MAKE OUR ALONE MOMENTS IN DAILY LIFE OUR FORMAL PRACTICE

Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (1:26:14-1:27:33)

When our awareness feels grounded and continuous, it’s fine to do a lot of informal practice. But when we find that our awareness is not so strong, we find ourselves mostly lost in thoughts or in whatever we’re doing, we need to have formal practice to ground the awareness, to give that momentum to the informal practice. 

What is formal practice when we live our life? It cannot be taken as only the formal sit at the start and end of the day. Every moment we’re alone needs to become the formal practice in our life – sitting in the bus, when we’re driving or in the toilet, taking a shower or sitting down for coffee by ourselves, reading our books – all that become our formal practice.

Formal practice strengthens the stability of the mind, and we need that strength so that the awareness has more power and momentum.

MAKE AWARENESS YOUR HOME

Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (1:37:24-1:38:05)

Yogi: Should I watch the tension in the body or the awareness of it?

Sayadaw: When you know both the object and the awareness, stay with the awareness because awareness is your home.

It’s only when you can’t know the awareness, then you watch the object.

THE IMPORTANT VALUE OF CONSISTENCY

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 25 Day 9 Group C (47:47-48:57)

Why is it taking us so long to understand the Dhamma?

Because every time we start a retreat we start with zero. On retreat, the momentum of awareness goes up stepwise from zero to 5. When we go home, we regress from 5 to zero because we can’t maintain the awareness. When the next retreat comes, we start the cycle all over again. How long has that been taking place? 10 to 20 years?

But, if we want our practice of the Dhamma to really grow, we have to practice continuously. The effort to keep it going has to be continuous. And, if you can keep it going for a year, you’ll learn much more than the 20 years of on-and-off practice.

THE MIND NATURALLY SEES MORE WHEN AWARENESS IS CONTINUOUS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Gp A (13:09-15:39)

Yogi: There was restlessness and later I found out it was doubt feeding the anxiety. When I saw the doubt (cause), both it and the anxiety (effect) cleared. One seems to hold the other. How do I work with the doubt?

Sayadaw: Stay with what you know first. Initially, you watch the restlessness and as you stay with it, the awareness is building.

We always forget that awareness is building when we watch continuously. When awareness is building, it starts to see more and the wisdom starts growing. It not only sees restlessness but also detects something underlying which you have not noticed earlier.

It’s not about working with it like trying to find out ‘Oh, what is behind the restlessness’ – it is by being simple and watching the restlessness continuously and when there is enough awareness, the mind naturally understands more.

DON’T FIX THE FUTURE – JUST WATCH AND LET WISDOM BE YOUR GUIDE

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (52:35-54:26)

Yogi: When I feel tired and sleepy off bed hours at retreat, should I sleep or not?

Sayadaw: Nothing is fixed. When there’s awareness, it allows wisdom to arise.

Always gauge for yourself without fixing an idea that this time I’ll do this or this time I’ll do that.

As you watch, wisdom’s decision to sleep or to watch can come.

We don’t know the future; we can’t decide it now – we just go with what wisdom tells us.

The nature of awareness is that if we persist in awareness, wisdom will arise – and then the understanding of what is necessary, suitable, or beneficial can arise. All we need to do is to be aware; we don’t have to choose the outcome – we just have to choose awareness.

UNDERSTANDING CAUSE AND EFFECT BY WATCHING HOW WE DERIVE AT DECISIONS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 15 Day 6 Group A (1:18:13-1:20:02)

You can see the results of the decisions you make because each decision comes with its results. The more wisdom we have about understanding cause and effect, the more peace we’ll have.

When we make decisions based on greed or any other unwholesome quality, there’s going to be a result that is connected to the unwholesome quality that gives us suffering. And, there can be mixed results where some of it is wholesome and some of it is unwholesome.

To learn about cause-effect, we learn from every decision we make in our lives. It starts with simple decisions like if and when we go to the toilet, eat and sleep. Each decision we make comes with its results.

Should we go to the toilet now or later? We make all these decisions and we see the results like: is the mind calm this way – have we overreacted, have we acted in the right way, or is it timely? 

When we take note of how the mind feels in every decision we make, the mind may start to learn the principle to the decisions made and whether the results are wholesome or not. 

STEPPING BACK IS THE WORK OF WISDOM

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (1:04:10-1:04:54)

Stepping back is the work of wisdom. Only wisdom is able to step away and see afresh ‘Oh, this is what is happening.’ 

When wisdom is not present, we’re like locked inside – we’re kind of involved and participating, and we don’t know how to get out. But, when wisdom comes back, we step back.

Meditation is like walking backwards – walking away from whatever is coming at us. 

UNDERSTANDING ARISES FROM CONSISTENTLY STAYING WITH THE AWARENESS

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (1:09:15 -1:10:16)

Yogi: The mind gets so tired from not being able to watch things because they disappear so fast; and then a lot of thinking comes to the mind.

Sayadaw: Don’t stay with the object – it doesn’t matter what happens to it, stay with the awareness. Go back to the awareness, and know the awareness.

When you’re thinking, go back to the awareness and stay with it and then understanding will come.

IF THERE’S TENSION IN THE BODY, CHECK

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 7 Day 3 Group C (38:51-40:20)

Yogi: There’s a lot of tension in the body

Sayadaw: When you try to be aware, you could be trying too hard. 

Yogi: I’m always tense; like at home, I’m also tense.

Sayadaw: It’s not because you’re paying attention that you’re getting tense. You just have tension.

If it’s not because of the way you’re being aware that there is tension, then, it’s not a problem. I’m concerned that mentally yogis increase tension by the way they try to observe.

If it’s just the normal tension that we carry, then, it’s not a problem. You can stop calling it tension and just recognize the sensation as an object, no judgment – it’s not tension, just a sensation.

ADVICE ON HOW NOT TO LET TENSION ESCALATE

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group B (00:00-10:38)

Yogi: I feel lots of pressure on week days and look forward to the weekend, but then it gets worse – I feel even less relaxed. What should I do?

Sayadaw: Rather than wait to do formal meditation like sitting once a day, you need to learn to meditate throughout the day – and to relax the stress every time you feel it. 

The nature of practicing the dhamma is that you have to do it all the time. Meditation is not a part time, once a day, kind of thing. It is something we need to have in our mind all the time.

So, during the day, take moments out from your day and just be with the breath, or learn to recognize your feelings and tension, and relax.

As you are working, recognize again and again when tension is increasing so that you can relax and do your work, like building a different habit of doing your work.

Be careful of your motivation to practice – if it is to feel relaxed or better, that gets in the way of relaxing. We need to have the attitude that we’re practicing to cultivate wholesome minds and to learn.

When there is awareness, eagerness can’t overtake the mind – when we’re not aware, the desire to do things well, do things fast and to finish, all these desires overtake the mind and the mind gets tired from these expectations.

We should be mindful of all the desires and wanting in the mind – recognizing what is unnecessary at the moment like wanting to do something really well. We can lower our expectations, get what is necessary done first, and worry about the standard later – that will decrease the pressure. 

ACKNOWLEDGE OUR CONCEPTUAL EXPERIENCES YET RECOGNIZE THE WORKING MIND

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 3 Group C (31:35-35:30)

Yogi: I open my eyes when I meditate and take in many objects – sights, sounds and touch sensations. I feel a bit confused as the objects are so beautiful and plentiful, and they’re changing all the time.

Sayadaw: Allow those experiences, but always recognizing the reality of this mind and body (the 6 senses) in those experiences. Then, you can feel like you’re aware and not be lacking in persistence/continuity of awareness when you notice the sounds and the touch of the wind. Mostly, you don’t feel like you’re aware when you’re looking at the view and the butterflies. 

When you do look at those things you want to acknowledge that you’re looking, just that shift of attention from the butterfly to yourself – recognizing that looking is happening and then seeing is happening. It may feel that the mind is busier, but you can relax the mind too. 

When you like or dislike the things you see, you recognize those feelings too; the attention always comes back to recognizing the experience in ourselves. Outside of us are the concepts and inside is nature (reality) that is interacting with the concepts; and you want to keep on recognizing the nature that is interacting with the outside world. 

Yogi: I find myself enjoying the experience.

Sayadaw: I’m not saying that you cannot enjoy the experience; just acknowledge and know the liking and keep watching it.

HAVING AN OPEN ATTITUDE TO CHECK

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 2 Group B (47-40-49:50)

Yogi: I do a lot of investigation of the dhamma like tracking cause-and-effect. How much should I do? Is it helpful?

Sayadaw: Check for yourself – what is the effect when you do that? And, when you do it often?

Does it calm the mind? Does it strengthen the mind? Does it agitate the mind? Does the mind feel more confident? Check these factors after doing something; also whether the mind goes into proliferation or stays with the dhamma. 

Yogi: It’s very helpful.

Sayadaw: When it’s helpful, then you should use it. Everything is dhamma; it is just whether we recognize it or not. Whatever the mind does, what we want to see is what is the effect of that – is it positive or not? Is it skillful or not skillful? Is it helpful or not helpful? And then you decide – that’s how you learn for yourself. 

It is not fixed – now what you do may be skillful, but at another time, it may not, depending on your attitude at that moment.

DON’T BELIEVE THE MIND THAT IDENTIFIES WITH THE EXPERIENCE

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Tape 11 Day 4 Group B (40:10-44:18)

Yogi: There is lots of sadness in my life lately. I’m aware of the sadness, but then the mind says: No, it’s my sadness. Then, there is this conflict, ‘Is the emotion mine?’, and at the same time feeling it.

Sayadaw: Just take another step back. 

You’re recognizing several processes happening – you’re seeing not only the mind that is able to work with it in an objective way but also another mind that wants to hang on to the emotion, that wants to identify with it, that wants to keep it even though it is suffering. You see both and it’s happening very fast.

Take another step back. Don’t believe any of the stories that the mind is telling you. Keep stepping back from the story – ‘I see that too’. 

You can either bring in right view, keep reminding yourself that ‘This is also the nature of the mind, the mind that wants to hang on to the self’, or you don’t have to do anything but just recognize that it is happening. 

WATCH THE EMOTIONS, NEITHER SUPPRESSING NOR PARTICIPATING

|Sweden Retreat 2019 File 14 Day 5 Group C (48:25-53:53)

Yogi: Not taking my sadness and anger personally feels likes suppressing or disallowing them. Is it wrong to feel my emotions?

Sayadaw: You can let the mind do what it is doing, you just add being aware of what it is doing. It is like watching a child cry – allow the emotion and know it.

Although you don’t want to encourage or feed that emotion, you also don’t want to stop it.

[Watch the emotion objectively and let the mind learn over time – if we interfere by stopping or participating in the emotion, then the mind doesn’t have the chance to learn.]

THROUGH AWARENESS, EVERYTHING IS A LESSON TO BE LEARNED

|Sweden Retreat 2019 Interviews Day 4 Group A (17:20-17:56)

When I say ‘Don’t do something’, I don’t mean just that. What I mean is that it is unnecessary and unhelpful, but if it happens, we need to allow it.

So, if you notice that the mind is complaining (or being negative in any way), you need to notice just that. ‘Oh, the mind is complaining, and this is the result.’ Everything is up for awareness to know, and everything teaches us a lesson.