PROBLEM WITH THOUGHTS DURING MEDITATION

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (1:19:00-1:21:27)

Yogi: I have a problem with recurring thoughts because I want them and I don’t want them, and I easily get lost in them.

Sayadaw: Firstly, thinking is not a problem because thinking is the nature of the mind – the mind is that which thinks. There is no need for you to stop thinking.

If you can recognize it whenever the mind thinks, if there is an active recognition of the thinking mind over and over again, you won’t get lost in thoughts.

If you do get lost in thoughts, every time you’re aware, bring the awareness to the body.

The problem is not the thinking mind; the problem is that you don’t like it. The mind will think. It is what it does.

WHEN WE SET THE MIND UP TO BE AWARE, IT’S JUST AN INTENTION, NOT A MUST

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Tape 7 Day 3 Group C (43:25-45:00)

Yogi: Other traditions say: Work ardently, persistently, and continuously. You say: Work lightly, persistently and continuously. Is that right?

Sayadaw: Practicing lightly, persistently and continuously, it’s just an intention.

We would like to work lightly, persistently and continuously; but it’s not a ‘must’, particularly with the ‘persistently’ and ‘continuously’.

Sometimes we forget to be persistent and continuous, and it’s okay.

Yogi: What you’re saying is that I shouldn’t judge myself or make it a problem if I can’t be continuous or persistent in being aware.

Sayadaw: Yes.

TO BE WITH THE SELF MEANS TO BE PRESENT TO WHAT-IS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (35:00-36:49)

Yogi: Zen practice is to be yourself completely – breathe, sleep and die completely.

Sayadaw: To be yourself completely just means to be completely in the present moment with what is happening as it is. That’s all.

Yogi: So, this is a Zen retreat completely; I feel at home.

THE WISDOM IS IN THE KNOWING

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (48:34-49:10)

I love to tell yogis what my teacher said: If you’re wicked and you know it, you’re a wise (wicked) person.

It was a big learning for me; it was very encouraging that knowing myself was better than not knowing myself.

The wisdom is in the knowing of who we really are (knowing is the condition for real change to take place).

DECONSTRUCTING ‘I AM THE MIND’

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (26:00-32:55)

Yogi: How does identification work?

Sayadaw: The self is an idea/belief that the mind holds – when there is sufficient wisdom, there’s a shift to the (experiential) understanding that it is cause and effect which governs what is happening.

Identification (the result of moha) is a belief; it’s so strong that it feels like it’s there all the time. When the mind gets glimpses/an insight that something happening is just nature, at that time it’s very clear that there’s nobody there; that the belief that there’s a self is just a construct, not a reality.

We have to practice so much because the delusion is very strong. 

When that wisdom is absent, identification is there; when that wisdom is present, identification is absent. 

There’s more identification with the awareness than with the objects because awareness is in the mind and identification (moha) is also in the mind – ‘I am the mind’. (Both the indriyas and moha are mental factors.)

It is important for awareness to gain momentum because when there’s momentum we can also recognize the awareness, and they both help us to see that the mind is a process and it’s not somebody there. (Awareness is the condition for awareness to gain momentum and for wisdom to arise.)

Seeing the momentum of work shows you that there is a process going on; that ‘you’ is not involved. 

When awareness has momentum, when the practice is practicing itself, at that time, what is happening is not you and what is knowing is also not you.

METTA: IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY IN YOUR POCKET, YOU CAN’T GIVE.

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (56:30-1:00:43)

Yogi: I start the morning sit by doing metta.

Sayadaw: Whatever the mind is doing, like reciting the metta phrases, you can recognize that the mind is doing that. Once you know what the mind is doing, you’re practicing satipatthana. That’s fine.

When you practice metta, do you feel metta?

Yogi: Sometimes.

Sayadaw: Recognize that sometimes we’re just reciting the words and not feeling metta.

It has happened to me that I was reciting ‘May you be happy’, but I became angry instead.

The best time to radiate metta is after a sit or walking meditation when the mind feels good, kind and strong; then, we can bring people into our minds and radiate that feeling. 

Metta is like money; if you don’t have any in your pocket, you can’t give.

Metta is useful for some people when the gross mind is very confused or agitated – just reciting the metta phrases can calm the mind down. That’s really helpful to settle the mind – then it can be aware without the excessive agitation.

When we recite, the mind can understand the meaning of ‘May all beings be well, may all beings be happy’, and that brings some peace to the mind.

We can use it if it’s helpful.

DON’T ABANDON THE DHAMMA WHEN WE LEAVE THE MEDITATION CENTRE

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (11:15-11:50)

We bring the dhamma into our lives by practicing until it becomes a habit to keep our mind in the best possible state.

Often for us, the dhamma is somewhere else, not in the moment. The dhamma is only in the centre – it is lost the moment we leave the centre because we don’t bring it into our homes. That is the problem. 

MEDITATION SHOULD BE FUN

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (45:17-47:18)

Yogi: When I meditate lightly, it is educational, and the learning is playful and fun.

Sayadaw: We should meditate like we’re playing games – it is fun and not like a duty. 

We have been watching the world and all its external nature for so long. It has become boring because we have been there, done that – now, we’re watching a new show. 

WATCHING THE MIND IS LIKE WATCHING A MOVIE

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (52:00-52:52)

When you’re angry with someone, you really want to be angry with that person. We would like to be right and that person should be wrong; and we should be angry. That’s what anger does.

It is the same with sadness – when we’re sad, we would like to be sad and there’s a reason to be sad and that’s also the nature of the mind.

There’s nothing wrong with that – simply recognize that the mind is doing that.

All we want to do is to see that it’s a sad movie playing – it could be a sad, angry or happy movie playing in the mind. And, we watch that movie to understand how the thoughts and feelings play out.

BEING AWARE MEANS WE’RE AWARE OF THE SIX SENSES AT WORK

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (1:02:00-1:05:24)

Yogi: On my way to the retreat I was driving through a thunderstorm – I was totally ‘aware’ in the moment (as in paying attention), but I wasn’t aware that I was being aware.

Sayadaw: In English, the word is the same, i.e. ‘awareness’. When we’re in situations where we have to be very careful and alert, and really present to what needs to be done, all our attention is outside.

That’s not awareness like in meditation. If you had remembered to check how you felt, that would have been mindfulness or awareness.

When we’re aware of any of the six sense doors working – the mind and the 5 physical senses – that’s when we’re aware in the sense of practicing the dhamma.

Although we know the concepts, we’re also aware of the 6 senses at work.

NOTICE BODY AWARENESS IF YOU CAN’T BE AWARE OF FEELINGS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (1:04:54-1:05:40)

If straight away you find it difficult to be aware of your feelings continuously – you need to put that aside for a while. You need to build up the mindfulness first by going to something simple like being aware of your breath or walking so that you can be aware more continuously.

You may be lost in thoughts and you come back repeatedly to something simple in the body.

It might take minutes, hours, or days – it doesn’t matter.

When the mind is more stable, that’s when you can work with the mind better. It will take patience and time.

THE TWO WAYS OF CULTIVATING AWARENESS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group A (40:15-42:33)

Yogi: When Sayadaw talks about body awareness, is it just a general light awareness rather than a precise marking, marking, marking?

Sayadaw: You can start with a general awareness and later you naturally see more detail without trying. 

There are 2 ways to see in greater detail. First, we track each of our movement in great detail – when we move a foot, the next foot, and our head. That’s quite tiring because it is intensive. Eventually, if we are allowing enough, we can notice that we’re aware. We then start to come to the mind and recognize the mind.

The other way is just to strengthen the awareness – not trying to be with any particular object, but making sure that the awareness is continuous based on any object, choosing what works for you to keep the mindfulness continuous.

BE HAPPY WHEN ABLE TO BE AWARE

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (1:17:15-1:18:33)

When I was a teenager, my teacher taught me: If you know it, be happy. That really stuck in my mind – I could be angry or do anything unskillful, but when I was aware of it, I would be happy.

The effect of that was that once the awareness built up if something unskillful came up in the mind, it didn’t stay. It is so powerful because the view is right view – you see it, you know it, and it’s gone.

HOW TO USE BREATH AWARENESS TO MONITOR TENSION

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 3 Group C (41:15-43:11)

Yogi: I’m always tense.

Sayadaw: When you breathe, breathe deeply. Follow the breath – when you breathe deeply, you will feel the tension increase when you breathe in, and when you breathe out, you will feel some relaxation happening.

Just track the relaxation, and repeat – feel the tension and then track the relaxation. You do that over and over again. 

Not just in sitting – this is going to be an exercise for you all day long. We all forget our breath and start to breathe shallow and that makes the mind and body tense.

We tend to forget our breath – as much as you remember, come back to it and take a deep breath. You will forget some times and when you remember, just start again.

THE VALUE OF THE PRACTICE IS IN THE AWARENESS, NOT IN THE PLEASANT EXPERIENCES

Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 3 Group C (1:14:00-1:16:54)

Yogi: This morning’s session was really peaceful for me and I feel that I’m on my way in the practice.

Sayadaw: What if your meditation this morning isn’t peaceful? Would you still feel that you’re on your way?

Being on the way is when we’re aware – it’s not when things feel good. That’s not what puts us on the way. 

The value of the practice is not in feeling good, but in being aware because we want to understand the way things are, as they are.

It’s inevitable that when we understand the path and walk it, there will be peace. Peace is a side effect of practicing skillfully, but that’s not our goal. The goal is to keep walking that path of wisdom.

Our job is just to work steadily on the 3 yogi jobs – to have right view, be aware and to continue to be aware with right view.

When we think the experience or the result is important, we start to have a lot of judgment – liking and disliking this and that. But when we remember that the value of the practice is in the awareness – in the work that is being done – then it doesn’t matter what is happening because there are recognition and appreciation that awareness is working. And then we become more skillful at being aware.

REST WHILE IN AWARENESS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (57:58-1:01:04)

Yogi: When I’m sick and the mind pushes to get things done, what should I do?

Sayadaw: Rest, do and watch that eagerness to get things done or the standard that the mind has given itself. Watch that; don’t let the eagerness rule.

When those standards that we hold push us, we exert too much energy. By recognizing that and the unskillful result will help to balance the mind.

Awareness is really helpful when you’re tired because you can just rest in the awareness of the tiredness. When there is that awareness, and you are doing what you need to do, then you cannot overexert because the mind will know the limits of its abilities.