Meditating on breath and overcoming hindrances
59 Following in the Buddha's Footsteps
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Volume 4 Following in the Buddha's Footsteps 
Jul 18, 2025 Part of an ongoing series of teachings based on the book Following in the Buddha's Footsteps, the fourth volume in The Library of Wisdom and Compassion series by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Venerable Thubten Chodron.
- Meditating on breath to overcome discursive thoughts
- Six progressive phases of meditation on breath
- Path of preparation, path of seeing and path of meditation
- Similes for freedom and relief when five hindrances are subsided
- Simile of goldsmith gradually purifying gold for illustrating development of samadhi and serenity
- Fulfilling the real purpose of dwelling alone
59 Meditating on Breath and Overcoming Hindrances (download)
Contemplation points
- We meditate on the breath to counteract discursive thought. Work through each of the different levels of meditation on the breath in your meditation practice. Does your mind become more clear and calm? Are you able to recognize the radiant nature of the mind? Note how your breath and what is going on in your mind influence each other. How does doing these meditations repeatedly affect your mind?
- It is important not to become discouraged when the five hindrances arise in our meditation and we must make effort to eliminate them. But this effort is different from pushing ourselves. What does this look like in your own mind? Make personal examples of what is “pushing yourself” looks like vs “making effort” to eliminate the hindrances.
- The Buddha gave several similes for the relief and freedom one feels when the five hindrances have subsided. Spend some time with each of these from the text. Get a feeling for how our mind is trapped as in each of these similes and then what it would be like for the mind to be free. How does thinking about these energize you to practice?
- Why is it so important to understand that the development of samadhi and serenity is a gradual process and will not happen quickly or with little effort on our part? How does the Buddha’s simile of the goldsmith gradually purifying gold illustrate this? Meditate on this process using the simile as a guide.
- Notice attachment happening in your own mind regarding the past, present, and future as you go throughout your day. What does it mean to abandon what lies in the past, in the future, and in the present?
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
