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Guided Meditation: Wise Tranquility; Dharmette: Hindrances (4) Mindful with Restlessness - Kodo Conlin

The following talk was given by Kodo Conlin at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on January 29, 2026. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

So good morning all. Good day, good afternoon, good evening, good night. Welcome. Glad to be practicing with you again. Taking some time to check in with the chat. So nice to see all these greetings. People from all over. Beautiful.

Today we continue the series with practice with the five hindrances¹. A mindful approach to the hindrances. Today, for the meditation, we're going to emphasize something that's quite small, something that values the hints of wholesomeness that arise in the practice. They can be so easy to overlook, to not notice, especially when our attention is given to so many different things of varying intensities. We'll first do our usual settling in, grounding. We'll take some time to scan through the body, particularly connecting with our sensing faculty, and some deliberate time to relax and really make sure we're connected. We'll sense again, and then we will start paying attention to little hints of wholesomeness, little hints of pleasure.

So let's get started there. Let's find our posture first.

Guided Meditation: Wise Tranquility

Again bringing attention in a familiar way to the support of this body. If you're sitting upright, maybe it's the pressure on the seat, feet on the ground, a firm base, something we can rely on. We're already letting go of some of the bracing in the muscles. Sensing what's firm and steady.

And from that place, lengthening the spine, bringing the body to upright balance. As the spine aligns, the vertebrae might stack one on top of the other, and then the muscles can relax.

Now taking our time to sense. Sensing the body from the top to the bottom. Attending to the sensations first at the top of the head, and the whole head and the face. What's here? Sensing the chin and the jaw, the ears, and down to the neck and the throat. You may feel hints of the chest starting to open up.

Now sensing the shoulders and both arms all the way down to the fingertips. Sensing.

And sensing our way through the torso, the back all the way down, the front all the way down, the full width of the torso. Sensing what's here.

As you're ready, continuing down the hips, slowly down the legs, slowly down to the soles of the feet and the toes.

This whole broad field of sensations. Some of them flitting and changing. Some of them steady and persistent. Sensing.

Now relaxing. Relaxing any tensions associated with thinking. With a gentle sweep through the body, a gentle sweep of attention, noticing any holding, and relax.

Now for the rest of the meditation, the attention can either move freely from focus to focus, or you can stay attentive of the whole body, or continue to sweep the attention through the body deliberately top to bottom. Your choice. But as you attend, stay sensitive for the first little sensations or little indications of a wholesome pleasure. Even just hints. It can be the pleasure of neutral, even the pleasure of being right here, awake, sensing. Not to go hunting. Just stay sensitive.

Gently sensing, registering the pleasant, the calm, the satisfying.

And if the body and mind are presenting the opposites, discomfort, see if there's some place in the field of sensations that is neutral or just a little more steady.

And as this meditation comes to a close, may our mindful sensing help us to express the stillness at the center of all things. May all beings benefit.

Dharmette: Hindrances (4) Mindful with Restlessness

So again, welcome on this fourth morning. Finding myself all the more slow to speak. Let's see if we can muster it. This is our fourth morning on a discussion of the five hindrances to concentration, mindfulness, and wisdom.

The fourth hindrance in English is usually rendered as restlessness and worry, or restlessness and remorse. The Pali², the ancient language of the Buddha, it's probably the most fun of the four to say, something like uddhacca-kukkucca³.

I want to introduce the meaning of this with a description from Gil's book. It's a little bit of a long passage but I find it so helpful I want to share it with you.

"The fourth hindrance, restlessness and worry, makes it difficult to concentrate and see clearly. As is true with all the hindrances, the wisest way of overcoming restlessness and worry is to understand them well rather than getting rid of them quickly. Investigating them instead of quickly letting them go is a bit like learning to farm instead of accepting food. Investigation may take time, but what is learned will support us for a long time.

The Buddhist word translated as restlessness," he goes on, "is uddhacca⁴, meaning 'to shake.' It is a state of agitation and over-excitement. When physical, restlessness may appear as compulsive energy coursing uncomfortably through the body. There may be incessant impulses to fidget, move, or even to bolt. It can manifest as shakiness or agitated vulnerability, as if we have had too much caffeine. When mental, restlessness can occur as scattered or persistent thinking. It is present whenever we're caught in distraction. There may be an inability to focus. The mind resists being directed anywhere, or it jumps from one thing to the next, incapable of settling. In Buddhist teaching, this is sometimes called monkey mind.

And he concludes this passage: "The other half of this hindrance, kukkucca⁵ in the texts means regret about what one has done or hasn't done. This is commonly expanded to include worry or anxiety."

So there's a lot there. Here Gil has parsed this hindrance into three: a physical restlessness which he compares to having too much caffeine, a mental restlessness likened to the monkey mind and some manifestations, and then remorse about actions we have done or actions we haven't done.

So what's its influence? This simile is familiar by now, and it expresses how the hindrance limits us, here using the metaphor of sight. So here it is again:

"When one dwells with a mind obsessed by restlessness and remorse, overwhelmed by restlessness and remorse, and one does not understand as it really is the escape from arisen restlessness and remorse, on that occasion, one neither knows nor sees as it really is one's own good, or the good of others, or the good of both."

The ancient text goes on and says, "Suppose there's a bowl of water stirred by the wind, rippling, swirling, churned into wavelets. If one with good sight were to examine their own facial reflection in it, they would neither know nor see it as it really is. So too when one dwells with a mind obsessed by restlessness and remorse."

Now if our task is to observe, then understand the hindrance. What's the feeling? What's the story? What does restlessness and remorse feel like? I'm going to ask you again for some input about this. What sort of sensations show up for restlessness? And what sort of temptation show up for remorse? I think the Pali word that translates as "to shake" is apt. For remorse, there might be something like that all-too-familiar sinking belly or that contraction maybe in the mouth or the throat. But how does it show up in the head? What about in the back? What about in the limbs? What about in the chest? Or that desire to bolt, how does that show up?

So restlessness, whether it's physical or it's mental, it can be a manifestation of too much energy in the system, and it can be very powerful. This is expressed nicely in one of the ancient texts. Restlessness is compared to a thunderstorm, that powerful. I understand this; it's kind of like sometimes restlessness in the body is so strong that it can bounce around and echo around the body and the mind.

So what's the story? What story does restlessness tell? One of them may be familiar: "I have to get out of here. I can't handle this." Remorse might say something like, "I can't believe I did that," or the simple story, "Oh no."

But I'll encourage us to take heart. This can be sensitive to practice with. The mind says, "I can't handle it," but as one of our teachers says, the mind says we can't handle it, but we do handle it. We do handle it. It may be uncomfortable.

To understand and work with restlessness, it can be really helpful to take some time to understand its causes. As one teacher puts it, "Rumination is not helpful, but remembering what happened is helpful." Rumination is not helpful; remembering what happened is. So reflecting in this way, we might see what triggered our restlessness or remorse and have the opportunity to avoid it in the future. It may be that the mind carries on with some rumination, but where we have those little choice points we've been talking about, if and when we can choose to stop feeding the rumination, that's wise.

But what specific thoughts give rise to restlessness? Or you might reflect, is there some everyday activity that I'm doing that's giving rise to restlessness? Am I drinking too much coffee? Am I reading too much news too early? Or are there other lifestyle choices that are leading to restlessness?

I remember after a couple of stances of residential training, one at a Theravada center and one after I left the Zen monastery, I started occasionally watching a movie or a show. It is not a crime. And I quickly noticed that the next morning in meditation, there was much more chatter present in the mind. There was more restlessness in the mind and in the body. And this sort of cause and effect was informative for me when I was making decisions about whether to watch things, what to watch, how to watch.

One common cause of the hindrance of restlessness and remorse is emotion. Maybe something unseen that's just under the surface. Could be something like fear, disappointment, or desire that's underneath the restlessness. And it can be that if there's an emotion underneath our restlessness sort of fueling the restlessness, it can be helpful to actually direct our mindfulness to the emotion rather than the restlessness itself.

Because of this, I want to very briefly review some points about mindfulness of emotions before talking a little bit more about remorse. We'll try to get this all in in just a few minutes, so I'll be brief.

So once we recognize that restlessness and remorse, the hindrance is present, name it as such. And that takes care of the first step: recognize what's here. You may recognize the rest of this acronym for mindfulness of emotions. It's RAFT. Recognize. Accept. Accept doesn't mean to condone, of course. Accept means accept that this is what's actually happening now. No fighting with reality. So again, not condoning, not that kind of acceptance. The F of RAFT is to feel. And this is so important. We spent a lot of time in the guided meditation this morning sensing, giving predominance to our experience of senses rather than our thinking. And then to tease apart is the T. RAFT. Recognize, accept, feel, tease apart. And tease apart might be something like, one example, let's just say, is to tease apart the sensations of an experience, the sensations of restlessness in the body from the story that restlessness and remorse are trying to tell us. We don't have to get rid of the story, but teasing them apart so you see they're not one big thing. And, if it's possible, you can let the thoughts move through in the background. My dear colleague Tanya adds a second T for trust. Trust the process. Give it some time. If you'd like a more thorough review of mindfulness of emotions, there's some really good stuff on Audio Dharma. I think I might have a Dhamma talk or guided meditation around there somewhere. Really powerful practice, and it works for all the hindrances.

So with a couple of minutes we have left, I want to say something about distinguishing a sort of wholesome remorse from an unwholesome remorse. Clearly there's a drawback to certain modes of remorse or guilt or regret, and there is certainly a wholesome remorse about what one has done or hasn't done. Both of these can be true. After all, the Buddha did teach two related qualities: conscience and prudence. He taught that these two were the guardians of the world. There's something valuable in this family of qualities.

But remorse comes from the Latin, 'to bite again.' In my understanding, in this Buddhist understanding, it involves a wholesome recognition of our actions. "Yes, I did this," and their impacts on others, "Oh, it had this effect." It's distinguished from rumination. Rumination characterizes maybe shame or characterizes regret. Instead of rumination that can spiral, remorse is a motivator. It motivates us to make amends and to choose a different course of action next time. See the difference?

As a wholesome factor, remorse plays a really important role in the Buddha Dharma⁶. There's a great story I won't have time to tell now, in the Middle Length Discourses number 61, about how the Buddha trains Rāhula⁷ in reflecting on his actions before, during, and after them, in order to grow wise about his impact, including how he might harm others or how he might help others, and to learn to choose wisely through experience. It's really powerful. He calls this process growth in the Dharma.

So to conclude, just some reflections you might keep with you throughout the day about restlessness and remorse, so that you can notice it, get to know it. Notice its presence, of course, notice its absence and any discernible causes. You don't have to go spelunking for causes, but if you're able to catch cause and effect, that's really helpful. In terms of effect, you might give some attention when restlessness and remorse are present. How am I speaking? How do I speak? How does it influence my speech and how does it influence my action? Similarly, you can notice the presence or absence of the opposite: calm, confidence. What tends to happen before what, and how does it influence us?

Let's say we take mindfulness out into the rest of our day. You might notice any of the hindrances that come up. May it support us. And if there's a little bit of extra energy for the practice, an attitude you might try to cultivate that's a known remedy for restlessness and remorse is contentment. Contentment with just what's here. Just this is enough.

So, good day to you and take care. We'll wrap up the series on the hindrances tomorrow. May all beings benefit from our time together. Be well.