Yogi: I know the reason why I’m upset.
Sayadaw: You pay attention to the storyline; you don’t know the mind process. We learn not from the storyline, we learn from the mind process – first mind, second mind. For example, anger comes because of craving – however strong the lobha, that’s however strong the anger when you don’t get it.
It is a process – before, you have expectation and because you cannot get what you want, anger comes.
We try to understand the mind process. We’re not trying to learn about anger from the storyline. Storyline is a concept; we try to learn from the mind process.
Anger is not present all the time. When anger arises, we try to find out what causes anger to arise. What idea, what thought leads to the next mind.
‘Why?’ means we learn from the process, not from the storyline.
If you find out the answer from the storyline, anger cannot go away. If the realization is from the mind process, then anger stops immediately.
Your responsibility is to have right view and watch the process. We’re not interested in the storyline; we want to know that thinking mind is happening. We pay attention to the thinking mind, not the thinking. We call thinking the storyline.
So, when you notice thinking mind is happening – that’s enough. Notice that the mind is thinking – we’re not interested in the storyline.
The mind is thinking. When feeling comes, how do you feel? Be aware of the feelings; be aware of the thinking mind and the feelings, thinking mind and feelings – that’s enough.