Hor Tuck Loon
HOW WE CAN PRACTICE UNDERSTANDING NON-SELF
Hor Tuck Loon
RIGHT VIEW OVERTURNS WRONG VIEW
Hor Tuck Loon
WRONG VIEW AMPLIFIES THE DEFILEMENTS
Hor Tuck Loon
THE THOUGHT COMES AGAIN, BUT THE MIND IS NEW
Hor Tuck Loon
CAUSE AND EFFECT CAN HAPPEN SIMULTANEOUSLY

WATCHING AND INVESTIGATING ACTUALLY HAPPEN SIMULTANEOUSLY

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141104 Discussion Group 3B-3A (1:07:57-1:09:08)

We use the word ‘watching’ to talk about the part of the mind that is just watching only, but when we watch, the mind speaks to us; and that’s the investigating bit.

You’re watching something and you think ‘What should I do now? What am I aware of now? What’s happening now?’ – All that is investigating happening.

Whether you should investigate more depends on your state of mind. If awareness is better and your mind is calm, then you should investigate; but too much investigation is also not good.

We should prioritize awareness because we have to gather information first; when you have enough information, you can then investigate why and what. Then only you can see the whole picture and understanding can arise.

DISCERN THE QUIET MIND AND THE THINKING MIND

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141103 Discussion Group 2B-2A (20:30-21:36)

When the mind becomes quieter, the quietness is a state of mind; it’s the background of your mind. All the other things that you see – the busy stuff, the thinking that is happening, that is the activity of the mind; and you must know both.

So, don’t keep bringing the mind towards quiet, which is the state of mind. Because you want the quietness, you think that the mind should not be busy; but the mind is always busy. So, you should know both; recognize that both are the nature of mind – one is the state of mind and the other is the activity of mind.

You think that the quietness is good, the busyness is not good; but actually your mind is knowing what is happening in the mind – there are the state of mind which is quiet, and the things the mind is doing which you can see because the mind is quiet.

Usually the mind is doing things, but you don’t know, right? The stillness gives you the opportunity to see and know the thinking mind. This is your opportunity; you should not be ignoring it.

Don’t keep going back to the quietness. Just recognize both.

DON’T DO ANYTHING WHEN THERE IS A DEFILEMENT – WATCH AND CLEAR THE DEFILEMENT FIRST

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141105 Discussion Group 2A-2B (28:25-29:02)

First, you need to clear your worrying mind by watching it – watch the feeling of worry, anxiety and not liking. You watch without thinking because if you think it will keep growing; so, no thinking, just watch the feeling, the feeling calms down.

When the feeling is not there, when you are not worrying, then you need to think about what you should do.

Doing something because you’re worried, or doing something because you’re disliking it, is following the defilement. But if you can be clear of the defilement, then you can decide what you should do. Maybe you can move away; then you move away with a clear mind, knowing that this is what is necessary.

JUDGING DEFILEMENT AS BAD IS DIFFERENT FROM UNDERSTANDING IT AS BAD

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141103 Discussion Group 1B-1A (55:44-57:22)

When defilement comes to the mind, it is so important not to judge it as bad, but to see it as mind and the nature of mind so that you would want to watch it. Right view must come in.

What we’re doing is judging – we say ‘Oh, this is bad!’, but when we judge, it doesn’t go away. If we accept it as this is the mind, we change our view to right view and we watch it. We watch everything this mind does, like jealousy – we watch how it feels and what it does until the mind understands ‘Oh, this is bad!’ When the mind understands, it will go away by itself. Thatis understanding.

When we judge it, it doesn’t go away; but when we realize it, it goes away.

To come to the true realization that this is bad, you have to live with it and stay close to it to understand that it’s truly bad.

So, at first, you cannot judge it as bad because understanding it is bad and judging that it is bad is actually the difference between wisdom and defilement; judging is another defilement.

BEING ABLE TO ACCEPT UNPLEASANTNESS IS A KIND OF UNDERSTANDING

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141102 Discussion Group 3A-3B (34:25-36:42)

Being able to accept suffering and unpleasant states, and be interested in them, that is a kind of understanding. When we have that understanding, it allows us to be okay; it means that we are being mindful.

In those moments when the mind has wrong attitude, when the wrong attitude is there, then it’s very difficult. Always remember that when the mind is upset, when it is feeling dissatisfied or depressed, that’s when the mind has the wrong attitude.

And when the mind has the right attitude, all the wisdom that you have, they all come up again.

You need to understand only one thing – an object is just an object – that alone is enough if you understand it deeply.

FOCUSING FOR FEAR OF LOSING MINDFULNESS IS WRONG ATTITUDE

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141105 Discussion Group 2A-2B (35:50-37:51)

You’re focusing because you’re afraid that you’ll lose your mindfulness. Don’t be afraid. If the mind goes somewhere, you know the mind goes somewhere, you recognize and return to being mindful, that’s all.

Awareness should just be like this – you put your awareness here and you’re aware; it should be open. But now you’re like you press it hard, you’re trying to prevent it from going away; when you do something because you’re afraid that something else will happen – that’s wrong attitude.

If there are many thoughts, you know that there are many thoughts. Thoughts are a mind object; don’t be afraid of thoughts.

Thinking is not a problem; thinking is just another Dhamma object that we can observe and learn to understand.

We’re usually afraid of thinking mind because we’re afraid we’ll get lost in the story; but I’m not asking you to look at the story, I want you to recognize that the mind is thinking. ‘Thinking is happening; Oh, this thinking is happening’, that’s all. That is knowing the mind.

You know the mind, you know the body; you only have these two meditation objects, right?

WATCHING ANXIETY WITH UNDERSTANDING

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141101 Discussion Group 2A (1:13:23-1:14:56)

Face the anxiety – look at the feelings; look at the thoughts that arise in the mind when there is anxiety. Learn to understand what is the source for anxiety; what the trigger for anxiety is, what the concerns of the mind are when this thought comes up.

The goal is not to be without anxiety; the goal is to understand that anxiety is here, but anxiety is not me. I am not anxious; anxiety is a nature of the mind.

Once you can understand from that perspective, there can be anxiety, but you may not be anxious – you can have it but be free of it at the same time.

Remember, you’re not watching anxiety or any defilement so that it will go away. You’re watching anxiety so you understand that anxiety is nobody; then you’ll have interest – like anxiety has got to be there so that you can watch it and understand it. If you’re watching to try and make it go away, then you will not understand that.

WHEN WE THINK ABOUT WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR, WE IDENTIFY WITH THE THOUGHTS

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141102 Discussion Group 4A (51:15-52:35)

Seeing and looking, which one do you think is you?

Usually, looking and listening, we think is ‘me’ because we pay attention. Seeing and hearing are passive (yogi’s note - sensed directly through the ear and eye doors); so, we identify less with them.

When we pay attention, we give meaning to the object; it involves thinking. When we think, we identify with our thoughts – ‘I’m thinking’.

THE MEANING OF BHAVANA, CULTIVATION

| Maui Retreat 2016 – Last morning instructions (2:05-2:35)

My teacher always said to me from the first time I started practicing in my teens that even when I went home, I must continue practicing. I never understood what that really meant until I was almost 30, I was desperate, I was suffering and I had to do it.

I had no choice; and when I really began to do it all the time, that was when I understood the meaning of bhavana, cultivation. 

I have spent time on long retreats – 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, but when I didn’t continue to practice in daily life, then the defilements would overwhelm me.

When I practiced in daily life, day by day, I struggled and because I used every potential – awareness, effort, wisdom – to apply in daily life, slowly the mind became stronger.

Deeper understanding can arise in daily life practice because you meet real situations and real experiences. Real defilements arise from real situations in your daily life.

You must face this real defilement with real awareness, real samadhi and real wisdom – they must match the real defilement.

If your understanding, awareness and samadhi are not real, defilements are not afraid of you. You can see real defilements in your life.

| (Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary Retreat 2013 Guided Meditation Part 3 (55:44-58:24)

To learn how to live your life a better way, all day long, you check your thoughts, feelings and actions.

| (Russia Retreat 2012 Opening Talk)

A yogi told me he practiced 2 hours sitting meditation every day – 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening – for 5 years. But he noticed that his mind hasn’t changed much after 5 years.

WHEN WATCHING BODILY SENSATIONS, NOTICE THAT THE MIND IS BOTH SENSING AND THINKING ABOUT THE SENSATIONS

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141106 Discussion Group 4A-4B (19:20-23:40)

Yogi: I’m stuck.

Sayadaw: This whole experience starts from the mistake of thinking that there is a pulling sensation because pulling shows a sense of direction and direction is a concept. There is a sensation there, but you’re not taking it as a sensation. You have given it a meaning – pulling.

Pulling, pushing, pressing, up and down and side to side; all this is direction, all this is concept. At that time, you should already realize that your mind is paying attention to concept – try not to do that – and see whether you can just know the sensation without following the direction.

Yogi: The pulling sensation sometimes lands up as stars; and they merge into a cooling moonlight.

Sayadaw: Stars and moonlight, all these images you use to describe something to yourself, are concepts. When you use images and words to describe something to yourself, they are concepts.

This is happening because you’re focusing. When you focus, the mind needs to describe its experience to itself. And when you describe, you’ll get all these imagery.

In our past practice, we’ve spent so much time focusing, using a lot of energy to focus.

[Yogi’s note: Don’t focus on your bodily sensations, or the mind can get carried away with the meaning it gives to the sensations]

OBSERVE THE SIX SENSES TO LEARN ABOUT THEIR NATURE

| Maui Retreat 2016 Morning Instructions (40:11-41:14)

Our habit is to refer to these 6 senses as myself – ‘I’m seeing something, I’m hearing something, I’m thinking something, I’m feeling something”. We should instead remind ourselves that our 6 senses are nature. (Yogi’s note: The senses have their own nature and we try to observe and learn about their nature.)

So, instead of buying into that way of talking to ourselves, we could may be change the words so that we can go into the other mode; if we could remind ourselves ‘Oh, the mind is thinking, this is the nature of the mind’, or ‘The mind is feeling this’ and see why the mind is feeling this - if we could remind ourselves that all of this is happening of its own nature.

‘Seeing is happening, hearing is happening, aversion is happening’ instead of ‘I’m seeing, I’m hearing, I’m feeling, I’m angry’.

WHEN WE KEEP BEING AWARE, THE MIND EVENTUALLY UNDERSTANDS

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141108 Discussion Group 4B-4A (29:50-30:28)

When we just keep recognizing, even it’s the same thing over and over again, eventually the mind learns something from it.

That’s called practicing; we’re interested, we’re practicing, we’re being aware. By itself, the practice grows.

You’re doing what you should do; right practice. We need to be mindful all the time.

CULTIVATING THE WHOLESOME MIND REDUCES THE POWER OF DEFILEMENTS

| Singapore Retreat 2014 141103 Discussion Group 1B-1A (00:54-04:04)

When any understanding arises or even when you cultivate any wholesome mind such as awareness, metta, Buddhanusati, or your breath, it reduces the power of the defilement – any craving or aversion.

Even if you don’t understand, if you just grow the wholesome minds, when the wholesome mind becomes stronger than the unwholesome mind, you will not feel depressed. Depression is just when the unwholesome mind is stronger than the wholesome mind.

When you try to practice, when you try to be aware, you’re actually cultivating the wholesome minds – sila, samadhi, pañna; and once they become stronger, the depression will go down.

When there is awareness, you’ll know that something unwholesome is going on in the mind, you have the information, then you’ll stop the mind from continuing to grow the unwholesome thoughts and concentrate on being aware; you grow the awareness rather than the unwholesome thoughts.