Yogi: How do we balance concentration with awareness?

Sayadaw: Concentration is stability of mind. I don’t say concentration because concentration uses a lot of energy.

Samadhi is stable and calm mind, not concentration. However much samadhi you have, there is no problem. There is no problem having as much awareness and right samadhi; the problem comes when the samadhi is wrong samadhi.

When there is wrong idea or micchā-ditthi, the concentration becomes too heavy. 

Balancing is checking if awareness, stability of mind and wisdom are present. 

If the mind is too quiet, the mind cannot think, then you need to balance the mind. If awareness is present, you should think if you need to think. But thinking all the time is also not right – the mind wanders and becomes agitated.

Awareness is more important – it observes and knows how to adjust the mind. Is stability of mind there? Is the mind awake and alert? Are wisdom, calmness and effort working? 

You can know if something is too much.

Yogi: It is the attachment to the bliss.

Sayadaw: Attachment to the peaceful mind is a big problem to yogis.

Peacefulness is not the aim of meditation; it is a by-product or side effect of meditation. It is not our aim.

We need to be interested in bad situations too because when we’re near death, the mind will not be calm, not like during sitting meditation.

Now, during meditation, you’re very happy and feeling nice, but when we’re dying, it will not be like this.

Actually, calmness is not a problem; it is helping you to understand; samadhi helps wisdom to arise because it provides the stable mind for wisdom to come. The problem is attachment to calmness.

So, we take care of the attachment, not the calmness.

If we’re doing right, calmness arises; this is cause and effect process. The problem arises only when there is attachment because no understanding arises when we’re attached.