Nine Obstacles in practice
This articles enumerates and elaborates on the nine obstacles in spiritual practice, and seeks to find remedies for these. It also mentions the results of a distracted and divided mind. This article is an excerpt from my book The Yoga Sutras Illuminated – Unraveling the mysteries of life, death and liberation (published May 2025).
There will be obstacles in practice as one proceeds on the path of self-knowledge. Without these obstacles, we would return to the natural state very easily. The natural energies are like a river which has been dammed —when the dam is removed, the water begins to flow. So, as you remove the obstacles, the energy starts flowing naturally and consciousness expands. Sutra I.30 of The Yoga Sutras lists 9 major obstacles that are hurdles on the inner journey.
Energies dammed like a river Photo: Anthony de la Cruz, Unsplash
Disease: The word dis-ease indicates a lack of ease. A diseased body is imbalanced and is not in its natural state. Most disease are the result of unhealthy eating habits and lifestyle. Over consumption of sugar or coffee, overeating, food of poor nutritional quality and a sedentary lifestyle create a state of imbalance in the body that becomes chronic. Disease is the first obstacle, because it is the most common one and it prevents you from doing systematic meditation practices. A diseased body will not allow you to go to the subtler and finer levels of meditation. It will keep you stuck at the physical level. Those suffering from disease must first organize their lives to deal with the issues of diet and lifestyle. Healthy food habits and a regular routine are an important foundation for those aspiring to attain higher levels of consciousness. When the body is weak and susceptible to chronic as well as acute disease, ask yourself the following: Am I working too much? Are my eating habits unhealthy and irregular? Have I have developed a negative attitude to life? Am I exercising too little? If yes, then find simple solutions to change this. Changes in the following four important aspects of daily life could help reverse disease: a) vihara, “healthy —recreation” b) ahara, “nutritious diet.” c) vichara, “correct attitude” d) achara, “balanced lifestyle” Disease caused by unhealthy mind patterns can only be cured by greater self-awareness and resolving internal conflicts between the four antahkarana.
2. Dullness of the mind: A dull mind cannot focus and falls asleep during practice. Sometimes the remedy is simple: stop eating unhealthy and heavy foods called tamasic foods. If the cause of dullness is emotional conflicts and suppressions then greater self-awareness is required to help the practitioner.
3. Doubt: Some aspirants may be practicing only because they were advised to do so by a therapist or teacher. Since the desire to meditate has not risen out of your own desire and life experiences, there may be many doubts. Perhaps a nagging inner voice asks,“Why am I wasting my time watching my breath? Shouldn’t I be with my friends enjoying myself?” This approach will not lead to any sustainable self-knowledge. Developing and strengthening reasoned faith is the solution.
4. Carelessness: An approach that is not systematic does not lead to higher states of consciousness.
5. Laziness: If you are lazy and do not do some sort of practice, and are not willing to work on transforming yourself, then you cannot expect any progress.
Pravritti marg - outward moving path Illustration by Radhikaji
6. Attraction to worldly pleasures: Such a person is external oriented and finds it very difficult to turn her awareness inward. This attraction to the worldly objects means that consciousness is constantly moving outward, strengthening existing mind patterns. This is pravritti marg, the outward moving path of consciousness (Fig. Pravritti marg). To attain a deep knowledge of consciousness, the awareness must be reversed and directed inward. This means adopting nivritti marg, the inward path that uncolors unhealthy mind patterns and resolves internal conflicts between manas, buddhi, ahamkara and chitta (Fig. Nivritti marg).
With a little physical practice, your consciousness turns away from the external world to your body. Slowly you train your mind to gently focus on breath awareness which is subtler. Only a few manage to turn their awareness to their own minds. This goes against the natural flow of pravritti and without a systematic approach self-awareness is challenging.
Nivritti Marg - inward moving path Illustration by Radhikaji
7. Inability to distinguish between right and wrong: This is incorrect cognition. This means buddhi, the light of awareness, is unable to see through the cloudy conflict-ridden mind. The four modifications of the mind manas, buddhi, ahamkara and chitta are not coordinated. Most criminals, for instance, know that their actions are not right, but the smokescreen of the colored mind leaves buddhi too weak to say firmly and clearly: “This is not right, don’t do it!” The lack of a clear buddhi is a major obstacle and causes a lot of disturbance in the mind which is reflected in the external world as well.
As self-awareness increases, it seems that the conflicts in the mind have increased. The conflicts have not increased; you have just become aware of them! If you have decided to give up drinking alcohol you may feel uncomfortable with others who continue to do so. This habit could become an identity: I am a teetotaler. Any mind pattern that becomes a firm identity can create a conflict. While identities are useful to interact with the world, they can also limit you. One of the methods to resolve conflicts is Internal Dialogue, referred to in The Yoga Sutras as Pratipaksha Bhava. All mind patterns and identities have been nurtured unconsciously over years. Most identities have been acquired in the early stages of development through your upbringing, education and culture. These identities are another word for ahamkara; some of these are very useful to relate to the external world. Every time you have an internal conflict, you can go through the process of dialogue. There is no rigid approach, you can be flexible and alert. Some times you may say: “Yes, buddhi is right, but my cultural habit patterns are too strong” or “I have been raised in a family with conservative values and I choose not to go against them.” The focus is on the words “choose.” Buddhi can make conscious choices. It is different from following your mind patterns unconsciously.
8. Inability to attain glimpses of higher states of consciousness: Are you one of the few deeply interested in Self Realization, but have as yet had no glimpses of Samadhi? There are a couple of possible reasons for this. It is very likely that your practice is not systematically taking your attention from the external to the internal, from the gross to the subtle and from the many-pointed to the one-pointed. Another possibility is the lack of regularity. More often than not, even sincere aspirants have not worked on the preliminaries such as maintaining a light, nutritious diet and leading a balanced lifestyle. Without direct experience of higher states of consciousness, you cannot validate the scriptures and the sages for yourself. Having faith in scriptures is very useful, but without direct experience, there remain lingering doubts. These doubts become obstacles creating internal conflicts in the mind. You need to have a clear glimpse of that beautiful and joyous consciousness, that attracts you and pulls you toward it, so that you long for it all the time. If that does not happen, you do not have the motivation to go through the regular practice of systematic meditation over a long period of time without breaks.
9. Unable to remain established in higher state of consciousness: During the course of the inner journey, you have to deal with many obstacles. Sometimes you feel lazy, at other times you practice carelessly or issues at the physical level — all of which can become obstacles. And then there are the doubts. You may have one or the other of these obstacles at some point of time in your journey, but once you have overcome the initial obstacles and even had a few glimpses of higher states of consciousness, you may still find yourself unable to remain established in it. This obstacle can be overcome only by steady and regular practice.
The result of a distracted mind
As long as the mind is full of conflicts there will be sorrow, dejection, restlessness of the body and irregular breath. As manas and the senses become disciplined and start following buddhi and as the conflicts between ahamkara and buddhi are resolved, the mind becomes one-pointed. When you have a one-pointed mind, the breath becomes calm, the body is no longer restless and you are able to take clear decisions. You can manage deeper emotional states. A distracted mind can practice and gradually into develop a one-pointed mind. On the other hand those with disorganized or dull minds must first prepare a firm foundation of preliminaries before they embark on the journey of deeper self-knowledge. A teacher, who has trained her own mind to become one-pointed, can help in this process of preparation, leading even a distracted or stupefied mind to slowly transform into a vikshipta mind and finally into a ekagra mind.
As long as the restless mind does not know the difference between right and wrong, and tends to move into the external world, you require a teacher who will help you prepare the foundation. Once the internal conflicts have been resolved and buddhi is sharp, the practitioner has found the teacher within.
Attainment of the highest state of consciousness is not possible through good deeds such as religious and welfare activities. To know Individual Consciousness and be established in it, you need to withdraw your awareness from the external world using a systematic method leading inward, resolving internal conflicts between the antahkarana and following the guidance of buddhi. This systematic meditation will lead you from the external to the internal, from gross to the subtle, uncoloring the samskaras deep in the latent unconscious until you discover Individual Consciousness resting within.
The remedy remains the same
What is the solution if you have a distracted mind? The solution is to train your mind to focus on one object of focus. You can begin at the most gross form, learning to focus the mind on physical objects in the external world that you can use to focus your attention. One can use the external objects as an aid, such as a deity, an icon or other ritual objects. It could be the portrait or photo of a saint. Body awareness, for instance, during physical poses is also external and would be a gross object of focus. You can train your mind to transition to a subtler object of focus like the breath.
The next level would be training the senses, for example, taste. You can resolve to observe yourself getting greedy about sweets and you focus on this as you begin to train manas the coordinator of the senses. It does not mean that you stop yourself from eating sweets, but initially you just observe it. Gradually buddhi may suggest a discipline to restrict the consumption of sweets without getting too rigid. You may notice that you talk a lot, and buddhi might recommend you train your sense of speech by keeping silent for an hour daily. This is the process of moving inward. Moving inward is a systematic and speedy method. If you remain at the external level of focussing on ritual objects or physical culture, then you have chosen a slow method.
Those on the path of self-knowledge will meet with many obstacles. It is important to remember that sincere practitioners must continue to practice in spite of the obstacles, since systematic practice, daily, over a long period of time is the best remedy against all obstacles.
What are the obstacles that prevent you from deepening your practice?
Out of these obstacles emerge mental and physical pain, dejection or frustration, restless body and mind and irregular breath, incorrect diet, irregular routine or extreme stress.
What are the obstacles that prevent you from deepening your spiritual practice? It could be one of above mentioned obstacles or something else. Other obstacles include lack of social support, noisy neighborhood, etc. Contemplate and think of realistic solutions that can you can integrate in your life.