There’s no need to focus on the strong pain. All you do is to check if awareness is present or not.
Naturally the mind already knows the pain; what you need to do is to check the awareness and attitude when the unpleasant object is obvious.
You’re watching anapana and the mind also know that there are thoughts – in this way, naturally the mind knows that thinking is happening without focusing on the thoughts.
You won’t be easily involved with the thoughts because you’re grounded by the main object, the breath.
Most yogis when watching thoughts focus on the thoughts; they look at the thoughts and awareness gets lost.
Actually, there is no need to look at the thoughts; just know that thinking is happening. This means that the awareness already knows the object; if you try to look at the thoughts, awareness is lost.
Yogi: What does the quality of the awareness depend on?
Sayadaw: It depends on how much the mind understands how to practice. Deeper understanding is not important. The first important understanding is how to practice – how to be aware and maintain the awareness.
First, the mind learns to maintain the awareness, and then we learn to bring in the samadhi and wisdom.
Yogi: So, the value is in the awareness, not the good feeling?
Sayadaw: Yes. (Because the good feeling is a trap set by craving.)
Yogi: May I open my eyes during the sit?
Sayadaw: Yes, I prefer that yogis meditate with their eyes open because in daily life you cannot close your eyes all the time. If you want to practice in daily life, you should practice with your eyes open.
Many yogis need to close their eyes because of samatha practice – they want one-point concentration, other objects they don’t want to know. This is samatha idea, but you don’t need to close your eyes with vipassana idea.
We need to be skilful in using all our sense doors when we meditate.
When I ask yogis to meditate, they all close their eyes. When they close their eyes, they can be aware; but they are not used to being aware with the eyes open.
Remember that meditation is the work of the mind, not the eyes.
Whenever you’re not meditating, defilement is already happening.
Also, if we are not ready with awareness, when a strong defilement arises, we don’t have enough strength to face it and it becomes difficult to handle.
We need to grow our awareness so that it’s strong and ready to face defilements all the time.
Also, when we are mindful, we’re collecting information – we can know how the mind reacts in different situations. If you’re alone, the mind is different from when you’re outside with others; it’s also different with friends and with family. The mind has its pattern.
The mind is always safe for the good meditator because awareness and peacefulness are present.
Yogi: Awareness is very boring.
Sayadaw: Why are you aware? It is because that’s what the teacher says?
You don’t have any idea what you’re doing? You’re just following instructions. That’s why you get bored. You can also get bored when you cannot get what you want.
The meditation object is not interesting – normal people cannot find interest in being aware of sensations such as hot or cold, hard or soft.
Meditators only get interested in meditation when their minds calm down – they want to feel good and enjoy the calmness. This is also greed.
In the beginning, the mind has no wisdom to be interested in the meditation object, but when the mind gathers more information about the object and sees the mind state improve, the mind slowly becomes interested.
Why do we meditate? Meditation is cultivating good qualities of the mind. This is the basic idea of meditation. Every time we’re mindful, the 5 Indriyas: awareness, samadhi, effort, faith and wisdom – they grow stronger.
[The vipassana idea is to watch and learn. To be skilful in watching, we need to exercise and develop the 5 Indriyas; when we are skilful in watching, much learning takes place.]
This is a good practice – keep the eyes open, know that seeing is happening and at the same time know another object. If we just focus on seeing, the mind goes to the eyes and it starts to think about what it is seeing.
Try this and make it a new habit. When you’re aware of your breath with your eyes open, sometimes the mind can be aware of the seeing. Then, the seeing becomes more natural.
With the breath as the main object, the mind can also notice that it is aware of other objects; then, you can know that the mind is working.
I recommend that yogis use a main object but also know the other objects. We ground the awareness on the main object and naturally know other secondary objects.
It is only in the beginning when we’re not skilful that we land up staring at things, trying to look at them more carefully.
With practice and experience, yogis should realize that once we recognize it, that’s enough. There is no need to focus on it, just knowing it is enough because then only we see the object’s true nature.
If we focus on it, it is not ‘actual’ any more.
For vipassana, we need the process to happen naturally so that you can understand its nature. But if you stare at it, it can’t unfold naturally and you can’t really see its true nature because you can’t see the whole picture.
It’s like seeing an object versus looking at an object. Seeing the object is enough; it’s like you already know there is awareness. We don’t have to go look at it.
Yogi: On retreat and walking out to the village shops, many things were happening outside, but the mind was more interested in being aware of the movement of the body.
Sayadaw: This is how we should practice in daily life. In daily life when we are in a new surrounding, the mind pays attention to the outside. That’s why it is difficult to be aware. Now you’re keeping your attention inwards – if you practice like that, the mind will not have much interest in what is happening outside.
Only when necessary, the mind will pay attention to the outside world. This is a good practice for daily life.
In daily life, we have a habit of looking out and listening to the outside world fully. Now, the meditator needs to learn to stay with yourself, to seeing and hearing (reality).
Yogi: How can yogis be aware of the mind that doesn’t know how to meditate?
Sayadaw: Meditation is already happening because you know it as such. You know that Moha is present, right?
When nature is meditating, there is no need for personal effort to meditate.
I would ask yogis ‘What are you trying to do when you sit in the meditation hall?’ Some say they are trying to calm down; others are trying to make thinking disappear. Some try to sit not moving for an hour. There are many wrong ideas.
When we sit and meditate, we’re simply trying to be aware moment to moment – this awareness this moment and the next awareness next moment, again and again. That’s it. Good or bad, we try to be aware.
When defilement comes, yogis try to push it away; but the meditation objective is to try to be aware moment to moment, and later, to understand the nature of defilement.
Yogi: How to be mindful when eating? Should I eat slowly?
Sayadaw: Not too slowly. When you’re eating, which door is working? All 6 senses are working.
So, you can practice seeing and looking one day. The next day, you practice hearing; and the next day, smelling. You continue being aware of tasting the next day, and the movement of the body the day after. On the sixth day, you practice being aware of the 5 senses all together.
When you eat, all 6 sense doors are working. First, you try to be aware of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, body action, and the mind, one by one. Later, you can know them working together.
Yogi: How to be in a group discussion and still maintain the awareness?
Sayadaw: Whenever you know any activity of the mind, awareness is already happening. For example, because I know the mind, automatically I know the seeing and looking process.
So, if you know the mind, you’ll notice seeing and looking whenever the mind is looking. If you know the mind, you can notice the 6 senses working.
Yogi: If I notice that awareness is lost, does that mean that I know the mind activity?
Sayadaw: Yes, you can say like this.
Yogi: When the illness intensifies, the awareness shuts down; the defilements overwhelm the practice.
Sayadaw: You need to practice even when it is difficult because the mind suffers more if you give up. Do something!
If you do whatever to be aware, the mind will react less. As much as you try, that much you will be relieved of the suffering. It’ll get worse if you don’t practice.
When situations like this arise, yogis need to think what to do; otherwise, you’ll suffer more.
If vipassana doesn’t work, you can do some samatha practice. Keep on trying because the defilements do their job and you also need to do your job.
If you think this way – you cannot handle your defilement even when it is only this much, then how can the mind cope with a big problem – then the mind will be willing to practice.
Yogi: I can only keep my eyes open continuously for 20 minutes and then they get tired.
Sayadaw: We’re not opening our eyes for the whole hour – sometimes the eyes are open and sometimes they are closed.
Open-eye meditation means we are keeping them open naturally. For example, before you are sitting, what are you doing? You are keeping your eyes open naturally (most times open and naturally we blink regularly; also we don’t force our eyes to open wide and stare), right? Just do it like this when you meditate with your eyes open.