind is retarded, dimmed, detained,
and diluted by
lethargic laziness,
or when mind is agitated, troubled,
and tyrannized by
restlessness and regret,
or when mind is perplexed, confused,
and bewildered by doubt and uncertainty,
and one does not understand any safe escape from any of
these present
mental
hindrances, at that very moment, one can neither see, nor
understand
anything
of what is advantageous, neither for oneself, nor
for others,
nor both for oneself
and others! These 5
mental hindrances are therefore
the conditioning causes for
lack of vision and wisdom! It is in
this very way, that ignorance arises from a cause,
and not
without a cause...
What is this Dhamma explanation called, Sir?
These are called the mental hindrances, prince.
Surely and unquestionably they are mental hindrances.
Blessed One!
One overcome by even a single mental hindrance would not
know and see
things as
they really are, not to speak of one overcome by
all these
5 mental hindrances..
