FIND OWN MOTIVATION TO PRACTICE IN DAILY LIFE

|Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2017 Vassa English Interviews 170914 (31:14-32:47)

When people cannot handle their defiled intentions, they use outside energy – they listen to dhamma talks or stay near the teacher – to help them stop the defilements. But when you’re on your own, you need to use a lot of your own energy – a lot of motivation, a lot of effort.

New yogis use a lot of outside energy from the surrounding to help them to meditate. If you’re alone in your room, the practice is not very strong because nobody cares and you may even sleep. If you come to the dhamma hall, your mind becomes stronger because external influence helps to boost your energy to meditate.

But in daily life where you’re alone, it is more difficult to practice. Your surrounding is not helping you; it is even undermining your practice. When you interact with everybody outside, there are lots of defilements because they have lots of defilements.

So, you need a lot of motivation, a lot of effort to maintain your practice in daily life. It’s the same with me – if I did not suffer so much, I wouldn’t have practiced like this. I suffered so much that I needed to meditate. Suffering helped me to practice. This is all due to conditioning.

If you don’t know your mind, there is no way it can rest

| Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Vassa English Interviews 17 August 2017 (30:05-31:04)

It is very good that you notice your craving and aversion. If you don’t see the craving and aversion, then your practice will be difficult all the time.

If you don’t know the craving and aversion – the liking and disliking – they will never stop even until you die. If you don’t know the mind, there is no way the mind can rest.

How to be interested in drowsiness

| IMS 2014 Dhamma Discussion Group A1 (31:15-31:50)

How to say that drowsiness is interesting?

Drowsiness has intensity – it changes. The more interesting you find drowsiness, the more you see it changing.

Sometimes people watch it until it brightens like the sun comes up behind the clouds.

We’re interested in the thinking mind, not the thinking

| Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya Vassa 2015 Oct. 13 English Interview (24:37-27:57)

Yogi: I know the reason why I’m upset.

Sayadaw: You pay attention to the storyline; you don’t know the mind process. We learn not from the storyline, we learn from the mind process – first mind, second mind. For example, anger comes because of craving – however strong the lobha, that’s however strong the anger when you don’t get it.

It is a process – before, you have expectation and because you cannot get what you want, anger comes.

We try to understand the mind process. We’re not trying to learn about anger from the storyline. Storyline is a concept; we try to learn from the mind process.

Anger is not present all the time. When anger arises, we try to find out what causes anger to arise. What idea, what thought leads to the next mind.

‘Why?’ means we learn from the process, not from the storyline.

If you find out the answer from the storyline, anger cannot go away. If the realization is from the mind process, then anger stops immediately.

Your responsibility is to have right view and watch the process. We’re not interested in the storyline; we want to know that thinking mind is happening. We pay attention to the thinking mind, not the thinking. We call thinking the storyline.

So, when you notice thinking mind is happening – that’s enough. Notice that the mind is thinking – we’re not interested in the storyline.

The mind is thinking. When feeling comes, how do you feel? Be aware of the feelings; be aware of the thinking mind and the feelings, thinking mind and feelings – that’s enough.

Learn from anger instead of sending metta

| Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya SOM Malaysian Interviews 2018-01-09 (1:16:13-1:17:15)

Yogi: I want to send metta to somebody I don’t like

Sayadaw: Your objective is to learn from your anger, not send metta to that person. At that time, the person is not important; what’s important is the anger nature.

The persons you get angry with can change, but anger is the same. We try to understand the nature of anger. If you really understand anger, you won’t ever be angry with anybody. 

If you send metta, it’ll be only for this one person. If you understand the principle, the nature of anger, and use the principle, you’ll never be angry with anybody again. You have a chance to learn by observing anger, why then do you want to change to sending metta?

The tension and suffering you experience by watching anger is something for you to learn.

Yogis suffer because of the greed to get more results

| Kalaw Retreat Mar 2017 - Day 9 Discussion Group B (22:40-23:16)

Greed just wants something more. And this works out in our practice. We understand something and then what happens is we think this is not enough, we want to understand more. 

And we think that it’s a good thing; but often it’s greed that’s driving it. For some yogis, it’s very strong and they suffer a lot in the practice because of this greed to keep getting better and better.

When the mind can enjoy wholesome minds, it will not enjoy defilements

| Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2017-12-26 Malaysian Interviews (00:25-01:15)

Can’t you enjoy the understanding? Instead, the mind wants to enjoy drowsiness.

If you want to enjoy the understanding, or awareness, or the practice, then defilements cannot come.

How do you feel every time you notice that you have awareness? Nothing?

There’s no need to stop the experience

| Kalaw Retreat Mar 2017 - Day 8 Discussion Group C (11:12-11:46)

Piti (rapture) can continue – just in case that people think piti must become equanimity. Sometimes people have a lot of piti and it continues, like it’s very strong and the strength of piti doesn’t stop.

So long as they can be aware of the piti without attachment; they make piti the object and they watch it neutrally. Then piti becomes the object and everything about the nature of things can be understood from watching piti as an object.

reality is actually principles

| Kalaw Retreat Mar 2017 - Day 9 Discussion Group B (24:27-26:11)

Reality is actually principles. When we understand one reality, when we see its truth, we begin to recognize the same principle in action although the object is not the same. You have understood the way greed works. Even though you’re not wanting the same thing anymore, you can still see greed at work. You’re recognizing it more.

Initially, yes, wisdom also prefers things – wisdom prefers things that are beneficial because it is understood, not out of craving. But you have to also be vigilant because it can turn into greed without your noticing it.

Every time we have an insight, it frees the mind

| Kalaw Retreat Mar 2017 - Day 5 Discussion Group D (34:34-35:04)

People often ask me ‘What is an insight?’

You can’t name an insight, but you can tell that you have one because usually, it makes you feel free of whatever you were caught up in before.

Defilements increase when we pay attention without right view

| Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2017-12-17 English Interviews (1:03:06-1:05:06)

Sometimes awareness is present but there’s no right attitude – that’s why defilements increase

Paying attention and awareness could be different. Defilement can pay attention – when we’re eating, craving pays attention to the taste and feeds it. Craving also pays attention to the object, thinking it’s nice and enjoy.

This is not awareness. Meditation awareness is awareness with right attitude – then meditation is happening.

That’s why I remind yogis: are you aware, or feeling the object? Feeling the object is either craving or aversion towards the object – and paying attention is already happening.

Paying attention is either in the wrong way or right way.

Now you’re paying attention but without right attitude.

Defilements also pay attention to the object; defilements also notice the object – without the object, defilements cannot grow.

You think in the wrong way, and the mind feeds it and craving increases.

Taste is very obvious – when you like the taste, craving pays attention to the taste and the mind feeds it: nice, nice, nice, good, good, good, yummy, yummy. It knows the object. 

Defilement is already working, paying attention is there too; so, we only need to change the attitude. Because of right view and right information, then meditation is happening.

We should be careful that we don’t pay attention without right view because it is dangerous.

A yogi thinks she makes no progress

| Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2017-12-1 Q&A Chinese & Malaysian Yogis (33:30-36:46)

If you continue to practice, improvement is sure to happen. When you stop, the quality of mind goes down. As much as you have practiced, you have already got the result. If you understand this nature, you’re bound to improve if you continue to practice.

Yogis say that they have not improved because they want to see special things. Improvement means that the quality of mind improves, not getting any special experience. Because of expectation, you become bored – you want something new, and that’s craving. Because of craving, you get upset or bored.

If you don’t have expectation, naturally wholesome qualities increase when you continue to practice. Joy, interest, and confidence will grow naturally – it won’t be boring because the mind will be happy and interested to practice. Boredom arises because of craving.

The experience is not important, awareness is important

| Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary Retreat 2013 - Guided Meditation Part 2

When the mind recognizes that there’s defilement, there’s right view. When the mind recognizes that there’s defilement happening, it is the right view.

We’re not trying to stop anything; we’re not trying to create anything. We are trying to know. So don’t complain about what is happening in the mind; we need to appreciate that we’re aware of the defilement.

see things as they are means not to fix, change, manipulate or control

|Kalaw Retreat Mar 2017 - Day 5 Discussion Group D (33:25-34:15)

Change doesn’t come because we want to change. Change happens when the ability to change happens.

The work is to see things as they are; not to fix things, or change things, or manipulate things, or control things. That’s not what the practice is about. The practice is about seeing the way things are. And when the understanding comes, then maybe something will change. Our work is just to be aware so that we can learn.

A yogi is afraid to lose the awareness and lose the practice

| Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2017-12-1 English Q&A (02:30-03:28)

This attitude is not right – if you practice with fear, awareness will not be good.

Try as much as you can – if you lose awareness, you can try again, and you can start again. Try as much as you can – that’s enough.

If you’re afraid to lose awareness, then the mind becomes tense; it is not free.

In the beginning, the exercise is just to bring back awareness every time it is lost.