WHY DOES THE YOGI FEEL LIKE THE BODY HAS GROWN HUGE?

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (32:33-33:50)

Yogi: During the morning sit, I felt that the body grew very big.

Sayadaw: It is actually the mind thinking about form. Our memory or perception (sanna) already knows our body – where the head and hands are, and how big they are. Sanna already knows. 

When we meditate, because the mind is calm, the body sensations change. Because we close our eyes, the mind gets the information wrongly. The mind tries to think what the new sensations look like, that’s why the big form appears. It is the mind creating the form by thinking.

If you want to know if it’s real or not, open your eyes; then, you can understand that it is the mind thinking, it is not real.

THE SKILL OF WATCHING EMOTIONS

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180530 Q&A 8 (1:21:31-1:24:12)

Yogi: When we watch emotions, we should see them as dhamma nature, not “my” emotions, right?

Sayadaw: Yes, but the mind doesn’t understand it very well yet. We can only use it at the intellectual level.

We don’t understand dhamma nature deeply, but we can still think and accept it superficially. If you can apply that much is good enough.

You need to watch and learn more to deepen your understanding of dhamma nature.

In the meantime, when emotions arise, you can think that everyone has emotions, not only you. It is a natural process – then, as much as you can, be aware of the emotion. Just know that the emotion is happening.

Now you can feel the emotion, right? Continue knowing like that. Staying with emotion continuously is awareness. Later, there may be some realization about the emotion.

Yogi: The anger can calm down this way?

Sayadaw: No, we’re not trying to calm down. If wisdom doesn’t arise, the emotion will not calm down.

Just try to be aware of the emotion is enough. Whether the emotion calms down or not is not the yogi’s responsibility.

As much as you can, try to face the emotion; if the emotion increases and you cannot maintain the awareness, then you should change to a neutral object. When the mind calms down, you then go back to watching the emotion. Do like this, okay?

GETTING EXCITED OVER THE RETREAT INTERVIEW

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (1:04:04-1:04:55)

Yogi: I think and obsess over what I want to say at the interview.

Sayadaw: You need to watch your mind and calm down first. You start to think a lot because you get excited over the interview. 

So, calm the mind first and then think what you want to say – one or two important points are enough, not everything you want to say. 

If you want to say too much, you become more confused because you get excited and start to think a lot. 

HOW TO EXPERIENCE ‘A FEELING IS JUST A FEELING’

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (15:30-19:39)

Yogi: I have an attachment to the sitting posture because the sitting is the essence – the most beautiful and the most terrible, everything is in the sitting; I feel beyond everything.

Sayadaw: Whatever you experience in your sitting, instead of describing it to yourself, to just watch the feeling. Don’t name the feeling, just watch the feeling. Don’t give it a description, just watch the feeling – a feeling is just a feeling.

The feeling is an object – we can describe it in many ways, but that goes into the concepts; we want to get into the nature of what a feeling is.

So, when you sit and you feel this, just stay with the feeling. Recognize that the mind interprets, but don’t get attracted to the interpretations; stay with the feeling.

Can you do that?

SHWE OO MIN SAYADAW’S ADVICE: GROUND OUR CONCEPTUAL WORLD ON REALITY

Thinking “If you’re good then I’ll be good” actually implies “If you’re not good, I will be bad”. This is really a frightful attitude.

A truly virtuous person is one who remains virtuous regardless of how others behave.

(Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw)

Our actions are invariably based on liking (lobha) and disliking (dosa). If we stay aware of the quality of our mind every time we act, then we are like ‘a virtuous person who remains virtuous regardless of how others behave’.

IT’S THE MIND QUALITY, NOT THE PERSON THAT DETERMINES GOOD OR BAD

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A 10 (11:11-12:20)

Nobody is bad all the time – we’re sometimes good and sometimes bad. When you have a good heart and mind, then you’re a good person. When you have defilement, you’re a bad person. It’s the same with everybody.

Nobody can be good or bad all the time. If the mind is good, we say it’s a good person, and the converse is true.

Everyone has a mixture of good and bad qualities of mind. Don’t judge yourself too rigidly.

Sometimes we’re smart and other times, stupid. When we’re deluded, we become stupid. It’s the mind quality, not the person that determines that.

IT’S THE MIND QUALITY, NOT THE PERSON THAT DETERMINES GOOD OR BAD

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A 10 (11:11-12:20)

Nobody is bad all the time – we’re sometimes good and sometimes bad. When you have a good heart and mind, then you’re a good person. When you have defilement, you’re a bad person. It’s the same with everybody.

Nobody can be good or bad all the time. If the mind is good, we say it’s a good person, and the converse is true.

Everyone has a mixture of good and bad qualities of mind. Don’t judge yourself too rigidly.

Sometimes we’re smart and other times, stupid. When we’re deluded, we become stupid. It’s the mind quality, not the person that determines that.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VIPASSANA SAMADHI AND SAMATHA SAMADHI

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180527 Q&A 2 (1:33:10-1:37:27)

Yogi: I was at a center where we watched pain with a lot of courage to overcome the pain. They are practicing mindfulness meditation with a lot of forceful concentration. I’m trying to use your way to go through this practice and it’s quite confusing.

Sayadaw: There are 2 kinds of concentration – theirs is forcing on one object to calm the mind, and our approach is using right attitude and continuity of awareness. There are two approaches to stabilize the mind, to gaining samadhi – using one-pointed concentration continuously (samatha samadhi), the mind settles down; but we use right attitude and continuity of awareness (vipassana samadhi).

Vipassana samadhi and samatha samadhi are different.

We don’t use deep concentration (staying close to one object); we use stepping back (wisdom, the panorama view).

LEARN TO EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF AWARENESS OUTSIDE OF FORMAL SITS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (20:00-21:13)

When we have mindfulness, we can experience the power of mindfulness, samadhi and wisdom. All these experiences can come through us when the awareness is present.

All it takes is for awareness to be present, and it doesn’t matter whether we are sitting, or washing the toilet, or walking so long as the mind is working in the same way for all these experiences to be available.

If you can recognize more of that, it’ll help the mind to see its attachment to sitting, and to not attribute the wholesome minds to just sitting.

UNDERSTANDING SUFFERING FREES THE MIND

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group B (39:45-41:05)

Yogi: When I lightly contemplated the nature of suffering, I didn’t feel suffering at all.

Sayadaw: When there is a real understanding of suffering, it doesn’t feel like suffering. Insights make the mind feel free.

When suffering is understood in the right way, it doesn’t burden the mind; it frees the mind.

IMPORTANT TO RECOGNIZE WHICH REALITY IS BEING AWARE OF

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group B (31:38-33:42)

When we choose to watch the mind all the time, we need to find out if we’re aware or lost in thoughts.

When you’re watching the mind, you should recognize which reality you’re aware of – Is the mind aware of thinking, feeling, intention, or planning? What functions of the mind are you aware of? Do you recognize that there are different functions working in the mind?

The mind is a collection of many different functions; each function has its own characteristics and work – like the functions of perception, feeling, consciousness, and volitional activity (greed, knowing, happiness, or aversion). All of them (the 4 mental aggregates) have different functions. We should recognize when and how they’re working.

It is fine if the mind feels properly grounded when you watch the mind; otherwise, come back to being aware of the body.

WHEN WE LABEL, WE TEND TO GET INTO THE CONCEPTS OR THINKING

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (06:05-08:17)

Yogi: I notice a lot of things happening in the mind. Sometimes I try to note, but the process of noting is too slow; the mind is faster. Noting works for emotions because they stay longer, but when I note ‘hearing’ or ‘seeing’, I tend to get lost.

Sayadaw: Labeling a little at the beginning is okay if it helps the mind to recognize what it is doing or to anchor the mind. But don’t make it a habit; don’t use it as a crutch.

When there are lots of things to know, then the labeling becomes messy and confusing.

There are experiences which we don’t have a convenient label for, but we know what it is. Although we cannot name it, it’s enough to know it even if we cannot name it.

(Later in the same Group A Interviews)

Sayadaw: Whatever you experience, don’t name, describe, or interpret it – just watch it. We can name, describe, or interpret it in many ways, but that goes into the concepts/thinking; we want to get into the nature of what the experience is.

CONSISTENT AWARENESS HELPS THE MIND TO DE-CONCEPTUALIZE PRECONCEIVED IDEAS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (31:40-32:48)

Yogi: What is important is that the awareness machine is switched on; it doesn’t matter what the machine is aware of.

Sayadaw: When the mind has the right attitude and right view of pain, it’s not painful anymore; it is just as it is.

When there is pain, I would like to remind yogis not to label it as ‘pain’ because when we keep using the word ‘pain’ we keep reminding the mind of what the perception is, rather than what the truth/sensation is. 

The step of going back to the awareness also helps to get the mind to de-conceptualize the preconceived notion of what the sensation is. So, going back to the awareness and not labeling help the mind to see it as it is much more.

DO NOT FOLLOW A PARTICULAR OBJECT; STAY WITH THE AWARENESS INSTEAD

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A 10 (42:35-43:04)

Yogi: I feel tired being aware of the 5 physical objects after a day.

Sayadaw: If you get tired, then something is not right with the practice. So, don’t follow any particular object; rather, stay with the awareness. Then, you use less energy. You can know the awareness, right?

So, don’t follow any object; seeing the process (follow the awareness) is good enough.

So, your only object is the awareness.

THE MIND STAYS WITH AWARENESS MEANS THE AWARENESS HAS BECOME THE OBJECT

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (1:49:25-1:49:59)

Yogi: You often say that there are awareness and the object and that later, the awareness becomes the object.

Sayadaw: Yes, because awareness is more important than the object, that’s why we need to stay with the awareness. (And when the mind stays with the awareness, it means that the awareness has become the object).

Because awareness is the mind, if you watch the awareness, you can know everything that is happening in the mind-body process. That’s why we try to stay with the awareness.