NOTICE CAUSE-EFFECT NATURE IN THE PRACTICE

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group D No.1 (40:25-45:02)

Yogi: Sometimes the awareness of awareness is clear and sometimes not; I cannot detect greed or aversion when it’s unclear – perhaps delusion is present.

Sayadaw: As much as the mind understands it, that’s how clearly you can experience it; and when the understanding is not strong for whatever reason, then, it won’t be clear.

At the gross level, there aren’t the lobha-dosa, but at the subtler level there may be some lobha-dosa besides the delusion.

Regardless of whether it’s clear or not, the practice continues; only just recognizing that now it is and now it is not, and carry on. 

Sitting is a quieter activity – it gives us more continuity and builds the power of the awareness and with that comes some wisdom. So, the object has a chance to become clearer. 

In other activities there are more movement and agitation, and if the power of wisdom doesn’t grow to match the activity, then it cannot be as clear.

WISDOM WIDENS THE SCOPE OF AWARENESS

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (1:27:40-1:28:53)

I was meditating in the forest and the cicadas were very loud. At first, I was aware of the sound as an object, but later realized that aside from the sound of the insects, the rest of the forest was deadly quiet.

There were sound and quiet together – and both were objects. At first, I didn’t recognize the silence, I didn’t see that silence was also present because the sound was so obvious and it was blocking the other object. 

But after observing it for a while, and awareness was stronger and some wisdom came in, then there was the understanding that silence was also present.

WHEN ANGER ARISES DESPITE CONSISTENT AWARENESS, WISDOM IS LACKING

IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (1:19:30-1:24:43)

Yogi: There is tension in the body and anger is linked to it. I’m aware of the reaction and can watch in a balanced way when the mind becomes quiet. It repeats the next day – it appears that there’s something I don’t understand and the awareness is just like a tranquilizer. 

Sayadaw: There is no reason why the bodily tension shouldn’t come up again regardless of whether you understand or not. What you’re watching for is whether the mind is reacting.

The tension in the mind because of a defilement is due to lack of understanding, but bodily tension may just be there.

Yogi: But I don’t know why I’m angry.

Sayadaw: On the second day, when the tension in the body is still there and aversion arises too, then something is still not understood. Wisdom may be weak in that moment.

If you understand that what is being experienced is just an object, that understanding helps the mind not to react instantly to the experience because every experience is seen as an object, that which is being known.

It is not difficult to understand that. 

WANTING IS REDUCED WHEN UNDERSTANDING CAUSE AND EFFECT

20190717 Seeing the wrong attitude or process is also important//Sayadaw Tejaniya‘s Dhamma Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSM1bLU9zpo... (4:20-5:43)

Yogi: Actually, we cannot get what we want. 

Sayadaw: Everything that you can get is not only because you want – you get it because of several conditions. But people think that ‘I want, I do and I get’.

That is why they try very hard – but they cannot get many things from trying hard. They can only get it when all the necessary conditions are right – that’s when the result will come.

Because they don’t know about conditioning, they think that if they try hard, they’ll get it – they can only see 1 of many factors that condition the result. The result of getting something is due to many conditions. 

Wanting is reduced when you understand more about cause and effect. 

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.