WHEN THERE’S DEFILEMENT, OPEN AWARENESS IS NOT SUITABLE

Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2019 Vassa Q&A 20190831

Sayadaw: When there’s defilement, you have to choose an object. You cannot do open awareness because the mind is not in the right mood.

When the mind is calm and the awareness is good, you can practice open awareness.

Now that there is defilement, you need to choose an important object.

Yogi: I can stay with the fear when I’m sick – it makes me feel better.

Sayadaw: That’s not a problem – you don’t have to watch many objects. You take care of the important object first.

You need to watch a particular object and make the mind calm down first.

Sometimes the mind quality goes down when there’s sickness. And when you have the wrong idea, it makes the practice even more difficult.

At that time, you take care of your attitude and the defilement.

DO NOT PUSH WHEN UNSURE OF HOW TO PRACTICE

Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2019 Vassa Q&A 20190825

When you’re skillful, when you know how to practice very well, you can practice however you want – there’s no problem.

If you try very hard even though you’re not sure how to practice, then a lot of problems arise.

SAYADAW DOES EVERYTHING AT A NORMAL PACE

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 4 Round 4 (32:15-32:52)

Yogi: I notice that Sayadaw does everything very naturally.

Sayadaw: It is because I do everything at my natural speed and then practice being aware of my actions – the awareness follows slowly and gets put into the action.

All activities are done the natural way – be it swimming or walking. I would then remind and ask the mind what it is aware of. Because of that, I don’t have to control my actions.

GOOD INTENTIONS OVERWHELM BY DEFILEMENTS

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 4 Round 4 (41:35-43:53)

Yogi: I got up from the sit and wanted to do walking meditation; along the way, the mind quickly got distracted and was into happenings outside. It was very fast.

Sayadaw: Awareness disappears fast and defilements come equally fast. 

When I was a layperson, I would set off to go to Shwedagon Pagoda, but along the way, I landed up in a Chinatown bar on 19th Street. This had happened not only once but several times. 

The intention was good when I left the house, but I went to a bar instead, not the pagoda. The intention changed along the way because many things had happened in the mind – and the mind state changed. 

Our life is like this – we have good intentions but defilements overwhelm us along the way, and we land up with problems. It can be dangerous without awareness.

PRACTICE BEING AWARE OF SEEING

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 4 Round 4 (43:55-45:15)

Yogi: I don’t know how to practice seeing.

Sayadaw: Close and open your eyes repeatedly – practice this way.

When you close your eyes, you don’t see; when you open your eyes, you see.

I started practicing seeing this way. I don’t see and now I see – after a while sights become obvious. So, practice this way.

My teacher didn’t teach me how to practice seeing. I learned myself and whenever I was free in the shop, I would practice seeing by closing and opening my eyes.

When I told my teacher that I was practicing seeing, he would say that nobody took the trouble to practice seeing. He said it was a good idea and encouraged me to continue the practice.

You cannot avoid seeing in daily life because we see and look all the time.

TAKE HEED WHEN THE MIND WANTS TO DO A LOT

Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 2019 Vassa Q&A 20190814

Doing a lot means that there is a lot of craving. 

All our lives, we habitually do out of craving, but wisdom knows what’s necessary.

DOING WHATEVER YOU WANT IS NOT FREEDOM

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 2 Round 4 (39:40-40:24)

Yogi: I like freedom.

Sayadaw: Doing whatever you want is not freedom. It actually means that there is no freedom. 

It is craving. Freedom means there is no defilement – when wisdom can decide need or not, should or not, and necessary or not. Only then, that is real freedom.

Lobha is not freedom. Normal people in the mundane world think that doing whatever they like is freedom.

WHY DEFILEMENTS STILL BURN OLD YOGIS

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 3 Round 4 (05:26-08:04)

Yogi: I’m very angry with myself because I realize that after practicing for a long time, I still suffer. It shows that the practice has not really rooted in me, that I have not taken the practice seriously.

Sayadaw: Why can’t many long-term yogis apply the practice very well?

The awareness is not continuous; and also the learning process is weak and not skillful enough to handle the negative situations.

Now you can see that when you notice the defilements, they are already burning you. You don’t have the ability yet to stop the unwholesome mind fast. This means that there is not enough practice.

When practice is difficult, it means that there is not enough practice.

OUR FACE IS THE WINDOW OF THE MIND

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 2 Round 4 (1:26:49-1:28:12)

Yogi: I try putting on a smile when I sit – there is more positive energy and awareness becomes brighter and more continuous.

Sayadaw: When your quality of mind is good, it shows in the face. Actually, the face is the window of the mind. You can see what’s going on in the mind from the face.

The faces of some long-term yogis are very clear and soft. We can know the mind state of the yogis, how aware they are, from their faces.

Yogi: If the face is tense, it means that there is too much energy, right?

Sayadaw: Yes.

NO NEED TO EXPECT TOTAL SAMADHI; ONLY AWARENESS NEEDS TO BE STABLE

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 3 Round 4 (32:00-33:50)

Yogi: Towards the end of the retreat, I became unsure of the practice when I experienced agitation, fear and unstable mind, when the quality of mind dropped. 

When I realized that I could see all these, it occurred to me that meditation was already happening.

Sayadaw: You are already meditating, but you can’t get what you want. 

Yogi: Because the samadhi is not there and I have the idea that if samadhi is there, then only meditation is good.

Sayadaw: The whole mind doesn’t need to have samadhi – only the awareness has to have samadhi, that’s enough. 

The object may be suffering, no problem.

You need to experience this because it will happen from time to time. Some yogis totally forget how to practice when the practice nose-dives. 

If the yogis are skillful, they know how to pick up the practice; they know how to recover immediately when it drops suddenly. You can only learn and become more skillful when you experience this many times over. So, it is not a problem. 

DEEP CONCENTRATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IS DANGEROUS

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 3 Round 4 (21:05-24:20)

Yogi: Can I get samadhi without fixing the mind on one object?

Sayadaw: Can – the main thing is that samadhi comes from the right attitude and right view. Because of wisdom, samadhi is already there.

Without the right attitude, the samadhi is wrong samadhi.

The common way of gaining concentration is by fixing the mind on one object – ignore everything and focus on one object. Everyone already knows this method.

We use more of vipassana samadhi based on the right view and right thought. We don’t have to use one-pointed concentration because when wisdom is present, samadhi is already there. We don’t have to use focusing.

That is why wise people are calm – they can think in a reasonable way and the mind is not agitated.

Wise people don’t have to concentrate 30 minutes or 1 hour to calm the mind down. When we don’t have enough understanding, we rely on focusing on one object to calm the mind.

For beginners, they use concentration first and wisdom later to stabilize the mind.

One-pointed samadhi can easily become wrong samadhi if we don’t have the right view and right attitude. This is very dangerous.

Because of wisdom, the samadhi becomes purer and is not dangerous.

Concentration samadhi is dangerous without understanding because concentration power and defilement power both exaggerate the experience; if defilement comes in, then the yogi can become double crazy.

I don’t encourage yogis to practice concentration samadhi – if something goes wrong, it is hard to find a cure because the mind is very difficult to manage.

YOU CAN BE MINDFUL OF AN OBJECT OR ASK IF AWARENESS IS PRESENT

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 2 Round 4 (18:20-18:40)

Sayadaw: To sustain the awareness, you can be mindful of objects or remind yourself if awareness is present. When we ask, awareness is bound to come.

Yogi: What if I watch my body?

Sayadaw: Yes, you can use both – being aware of a specific object or asking if awareness is present.

THE MIND EXAGGERATES THINGS WHEN WE DON’T KNOW

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 1 Round 2 (17:45-18:18)

Yogi: I worried a lot about work yesterday because I had my phone off and I didn’t know what was happening at work. The longer into the retreat, the more I worry.

Sayadaw: You worry more and more when you don’t get any information. Because you don’t know, the mind exaggerates things and the anxiety gets worse and worse. 

When you don’t know, the mind exaggerates things.

IMMATURE MINDS SUFFER EASILY

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 2 Round 2 (43:27-45:02)

When slightly uncomfortable, the yogis complain and resist because they are attached to pleasant situations. This is especially true for yogis from developed countries because it is nice all the time – slowly craving grows and they start to complain and criticize whenever a little uncomfortable. As a result, a lot of problems arise.

That is why they suffer more. In the developed countries, everything is comfortable and if you’re deluded, slowly you enjoy and get attached repeatedly. It becomes a problem anytime anything is a little bit not okay. This is the nature of the mind. 

These minds are not mature; that is why when unpleasant situations arise, it is easy for the mind to get agitated.

INDULGING IN THINKING

Penang Retreat Nov 2019 Q&A Group 3 Round 3 (35:25-36:35)

Yogi: Once the mind settles down, there is nothing to do. So, the mind goes into thinking.

Sayadaw: When you have nothing to do, when you’re bored, you start to think because you entertain yourself by thinking, by enjoying your imagination.

It is a strong habit. That’s why the mind wants to think.

A lot of meditators’ entertainment is from thinking because they cannot use the physical sense doors to enjoy themselves. They can only enjoy by imagining – nobody knows and nobody disturbs them.