Buddha Abhidhamma - Ultimate Science - BuddhaNet

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developed and strengthened by samatha-bhàvanà which is actually
a form of mental training.
Our mind is normally not tranquil or calm. It is constantly
agitated by five hindrances (nivaraõas); namely, sensuous desire
(kàmacchanda), illwill (vyàpàda), sloth and torpor (thina-middha),
restlessness and remorse (uddhacca-kukkucca) and sceptical doubt
(vicikicchà).
Sensuous desire influences the mind to be wandering about
sensuous objects which it has enjoyed before. Illwill agitates the
mind by taking notice of disagreeable things. Sloth and torpor,
restlessness and remorse, and sceptical doubt blind the mental
vision and disturb the concentration.
Lord Buddha compared sensuous desire with water mixed
with manifold colours, illwill with boiling water, sloth and torpor
with water covered with mosses, restlessness and remorse with
agitated water whipped by the wind, sceptical doubt with turbid
and muddy water. Just as in such water one cannot perceive one’s
own reflection, so in the presence of these five hindrances, one
cannot clearly see one’s own benefit, nor that of others, nor that
of both.
These hindrances can be overcome and temporarily dismissed
by tranquillity-meditation (samatha-bhàvanà). We may choose
pañhavã-kasiõa (earth-circle) as an object of meditation. A tray of
about one span and four fingers (about one foot) in diameter is
filled evenly with dawn-coloured clay or earth. This object is
placed on a suitable stand so that one can look at it comfortably.
Sitting at ease two and a half cubits (3.75 ft) away from the
earth-circle, one concentrates on it, saying mentally, “pathavã,
pathavã” or “earth, earth…” The hypnotic circle that one is seeing
is known as parikamma-nimitta (preparatory image).