THE COMPLETE PICTURE

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:41:24-1:46:50)

Yogi: I watched the breath and pain arose – I continued to watch the breath and the pain subsided but it was still there. What should I do then?

Sayadaw: You're looking at a neutral object, not the pain. When you’re not paying attention to the pain, you’re not reacting to the pain; and because you’re not reacting to the pain, it feels less strong because there’s less aversion.

It doesn’t mean that there is no aversion at all because you still feel the pain.

Now is the time to investigate. There is still some pain in the body; now you have to look at how much reaction there is still left in the mind towards the bodily sensation.

What happens in the body is called ‘dis-ease’, not feeling; feeling, the reaction towards the dis-ease, is what happens in the mind.

What you have to spot is that little reaction towards the bodily dis-ease.

If you watch it continuously, it can decrease because it’s low level. You can also see the relationship between the level of reaction and the dis-ease. 

Actually, there’s another component in the mind besides the feeling – it’s the attitude. Is there expectation in watching the feeling? Is the watching in the right way? What happens when you watch in the wrong way?

There are three things – the dis-ease, the mental feeling and the motivations behind the observation. What can you understand from these interactions?

DON’T TRY TO CHANGE ANYTHING WHEN WE PRACTICE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Evening Q&A 11 May 2019 (41:56-42:34)

Sometimes, we get into a spiral where we think that we’re not practicing well and we should do this and that, and when it still feels terrible, we try something else. 

We wind ourselves up really tight and get frustrated – when that happens, the best thing is to leave it all alone.

Don’t try, don’t fix it; just know that it feels terrible, it feels terrible, it feels terrible. And then it can resolve on its own by just acknowledging it the way it is.

Don’t try to change anything. 

CHECKING THAT THE PRACTICE IS RIGHT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Introduction Talk (07:30-8:15)

Remember that the cultivation of wholesome minds brings happiness – this is an important gauge for ourselves as we practice.

By definition, meditation is cultivating wholesome qualities of mind; and also by definition, wholesome qualities of mind are the proximate cause of happiness.

So, if we’re starting to feel stressed or tired as we meditate, we need to check what else is happening.

KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING – DON’T TRY TO GET SOMETHING

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:07:35-1:11:03)

Yogi: I can notice the experience, but am unsure about noticing the awareness. I keep trying, but sometimes the patience is really low.

Sayadaw: It is not necessary to be aware of the awareness. It’s not a goal; it’s just the description of the path. 

Never practice with an idea that it should be a certain way that is not now. Don’t think that it should get somewhere because I’m doing that now; there’s not future to the practice, just now.

Don’t even think you’re going to sit one hour; one hour hasn’t come yet. 

Once we decide to sit a hour, we’ve already created a future and decided how it is going to be; and we stress ourselves if we think we’re not going to finish the hour.

Yogi: Yes, when I realized that I was pushing, I backed off.

Sayadaw: Don’t try to look for anything. If you want, you can check for things.

It’s so normal that if we hear anything, we always want to be good at it right away. 

RIGHT ATTITUDE MEANS DEVELOPING UNDERSTANDING ABOUT DEFILEMENTS

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (20:18-21:40)

Yogi: I can be aware of what is happening, but it is very hard to have to suffer the experiences.

Sayadaw: Any object, if we observe it with the wrong attitude, then over time, we develop a bad relationship with it; but if you have the right attitude towards any object, a learning experience happens over time.

You try to apply the understanding that the mental feeling is conditioned – there are causes that have led to this effect and it is its own process.

Maybe this language will help you, but you’ll have to try it out yourself, and if it doesn’t, you rely on your memory bank to see what will be helpful.

ACKNOWLEDGE THE DEFILEMENT AND STAY WITH THE FEELING

20190717 Seeing the wrong attitude or process is also important//Sayadaw Tejaniya‘s Dhamma Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSM1bLU9zpo (3:00-3:53)

Yogi: When the tension arises, I note the anger rather than say ‘my anger’ because there is no such thing as ‘my anger’.

Sayadaw: Say ‘anger is nature’. We don’t note the anger as ‘anger, anger, anger’. 

How can you be aware of the anger?

Yogi: Just know.

Sayadaw: That’s all – finished. Why do you want to say ‘anger, anger, anger’? You can know the angry feeling – try to be aware and be interested in that feeling.

The feeling intensity changes – be interested in the intensity of feeling.

KEEP ON LEARNING THAT AN OBJECT IS JUST AN OBJECT

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (1:25:06-1:26:16)

Yogi: I recognize when I feel hot and when I feel cold. Is that okay?

Sayadaw: That’s not enough – do you recognize that hot and cold are both objects?

If you don’t recognize that they are objects of awareness, then instantly it becomes this is hot and I don’t like it or I like it, and aversion or attachment follows.

There must be the understanding that it is just being known because awareness knows the object while wisdom understands that this is just an object.

ASKING A QUESTION IS TO ENCOURAGE THE MIND TO CONTINUE TO BE AWARE

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (1:21:08-1:22:15)

Yogi: I hesitate to ask why something is happening in the mind because I get a lot of intellectual answers and tend to get lost in thought.

Sayadaw: The asking of a question is not to get the mind to give the answer; it is to encourage the observation, to guide the mind to be aware using interest.

Yogi: So, this is another kind of why.

Sayadaw: Yes.

THERE IS NO NEED TO SEPARATE THE DIFFERENT FEELINGS

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (16:40-18:14)

Yogi: The physical pain is wrapped around the emotional pain. It’s hard for me to separate the aversion as an object – they feel lumped together.

Sayadaw: Don’t try to separate all the different feelings. Just know that this is a feeling –

an unpleasant feeling, an unhappy feeling – and stay with that.

If you find it difficult to continuously watch that difficult feeling, alternate with a neutral physical object like the breath – the breath and the feeling, the breath and the feeling.

It doesn’t have to be the breath – any object that is neutral, obvious, strong and easy to observe to keep your attention will do.

WHEN WATCHING AN OBJECT BECOMES DIFFICULT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Evening Q&A 11 May 2019 (8:43-9:01)

We watch the defilements as much as we can, and when we find it difficult, we can watch something that is more comfortable to watch before we come back to challenge ourselves with what is challenging. 

CHECKING THE AWARENESS VERSUS CHECKING THE OBJECT

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (55:28-57:48)

Yogi: When do I do more directed awareness of a primary object such as anapana and body awareness versus choiceless awareness?

Sayadaw: Choiceless awareness is a function of being able to rest in awarenesss. 

When you rest in the awareness, then the awareness is aware of different things and it feels choiceless but the awareness is constantly aware of something or the other at any time.

If the awareness has not enough power, then you can’t do that. You then don’t have a choice; you have to go back to being aware of one thing at a time in order to build it back into that seat.

NOTICE THE UNWHOLESOME MOTIVATIONS PUSHING US

Swiss Retreat 2019 Introduction Talk (13:30-15:32)

Be careful when you start concentrating or trying too hard to get anything. 

Trying very hard is not what enables things to happen; what enables things to happen is to try and work consistently over a long period of time. And then we learn the lessons needed for things to happen. 

But it’s our habit, in life as well, that when we want to do something, we want to do it harder, faster, quicker, more efficiently and more effectively. We put in a lot of energy to figure all these out and try to do things like that.

That habit will come in and we just need to notice. 

You’ll notice that the reason we’re doing that is because of unwholesome motivations.

We’re impatient and that’s dosa; we want something very quickly, so that’s lobha; and we worry that it will not happen and we anxiously try to make sure that it happens.

All these unwholesome motivations push us to try hard. So, we need to watch out for them. 

THE WAY TO REGAIN BALANCE

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (23:00-25:30)

Yogi: There was low energy and it doesn’t take much to bring it to balance. 

Sayadaw: Low energy is an easy state to work out of. You just have to recognize it continuously and the energy becomes stronger.

For someone who already understands, they don’t panic because they know what to do and they work at it steadily and the energy will build up.

If defilement is not mixed up in the perception of the experience, then whatever you have to do is easy.

Even if there are a lot of defilements and the mind is off balanced, so what? 

Just be mindful continuously and the mind will become balanced.

It is only a problem when we reject the experience. 

A mature yogi doesn’t force or reject anything. They accept it and that’s why it is easier to regain balance.

IDEAS ARE THE LENS WHICH WE VIEW THE EXPERIENCE

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (07:00-15:48)

Yogi: There was dullness in the morning sit – the mind either was tight trying to keep awake or drifted into dreaminess. But when the mind saw it as being low energy, it was easy to be with the dullness.

Sayadaw: When working with aversion and greed, we’re looking at our feelings; we’re looking at pleasant feelings and unpleasant feelings.

And when we’re working with delusion and wisdom, we’re actually checking our ideas to see if they’re motivated by delusion or right view.

Yogi: Seeing the judgment is actually seeing the delusion.

Sayadaw: Yes. We should see the lens – right view or delusion – through which we view the experience.

Even when we’re observing aversion and greed, we should remember there’s some idea that is feeding the aversion or the greed; and when the aversion or the greed changes, to notice how the idea has changed so that you see the relationship.

EVOKE RIGHT VIEW IN OUR OWN WORDS

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (11:10-12:33)

When I give instructions to use right view, I don’t have the time to expand on the many facets of what is right view.

You may have come across in your Dhamma practice the many ways that right view is explained. You can work through them to see which one will help you.

You can apply whichever works for you at any moment. And then don’t pay attention to the physical pain, watch the mental feeling.

At another time, it might be a different languaging that works. You will have to experiment with what helps your mind to apply right view at that time. You have to think about it.

I have given some ideas about right view like this is nature, what is happening is happening by itself, but you will have to find for yourself the words what are helpful for you.