DISCERNING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MIND AND MATTER

|USA Maui Retreat 2016 2016-11/21 Q&A (51:25-52:13)

We don’t have to get too technical – we don’t have to get it right; whatever you feel, put the thinking aside and look at the feeling. It doesn’t matter whether it is physical or mental feeling.

And through these exercises, you’ll start to discern the difference (between physical and mental feelings) by watching what is there. We’ll start to see the difference between mind and matter, the difference between what is in the body and what is in the mind.

CORRELATION OF MENTAL FEELINGS AND BODILY SENSATIONS

| USA Maui Retreat 2016

(2016-11/20 Q&A (11:40-12:22))

Negative emotions are always reflected more strongly in the body; and for the positive emotions, we can realize the mental part more easily.

(2016-11/19 Q&A (1:11:49…))

Every time you experience physical sensations that reflect mental feelings, if you would remember this distinction and explore it, slowly the mind will become familiar with it; and when it really understands it, it will always be different. You will always see that the mental feeling is not the physical sensation.

We can’t force it; the mind will come to its own understanding.

We physically suffer so much when we have negative emotions that the mix-up is greater; but if you think of enjoying something, is that in the mind or the body? We more readily recognize the mental part of it, right? There’s the happiness, the mental enjoyment.

When the view is beautiful, what is feeling great? It’s the mind; that’s so clear. 

OVER TIME THE PRACTICE NATURALLY ATTUNED TO AWARENESS

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 2016-11/22 Q&A (17:42-19:45)

There’s no need to look for awareness of awareness; no need to look for the awareness, basically. It doesn’t get in the way of our understanding and all that.

As we practice over the years, and the awareness becomes more continuous and strong enough, you will naturally get attuned to it; you will notice what it is.

Some people see it sooner; some people see it later. And you may not see it all the time – you might get glimpses into it and then not, it’s okay; just different states of mind and sometimes you might clue into it.

Do you know that you’re paying attention? That’s enough.

WHEN DEFILEMENT IS ALSO NATURE

| Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary Retreat 2013 - Guided Meditation 16.6.13

Cittanupassana and Dhammanupassana practice are very close. Rupa also dhamma, nama also dhamma. Because of dhamma, we can see that it’s impersonal. There is nobody there. Another way of saying is: dhamma is right, adhamma is wrong. Dhamma and adhamma: right and wrong or wholesome and unwholesome.

We are cultivating wholesome qualities of mind, it is dhamma. If we practice with defilements, this we call adhamma. When nature is happening, we call it dhamma. If personal effort is too much to control the experience, this is not dhamma. It is adhamma. We try to change, we try to control nature, it is adhamma.

Because of defilement, we are judging, we are controlling. If defilement motivates, it is adhamma. If wholesome mind motivates, it is called dhamma.

But actually defilement is also nature. When we think that defilement is also nature –that is dhamma. Wholesome mind and unwholesome mind are both dhamma – kusala dhamma and akusala dhamma.

Kusala is also dhamma. Akusala is also dhamma. That time dhamma becomes nature.

[Yogi's note: Dhammanupassana – when wholesome and unwholesome minds become nature/impersonal]

EXPERIENCE IS AN IMPERSONAL PROCESS

| Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary Retreat 2013 (16.6.13) Guided Meditation

Don’t forget a yogi’s job, a yogi’s responsibility: only 3 things. Whatever happens, you must have the right view – right view means whatever happens, you must think as nature.

Seeing process is nature, seeing is happening. Hearing is happening. Seeing process, hearing process; this is a process. They are happening – cause and effect. Cause and effect process is just nature.

Without sound, you cannot hear. Because there is a mind, we can know the sound. This is a conditioning. Seeing consciousness, hearing consciousness is happening because of conditioning. There must be object, light, attention and also the eye must be good, then these 4 causes happening, because of these 4 causes then 1 eye consciousness can happen.

This is conditioning. Seeing process is happening; hearing process is happening. If any one of these 4 causes is not happening, then seeing consciousness or hearing consciousness cannot happen. It is cause and effect process.

When we hear and see, we think that hearing is me and seeing is me. We believe it is me. This is wrong view. Actually it is conditioning – just that seeing process is happening and hearing process is happening. You should think that it’s nature; so, you must have right view.

Everything is experience or object, there is nobody there. It is impersonal. It is because we think it is “I” and take what is impersonal as personal, then defilement can arise – liking and disliking, fear, anxiety, worry – because of concept or wrong view. So, you must have right view. This is understanding.

CHECKING ON HOW THE MIND IS BEING MINDFUL

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 2016-11/16 Morning Instructions (6:20-10:05)

We need to remind ourselves that the mind that we bring to meditation – the mind that is being aware – is not deluded, not greedy and not averse.

And all we need to do is check – we don’t have to correct it. We need to check to see how the mind that is being aware is doing its work. And it depends on whether we see what’s happening in our mind – sometimes we don’t notice and sometimes we do.

If we check often, we will begin to notice more and perhaps more often, if there are any spies in our mindfulness.

And it depends on where we are at any moment – our minds go from skillful to unskillful in various modes during the day; and in moments of skillfulness we might find it quite easy to detect these defilements in our minds; and just detecting it might correct it. But sometimes we can be in a state where we’re so zoned in to what we’re trying to observe that we don’t notice how we’re observing it – anything is possible.

This noticing of how we’re being mindful is important because when we start becoming blinkered, we’re becoming too invested in what we’re trying to observe – that’s greed; or we become averse or judgmental about our experience. We can become so blinkered because we think that we need to fix it. And when we don’t notice that that’s how we’re doing it, we keep on doing it; and we can go a whole day, sometimes days, just in that mode. So, please check.

And the other thing that can happen in these modes is that we use too much effort; so, just check whether we’re efforting and that will help us relax; relaxing the powers of those greed and aversion.

Not just greed and aversion, but delusion as well. When we don’t know something, and we start trying too hard to find out what’s going on, when we want something too much, we keep thinking we should be doing something. All these are signs that we’re beginning to try too hard; and the trying too hard means that greed, aversion or delusion is in there.

BEING REAL MEANS NO NEED TO FIX ANYTHING

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 2016-11/24 Q&A (1:06:00-1:08:13)

Yogi: How to rejoice in a good deed we have done without identifying with it?

Sayadaw: I didn’t say that you should not think the ‘I’; rather, notice that the mind is doing the ‘I’.

It is just about being real; there is no need to fix anything. There’s no need to become a good yogi. It’s about seeing what is in the mind as it is. That’s what will help the mind to grow.

So recognize the mind when it says: ‘Ah, I’m rejoicing in this – I feel that I have donated it. Oh, there is this sort of thinking going on in the mind.’

And, yes, in a mundane sense if somebody came and ask you ‘Who donated the chair?’ You’d say ‘I did’. Just to notice that – that’s all; it is not good or bad – there’s no blame or praise; just to notice.

I have pointed something about how the mind thinks in this situation. When you go home, you can continue to notice what the mind thinks, especially it’s easier to reflect back when you get frustrated with something and think ‘What’s the wrong thinking in the mind that has led to this?’

When you see it more and more, you can notice it sooner. It is a way to practice.

PRACTICE THROUGH SIMPLE HONESTY

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 2016-11/24 Q&A (37:42-38:01)

It’s really important to be very honest in our practice. When we don’t understand something, there is no need to have to understand it. We start from where we are – okay, we don’t understand this yet; let’s just keep exploring, that’s fine.

FEELINGS

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 Q&A 2016-11/21 (45:12-45:50)

Feelings are what you feel – emotions – the emotion or sometimes it’s just the feeling of stress or discomfort or tension.

It could just be any of all that – whether you can detect it in the mind or body – so long as it is the feeling that is associated with that current unwholesome mind or defilement.

NATURE IS ALWAYS NEW

| Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2014 Vassa Interviews R05_003 (00:12-00:57)

Nature is always arising – new, new, new.

Pain, for example – before 5 minutes pain and until now still pain, that is not nature; that is not reality, it is a concept.

Actually, the nature of pain is always changing. We need to think this way; only then we become interested – ah, new mind comes, aware; new mind and new object. Thinking is nature, thinking is the object; so, you don’t need to complain.

Now you resist this thinking; why this thinking comes back again and again, right?

HOW TO WATCH WITHOUT GREED, AVERSION AND DELUSION

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 11/16 Opening Instructions (34:10-37:00)

Sayadaw: One of the ways is to bring in right view. What is right view? Right view is a way of thinking. And if we bring in this way of thinking, sometimes it can make our greed, aversion and delusion fall away momentarily so that we can watch objectively.

When we bring in these modes of right view – thinking about the fundamental nature of something – when we think about these truths and it rings true for us, it settles the mind at that moment. When it settles the mind, the aversion, delusion and greed that we might have towards the moment will fall away because we can feel the truth in the idea that we have brought in.

The right view that I would like yogis to use is the idea that these mental and bodily processes are processes of nature – they have their own nature; they’re manifesting their own nature and they’re showing their nature to us, and that’s something for us to learn from instead of taking it personally.

If we can tap into that truth and accept it, then we won’t be struggling so much with what we’re observing. We won’t be buying into the story “Why is this happening to me? Why am I thinking this way?”

BE INTERESTED IN THINKING PROCESS RATHER THAN THOUGHT CONTENT

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 11/16 Opening Instructions (51:50-52:48)

When there is thinking mind, be less interested in the content of the thought and more interested in the fact that thinking mind is happening; that there’s something going on – for example, that there are interpretations, beliefs, ideas and all sorts of fears going on – the process rather than the content.

Being aware of thinking mind is very similar to trying to be aware of seeing because the mind instantly goes into the story or the content. It’s so easy to forget we’re seeing because we see the grass.

AN EASY CHECK IF WE’RE STILL MINDFUL

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 11/16 Opening Instructions (19:56-21:10)

When we know our 6 senses – which are seeing, smelling, hearing, touching, tasting – these 5, and our mental activities – what is going on in our mind; our thinking and our feeling – that’s when we’re aware. When we can recognize our body-and-mind‘s activities, that’s when we are aware.

This is because what we can truly experience is only ourselves, only our senses. We can’t experience the sunlight or the grass – we can experience the process of seeing, thinking and feeling; that seeing, thinking and feeling are happening.

BEING AWARE OF THE RELEVANT OBJECT

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 2016-11/24 Q&A (01:52-4:32)

Yogi: When I go back to everyday life, I might be in the kitchen bending and lifting my arm, are they skillful objects to be aware of as compared to seeing and hearing?

Sayadaw: Whatever your mind goes to and is aware of, that’s fine. If you know that your mind is being aware of something, that’s fine; whatever it might be.

The important thing is: ‘What is the mind aware of?’

It’s really only when we’re in distress or very happy – out of our balanced state of mind – that’s when you have a more important object; that’s when we need to check if we’re aware, whether the mind is aware with the right attitude – then that becomes important. But if you’re settled, then whatever object is fine.

If we’re feeling emotional and we’re able to be aware of our emotion in a balanced way, it’s more helpful to be aware of the emotion than, say, to be aware of something else.

THE OBJECT OF AWARENESS IS OUR SIX SENSES

| USA Maui Retreat 2016 11/16 Opening Instructions (23:30-25:05)

When I use the word ‘object’, I mean our senses. For example, it’s not the floor; it’s the seeing. It’s not the birds; it’s the hearing – that we can hear. Sound is an object, but when we interpret it as the bird, it becomes the next step that we can know. To remember that it’s through hearing and thinking that we can know the bird.

So, don’t forget that the object is our direct senses.

That’s why we don’t need a lot of energy to know the object because the object is our senses; and that’s so close to us that all we need to do is recognize it. And these objects/our senses are always available to us.

We’re constantly hearing, sensing, feeling, thinking and so on; the objects are always there, but what’s not so easily available to us is our recognition of it, our awareness of it, and the continuity of our awareness.