Yogi: There is lots of sadness in my life lately. I’m aware of the sadness, but then the mind says: No, it’s my sadness. Then, there is this conflict, ‘Is the emotion mine?’, and at the same time feeling it.
Sayadaw: Just take another step back.
You’re recognizing several processes happening – you’re seeing not only the mind that is able to work with it in an objective way but also another mind that wants to hang on to the emotion, that wants to identify with it, that wants to keep it even though it is suffering. You see both and it’s happening very fast.
Take another step back. Don’t believe any of the stories that the mind is telling you. Keep stepping back from the story – ‘I see that too’.
You can either bring in right view, keep reminding yourself that ‘This is also the nature of the mind, the mind that wants to hang on to the self’, or you don’t have to do anything but just recognize that it is happening.