REGULARLY CHECK IF WE’RE TENSE OR RELAXED

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 3 Group C (35:32-37:22)

Yogi: I start to get sleepy when I sit and wonder if I exert too much when I walk.

Sayadaw: If the mind which usually gets too excited stops and relaxes, it just wants to go to sleep.

We need to constantly check how much energy the mind is using every moment – like when you’re out there walking, you need to check if the energy is too high, and just watching that energy will balance it.

Notice whether the mind is tense or relaxed, if the energy is increasing or decreasing, if there is clarity or confusion and bring that awareness with you into the sitting.

Just lightly checking ourselves will make us aware all the time. It is a simple way to be aware of ourselves all the time.

THE RIGHT EFFORT TO CONSISTENTLY MAINTAIN GENTLE AWARENESS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (34:20-38:43)

Yogi: How to make mindfulness at work a habit?

Sayadaw: Make it a habit to always know how the mind feels all the time, not just at work – then it comes easily when you’re at work.

When you know how you feel all the time, then the moment the mind gets a little stressed, you’ll be aware and can do something about it right away.

We’re so used to being aware of the body and a little of how we feel – but we don’t know how to recognize the working mind. When we work, we use the mind in different ways – it has to do so many things – and we don’t know how to recognize that the mind is working. We are either into the work or we’re aware of something else, but we can’t be aware and still carry out the work. 

For example, we can’t be aware when we’re reading or when watching TV because when we’re aware we can’t understand what we’re reading or watching and when we understand what we’re reading or watching, we forget to be aware. We put all our energy into one or the other – either being aware or into what we’re doing.

Practicing seeing and looking on retreat is a good way of dividing our energy between being aware and watching concepts – e.g. when you look at the flower, and at the same time, recognize that seeing is happening. Do it very lightly. (We can practice this for all the 6 senses.)

I ask yogis not to put too much effort into being aware, but to just maintain a light awareness that is persistent, because the awareness gains momentum and power when you have a light awareness that persists for a long time. You can be working and still maintain awareness only when the awareness is gentle.

APPLYING RIGHT EFFORT IN THE PRACTICE

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (1:24:10-1:26:16)

Yogi: Is exerting strong effort the right effort required in the practice?

Sayadaw: Right effort is the four right efforts. They are designed to make the mind more wholesome. 

When it comes to the unwholesome mind, the effort is to prevent what is unwholesome from arising and to stop whatever has arisen from continuing.

For the wholesome mind, it is to arouse what has not arisen and to grow what is already present.

The four right efforts are designed to create more wholesome minds. So whatever effort you make in the practice, check that the wholesome mind is growing; if it creates the unwholesome, then that is not the right effort.

When we are aware of the awareness, all four right efforts are already happening (checking that could be interesting).

INTENSE DEFILEMENT ARISES SIMPLY BECAUSE WE ARE NOT READY WITH AWARENESS

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180530 Q&A 8 (39:26-39:55)

Yogi: Big fear arises when seeing blood or great heights.

Sayadaw: How does big fear come? Big fear comes because you are not aware – because awareness, samadhi, and wisdom are not ready.

If awareness, samadhi, and wisdom are present, fear cannot overwhelm the whole mind.

Because delusion is there, therefore fear can arise strongly.

WHEN THE MIND IS PEACEFUL AND CALM, CHECK AND STAY WITH THE AWARENESS

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180527 Q&A 2 (36:30-37:33)

Yogi: In the morning sit, the mind is half awake and half asleep.

Sayadaw: The mind is not working very well – it is indulging in the peacefulness. The mind is not awake and alert.

So, it is time to use your wisdom – when the mind calms down, it is time to use your wisdom.

Check or remind the mind: How many objects can you know? You are just reminding about your awareness. Also, don’t pay attention to the calmness because every time you pay attention to the calmness, it is easy for the mind to indulge in the calmness. So, stay with the awareness.

At that time, can you tell the difference between calmness and awareness, the difference between the object and the knowing mind? When you try to notice the awareness, then the mind wakes up.

THE MIND SUFFERS WHEN WRONG THOUGHTS HAPPEN

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (15:13-17:15)

Yogi: If I call a close family member and they don’t answer, I start to worry.

Sayadaw: And you think what could be happening? If you think that way, how do you feel? You get more and more worried, right? So, if you’re aware of the process – thinking comes and the mind suffers – you need to know that it is a wrong thought. If you continue to think, the mind continues to suffer. 

If you can see the process, slowly the mind becomes wiser and you don’t want to continue to think that way.

If certain thoughts cause the mind to suffer, you should not continue to think those thoughts; don’t allow them to grow, or else the mind suffers even more.

If you observe this process repeatedly, the mind will eventually understand what to do.

For me, when a thought causes my mind to suffer, the mind immediately stops that thought. I’m not so silly as to allow the thought to hurt the mind even more.

Just change to a neutral object and try to stay peacefully in the present; there is no need to suffer from negative thoughts. 

DISCERNING WHOLESOME AND DEFILEMENT INTENTIONS

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (30:28-32:12)

Yogi: I notice that self-interest pushes the intentions and actions.

Sayadaw: If there is intention with wisdom, it is wisdom interest, and wisdom is working. Either defilement or wholesome mind can push the intention and the action.

Sometimes it is wisdom that intends to do something, and other times, it is craving. 

How to tell them apart? If there is intention with wholesome energy, the mind quality feels good. If there is intention with defilement, the mind suffers.

IDEAS DETERMINE HOW THE MIND REACTS TO CERTAIN WORDS

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (1:24:56-1:28:17)

Yogi: You say that the object must be natural – but I do a type of Taoist breathing that is not natural. What should I do?

Sayadaw: When your awareness is better, it’ll be natural. For example, practicing yoga is also not natural and neither is practicing qigong. Just put your awareness there; it is not a problem.

How the mind relates to certain words is important. For some people who are involved in security, saying ‘investigate’ agitates the mind. Every time they hear the word ‘investigate’, they get really tense because they investigate with fear and anxiety at work. So, every time they hear the word ‘investigate’, defilements arise.

You need to know how the mind reacts to words that convey certain ideas.

Likewise with the word ‘meditation’ – it can make the yogi very tense. For some people, they meditate with a lot of tension. So, when they hear ‘meditation’, they already become tense.

I would advise these yogis not to meditate, but to simply go sit, and ask what they know. Just change the concept.

The mind is very strange.

INVESTIGATION IS NOT BY THINKING BUT BY ACTUAL OBSERVATION OF PROCESSES

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180531 Q&A10 (1:12:38-1:15:50)

Yogi: I’m trying to investigate. When I smell a bad smell and aversion arises, I would check why the aversion arises. A thought says that it’s our animal instinct to avoid danger.

Sayadaw: This is an intellectual understanding. If you want to see why the aversion arises, you should know what the mind thinks before, during and after the anger arises.

You need to be aware of the whole process to understand why anger arises; this is investigation, not thinking of an answer. We’re interested in the process (cause and effect relationship), not in getting an answer.

The understanding from thinking is weak; our own experiential understanding is deeper.

UNDERSTANDING HOW THE MIND GETS LOST IN THOUGHTS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (00:00-03:28)

Yogi: I get lost when I try to observe that thinking (the story) is happening. I find it very helpful to find some place in the body to go to and not get entangled in the thinking. 

Sayadaw: The mind is very fast and subtle, and it is easy to get lost in the thinking instead of observing that thinking is happening. We’re not supposed to observe the story, or we’ll get lost in the story. 

We get lost in the thought because we’re paying attention to the story rather than the mind that is thinking.

We build the skill of recognizing that thinking is happening by acknowledging the thoughts and then quickly come back to the body over and over again until the mind figures it out for itself. 

Another way to anchor the mind, especially when the mind has an emotional charge, is to come back to the feeling of the emotion, rather than stay with the thoughts about the emotion. 

Yogi: Is that how the feeling manifests in the body?

Sayadaw: Yes, that’s the most obvious.

RECOGNIZE THAT AWARENESS CHANGES TOO

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (09:45-11:52)

Yogi: There are lots of tiredness and distractions, and the mind gets pulled away from the breath repeatedly.

Sayadaw: Rather than think that the mind has been pulled away from the breath, recognize that the awareness has been aware of something else.

Recognize that that is also awareness too, rather than thinking that awareness is only awareness of the breath and anything else is a distraction. Recognize that you’re noticing the movement of the mind – the mind is aware of this and now it is aware of something else which is just as valid as the breath.

The breath is the starting point just to recognize what awareness is like. It may also be that you know 2 objects or 3 objects at the same time – the breath and something else together – not only the breath and, later, something else.

THE MIND IS ALWAYS KNOWING SOMETHING NEW AT ANY MOMENT

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (12:30-12:48)

Yogi: Sometimes the mind is pulled away by dullness.

Sayadaw: But you know the dullness; it’s an object/experience as well. You are not pulled away, it is knowing something new.

EVERYTHING IS GOOD WHEN WISDOM LEADS

|China 2018 Retreat File: 20180529 Q&A 5 (26:47-28:56)

Yogi: When I check my attitude while observing bodily pain, the practice becomes smooth.

Sayadaw: Yes, you can observe any object if you have right attitude.

Whatever you do, check your mind and attitude first – if your attitude is right, whatever you do is good. Conversely, if the attitude is wrong, everything becomes a problem.

Right attitude (wisdom) is the most important thing in everything we do – it should be the leader.

WHEN CANNOT SLEEP, MAKE IT AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE MINDFUL

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (17:37-18:50)

When you’re awake at night, remember to be mindful because if the mind isn’t, it’ll start to think. If you just leave the mind alone at night, if you don’t give it work to do, thinking will proliferate – it’ll think of happy, sad, exciting, or boring things – and that tires the mind.

When the mind is aimless wondering and thinking, it tires the mind. If you give the mind work to do – when it’s mindful whenever you’re awake – then, there’s no problem.

So long as what you’re cultivating in the mind while you’re awake is wholesome – whether it’s metta, or awareness, samathi and wisdom – if all that are working, then you don’t have to worry about getting as much sleep as other people do.

The mind shouldn’t be getting momentum in becoming unwholesome as when the mind is aimless.

DIFFERENT MINDS DO DIFFERENT WORK

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group A (44:30-47:53)

Yogi: I’m a professional dancer and I find it very hard to sit still – first, my mind goes in a diagonal direction to the right and I call it back along the same direction before I feel an emotion or something. I have become attached to the visual image.

Sayadaw: It’s normal for the mind to conceptualize its experience. When the mind does this, there are 2 parts that are happening – there’s the reality of what is happening and there’s the conceptualizing/visualizing of what is happening.

Let the visualization continue while in your awareness you try to stay with the intensity of the feeling. Recognize the intensity while the rest of the mind is doing the visualization – you just recognize the feeling as it increases and decreases.