Metta is loving-kindness – it is a wholesome mind, and all wholesome minds are calm. It is wishing others to be in a better situation; it is also the opposite of dosa.
Metta is also good for you because you are generating a wholesome mind.
Dosa wants to destroy; metta wishes others to get better and better.
Yogi: The mind sometimes gets stuck in the tension, resistance and defilement. When the attitude is right, the mind says ‘Ooh, disliking is happening’, and the mind relaxes, but when the mind doesn’t see, then the tension becomes tighter.
Sayadaw: I like to hear the yogi report what they have understood for themselves.
This morning a yogi reported ‘Ooh, ooh, this happens’, and another yogi reported ‘Aah, aah’. I like these words because they’re words of realization.
When they notice what is going on, they become surprised – that’s why they can exclaim ‘Ooh and aah’.
These are nice sound because they are wisdom sound.
Sayadaw: It is difficult for meditation to improve because yogis don’t really practice continuously.
For example, they practice till Level 7 at the retreat and then regress after the retreat; they cannot go beyond Level 7 because this gets repeated retreat after retreat.
For the quality of mind to change, yogis need to practice continuously over a long time.
Yogi: Does Sayadaw encourage long-term retreats of 1-3 years?
Sayadaw: I don’t encourage yogis to stay a long time at the center because it is not real for you; but for monks and nuns, the center is their real life.
The motivation is not strong enough at the center, so people cannot practice continuously. When the mind suffers in lay life, they are motivated to practice.
It should be retreat time all the time, whether at the center or at home.
Yogi: I meditate with a lot of wanting – it should go this way and that way. Later when the mind relaxes, it can see when the awareness is narrow and focusing and when it is more open.
Sayadaw: That means that you can check your awareness. Then, you don’t have to do much – just check if the awareness is present or absent. Let other things be.
You take care of the awareness – just check if it’s present or not. Do only this and when awareness is present, the mind does its job.
You don’t have to do anything because whatever you’re doing at any time, the mind knows something; it is already knowing.
All you have to do is just to check if awareness is present or not.
Yogi: To keep track of the eyes blinking, I counted the number of times the eyes blinked.
Sayadaw: Don’t count; know that blinking is happening.
Yogi: I try to notice when I blink my eyes.
Sayadaw: When you notice blinking, awareness comes to the eyes. Seeing is already there – the mind will slowly notice that seeing is happening when you are aware that the eyes are blinking.
Yogi: I didn’t notice the seeing; I started to count the blinking instead.
Sayadaw: Don’t try to count; try to know.
Just pay attention to yourself.
Without focusing, you can hear – that’s good enough.
Relax – don’t concentrate too much and don’t penetrate; just be aware.
We’re trying to know what is going on.
Yogi: Sometimes I would have very good sittings in the mornings, and the mind would say ‘Oh, so good!’
Sayadaw: Whenever the mind says ‘It’s so good’, that is a problem.
Remember this: whenever the mind says that it’s so good, that’s a problem.
It is surely attachment – that is why I say to be careful of this state of mind, to be careful whenever the mind says something is so good. Because the mind thinks that it’s very good, you get attached to it for the rest of your life.
For example, you try a new food and the mind says that it’s so good; you then become attached to it for life.
Yogi: The mind was sleepy; but when it realized that there were liking and craving for drowsiness, the mind woke up.
Sayadaw: If you know it as it is, the mind clears up.
Whenever the idea of self is present, just notice. We cannot remove it immediately, but we need to know that the ‘I’ idea is there.
When understanding arises, it is very clear that the idea of self is absent. You can know when the self idea is present and when it is absent.
In the beginning, the whole thing – experience and the awareness – is ‘me’. Slowly, the experience is not ‘me’; because it comes and goes and we are a little far away from the object.
But the mind is still ‘me’ – awareness is ‘me’, thinking is ‘me’ and all mental states are ‘me’.
And slowly, we can watch the mental states as objects. They come and go and we don’t have to control them.
When we can see the conditions for them to arise, the mind understands that mental states are nature.
As we practice, slowly, the mind understands in this way.
If you think that you cannot change to right attitude, relating the experience to yourself is a concept object.
If the object is nature, there’s no good or bad. For example, feeling and seeing are neither good nor bad objects. Come back to the nature object.
Because of the concept, something becomes good or bad.
If you don’t like, come back to the feeling. Feeling is not a bad object.
That is why I say that the object is not disturbing you; it is helping you to be aware so that samadhi and wisdom can arise.
A lot of understanding came from seeing because I practiced seeing a lot.
My understanding of anatta comes from practicing seeing. It comes easily, ‘Pomp!’ Nobody is seeing – seeing is nobody. This understanding is very easy for me.
First, I ask: Who is seeing? And the mind would answer: I’m seeing. When I continue being aware of seeing, after a while, there is no ‘I’ anymore.
Yogi: The mind can see the benefit of the practice at retreats, yet it is reluctant to practice in daily life because of habit.
Sayadaw: When you practice, the mind quality improves, right? Yet, you don’t want to practice? Funny, isn’t it?
Yogi: Because the habit is very strong.
Sayadaw: It takes time for the mind to mature. You cannot judge that the mind is bad.
We just need to encourage the mind to practice.
My teacher would advise me to carry on practicing when I went home, but I never did. It was only when I was suffering intensely, in a life or death situation that I thought of a solution.
Even then, meditation was the last choice – I had tried going to the mountain and the beach first. I didn’t believe that meditation could make me happy, but there was no way out.
I only started to practice at home in that situation.
Yogi: The mind realizes that happenings are due to conditioning, cause and effect. Wanting and not wanting are conditioned; defilements are due to cause and effect.
Sayadaw: If the mind has that much understanding, the practice becomes smooth, practice is not difficult.
When the mind understands cause and effect, it already has wisdom.
Yogi: There were pain and sensation and I checked the mind – it was simple and stable, no craving or aversion.
Sayadaw: Just checking is enough – rather than trying to be mindful, it is better to check. When we check, both awareness and wisdom are present.
When we check, we don’t have to force to be aware.
If the mind is simple, it is easy to practice because you don’t think too much. If it is complicated, it becomes difficult because of wanting and not liking, and a lot of anger and fear.
It is more difficult to practice whenever defilement is strong.