901. AWARENESS SHOULD BE OF IMMEDIATE EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN THE CONCEPTS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group C No.1 (1:18:18:1.21:08)
Yogi: When I walk out in the woods, when there are so much sensory input – seeing, hearing, feeling the wind on the face and thinking about it all – how can I still be steady and hold the awareness? I feel like I’m jumping around.
Sayadaw: The mind is possibly used to being with one object at a time only – then, suddenly allowing the mind to be open to more, feels like there is a lot going on. But, in any one moment there is only one object at a time.
Yogi: Yes, I’ve been aware of that.
Sayadaw: Whether we look at one person in the room or look at many, it is only 1 vision. The key is whether you have a preference – whether you think that one object is more calming and a few are more agitating.
Yogi: Probably, it’s more of a habit.
Sayadaw: Be aware of your immediate experience rather than the concepts – like not feeling wind but just feeling, not seeing trees but just seeing.
Yogi: Not stepping into the perception.
Sayadaw: Yes; just awareness of the sense contact object.
902. THE THIRD PRESENCE IS THE AWARENESS OF AWARENESS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group C No.1 (1:01:05-1:01:40)
Yogis have said to me that they observe aversion and also notice that the awareness is very calm.
So, there is a lot of aversion, but the awareness is calm and not affected by the aversion.
That immediately tells me that there is a third presence that is aware of both; and that’s the awareness of awareness.
903. WHEN TO USE SAMADHI TO SUPPRESS THE DEFILEMENT
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group C No.1 (1:01:43: 1.04:46)
Yogi: Sayadaw doesn’t recommend using samadhi to suppress the defilement?
Sayadaw: It depends. You can if it is used as a skillful means; if it is necessary.
It depends on the situation. Sometimes in daily life, we have things overwhelming our attention and sometimes it is necessary to keep down something that is unskillful. And, that also depends on how skillful we already are in the practice.
If we’re able, we can concentrate on something for a few minutes and immediately the defilement is contained so that we can bring it up at another time to observe.
If we want to maintain the steadiness of our mind, we have to learn what is skillful in every moment for us to bring to the practice. We have learnt so many things – which one do we bring to the practice now that will be most helpful.
Yogi: At retreat, the mind is habitually inclined towards collectedness when I sit. What should I do?
Sayadaw: You already have the advantage that the mind is naturally calm when you sit – you can use that state to do more investigation.
Once the mind is quiet, what should you do? Enjoy? You can investigate anything.
904. SAYADAW RELATES Q&A WITH SHWE OO MIN SAYADAWGI
Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Morning Q&A 2018-01-23 (31:35-31:54)
Yogi: Sayadawgi, if I want to improve in my meditation, what should I do?
Shwe Oo Min Sayadawgi: When the awareness becomes more continuous, meditation will improve.
905. WHENEVER THE MIND SUFFERS, TAKE CARE OF IT FIRST
Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Morning English Q&A 2018-02-05 (00:00-03:19)
Yogi: When someone shouts at me or blames me, if I don’t care or believe that, my mind doesn’t suffer; but when the mind cares or believes that, it suffers.
I don’t understand why they do it or why sometimes my mind gets hurt and sometimes not.
Sayadaw: When you don’t know the answer, you take care of your own mind by calming down first. Only then, you can find the cause.
Yogi: I can guess intellectually, but that’s not good enough.
Sayadaw: If you don’t know, you have to recognize that you don’t know. You just watch how you feel and take care of yourself first because you cannot control other things.
When you feel bad, it has to do with you – so, you take care of your emotions first. Learn about what the mind thinks and how the mind feels.
When the mind suffers, you take care of it first. This is your responsibility – that’s all.
906. AWARENESS OF AWARENESS IS ONLY SCARY WHEN UNFAMILIAR
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group C No.1 (0:13-04:06)
Yogi: I could notice the seeing, and when awareness was strong, there was awareness of awareness of seeing.
It was a different level of awareness where the defilements couldn’t stay and were not personal. That was exciting and scary because it was so powerful.
Should I go there when the awareness is strong enough and not otherwise?
Sayadaw: It is only scary because it is a new experience. When you see it more often, you will get used to it.
Yes, go with the flow and whatever is natural for the mind. Recognizing seeing and looking is a powerful practice because it is what we do all day long. That really helps to bring awareness into our lives.
When you recognize the awareness of seeing or notice that seeing is happening, you don’t have to try so hard to be aware. Also, bring in the right thought that it is nature, not personal – then, wisdom is also working in every awareness.
907. FIXATED IDEAS OF SHUT EYES MEDITATION
Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Morning Q&A 2018-01-25 (38:35-40:24)
Sayadaw: Be careful about how much the mind tries to focus to see something clearly.
Yogi: It is fine when I walk, but as soon as I sit and shut my eyes, the energy just shoots up.
Sayadaw: Your mind has created a pattern for itself. Don’t sit with your eyes closed – don’t allow that energy to come.
It’s better if you don’t sit because awareness is just being aware of yourself continuously. Get rid of the idea that you’re meditating.
Just do it casually and know yourself – that’s fine. Don’t give yourself a task.
Yogi: I want to do that, but as soon as I sit…
Sayadaw: Do not shut your eyes – do not do a single thing with your eyes shut.
908. ADVICE FOR DAYDREAMERS
Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Q&A 2018 180123 (31:20-33:58)
Yogi: The mind would drift into thoughts often. Should I be more aware of the mind or body?
Sayadaw: If you’re daydreaming, don’t look at the mind; watch the body.
If we daydream a lot, it means that the mind doesn’t understand the mind; and the mind also doesn’t know how to watch the mind objectively. All we see are the stories – we’re not aware that thinking is happening; we’re looking at the stories.
The way to practice is – watch the body, but every time there’s a thought, recognize and acknowledge it and come back to the body. Whether you’re watching the breath, rising-falling or pain, every time there’s a thought, acknowledge that the mind is thinking and come back to the object.
The story or topic of the thoughts is not important. Don’t follow – don’t keep watching the mind, but come back to the body.
So, just one second for the mind and come back to the body – we do it over and over again.
909. HOW TO PROCEED WHEN DEFILEMENTS STRIVE FOR PRACTICE
Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Morning Q&A 2018-01-25 (35:00-38:04)
Yogi: I’ve been practicing different techniques for the last 4 years and this is my first time here.
I can feel doubt and ill-will coming up and that causes tension to build up in the face and mind over the day. What kind of questions can I ask myself?
Sayadaw: Don’t think about asking questions, and be careful about how much the mind tries to focus to see something clearly.
Yogi: The mind focuses even more when I try not to focus.
Sayadaw: The greed to get it done, to perform, is very strong. You need to understand how simple it is to be aware. And then you’ll see that it’s there all the time – there’s no need to do something.
Awareness is just knowing your own experience. And your only experience is what comes through your senses – you can see, you can smell, you can taste, you can hear, you can feel, and you think and you know. These are things you can sense – they’re your direct experience.
910. EVERY HAPPENING OF THE MIND AND BODY IS A NATURAL PROCESS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group C No.1 (1:52.08:1.52.34)
Yogi: The idea that things are a natural process, is everything that a human being can experience, are they all a natural process, and nothing personal?
Sayadaw: Yes, every happening in the mind and body is a natural process.
911. CHECK ON UNDERLYING JUSTIFICATIONS BY USING RIGHT THOUGHT
Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Morning Q&A 2018-01-23 (19:35-21:50)
There’s a sad phenomenon where Buddhists say to themselves ‘Oh, nothing is within our control, it’s our kamma’ and they become lazy.
Because nothing is within our control, we just let things happen as they will. We think that it is anatta, but it is not anatta – it’s just not taking responsibility.
Anatta is cause and effect – if you understand that, you’ll work harder to fulfill the causes that are necessary for the effects to take place. You’ll work harder because you understand that energy gives results such as this and this.
The Buddha’s teachings are deep – you need to give it right thought. We interpret them wrongly when we don’t understand them correctly. So, let the teachings show themselves to us and not interpret too much.
912. NOTICING THE EXPERIENCE OR NOTICING THE AWARENESS OF THE EXPERIENCE
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group C No.1 (38:07:39:59)
Yogi: Sometimes I can be aware of agitation and there’s no problem – I feel grateful and relieved. And, sometimes it’s just agitation, and going back to the breath is a better option.
Sayadaw: At times when the mind is more skillful and wise, you can bring that to observe agitation and when that condition is not present, yes, you have to use other skillful means to quiet the mind when you are just not able to observe agitation.
Skillful means there is wisdom – anything you want to do is skillful if you have the right attitude. If you have the wrong attitude, then it wouldn’t be skillful to do it.
It’s so clear then that this mind is not governed by us – when the conditions are right, it’ll be this way, and when the conditions are not present, then it’ll be another way. It’s obviously cause and effect, and we’re not in control.
913. WHAT MOTIVATES THE QUESTIONING IS VERY IMPORTANT
Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Morning Q&A 2018-01-25 (17:25-23:08)
Yogi: Sometimes I find myself just present, and that’s enough. Sometimes the mind presents some questions about this or that, and that creates tension. Is awareness a state that just is and is wisdom a state that just understands?
Sayadaw: When we’re aware and we think about what we’re aware of, the thinking is not a problem.
What motivates the thinking is more important. Sometimes an unwholesome quality of mind like doubt is doing the thinking. It causes tension when the mind is confused and says ‘Should I do this or should I do that?’
Tension is an indication that something unskillful is happening in the mind. When that happens because of doubt, drop everything and watch the doubt. Doubt needs to be cleared first and the way to do that is to watch it.
Yogis misunderstand investigation because investigation has a context. It is to bring in curiosity to yogis that just follow instructions. For those who are naturally curious and who already explore on their own, there is no need for any more special questioning – they just need to take care of the awareness and curiosity will naturally do the investigation.
914. EVERY MOMENT OF AWARENESS BRINGS SOME WISDOM WITH IT
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group C No.1 (04:35-06:50)
Yogi: I notice dissatisfaction and tension in the mind; also the greed and aversion in the task of being aware. When that is noticed, the mind then relaxes – it’s a back-and-forth.
Sayadaw: That’s Right View – seeing things as they are.
What difference does it make that there is awareness, that you notice all these happenings?
Yogi: With the awareness, it’s just not personal; otherwise, it gets personal unbeknown to me.
Sayadaw: That’s right – learn to appreciate the beneficial effects of having awareness. Every moment of awareness brings some wisdom with it.
915. NEVER MIND THE RESULT; JUST BE INTERESTED IN THE PROCESS OF PRACTISING
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group C No.1 (20:45-25:50)
Yogi: During the retreat there have been aversion, agitation, lots of doubt and boredom. Am I practicing correctly?
Even when there is interest in boredom and aversion, there is greed for the interest; it feels like there is greed everywhere.
Sayadaw: Yes, that is right – there is greed everywhere.
Greed breeds discontent because of the expectation for the experience to be better.
Before coming for the retreat, what do you think that you’ll come and do?
Yogi: I have expected a mixture of the way it is and also something better.
Sayadaw: As strong as the greed is, that’s how strong the aversion will be.
Never mind – just continue practicing. If you’re interested to bring the practice to your experiences, that’s great.
Things will never be the way we want them to be, but our experience will match the skill we bring to it.
Never mind the result; just be interested in the process of practicing.
If there is a lot of stuff going on in the mind, just ground the mind on something neutral to build up the continuity of awareness before going back to observing the mind.
916. RIGHT EFFORT IS PATIENCE AND PERSISTENCE
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (00:15-01:52)
Yogi: When you talk about viriya, you say you don’t like the word effort for viriya and you prefer ‘patience’ and ‘perseverance’, I have a good sense of patience, but perseverance has a sense of enduring it.
Sayadaw: I mean just not giving up – persisting until you reach your destination.
917. DELUSION MAKES EFFORT APPEAR AS PERSONAL
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (16:50-21:16)
Yogi: When the energy level was low, it was difficult to notice many objects using personal effort. It was doing fine seeing many objects with natural effort; it didn’t need much personal effort.
Sayadaw: Yes, personal effort is not necessary – and when wisdom is present, you can’t exert personal effort either.
We keep saying personal effort but effort is not personal – no effort can be personal because effort is effort.
There can be effort applied when defilements are still present and there’s no wisdom about how to apply the effort, then it feels personal.
But when the wisdom is there and the effort is doing its own work, then it feels like it’s not personal effort. But in fact, it is never personal.
When we feel like it is personal effort, it’s more our idea that we feel ‘I’m putting in the effort, but in fact ‘I’ cannot.
918. OBSERVE THE ACTIVITIES OF MIND BY THE FUNCTIONS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (0:15-1:59)
Yogi: Sayadaw suggests using 2 questions in the sit – what’s happening and how is it working? What’s happening is fine, but I’m confused by how it is working.
Sayadaw: It’s not so much how it is working but rather to see what is working, to see the activities of mind. For example, there are feelings in the mind and they do the work of feeling; and there are perceptions in the mind and they do the work of perceiving.
There are also other activities of the mind like choosing or judging, paying attention and thinking – what work is being done.
919. WHEN THERE’S QUIETNESS, EXPLORE ON THE QUALITIES OF AWARENESS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:47:10-1:50:20)
Yogi: When I meditate, the mind gets very concentrated and quiet; and I observe the quietness. What questions should I ask?
Sayadaw: When you observe the quietness, it just becomes quieter; you need to recognize the awareness.
When it becomes very quiet and nothing changes, it can lead to boredom.
Yogi: Yes, I either fall asleep or I get up because of the boredom.
Sayadaw: The mind gets bored or sleepy because there is no wisdom or curiosity working.
So, there is quietness and you’re aware of it; and you must come back to the awareness.
When it is that quiet, the nature of awareness is quite obvious.
Are quietness and the awareness the same thing? You can ask yourself in your sitting.
Quietness is a mental state; it is an object and is also mind. Awareness is also mind, but it does something different from quietness – quietness is like the background and awareness is active.
To not get too concentrated, you need to know the awareness, and if the mind is balanced, you will not only know mind, but also things are happening in the body.
It is better to know both mental and physical experiences at the same time.
920. ACKNOWLEDGE THE PRESENCE OF WRONG ATTITUDE AS MIND NATURE – IMPERSONAL
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (02:20-07:20)
Yogi: I have been meditating for a while; but I still find it physical and mentally painful and challenging. It is difficult to be detached from the object.
I can be aware of what is happening, but it is very hard to have to suffer the experiences.
Sayadaw: Can you leave the painful experiences that are happening in the mind and body and choose an object that is neutral for you and just bring your attention to that continuously?
In this case you’re not doing choiceless awareness, but choosing an object that will calm the mind a bit.
Yogi: I have not had much luck doing that. The best luck I have is going out for a walk and trying not to pay attention to what is going on anywhere in my experience.
Sayadaw: The experience you’re having is in itself painful, and if the mind complains on top of the experience – ‘I wish it wasn’t like that’, ‘I wish it would go away’, ‘This is so difficult’ and all that, it makes it harder. If you can, remind yourself that this is nature.
921. PAIN IS MAGNIFIED BY OUR REACTION TOWARDS IT
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (12:48-14:00)
Yogi: I can be aware of what is happening, but it is very hard to have to suffer the experiences.
Sayadaw: Remember that the purpose of being mindful is not to be relieved of the pain. It is to become able to observe.
Pain is magnified by our reaction towards it. So, there are some bodily sensations that are not normal and if we have some aversion towards it, it’ll appear worse. If we have some pain, and you resist it (you don’t want it), it feels much worse than it is.
When you are tired, when the resistance is down, the pain becomes low level.
922. RIGHT MOTIVATION IS TO KNOW, DISCOVER AND LEARN
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:29:38-1:33:36)
Yogi: The mind tends to be anxious and to balance that, I’m used to watching the breath and the mind would sink into a quiet dull state. I notice that the habit is there and the mind goes there very easily.
Sayadaw: The motivation behind the approach to the practice is wrong. The motivation should be to know, discover and learn.
When there’s anxiety, you should welcome, watch and learn about anxiety; then anxiety will shy away.
There is always some motivation behind our practice and there can be many kinds of wrong motivation.
There was a yogi who took the train to work daily and every time he’d watch the rising and falling, but his objective was to sleep on the train. He thought he wanted to practice and so he’d be mindful until he fell asleep.
When he came to Burma to practice and if he did rising and falling, he’d fall asleep because the mind had a set pattern – rising-falling was to go to sleep.
923. EVOKE RIGHT VIEW IN OUR OWN WORDS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (11:10-12:33)
When I give instructions to use right view, I don’t have the time to expand on the many facets of what is right view.
You may have come across in your Dhamma practice the many ways that right view is explained. You can work through them to see which one will help you.
You can apply whichever works for you at any moment. And then don’t pay attention to the physical pain, watch the mental feeling.
At another time, it might be a different languaging that works. You will have to experiment with what helps your mind to apply right view at that time. You have to think about it.
I have given some ideas about right view like this is nature, what is happening is happening by itself, but you will have to find for yourself the words what are helpful for you.
924. IDEAS ARE THE LENS WHICH WE VIEW THE EXPERIENCE
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (07:00-15:48)
Yogi: There was dullness in the morning sit – the mind either was tight trying to keep awake or drifted into dreaminess. But when the mind saw it as being low energy, it was easy to be with the dullness.
Sayadaw: When working with aversion and greed, we’re looking at our feelings; we’re looking at pleasant feelings and unpleasant feelings.
And when we’re working with delusion and wisdom, we’re actually checking our ideas to see if they’re motivated by delusion or right view.
Yogi: Seeing the judgment is actually seeing the delusion.
Sayadaw: Yes. We should see the lens – right view or delusion – through which we view the experience.
Even when we’re observing aversion and greed, we should remember there’s some idea that is feeding the aversion or the greed; and when the aversion or the greed changes, to notice how the idea has changed so that you see the relationship.
925. THE WAY TO REGAIN BALANCE
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (23:00-25:30)
Yogi: There was low energy and it doesn’t take much to bring it to balance.
Sayadaw: Low energy is an easy state to work out of. You just have to recognize it continuously and the energy becomes stronger.
For someone who already understands, they don’t panic because they know what to do and they work at it steadily and the energy will build up.
If defilement is not mixed up in the perception of the experience, then whatever you have to do is easy.
Even if there are a lot of defilements and the mind is off balanced, so what?
Just be mindful continuously and the mind will become balanced.
It is only a problem when we reject the experience.
A mature yogi doesn’t force or reject anything. They accept it and that’s why it is easier to regain balance.
926. NOTICE THE UNWHOLESOME MOTIVATIONS PUSHING US
Swiss Retreat 2019 Introduction Talk (13:30-15:32)
Be careful when you start concentrating or trying too hard to get anything.
Trying very hard is not what enables things to happen; what enables things to happen is to try and work consistently over a long period of time. And then we learn the lessons needed for things to happen.
But it’s our habit, in life as well, that when we want to do something, we want to do it harder, faster, quicker, more efficiently and more effectively. We put in a lot of energy to figure all these out and try to do things like that.
That habit will come in and we just need to notice.
You’ll notice that the reason we’re doing that is because of unwholesome motivations.
We’re impatient and that’s dosa; we want something very quickly, so that’s lobha; and we worry that it will not happen and we anxiously try to make sure that it happens.
All these unwholesome motivations push us to try hard. So, we need to watch out for them.
927. CHECKING THE AWARENESS VERSUS CHECKING THE OBJECT
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (55:28-57:48)
Yogi: When do I do more directed awareness of a primary object such as anapana and body awareness versus choiceless awareness?
Sayadaw: Choiceless awareness is a function of being able to rest in awarenesss.
When you rest in the awareness, then the awareness is aware of different things and it feels choiceless but the awareness is constantly aware of something or the other at any time.
If the awareness has not enough power, then you can’t do that. You then don’t have a choice; you have to go back to being aware of one thing at a time in order to build it back into that seat.
928. WHEN WATCHING AN OBJECT BECOMES DIFFICULT
Swiss Retreat 2019 Evening Q&A 11 May 2019 (8:43-9:01)
We watch the defilements as much as we can, and when we find it difficult, we can watch something that is more comfortable to watch before we come back to challenge ourselves with what is challenging.
929. THERE IS NO NEED TO SEPARATE THE DIFFERENT FEELINGS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (16:40-18:14)
Yogi: The physical pain is wrapped around the emotional pain. It’s hard for me to separate the aversion as an object – they feel lumped together.
Sayadaw: Don’t try to separate all the different feelings. Just know that this is a feeling –
an unpleasant feeling, an unhappy feeling – and stay with that.
If you find it difficult to continuously watch that difficult feeling, alternate with a neutral physical object like the breath – the breath and the feeling, the breath and the feeling.
It doesn’t have to be the breath – any object that is neutral, obvious, strong and easy to observe to keep your attention will do.
930. ASKING A QUESTION IS TO ENCOURAGE THE MIND TO CONTINUE TO BE AWARE
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:21:08-1:22:15)
Yogi: I hesitate to ask why something is happening in the mind because I get a lot of intellectual answers and tend to get lost in thought.
Sayadaw: The asking of a question is not to get the mind to give the answer; it is to encourage the observation, to guide the mind to be aware using interest.
Yogi: So, this is another kind of why.
Sayadaw: Yes.
931. KEEP ON LEARNING THAT AN OBJECT IS JUST AN OBJECT
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (1:25:06-1:26:16)
Yogi: I recognize when I feel hot and when I feel cold. Is that okay?
Sayadaw: That’s not enough – do you recognize that hot and cold are both objects?
If you don’t recognize that they are objects of awareness, then instantly it becomes this is hot and I don’t like it or I like it, and aversion or attachment follows.
There must be the understanding that it is just being known because awareness knows the object while wisdom understands that this is just an object.
932. ACKNOWLEDGE THE DEFILEMENT AND STAY WITH THE FEELING
20190717 Seeing the wrong attitude or process is also important//Sayadaw Tejaniya‘s Dhamma Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSM1bLU9zpo (3:00-3:53)
Yogi: When the tension arises, I note the anger rather than say ‘my anger’ because there is no such thing as ‘my anger’.
Sayadaw: Say ‘anger is nature’. We don’t note the anger as ‘anger, anger, anger’.
How can you be aware of the anger?
Yogi: Just know.
Sayadaw: That’s all – finished. Why do you want to say ‘anger, anger, anger’? You can know the angry feeling – try to be aware and be interested in that feeling.
The feeling intensity changes – be interested in the intensity of feeling.
933. RIGHT ATTITUDE MEANS DEVELOPING UNDERSTANDING ABOUT DEFILEMENTS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (20:18-21:40)
Yogi: I can be aware of what is happening, but it is very hard to have to suffer the experiences.
Sayadaw: Any object, if we observe it with the wrong attitude, then over time, we develop a bad relationship with it; but if you have the right attitude towards any object, a learning experience happens over time.
You try to apply the understanding that the mental feeling is conditioned – there are causes that have led to this effect and it is its own process.
Maybe this language will help you, but you’ll have to try it out yourself, and if it doesn’t, you rely on your memory bank to see what will be helpful.
934, KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING – DON’T TRY TO GET SOMETHING
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:07:35-1:11:03)
Yogi: I can notice the experience, but am unsure about noticing the awareness. I keep trying, but sometimes the patience is really low.
Sayadaw: It is not necessary to be aware of the awareness. It’s not a goal; it’s just the description of the path.
Never practice with an idea that it should be a certain way that is not now. Don’t think that it should get somewhere because I’m doing that now; there’s not future to the practice, just now.
Don’t even think you’re going to sit one hour; one hour hasn’t come yet.
Once we decide to sit a hour, we’ve already created a future and decided how it is going to be; and we stress ourselves if we think we’re not going to finish the hour.
Yogi: Yes, when I realized that I was pushing, I backed off.
Sayadaw: Don’t try to look for anything. If you want, you can check for things.
It’s so normal that if we hear anything, we always want to be good at it right away.
935. CHECKING THAT THE PRACTICE IS RIGHT
Swiss Retreat 2019 Introduction Talk (07:30-8:15)
Remember that the cultivation of wholesome minds brings happiness – this is an important gauge for ourselves as we practice.
By definition, meditation is cultivating wholesome qualities of mind; and also by definition, wholesome qualities of mind are the proximate cause of happiness.
So, if we’re starting to feel stressed or tired as we meditate, we need to check what else is happening.
936. DON’T TRY TO CHANGE ANYTHING WHEN WE PRACTICE
Swiss Retreat 2019 Evening Q&A 11 May 2019 (41:56-42:34)
Sometimes, we get into a spiral where we think that we’re not practicing well and we should do this and that, and when it still feels terrible, we try something else.
We wind ourselves up really tight and get frustrated – when that happens, the best thing is to leave it all alone.
Don’t try, don’t fix it; just know that it feels terrible, it feels terrible, it feels terrible. And then it can resolve on its own by just acknowledging it the way it is.
Don’t try to change anything.
937. THE COMPLETE PICTURE
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:41:24-1:46:50)
Yogi: I watched the breath and pain arose – I continued to watch the breath and the pain subsided but it was still there. What should I do then?
Sayadaw: You're looking at a neutral object, not the pain. When you’re not paying attention to the pain, you’re not reacting to the pain; and because you’re not reacting to the pain, it feels less strong because there’s less aversion.
It doesn’t mean that there is no aversion at all because you still feel the pain.
Now is the time to investigate. There is still some pain in the body; now you have to look at how much reaction there is still left in the mind towards the bodily sensation.
What happens in the body is called ‘dis-ease’, not feeling; feeling, the reaction towards the dis-ease, is what happens in the mind.
What you have to spot is that little reaction towards the bodily dis-ease.
If you watch it continuously, it can decrease because it’s low level. You can also see the relationship between the level of reaction and the dis-ease.
Actually, there’s another component in the mind besides the feeling – it’s the attitude. Is there expectation in watching the feeling? Is the watching in the right way? What happens when you watch in the wrong way?
There are three things – the dis-ease, the mental feeling and the motivations behind the observation. What can you understand from these interactions?
938. WANTING IS REDUCED WHEN UNDERSTANDING CAUSE AND EFFECT
20190717 Seeing the wrong attitude or process is also important//Sayadaw Tejaniya‘s Dhamma Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSM1bLU9zpo... (4:20-5:43)
Yogi: Actually, we cannot get what we want.
Sayadaw: Everything that you can get is not only because you want – you get it because of several conditions. But people think that ‘I want, I do and I get’.
That is why they try very hard – but they cannot get many things from trying hard. They can only get it when all the necessary conditions are right – that’s when the result will come.
Because they don’t know about conditioning, they think that if they try hard, they’ll get it – they can only see 1 of many factors that condition the result. The result of getting something is due to many conditions.
Wanting is reduced when you understand more about cause and effect.
939. WHEN ANGER ARISES DESPITE CONSISTENT AWARENESS, WISDOM IS LACKING
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (1:19:30-1:24:43)
Yogi: There is tension in the body and anger is linked to it. I’m aware of the reaction and can watch in a balanced way when the mind becomes quiet. It repeats the next day – it appears that there’s something I don’t understand and the awareness is just like a tranquilizer.
Sayadaw: There is no reason why the bodily tension shouldn’t come up again regardless of whether you understand or not. What you’re watching for is whether the mind is reacting.
The tension in the mind because of a defilement is due to lack of understanding, but bodily tension may just be there.
Yogi: But I don’t know why I’m angry.
Sayadaw: On the second day, when the tension in the body is still there and aversion arises too, then something is still not understood. Wisdom may be weak in that moment.
If you understand that what is being experienced is just an object, that understanding helps the mind not to react instantly to the experience because every experience is seen as an object, that which is being known.
It is not difficult to understand that.
940. WISDOM WIDENS THE SCOPE OF AWARENESS
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (1:27:40-1:28:53)
I was meditating in the forest and the cicadas were very loud. At first, I was aware of the sound as an object, but later realized that aside from the sound of the insects, the rest of the forest was deadly quiet.
There were sound and quiet together – and both were objects. At first, I didn’t recognize the silence, I didn’t see that silence was also present because the sound was so obvious and it was blocking the other object.
But after observing it for a while, and awareness was stronger and some wisdom came in, then there was the understanding that silence was also present.
941. NOTICE CAUSE-EFFECT NATURE IN THE PRACTICE
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (40:25-45:02)
Yogi: Sometimes the awareness of awareness is clear and sometimes not; I cannot detect greed or aversion when it’s unclear – perhaps delusion is present.
Sayadaw: As much as the mind understands it, that’s how clearly you can experience it; and when the understanding is not strong for whatever reason, then, it won’t be clear.
At the gross level, there aren’t the lobha-dosa, but at the subtler level there may be some lobha-dosa besides the delusion.
Regardless of whether it’s clear or not, the practice continues; only just recognizing that now it is and now it is not, and carry on.
Sitting is a quieter activity – it gives us more continuity and builds the power of the awareness and with that comes some wisdom. So, the object has a chance to become clearer.
In other activities there are more movement and agitation, and if the power of wisdom doesn’t grow to match the activity, then it cannot be as clear.
942. WE PRACTICE BECAUSE OF UNDERSTANDING
Swiss Retreat 2019 Evening Q&A 11 May 2019 (41:06-41:42)
Whatever we’re doing, if we’re doing it right, it brings the mind to a wholesome state.
Even doing a practice with a single object, if we do it with the wrong view or the wrong thought, it won’t calm the mind – the mind will be more agitated, it will get more tense and it won’t relax.
So, everything comes back to doing the right practice of having the right thought and the right view while doing it.
943. HOW TO WATCH AND LEARN FROM GREED RATHER THAN TRY TO STOP IT
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (30:07-34:31)
Yogi: Should I just not follow greed when wisdom is not strong enough?
Sayadaw: Now is the time to practice. You can choose to stop a while and watch the greed and see how it goes.
If it still tells you to follow, go with it – take that path and watch the greed. At least take the opportunity to watch and learn about greed.
This way, greed gets its way and you get your way too – you squeeze some money out of greed.
It is interesting – if you do what greed says and you watch all the consequent actions and how greed moves, you can learn something deep about greed.
We need to get to the heart of understanding how greed makes us suffer. We need to experience it to understand it.
At home, all the time, we’re just like a mouse in greed’s paws being played about; now at least we hit it in the eye while being played about.
Yogi: That’s more fruitful than struggling with it.
Sayadaw: You cannot stop greed from happening – just let it.
944. ARE WE AWARE OR LOST IN THOUGHT?
IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:25:50-1:29:14)
Yogi: The mind was thinking about a problem from home and I became anxious and was coming up with solutions. When awareness came in, the thinking and anxiety would go away. But this popped up repeatedly during the sitting and walking; and it was tiresome.
Sayadaw: No object bothers the mind – it is because you’re getting lost in thought. You’re aware of the initial arising of the thought and you’re supposed to use that moment to start watching the thinking and feeling, and not get lost in the story.
Be less interested in the problem and more interested in the process at work – why is the mind thinking about this and how it is feeling when it is thinking about this, and the interaction between thinking and feeling.
945. WATCHING THOUGHTS CAN BRING STABILITY OF MIND
Swiss Retreat 2019 Closing Remarks 20.05.2019 (33:48-35:33)
Yogis can develop stability of mind while knowing their thoughts.
If the breath can bring stability of mind and our thoughts can bring stability of mind, then we are free.
The thoughts are coming all the time; they are coming continuously. The breath takes much longer to come; the object is not so continuous.
Whatever we do, we always have to think about it before we do it. If we knew every thought, we have to think in order to work, we would be building lots and lots of samadhi.
We don’t have to come back to the breath then; we can develop stability of mind in whatever we’re doing while we’re thinking and working. It is possible.
That is when we become skillful at knowing the mind. Take heart. It is possible because once we understand the mind, it is more obvious than we think.
946. SINGLE OBJECT PRACTICE
Swiss Retreat 2019 Evening Q&A 11 May 2019 (43:04-43:26)
If some of us like to, it is fine to do a single object practice for part of the time; and when it brightens the mind, we can then do the other practice.
It’s all practice.
947. DAILY LIFE PRACTICE
Swiss Retreat 2019 Closing Remarks (28:45-30:09)
At home, the mind becomes a very important partner in practicing the dhamma.
How skillful do we become at clearing the mind when it is confused; and when it’s clear, how long can we maintain that clarity?
When we can maintain that clarity, it means that we’re maintaining the samadhi, and maintaining the samadhi means that immediately less unwholesome qualities are surfacing or that less unwholesome qualities are able to overwhelm us; and that means that the mind is able to maintain its clarity and stability.
So, our first challenge at home is learning how to be skillful at clearing the confusion or the complications in the mind when they come up at home.
948. LET ANY CHALLENGE AT HOME BE A LEARNING PROCESS
Swiss Retreat 2019 Q&A 20.05.2019 (01:05-3:30)
Yogi: When we go back home, we have problems to face and decisions to make, and sometimes we don’t have the choice to sit and watch. We need to act. What do we do?
Sayadaw: At home, we don’t always have time to observe for an extended period of time, but we do have our innate wisdom which we have been using to do our work and so on.
However, it is more helpful if we can bring our mind to a balanced and clear state before making decisions because that will be the best decision we can make.
Sometimes we don’t have the time or skill to bring the mind to balance; in that case, we still have to decide with the best possible means we have. If we make a mistake, we can still learn from it. It’s a learning process.
949. RIGHT ATTITUDE IS WHEN WISDOM IS THINKING
Swiss Retreat 2019 Q&A 20.05.2019 (06:05-7:05)
Yogi: In two sentences, what is right attitude?
Sayadaw: First sentence: thinking with wisdom, right thought, is right attitude or helps the mind to have right attitude.
Second one: when the unwholesome minds are thinking, there won’t be right attitude.
950. WHAT MOTIVATES THE THOUGHT IS IMPORTANT, NOT THE THOUGHT
20200131 What is the real morality and donation // Sayadaw U Tejaniya's Dhamma Interview Section https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YONKo1ypDjg&feature=share... (3:35-4:35)
Yogi: When we watch thoughts, do we watch the content of the thoughts or that thinking is happening?
Sayadaw: Thoughts are not very important – what motivates the thoughts is more important.
Thinking is just thinking; it is one function of the mind. Wholesome mind thinks and unwholesome mind also thinks. Thinking is neutral.
There is some motivation behind the thinking – it could be wholesome or unwholesome mind.
This motivation makes the mind tense or relaxed. We need to see this relationship.
Yogi: So, we watch what motivates the thoughts and whether it causes the mind to be tense or relaxed?
Sayadaw: Yes. That is more important – thoughts are not very important.