MOTIVATION DETERMINES IF THE PRACTICE IS RIGHT OR WRONG

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 3 Record 1 (16:15-17:03)

If you keep on watching craving and aversion, at some point you’ll see that they arise from delusion. At that time, we just need to check if the mind is ruled by delusion or wisdom.

If there is wisdom – right view and right thought – then, meditation is happening. If there are wrong view and wrong thought, defilement overwhelms the mind. 

That’s why you should check your thoughts. Yogis should remember the following:

If you’re doing it right (have right view and right thought), the practice cannot be wrong. If you’re doing it wrong (have wrong view and wrong thought), the practice cannot be right. 

ANXIOUS THAT THE PRACTICE FALLS SHORT OF THE IDEAL

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 2 Record 1 (5:12-6:03)

Yogi: So, the practice is to be relaxed and see every happening as nature.

Sayadaw: Sometimes yogis hear the right information and what happens is that worry and anxiety surface because they keep on thinking that ‘it should be like this or like that’.

Motivation is important – for some yogis, they worry that they are wrong because they have the knowledge that it should be like this or that. That makes the mind tense.

So, you should check your motivation and feelings when you practice. You have the knowledge that every experience is nature, not personal, but then you notice the idea of self, what do you do?

Just notice the idea of self, and you use the knowledge that every experience is nature. You don’t follow the idea of self, but you recognize it. (There’s no need to get rid of it.)

BE HAPPY THAT AWARENESS HAS RESURFACED

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 2 Record 1 (1:07:07-1:07-39)

Yogi: When I wake up from thoughts, the mind gets angry because I don’t want to be lost in thought.

Sayadaw: In the beginning, it is impossible not to be lost in thought. Now, you need to be happy instead because awareness has resurfaced.

It’s like you have lost something, but now it has been found – should you be angry or happy?

Yogi: Happy.

Sayadaw: You have lost awareness, but awareness has returned – so, you should be happy.

THE MIND GETS TENSE WHEN YOU WANT TO SEE THE OBJECT CLEARLY

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 1 Record 2 (49:40-51:02)

Yogi: The practice is up and down. Sometimes the mind becomes tense when I want to make the awareness see the object clearly.

Sayadaw: The important thing is not to want to see clearly – just see what you can, but maintain the awareness.

There’s no problem if the object is blur. What is important is to maintain the awareness, not seeing the object clearly. You can know that the object is blur, right?

The object naturally becomes clearer when the awareness is stronger.

The mind gets tense when you want to see the object clearly. So, do not force.

SITTING POSTURE IS OVER, BUT MEDITATION IS NOT OVER

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 1 Record 1 (54:40-57:20)

Yogi: When I get up from the sitting, I forget to be aware.

Sayadaw: You have the idea that meditation is only during the sit, and the mind lets go when you get up because you think that it is finished.

After getting up from the sit, continue to bring awareness to other postures. Don’t let go of the awareness immediately – it is already good from the sit.

Meditation is all the time – it should not be over when the sit is over. Sitting posture is over, but meditation is not over. Keep going on with being aware; only then, we can change to the habit of continuing awareness when we get up.

Keep carrying out being aware – what next, and what next.

For example, when you enter the room, what are you aware of? You open the door, right? Be aware of your hand touching the key. Then, how do you go in? What next, and next? Continue – what do you know, what do you know?

Carry on; it’s very interesting. Make it challenging and the mind will be interested, and it’ll be busy the whole day long.

PAYING ATTENTION IS MORE OBVIOUS THAN AWARENESS

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 4 Round 1 (19:30-20:50)

Yogi: How can I clearly differentiate between awareness and the object?

Sayadaw: Between attention and awareness, paying attention is more obvious. (You can start by noticing the attention mind.)

Why can you know the touching sensation? Because the mind is paying attention, right? If you’re daydreaming, then you cannot know. Now, do you know that you’re paying attention to this?

Paying attention is an activity of the mind. Attention and touching sensation – you can see that they are different, right?

Now, you try to pay attention to this object and that object – can you know the attention mind?

It is obvious that the attention and the object are separate. Paying attention is more obvious than awareness because awareness sticks to the object and is more difficult to recognize.

TO SIT OR NOT TO SIT IN DAILY LIFE

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 2 Record 2 (36:06-37:58)

Yogi: I’m not disciplined to sit formally, and I prefer to practice in everyday life whenever I remember to be aware – walking to my car, doing things, and at work.

Sayadaw: It depends on the awareness and quality of mind – if the mind is not stable, then the awareness in daily practice is only superficial. It is not good enough; then, you should do formal sits to settle the mind and grow the awareness.

If you’re skillful in maintaining and sharpening the awareness in daily activities, then formal sits are not necessary.

THE SKILL OF STRENGTHENING THE MIND TO FACE DEFILEMENT

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 1 Record 1 (1:11:35-1:12:38)

Yogi: If I’m not skillful or strong enough to watch anxiety and fear, will it make the anxiety and fear grow bigger?

Sayadaw: When you cannot handle the emotion, you first watch a neutral object like the breath or body sensation. Shift the object and calm the mind down; when the mind is calmer, face the emotion again.

We are not trying to avoid the defilement – because we are weak, we use a neutral object to strengthen the mind and then only face the defilement.

Because the enemy is too strong, we need to build up our strength before facing the enemy again.

WHEN THE DEFILEMENT IS STRONG, THERE IS ‘I AM’ IN THE AWARENESS

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 3 Record 1 (4:51-6:04)

Yogi: The awareness is detached from the experience in one sitting and it is not in the next sitting. How can I be more skillful?

Sayadaw: It depends on the reaction of the mind towards the object – when the reaction is strong, the mind cannot be detached from the object because it is the nature of the defilement to get close to the experience.

If there is less reaction, if the defilement is weak, then the mind can detach from the object.

Stepping back is not something that you can do when defilement is strong.

PEOPLE TAKE CARE OF THEIR BODIES, BUT NOT THEIR MIND

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 2 Record 2 (34:30-35:55)

Yogi: When someone criticizes me, I get terribly upset.

Sayadaw: You cannot stop others from criticizing you, but you can stop your anger. If you’re not angry, then there is no problem.

People take good care of their bodies, but they don’t take care of their mind.

However much they suffer, they do not realize; they don’t care because they don’t know the way out.

If you pay more attention to yourself, to your mind, slowly you will learn how to maintain the good quality of the mind.

YOGIS ALREADY HAVE FAITH IN THE PRACTICE, THEY NEED TO GROW WISDOM

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Guided Meditation

All yogis have faith in the practice, in the dhamma. We already understand that it is beneficial; that is why we’re willing to practice and we continually come back to the practice – that is saddha or faith in the dhamma.

In our lives, without practicing, life is messy, complicated, suffering and stressful. Because of the practice, the quality of our mind becomes better – our life gets better and better. So, we already have faith in the dhamma.

We only need to have more wisdom.

WHY WE NEED TO PRACTICE ALL THE TIME

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 2 Record 2 (52:00-52:47)

When you’re not doing something good, then automatically the mind is thinking of something unwholesome – some delusion, craving, aversion, anxiety, or worry will be operating. 

That is why we should take care of the mind; we keep it busy with the wholesome. In mindfulness meditation, we do not let the mind go idle. We always give it a wholesome job, moment to moment.

If you’re not doing something good, you are already doing something bad. The puthujjana (worldling) mind is either wholesome or unwholesome. 

AWARENESS FREES THE MIND FROM PAPANCA

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 2 Record 2 (53:40-54:18)

Wise people want to meditate; foolish people don’t want to meditate. The wise know that when the wholesome mind is strong, they’ll be very happy, peaceful and the mind is not tired.

The mind and body become tired and you need to sleep a lot because of anxiety, anger, and worry.

IDENTIFICATION INCREASES THE SUFFERING

Penang Retreat 2019 Opening Talk (15:20-17:00)

When you practice vipassana meditation, you must change to right view first.

Whatever happens in the body, we think it’s ‘me’; the same goes for the mind. Who is knowing? Who is being aware?

Mental quality, we also think that it’s ‘me’. It is wrong view when we identify with the body-mind process.

Because of the idea of self, a lot of strong defilements arise. If the mind is far away from ‘I’, it is more relaxed. If the mind is close to ‘I’, it burns and feels tense.

Because of wrong view, because of identification, all defilements grow and the quality of mind deteriorates – the mind feels tense, and it burns and suffers.

DYNAMIC SAMADHI IS MORE POWERFUL THAN STATIC SAMADHI

Penang Retreat 2019 Group 1 Record 2 (36:00-37:05)

Yogi: I don’t practice walking meditation, only sitting meditation. In daily life, I’m usually in a rush and I’m not aware.

Sayadaw: If the mind can be stable when you move around, that samadhi is stronger than the sitting samadhi. If there is samadhi when you’re moving and doing things, that stable mind is more powerful than the samadhi when you sit.

Yogi: I don’t know how to go about practicing it.

Sayadaw: You can start by practicing to be aware when you’re walking. It is not difficult – just pay attention to the feet when you’re walking, to the touching sensation.