Yogi: I’m worried about the safety of my children and there is anxiety when making decisions.
Sayadaw: The mind is like this: every time any experience happens through the 6 senses, liking and disliking always arise. This is the nature of the mind; what the yogi needs to do is to be aware of the liking and disliking first.
Take care of your mental state first – when the reaction subsides, go back to the object again, your view or idea will then change. You can then learn something about the mind.
We must have this attitude towards the defilement – we’re watching the defilement not to stop it (so that we can be calm and comfortable), but to understand the nature of the defilement. Because of understanding, the defilement can subside.
Our aim of watching objects is to understand something about the experience; we’re not trying to change the experience, we’re trying to learn.