NO NEED TO EXPECT TOTAL SAMADHI; ONLY AWARENESS NEEDS TO BE STABLE

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 3 Round 4 (32:00-33:50)

Yogi: Towards the end of the retreat, I became unsure of the practice when I experienced agitation, fear and unstable mind, when the quality of mind dropped. 

When I realized that I could see all these, it occurred to me that meditation was already happening.

Sayadaw: You are already meditating, but you can’t get what you want. 

Yogi: Because the samadhi is not there and I have the idea that if samadhi is there, then only meditation is good.

Sayadaw: The whole mind doesn’t need to have samadhi – only the awareness has to have samadhi, that’s enough. 

The object may be suffering, no problem.

You need to experience this because it will happen from time to time. Some yogis totally forget how to practice when the practice nose-dives. 

If the yogis are skillful, they know how to pick up the practice; they know how to recover immediately when it drops suddenly. You can only learn and become more skillful when you experience this many times over. So, it is not a problem.