Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 4 Round 2 (49:30-50:30)
Yogi: External things influence how the mind reacts. When I'm in a crowd, the mind gets agitated and upset.
Sayadaw: If you pay too much attention to outside things, it agitates and overwhelms the mind. So, you should pay attention to inside yourself, to your senses happening, to seeing and hearing.
Meditation object is nature (a process that happens because of causes and conditions), not seeing things or hearing things. It is enough to notice just seeing and hearing and how the mind reacts to the senses happening.
If you pay attention to the people, the mind thinks and reacts to the crowd and so forth; if you pay more attention to the seeing, the mind won’t think and react much.