How do you feel when you practice? The quality of mind will show you. Less defilement is right. More defilement is wrong. If you have right practice your quality of mind will naturally show you. The mind is lighter, more peaceful, more open, happier, more interested and more willing to practice. And saddha, or faith, must increase.

If you become more and more tired and defilements are increasing; you become bored, not interested, and more tense then your mind is also showing you that it’s wrong practice – for example, when the clock strikes the hour, you quickly go to the toilet or drink water to reduce the time for sitting meditation; this indicates not really wanting to practice.

You want to watch the object with interest, not watch the object blindly. Before, people watch the object blindly; now, we use wisdom to watch. We want to understand; that’s why we are watching.

An object: What is this? How is it happening? Is this really an object? How do you know it is an object?

There are the object and the mind; do you understand their different nature?

When you’re watching, the watching mind and the object have the same or different nature? Do you truly understand this when you’re watching?

Yogi: Sometimes the learning – e.g. the 3 yogi’s jobs – gives big inspiration, big energy. When I first heard that, it really inspired me and gave me a lot of energy to practice. But that energy cannot be sustained.

Sayadaw: Faith or confidence depends on your understanding level. If wisdom is increasing, faith is also increasing. Faith/inspiration energy goes up and down because your wisdom level is changing.