Yogi: Sayadaw said that sadness is aversion, but I don’t quite understand it.

For example, sometimes I wake up feeling lonely, I can see that there is sadness and that this sadness is aversion.

When someone very dear dies, I feel sadness, but I think this is karuna. I don’t see this sadness as aversion.

Sayadaw: The near enemy of karuna is dosa.

Karuna is a wholesome mind; a wholesome mind will not make you suffer. But dosa can come in – it is a mixed feeling.

Karuna is the feeling of compassion – it wants to help and it wishes well to the other person. The dosa bit is the non-acceptance of the way it is.

For example, someone has died and you wish they weren’t dead. That’s the sadness – but using the word aversion seems to suggest anger the way we usually know aversion, but this is subtle aversion where it is just the pushing away the reality as it is.

Yogi: But compassion never has the flavor of sadness?

Sayadaw: That’s right.

My awareness jumps from object to object – sometimes rapidly and sometimes in a smooth rhythm. And I have the expectation to know everything at the same time.

Sayadaw: There is no need to expect it. We just accept the present moment awareness as it is.

The way you know it is fine. Just stay with that; it is okay.

So long as you’re with the knowing, that is fine.