551. IDEAS DETERMINE HOW THE MIND REACTS TO CERTAIN WORDS
China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (1:24:56-1:28:17)
Yogi: You say that the object must be natural – but I do a type of Taoist breathing that is not natural. What should I do?
Sayadaw: When your awareness is better, it’ll be natural. For example, practicing yoga is also not natural and neither is practicing qigong. Just put your awareness there; it is not a problem.
How the mind relates to certain words is important. For some people who are involved in security, saying ‘investigate’ agitates the mind. Every time they hear the word ‘investigate’, they get really tense because they investigate with fear and anxiety at work. So, every time they hear the word ‘investigate’, defilements arise.
You need to know how the mind reacts to words that convey certain ideas.
Likewise with the word ‘meditation’ – it can make the yogi very tense. For some people, they meditate with a lot of tension. So, when they hear ‘meditation’, they already become tense.
I would advise these yogis not to meditate, but to simply go sit, and ask what they know. Just change the concept.
The mind is very strange.
552. DISCERNING WHOLESOME AND DEFILEMENT INTENTIONS
China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (30:28-32:12)
Yogi: I notice that self-interest pushes the intentions and actions.
Sayadaw: If there is intention with wisdom, it is wisdom interest, and wisdom is working. Either defilement or wholesome mind can push the intention and the action.
Sometimes it is wisdom that intends to do something, and other times, it is craving.
How to tell them apart? If there is intention with wholesome energy, the mind quality feels good. If there is intention with defilement, the mind suffers.
553. THE MIND SUFFERS WHEN WRONG THOUGHTS HAPPEN
China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (15:13-17:15)
Yogi: If I call a close family member and they don’t answer, I start to worry.
Sayadaw: And you think what could be happening? If you think that way, how do you feel? You get more and more worried, right? So, if you’re aware of the process – thinking comes and the mind suffers – you need to know that it is a wrong thought. If you continue to think, the mind continues to suffer.
If you can see the process, slowly the mind becomes wiser and you don’t want to continue to think that way.
If certain thoughts cause the mind to suffer, you should not continue to think those thoughts; don’t allow them to grow, or else the mind suffers even more.
If you observe this process repeatedly, the mind will eventually understand what to do.
For me, when a thought causes my mind to suffer, the mind immediately stops that thought. I’m not so silly as to allow the thought to hurt the mind even more.
Just change to a neutral object and try to stay peacefully in the present; there is no need to suffer from negative thoughts.
554. WHEN THE MIND IS PEACEFUL AND CALM, CHECK AND STAY WITH THE AWARENESS
China 2018 Retreat File: 20180527 Q&A 2 (36:30-37:33)
Yogi: In the morning sit, the mind is half awake and half asleep.
Sayadaw: The mind is not working very well – it is indulging in the peacefulness. The mind is not awake and alert.
So, it is time to use your wisdom – when the mind calms down, it is time to use your wisdom.
Check or remind the mind: How many objects can you know? You are just reminding about your awareness. Also, don’t pay attention to the calmness because every time you pay attention to the calmness, it is easy for the mind to indulge in the calmness. So, stay with the awareness.
At that time, can you tell the difference between calmness and awareness, the difference between the object and the knowing mind? When you try to notice the awareness, then the mind wakes up.
555. INTENSE DEFILEMENT ARISES SIMPLY BECAUSE WE ARE NOT READY WITH AWARENESS
China 2018 Retreat File: 20180530 Q&A 8 (39:26-39:55)
Yogi: Big fear arises when seeing blood or great heights.
Sayadaw: How does big fear come? Big fear comes because you are not aware – because awareness, samadhi, and wisdom are not ready.
If awareness, samadhi, and wisdom are present, fear cannot overwhelm the whole mind.
Because delusion is there, therefore fear can arise strongly.
556. APPLYING RIGHT EFFORT IN THE PRACTICE
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (1:24:10-1:26:16)
Yogi: Is exerting strong effort the right effort required in the practice?
Sayadaw: Right effort is the four right efforts. They are designed to make the mind more wholesome.
When it comes to the unwholesome mind, the effort is to prevent what is unwholesome from arising and to stop whatever has arisen from continuing.
For the wholesome mind, it is to arouse what has not arisen and to grow what is already present.
The four right efforts are designed to create more wholesome minds. So whatever effort you make in the practice, check that the wholesome mind is growing; if it creates the unwholesome, then that is not the right effort.
When we are aware of the awareness, all four right efforts are already happening (checking that could be interesting).
557. THE RIGHT EFFORT TO CONSISTENTLY MAINTAIN GENTLE AWARENESS
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (34:20-38:43)
Yogi: How to make mindfulness at work a habit?
Sayadaw: Make it a habit to always know how the mind feels all the time, not just at work – then it comes easily when you’re at work.
When you know how you feel all the time, then the moment the mind gets a little stressed, you’ll be aware and can do something about it right away.
We’re so used to being aware of the body and a little of how we feel – but we don’t know how to recognize the working mind. When we work, we use the mind in different ways – it has to do so many things – and we don’t know how to recognize that the mind is working. We are either into the work or we’re aware of something else, but we can’t be aware and still carry out the work.
For example, we can’t be aware when we’re reading or when watching TV because when we’re aware we can’t understand what we’re reading or watching and when we understand what we’re reading or watching, we forget to be aware. We put all our energy into one or the other – either being aware or into what we’re doing.
Practicing seeing and looking on retreat is a good way of dividing our energy between being aware and watching concepts – e.g. when you look at the flower, and at the same time, recognize that seeing is happening. Do it very lightly. (We can practice this for all the 6 senses.)
I ask yogis not to put too much effort into being aware, but to just maintain a light awareness that is persistent, because the awareness gains momentum and power when you have a light awareness that persists for a long time. You can be working and still maintain awareness only when the awareness is gentle.
558. REGULARLY CHECK IF WE’RE TENSE OR RELAXED
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 3 Group C (35:32-37:22)
Yogi: I start to get sleepy when I sit and wonder if I exert too much when I walk.
Sayadaw: If the mind which usually gets too excited stops and relaxes, it just wants to go to sleep.
We need to constantly check how much energy the mind is using every moment – like when you’re out there walking, you need to check if the energy is too high, and just watching that energy will balance it.
Notice whether the mind is tense or relaxed, if the energy is increasing or decreasing, if there is clarity or confusion and bring that awareness with you into the sitting.
Just lightly checking ourselves will make us aware all the time. It is a simple way to be aware of ourselves all the time.
559. RESTING IN AWARENESS
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (57:58-1:01:04)
Yogi: When I’m sick and the mind pushes to get things done, what should I do?
Sayadaw: Rest, do and watch that eagerness to get things done or the standard that the mind has given itself. Watch that; don’t let the eagerness rule.
When those standards that we hold push us, we exert too much energy. By recognizing that and the unskillful result will help to balance the mind.
Awareness is really helpful when you’re tired because you can just rest in the awareness of the tiredness. When there is that awareness, and you are doing what you need to do, then you cannot overexert because the mind will know the limits of its abilities.
560. HOW TO USE BREATH AWARENESS TO MONITOR TENSION
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 3 Group C (41:15-43:11)
Yogi: I’m always tense.
Sayadaw: When you breathe, breathe deeply. Follow the breath – when you breathe deeply, you will feel the tension increase when you breathe in, and when you breathe out, you will feel some relaxation happening.
Just track the relaxation, and repeat – feel the tension and then track the relaxation. You do that over and over again.
Not just in sitting – this is going to be an exercise for you all day long. We all forget our breath and start to breathe shallow and that makes the mind and body tense.
We tend to forget our breath – as much as you remember, come back to it and take a deep breath. You will forget some times and when you remember, just start again.
561. THE VALUE OF THE PRACTICE IS IN THE AWARENESS, NOT IN THE PLEASANT EXPERIENCES
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 3 Group C (1:14:00-1:16:54)
Yogi: This morning’s session was really peaceful for me and I feel that I’m on my way in the practice.
Sayadaw: What if your meditation this morning isn’t peaceful? Would you still feel that you’re on your way?
Being on the way is when we’re aware – it’s not when things feel good. That’s not what puts us on the way.
The value of the practice is not in feeling good, but in being aware because we want to understand the way things are, as they are.
It’s inevitable that when we understand the path and walk it, there will be peace. Peace is a side effect of practicing skillfully, but that’s not our goal. The goal is to keep walking that path of wisdom.
Our job is just to work steadily on the 3 yogi jobs – to have right view, be aware and to continue to be aware with right view.
When we think the experience or the result is important, we start to have a lot of judgment – liking and disliking this and that. But when we remember that the value of the practice is in the awareness – in the work that is being done – then it doesn’t matter what is happening because there are recognition and appreciation that awareness is working. And then we become more skillful at being aware.
562. BE HAPPY WHEN ABLE TO BE AWARE
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (1:17:15-1:18:33)
When I was a teenager, my teacher taught me: If you know it, be happy. That really stuck in my mind – I could be angry or do anything unskillful, but when I was aware of it, I would be happy.
The effect of that was that once the awareness built up if something unskillful came up in the mind, it didn’t stay. It is so powerful because the view is right view – you see it, you know it, and it’s gone.
563. THE TWO WAYS OF CULTIVATING AWARENESS
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group A (40:15-42:33)
Yogi: When Sayadaw talks about body awareness, is it just a general light awareness rather than a precise marking, marking, marking?
Sayadaw: You can start with a general awareness and later you naturally see more detail without trying.
There are 2 ways to see in greater detail. First, we track each of our movement in great detail – when we move a foot, the next foot, and our head. That’s quite tiring because it is intensive. Eventually, if we are allowing enough, we can notice that we’re aware. We then start to come to the mind and recognize the mind.
The other way is just to strengthen the awareness – not trying to be with any particular object, but making sure that the awareness is continuous based on any object, choosing what works for you to keep the mindfulness continuous.
564. NOTICE BODY AWARENESS IF YOU CAN’T BE AWARE OF FEELINGS
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (1:04:54-1:05:40)
If straight away you find it difficult to be aware of your feelings continuously – you need to put that aside for a while. You need to build up the mindfulness first by going to something simple like being aware of your breath or walking so that you can be aware more continuously.
You may be lost in thoughts and you come back repeatedly to something simple in the body.
It might take minutes, hours, or days – it doesn’t matter.
When the mind is more stable, that’s when you can work with the mind better. It will take patience and time.
565. BEING AWARE MEANS WE’RE AWARE OF THE SIX SENSES AT WORK
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (1:02:00-1:05:24)
Yogi: On my way to the retreat I was driving through a thunderstorm – I was totally ‘aware’ in the moment (as in paying attention), but I wasn’t aware that I was being aware.
Sayadaw: In English, the word is the same, i.e. ‘awareness’. When we’re in situations where we have to be very careful and alert, and really present to what needs to be done, all our attention is outside.
That’s not awareness like in meditation. If you had remembered to check how you felt, that would have been mindfulness or awareness.
When we’re aware of any of the six sense doors working – the mind and the 5 physical senses – that’s when we’re aware in the sense of practicing the dhamma.
Although we know the concepts, we’re also aware of the 6 senses at work.
566. WATCHING THE MIND IS LIKE WATCHING A MOVIE
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (52:00-52:52)
When you’re angry with someone, you really want to be angry with that person. We would like to be right and that person should be wrong; and we should be angry. That’s what anger does.
It is the same with sadness – when we’re sad, we would like to be sad and there’s a reason to be sad and that’s also the nature of the mind.
There’s nothing wrong with that – simply recognize that the mind is doing that.
All we want to do is to see that it’s a sad movie playing – it could be a sad, angry or happy movie playing in the mind. And, we watch that movie to understand how the thoughts and feelings play out.
567. MEDITATION SHOULD BE FUN
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (45:17-47:18)
Yogi: When I meditate lightly, it is educational, and the learning is playful and fun.
Sayadaw: We should meditate like we’re playing games – it is fun and not like a duty.
We have been watching the world and all its external nature for so long. It has become boring because we have been there, done that – now, we’re watching a new show.
568. DON’T ABANDON THE DHAMMA WHEN WE LEAVE THE MEDITATION CENTRE
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (11:15-11:50)
We bring the dhamma into our lives by practicing until it becomes a habit to keep our mind in the best possible state.
Often for us, the dhamma is somewhere else, not in the moment. The dhamma is only in the centre – it is lost the moment we leave the centre because we don’t bring it into our homes. That is the problem.
569. METTA: IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY IN YOUR POCKET, YOU CAN’T GIVE.
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (56:30-1:00:43)
Yogi: I start the morning sit by doing metta.
Sayadaw: Whatever the mind is doing, like reciting the metta phrases, you can recognize that the mind is doing that. Once you know what the mind is doing, you’re practicing satipatthana. That’s fine.
When you practice metta, do you feel metta?
Yogi: Sometimes.
Sayadaw: Recognize that sometimes we’re just reciting the words and not feeling metta.
It has happened to me that I was reciting ‘May you be happy’, but I became angry instead.
The best time to radiate metta is after a sit or walking meditation when the mind feels good, kind and strong; then, we can bring people into our minds and radiate that feeling.
Metta is like money; if you don’t have any in your pocket, you can’t give.
Metta is useful for some people when the gross mind is very confused or agitated – just reciting the metta phrases can calm the mind down. That’s really helpful to settle the mind – then it can be aware without the excessive agitation.
When we recite, the mind can understand the meaning of ‘May all beings be well, may all beings be happy’, and that brings some peace to the mind.
We can use it if it’s helpful.
570. DECONSTRUCTING ‘I AM THE MIND’
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (26:00-32:55)
Yogi: How does identification work?
Sayadaw: The self is an idea/belief that the mind holds – when there is sufficient wisdom, there’s a shift to the (experiential) understanding that it is cause and effect which governs what is happening.
Identification (the result of moha) is a belief; it’s so strong that it feels like it’s there all the time. When the mind gets glimpses/an insight that something happening is just nature, at that time it’s very clear that there’s nobody there; that the belief that there’s a self is just a construct, not a reality.
We have to practice so much because the delusion is very strong.
When that wisdom is absent, identification is there; when that wisdom is present, identification is absent.
There’s more identification with the awareness than with the objects because awareness is in the mind and identification (moha) is also in the mind – ‘I am the mind’. (Both the indriyas and moha are mental factors.)
It is important for awareness to gain momentum because when there’s momentum we can also recognize the awareness, and they both help us to see that the mind is a process and it’s not somebody there. (Awareness is the condition for awareness to gain momentum and for wisdom to arise.)
Seeing the momentum of work shows you that there is a process going on; that ‘you’ is not involved.
When awareness has momentum, when the practice is practicing itself, at that time, what is happening is not you and what is knowing is also not you.
571. THE WISDOM IS IN THE KNOWING
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (48:34-49:10)
I love to tell yogis what my teacher said: If you’re wicked and you know it, you’re a wise (wicked) person.
It was a big learning for me; it was very encouraging that knowing myself was better than not knowing myself.
The wisdom is in the knowing of who we really are (knowing is the condition for real change to take place).
572. TO BE WITH THE SELF MEANS TO BE PRESENT TO WHAT-IS
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (35:00-36:49)
Yogi: Zen practice is to be yourself completely – breathe, sleep and die completely.
Sayadaw: To be yourself completely just means to be completely in the present moment with what is happening as it is. That’s all.
Yogi: So, this is a Zen retreat completely; I feel at home.
573. WHEN WE SET THE MIND UP TO BE AWARE, IT’S JUST AN INTENTION, NOT A MUST
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Tape 7 Day 3 Group C (43:25-45:00)
Yogi: Other traditions say: Work ardently, persistently, and continuously. You say: Work lightly, persistently and continuously. Is that right?
Sayadaw: Practicing lightly, persistently and continuously, it’s just an intention.
We would like to work lightly, persistently and continuously; but it’s not a ‘must’, particularly with the ‘persistently’ and ‘continuously’.
Sometimes we forget to be persistent and continuous, and it’s okay.
Yogi: What you’re saying is that I shouldn’t judge myself or make it a problem if I can’t be continuous or persistent in being aware.
Sayadaw: Yes.
574. PROBLEM WITH THOUGHTS DURING MEDITATION
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (1:19:00-1:21:27)
Yogi: I have a problem with recurring thoughts because I want them and I don’t want them, and I easily get lost in them.
Sayadaw: Firstly, thinking is not a problem because thinking is the nature of the mind – the mind is that which thinks. There is no need for you to stop thinking.
If you can recognize it whenever the mind thinks, if there is an active recognition of the thinking mind over and over again, you won’t get lost in thoughts.
If you do get lost in thoughts, every time you’re aware, bring the awareness to the body.
The problem is not the thinking mind; the problem is that you don’t like it. The mind will think. It is what it does.
575. THROUGH AWARENESS, EVERYTHING IS A LESSON TO BE LEARNED
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group A (17:20-17:56)
When I say ‘Don’t do something’, I don’t mean just that. What I mean is that it is unnecessary and unhelpful, but if it happens, we need to allow it.
So, if you notice that the mind is complaining (or being negative in any way), you need to notice just that. ‘Oh, the mind is complaining, and this is the result.’ Everything is up for awareness to know, and everything teaches us a lesson.
576. WHAT IS MEANT BY NOT CONTROLLING EMOTIONS
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group A (56:16-58:20)
Yogi: I find it easier to allow any emotion – anger, fear or envy – to be in the mind, rather than feel guilty or say that it shouldn’t be like that.
Sayadaw: That’s right. Whatever it is, just let it happen in the mind and know it, but not externalizing it. It is important that we don’t control the emotion in the mind – some yogis misunderstand and think they could externalize the anger, fear or envy, but that’s not skillful.
We don’t control what is happening in the mind, allowing the mind to be as it is, and observing that – we need to do that.
577. WATCH THE EMOTIONS, NEITHER SUPPRESSING NOR PARTICIPATING
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (48:25-53:53)
Yogi: Not taking my sadness and anger personally feels likes suppressing or disallowing them. Is it wrong to feel my emotions?
Sayadaw: You can let the mind do what it is doing, you just add being aware of what it is doing. It is like watching a child cry – allow the emotion and know it.
Although you don’t want to encourage or feed that emotion, you also don’t want to stop it.
[Watch the emotion objectively and let the mind learn over time – if we interfere by stopping or participating in the emotion, then the mind doesn’t have the chance to learn.]
578. DON’T BELIEVE THE MIND THAT IDENTIFIES WITH THE EXPERIENCE
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Tape 11 Day 4 Group B (40:10-44:18)
Yogi: There is lots of sadness in my life lately. I’m aware of the sadness, but then the mind says: No, it’s my sadness. Then, there is this conflict, ‘Is the emotion mine?’, and at the same time feeling it.
Sayadaw: Just take another step back.
You’re recognizing several processes happening – you’re seeing not only the mind that is able to work with it in an objective way but also another mind that wants to hang on to the emotion, that wants to identify with it, that wants to keep it even though it is suffering. You see both and it’s happening very fast.
Take another step back. Don’t believe any of the stories that the mind is telling you. Keep stepping back from the story – ‘I see that too’.
You can either bring in right view, keep reminding yourself that ‘This is also the nature of the mind, the mind that wants to hang on to the self’, or you don’t have to do anything but just recognize that it is happening.
579. HAVING AN OPEN ATTITUDE TO CHECK
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group B (47-40-49:50)
Yogi: I do a lot of investigation of the dhamma like tracking cause-and-effect. How much should I do? Is it helpful?
Sayadaw: Check for yourself – what is the effect when you do that? And, when you do it often?
Does it calm the mind? Does it strengthen the mind? Does it agitate the mind? Does the mind feel more confident? Check these factors after doing something; also whether the mind goes into proliferation or stays with the dhamma.
Yogi: It’s very helpful.
Sayadaw: When it’s helpful, then you should use it. Everything is dhamma; it is just whether we recognize it or not. Whatever the mind does, what we want to see is what is the effect of that – is it positive or not? Is it skillful or not skillful? Is it helpful or not helpful? And then you decide – that’s how you learn for yourself.
It is not fixed – now what you do may be skillful, but at another time, it may not, depending on your attitude at that moment.
580. ACKNOWLEDGE OUR CONCEPTUAL EXPERIENCES YET RECOGNIZE THE WORKING MIND
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 3 Group C (31:35-35:30)
Yogi: I open my eyes when I meditate and take in many objects – sights, sounds and touch sensations. I feel a bit confused as the objects are so beautiful and plentiful, and they’re changing all the time.
Sayadaw: Allow those experiences, but always recognizing the reality of this mind and body (the 6 senses) in those experiences. Then, you can feel like you’re aware and not be lacking in persistence/continuity of awareness when you notice the sounds and the touch of the wind. Mostly, you don’t feel like you’re aware when you’re looking at the view and the butterflies.
When you do look at those things you want to acknowledge that you’re looking, just that shift of attention from the butterfly to yourself – recognizing that looking is happening and then seeing is happening. It may feel that the mind is busier, but you can relax the mind too.
When you like or dislike the things you see, you recognize those feelings too; the attention always comes back to recognizing the experience in ourselves. Outside of us are the concepts and inside is nature (reality) that is interacting with the concepts; and you want to keep on recognizing the nature that is interacting with the outside world.
Yogi: I find myself enjoying the experience.
Sayadaw: I’m not saying that you cannot enjoy the experience; just acknowledge and know the liking and keep watching it.
581. ADVICE ON HOW NOT TO LET TENSION ESCALATE
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (00:00-10:38)
Yogi: I feel lots of pressure on week days and look forward to the weekend, but then it gets worse – I feel even less relaxed. What should I do?
Sayadaw: Rather than wait to do formal meditation like sitting once a day, you need to learn to meditate throughout the day – and to relax the stress every time you feel it.
The nature of practicing the dhamma is that you have to do it all the time. Meditation is not a part time, once a day, kind of thing. It is something we need to have in our mind all the time.
So, during the day, take moments out from your day and just be with the breath, or learn to recognize your feelings and tension, and relax.
As you are working, recognize again and again when tension is increasing so that you can relax and do your work, like building a different habit of doing your work.
Be careful of your motivation to practice – if it is to feel relaxed or better, that gets in the way of relaxing. We need to have the attitude that we’re practicing to cultivate wholesome minds and to learn.
When there is awareness, eagerness can’t overtake the mind – when we’re not aware, the desire to do things well, do things fast and to finish, all these desires overtake the mind and the mind gets tired from these expectations.
We should be mindful of all the desires and wanting in the mind – recognizing what is unnecessary at the moment like wanting to do something really well. We can lower our expectations, get what is necessary done first, and worry about the standard later – that will decrease the pressure.
582. IF THERE’S TENSION IN THE BODY, CHECK
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (38:51-40:20)
Yogi: There’s a lot of tension in the body
Sayadaw: When you try to be aware, you could be trying too hard.
Yogi: I’m always tense; like at home, I’m also tense.
Sayadaw: It’s not because you’re paying attention that you’re getting tense. You just have tension.
If it’s not because of the way you’re being aware that there is tension, then, it’s not a problem. I’m concerned that mentally yogis increase tension by the way they try to observe.
If it’s just the normal tension that we carry, then, it’s not a problem. You can stop calling it tension and just recognize the sensation as an object, no judgment – it’s not tension, just a sensation.
583. UNDERSTANDING ARISES FROM CONSISTENTLY STAYING WITH THE AWARENESS
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (1:09:15 -1:10:16)
Yogi: The mind gets so tired from not being able to watch things because they disappear so fast; and then a lot of thinking comes to the mind.
Sayadaw: Don’t stay with the object – it doesn’t matter what happens to it, stay with the awareness. Go back to the awareness, and know the awareness.
When you’re thinking, go back to the awareness and stay with it and then understanding will come.
584. STEPPING BACK IS THE WORK OF WISDOM
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (1:04:10-1:04:54)
Stepping back is the work of wisdom. Only wisdom is able to step away and see afresh ‘Oh, this is what is happening.’
When wisdom is not present, we’re like locked inside – we’re kind of involved and participating, and we don’t know how to get out. But, when wisdom comes back, we step back.
Meditation is like walking backwards – walking away from whatever is coming at us.
585. UNDERSTANDING CAUSE AND EFFECT BY WATCHING HOW WE DERIVE AT DECISIONS
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (1:18:13-1:20:02)
You can see the results of the decisions you make because each decision comes with its results. The more wisdom we have about understanding cause and effect, the more peace we’ll have.
When we make decisions based on greed or any other unwholesome quality, there’s going to be a result that is connected to the unwholesome quality that gives us suffering. And, there can be mixed results where some of it is wholesome and some of it is unwholesome.
To learn about cause-effect, we learn from every decision we make in our lives. It starts with simple decisions like if and when we go to the toilet, eat and sleep. Each decision we make comes with its results.
Should we go to the toilet now or later? We make all these decisions and we see the results like: is the mind calm this way – have we overreacted, have we acted in the right way, or is it timely?
When we take note of how the mind feels in every decision we make, the mind may start to learn the principle to the decisions made and whether the results are wholesome or not.
586. DON’T FIX THE FUTURE – JUST WATCH AND LET WISDOM BE YOUR GUIDE
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (52:35-54:26)
Yogi: When I feel tired and sleepy off bed hours at retreat, should I sleep or not?
Sayadaw: Nothing is fixed. When there’s awareness, it allows wisdom to arise.
Always gauge for yourself without fixing an idea that this time I’ll do this or this time I’ll do that.
As you watch, wisdom’s decision to sleep or to watch can come.
We don’t know the future; we can’t decide it now – we just go with what wisdom tells us.
The nature of awareness is that if we persist in awareness, wisdom will arise – and then the understanding of what is necessary, suitable, or beneficial can arise. All we need to do is to be aware; we don’t have to choose the outcome – we just have to choose awareness.
587. THE MIND NATURALLY SEES MORE WHEN AWARENESS IS CONTINUOUS
Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Gp A (13:09-15:39)
Yogi: There was restlessness and later I found out it was doubt feeding the anxiety. When I saw the doubt (cause), both it and the anxiety (effect) cleared. One seems to hold the other. How do I work with the doubt?
Sayadaw: Stay with what you know first. Initially, you watch the restlessness and as you stay with it, the awareness is building.
We always forget that awareness is building when we watch continuously. When awareness is building, it starts to see more and the wisdom starts growing. It not only sees restlessness but also detects something underlying which you have not noticed earlier.
It’s not about working with it like trying to find out ‘Oh, what is behind the restlessness’ – it is by being simple and watching the restlessness continuously and when there is enough awareness, the mind naturally understands more.
588. THE IMPORTANT VALUE OF CONSISTENCY
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 25 Day 9 Group C (47:47-48:57)
Why is it taking us so long to understand the Dhamma?
Because every time we start a retreat we start with zero. On retreat, the momentum of awareness goes up stepwise from zero to 5. When we go home, we regress from 5 to zero because we can’t maintain the awareness. When the next retreat comes, we start the cycle all over again. How long has that been taking place? 10 to 20 years?
But, if we want our practice of the Dhamma to really grow, we have to practice continuously. The effort to keep it going has to be continuous. And, if you can keep it going for a year, you’ll learn much more than the 20 years of on-and-off practice.
589. MAKE AWARENESS YOUR HOME
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (1:37:24-1:38:05)
Yogi: Should I watch the tension in the body or the awareness of it?
Sayadaw: When you know both the object and the awareness, stay with the awareness because awareness is your home.
It’s only when you can’t know the awareness, then you watch the object.
590. MAKE OUR ALONE MOMENTS IN DAILY LIFE OUR FORMAL PRACTICE
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (1:26:14-1:27:33)
When our awareness feels grounded and continuous, it’s fine to do a lot of informal practice. But when we find that our awareness is not so strong, we find ourselves mostly lost in thoughts or in whatever we’re doing, we need to have formal practice to ground the awareness, to give that momentum to the informal practice.
What is formal practice when we live our life? It cannot be taken as only the formal sit at the start and end of the day. Every moment we’re alone needs to become the formal practice in our life – sitting in the bus, when we’re driving or in the toilet, taking a shower or sitting down for coffee by ourselves, reading our books – all that become our formal practice.
Formal practice strengthens the stability of the mind, and we need that strength so that the awareness has more power and momentum.
591. THE BEST MEDITATION TECHNIQUE IS TO PRACTICE ALL THE TIME
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 25 Day 9 Group C (46:10-47:40)
Yogi: There are many meditation centers teaching different techniques. Which technique is the most effective?
Sayadaw: The best way is to practice all the time; that is the fastest way. It is the truth.
When people say that they have been practicing meditation for 20 years, it means that they came in touch with meditation 20 years ago. They have not been practicing 20 years’ worth of meditation. When we count the hours of meditation, they might not add up to a month of continuous mindfulness.
If you say you have been meditating for 20 years, you must have put in the meditation like you’re on retreat every day for 20 years, being mindful from the time you wake up till the time you fall asleep; then you can say that you have been meditating for 20 years.
592. SAYADAW SHARES HIS PRACTICE
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 22 Day 6 Group B (26:50-27:16)
Yogi: Can Sayadaw share the way he practices?
Sayadaw: I didn’t plan ahead how to be mindful; I just did one simple thing to be mindful – that was it for me, like just try to be mindful, mindful, and mindful. All the reflection, investigation and understanding will follow naturally.
My goal was to be mindful because when there is mindfulness, wisdom is sure to follow.
593. THE PRINCIPLE THAT APPLIES TO MEDITATION ALSO APPLIES TO LIFE
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 21 Day 8 Group A (1:17:00-1:20:20)
Yogi: My work is most stressful because each project is new and uncertain. What shall I do?
Sayadaw: When the mind is stable, there is no problem that cannot be solved; there’s no perspective that cannot be understood.
Doubt, anxiety and worry shake the mind and make the mind unable to work. The important thing is to cultivate a stable mind.
[Remember Sayadaw’s principle of observing objects: When there is a reaction (doubt, worry and anxiety) to the object (our work), don’t pay attention to the object; switch to watching the reaction first. When the reaction subsides (the mind has stabilized), go back to the work.]
594. TO KEEP OUR MIND SHARP AS WE AGE, WE NEED TO PRACTICE NOW
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 16 Day 6 Group B (49.40-53:26)
Yogi: Why are old people more forgetful? Is it a slower brain or a disorderly mind?
Sayadaw: Not all old people are forgetful, but when it happens, it could be due to brain deterioration or delusion when we don’t train the mind to be aware and present.
If we want to be more present as we get older, we have to start training now.
If we make a habit of taking note of what we’re doing – like when we put a cup down, we make it a habit of noting that we have put it down and where and how we put it down.
When we recognize the physical action, we take notice of what the mind is like, what is happening in the mind when we’re doing it – the awareness at that time and the decision to put the cup down and what we were thinking of doing next?
If the mind has practiced a lot being aware and present, then it will stay like that.
Many people say that when they retire, they are going to relax and do nothing. That’s when they deteriorate very fast.
Meditation is the work of the mind; so long as we keep the mind working properly, the brain will have to keep up with the mind.
595. THE MIND DOES NOT DECAY; IT GROWS WHEN BEING TRAINED
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 16 Day 6 Group B (58:45-59:10)
Remember that the mind doesn’t get old. The mind does not decay; it grows as you train it.
If you neglect it (basically, training it with the unwholesome), it goes to the unwholesome. So, you have to train it to be wholesome.
596. NIMITTAS ARE NOT IMPORTANT TO THE PRACTICE OF VIPASSANA
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (1:28:05-1:30:09)
Yogi: After a while, everything became light and peaceful and I saw different colors for a time. Does this experience have a place in vipassana meditation? I know that it’s not the goal, but is this the benefit of the practice?
Sayadaw: The mental colors are called nimittas. It is a sign that the stability of the mind has increased for that time; it is just a byproduct of the practice.
Some people have the experience of light shining in their eyes.
Light and colors are concepts – they are not important to the practice of vipassana in and of itself, except that the stability of the mind/samadhi is growing. That’s what you take it to be.
597. DHAMMANUPASSANA – WATCHING DIFFERENT MINDS DOING DIFFERENT JOBS
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 21 Day 8 Group A (34:35-36:33)
Yogi: Could investigating doubt be right meditation?
Sayadaw: You can. All 5 Hindrances (Sensual desire, Ill-will, Sloth-and-torpor, Restlessness-and-worry, and Doubt) are also just objects in meditation to observe and understand. When you understand them, they are no longer hindrances to the practice.
The nature of the Hindrances is to hinder, and when you understand its nature – when you can take its nature as an object and observe it and learn about it, you understand enough that it does not hinder you – the poison then becomes the medicine.
This is Dhammanupassana – when it is Dhammanupassana, everything is dhamma; whether wholesome or unwholesome, they are just objects.
They are nature, and you just observe them as such (i.e. different minds doing different jobs).
598. NEED NOT STRAIN, USE AN OBJECT THAT IS ALREADY THERE
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 16 Day 6 Group B (20:28-25:09)
Yogi: I become very tense whenever I watch my breath during the sit.
Sayadaw: The breath is not suitable for you. The mind doesn’t find it natural to rest on it; the mind has to strain to pay attention to it. You don’t have to use the breath.
Use an object that is already there for you, maybe the touching sensation or sound; where you don’t have to do anything to it because it’s already there.
With the breath, we find ourselves controlling the breath after some time and that’s already one tension and we’re trying to be aware of it and that becomes too much work.
Whatever you choose should be an object you can know without focusing, something that comes easily. When it is no longer obvious, you can change to any other object.
599. HOW IS THE MIND OBSERVING RIGHT NOW?
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (1:36:00-1:39:50)
Yogi: When I know that there’s liking and there is no desire to make it any different, then there is no lobha, just nature?
Sayadaw: When you know that the mind is liking, enjoying, or wanting something in the object of your experience, the greed is there. But, in the observing, it is just recognizing that the mind is liking, enjoying, or wanting something – when this observing has no agenda, it has wisdom. It is seeing the nature of what is happening.
We are developing the wisdom to see the lobha that is happening (the object) and the watching without the lobha (the awareness), or if the watching has lobha, we need to recognize that too. (The biased watching then becomes the object.)
Yogi: If I’m observing without interfering, then it’s okay?
Sayadaw: You just have to check whether the mind is watching objectively at that moment. You don’t have to have a fixed idea (that it is only okay when the mind is watching without interfering) – if there is wanting, there is wanting; if there is not, there is not and that is fine.
We want to be open to this moment, like ‘Is the mind observing this way?’, or ‘How is the mind observing right now?’ rather than thinking it should be this way.
There is no should; it is ‘How is it now?’, and that is seeing its nature.
600. ASK QUESTIONS THAT PROMPT MINDFULNESS ONLY WHEN NECESSARY
Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (0:42-2:25)
Yogi: I have difficulty asking ‘Where is the mind now?’ because the mind that I noticed has disappeared when I asked and I have to stop and feel a little bit.
Sayadaw: When you already know what the mind is knowing, then there’s no need to ask that question.
The question is only for when the mind is not mindful, or when the mindfulness is not very continuous, to keep reminding the mind to be mindful.
Only use it when it is necessary. And, ask ‘What is the mind doing now?’, rather than ‘Where is the mind now?’ That’s a better question – and not to find the answer, but to get in touch with the mind.