Meditation Hindrances and Breakthroughs: A Multilevel First-Person Phenomenological Analysis

Meditation hindrances—phenomena that counteract meditation—can also become grounds for breakthroughs. In a six-day retreat with five participants, a multilevel phenomenological method (biographical exploration, daily notetaking, and micro-phenomenology) revealed that negative effects, often called challenging or adverse, may dissolve into positive outcomes. The concept of hindrances is developed, showing how difficulties can be part of a process leading to breakthroughs.

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Abstract

This article explores the topic of meditation hindrances and breakthroughs. In the traditional literature, meditation hindrances are seen as phenomena counteracting meditative activity. However, hindrances are also seen as grounds for meditative growth and breakthroughs. In current meditation research, there is an effort to understand negative effects, sometimes referred to as challenging, adverse, or harmful effects. Little is known about how people experience and deal with meditation hindrances, and especially how they experience the dissolution of hindrances (breakthroughs). The method applied to shed light on this is an innovative and multilevel phenomenological method, which includes biographical exploration, daily notetaking and reflection, and micro-phenomenology. The participants consisted of a group of five people, and the setting was a 6-day meditation retreat. We offer a new perspective on this research not only by developing the concept of meditation hindrances but also by suggesting and showing how negative effects may be part of a process leading up to a breakthrough, where the negative aspect dissolves, potentially giving rise to positive outcomes.