ANY EXPERIENCE IS HELPFUL TO LEARNING

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 4 (1:50:50-1:55:43)

Yogi: I worked with the question of how, when and why l lose awareness when I was meditating and after a while got caught into telling stories and having conversations in my mind. Then, I stopped and asked a simpler question and that helped.

Sayadaw: From this, you need to learn what is the limit, how much you can use the question before it goes out of control and becomes a whole conversation.

As long as it is making the mind pay attention, that’s fine. Once it starts to think about the question, it is too much conversation and you lose mindfulness. 

CLARITY HAPPENS DUE TO THE STRENGTH OF AWARENESS, NOT BY PERSONAL EFFORT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 3 (14:17-17:41)

Yogi: Between touching and knowing the touching, it seems like I don’t see as much detail when there is knowing of the touching.

Sayadaw: Never mind that because you’re trying to know the mind and when the awareness is stronger, the detail will come back. 

Knowing the detail of what is happening depends on the strength of the awareness. 

When we try too much to see the detail of the object by ourselves, we forget how the awareness works and we never learn to look at the mind. 

When we try to look at the object in more detail, there’s always the idea that ‘I’m trying to observe and I see more detail’. So, there’s always the sense of me being able to do something. But when we’re not trying to see detail but keeping the mindfulness continuous, and when the mind can see more clearly by itself, the true cause and effect becomes clear. 

We don’t see more clearly because we want to see more clearly; we see more clearly when the mind becomes able to see more clearly. 

KNOWING CAN BE KNOWN AS SURELY AS THE SENSATIONS

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 3 (10:50-12:17)

Yogi: I can feel the sensations in detail when I walk. Now, I’m trying to find out the knowing of the sensations.

Sayadaw: You can know the knowing as surely as you know sensations. 

Although it doesn’t feel as solid as sensations, but you can be sure of it as you feel sure of sensations. 

Touch your fingers; do you know the touching?

Yogi: Yes.

Sayadaw: Are the knowing and the touching separate?

Yogi: Yes.

Sayadaw: You know the touching and you also know the knowing.

Yogi: Should I try to stay with the knowing?

Sayadaw: Yes. And if you know the knowing, you already know what it knows. When you know the knowing, touching is already known.

EXPERIENCES ARE NOT ALWAYS CLEAR

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 4 (07:00-10:40)

Yogi: Being aware of seeing triggered a lot when I was more into the looking – so, I stepped back to a light seeing. But when I saw something that was unclear, the mind was agitated again.

Sayadaw: When we’re being aware and the awareness sometimes becomes very clear, it also becomes clear that experiences are not always clear.

The non-clarity becomes known because of the awareness.

AWARENESS CAN BE PRESENT EVEN WHEN THINKING IS HAPPENING

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 2 (1:16:50-1:18:48)

Yogi: Can I really be thinking about solving a problem and still be mindful at the same time? Or, should I switch between the two?

Sayadaw: Of course, you can be mindful and still think. 

If we know how to be mindful when trying to solve a problem, there is more chance for wisdom to come in and help you solve the problem.

Because in the end, what helps us to solve problems is wisdom; and to invite wisdom into our mind, we need to be mindful and also have steadiness of mind or samadhi. 

With steadiness of mind, the mind is not agitated by the problem. When the mind is mindful and not agitated, it is more possible for wisdom to come in and help. 

WHEN THE BODY SWAYS ON THE CUSHION

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 2 (25:01-28:12)

Yogi: My body moves when I’m sitting. I’m not sure if I want it to move, but it’s interesting. Is it better to stop or to let it be?

Sayadaw: Is it necessary to move while you’re sitting? 

There are several reasons why people move in sitting and often the motivations are subtle enough for us not to realize that we’re generating them. 

People move when they’re bored or when they have pain. Whatever it is, it is not necessary to move and the concern is that it becomes a habit of moving voluntarily or involuntarily. 

There are yogis who believe that when they move in a certain way, it is a sign of something. They’ll keep doing it over and over because of a belief. 

Yogi: So, I should stop when it starts again?

Sayadaw: Yes, when you stop, you’ll also discover why the body wants to move.

Everything is cause and effect; we move or don’t move because of a cause, and we want to know what is happening. When we allow these movements to happen, we start thinking that they’re happening by themselves, but it is not like that. 

EXERCISE WISDOM WHEN IT COMES TO MEDITATION SCHEDULE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 3 (35:11-40:30)

Yogi: I’m used to a strict walking and sitting meditation routine – this no-schedule practice makes me doubt if it’s enough to learn more and learn fast.

Sayadaw: Some people like to do their own way and some people like to follow instructions.

When told to follow your own instructions, some people find it confusing. You know you have to be mindful, but you want the teacher to tell you what, when and for how long. 

It’s hard but you need to put in the effort to figure out a structure for yourself. I don’t give you a schedule so that you can find your own schedule. It might be what worked before.

When not given a schedule, we need to use more of our wisdom so that the mind will find a structure to be mindful.

There was a yogi rushing to the Dhamma hall. I asked him: Why? He replied he was going to meditate. I again asked: Why do you meditate? He replied: Because of the gong.

We do something because it’s important not because someone tells us to do it. We’re mindful because we know that it’s beneficial, not because somebody tells us to be mindful.

MISTAKING FEELING GOOD FOR GOOD MEDITATION

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 4 (1:24:35-1:26:28)

Yogi: Last 2 days, I was dead tired from boredom. Why so bored?

Sayadaw: Yes, the same objects are so boring to yogis especially at the start of a retreat.

What makes yogis interested is if you allow them to concentrate, to keep watching one thing, and they just love it when suddenly the mind becomes calm. Then, they become interested.

What they like is the good feeling because they want to feel good when they meditate. And not just when they meditate, they want to feel good all the time in life.

WHEN THE MIND KNOWS THE OBJECT, KNOW THE AWARENESS TOO

20200128 Maintain the awareness, not just the calmness // Sayadaw U Tejaniya's Dhamma Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x16R2fxleYc&feature=share... (05:38-6:07)

Yogi: The awareness becomes more obvious when watching a main object. 

Sayadaw: Any object is the same, right? Main object or other object, the awareness and the object happen together.

Whatever object that you’re aware of, go through the knowing mind or awareness. Don’t lose the awareness.

HOW TO TUNE DOWN THE ENERGY

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 5 (1:05:56-1:07:00)

Sayadaw: You’re aware but you’re over focusing a bit; and that’s why it keeps you awake at night. See if you can tune it down a bit.

Yogi: I tried, but I don’t know how.

Sayadaw: Don’t take a small object, take a larger object like the whole body and spread the awareness. 

We can apply attention to one object, but we don’t know how to decrease our energy.

So, spread your attention over the whole body, put your attention over a larger area, and that will diffuse the energy.

REALITY IS ALWAYS NEW

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 2 (43:34-47:10)

Yogi: I was happy to be aware of the nature of thinking mind, and that relaxes me a bit. And, I could be aware of walking; then the thoughts and agitation would come back again and again. It feels like I’m going in circles.

Sayadaw: It’s not again and again – it’s new, new.

The thinking process is always new. The thoughts, the concepts, are old, but the reality, the process, is new.

Yogi: If it’s new, I could be curious about it.

Sayadaw: Life is always new – there’s really nothing old.

Everything you know in the present moment is something that you have never known before.

You’re struggling with it because you think that it’s happening again and again. If you’re interested in the nature of what is happening now – this is happening now and this is happening now – then it’ll be different.

If you think about concept versus nature, the mind is arising now, the story which sounds the same is a concept, but this mind is new every moment. 

Our memories – we have memories when we were children – are concepts, that is why they feel old, but the mind that is having the memories is new and is only happening now. 

Yogi: How can we use this information for increasing wisdom?

Sayadaw: There’s no magic bullet – I’m telling you things that sound interesting because I have done the work and the work is the 3 yogi jobs of having right view, being mindful and continuing to be mindful with right view.

It’s so simple and you just have to keep doing that.

THE RIGHT IDEA

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 2 (1:08:15-1:10:38)

Yogi: Whatever task I do, I do with great intensity; consequently, it is hard to be aware.

Sayadaw: It is because you think that the task is more important. 

You like perfection, right?

Yogi: Yes.

Sayadaw: Then just do the awareness perfectly – make that your task.

You just need to change what is important in the mind.

REALITY AND CONCEPT ARISE TOGETHER

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 1 (19:07-22:07)

Yogi: When does nature stop and the concept or the story begin? For example, I meet a person and I don’t like the person, my aversion is nature and when I have some thoughts of my experience with the person in the past, that is the concept or story, is that correct?

Sayadaw: Reality and concept always arise together. The concepts are always built on the reality that the mind experiences.

We often just see the concept of the reality that we’re experiencing; that’s how we know it.

When you dislike someone, the concept has already happened with the reality. The reality is hearing, seeing and thinking. The concept is when the mind believes in what that thinking was, and sometimes we don’t see it and so the aversion arises.

If the mind stayed only on the reality – if it only saw the present-moment experience as it is – the mind will never have an unwholesome feeling. Reality doesn’t bring up unwholesome feelings because there is nothing to be biased about.

It’s only the concepts that bring up unwholesome feelings. 

Yogi: I’m not sure if I have aversion.

Sayadaw: There is some judgment that has already happened that you didn’t notice.

Yogi: So, aversion is not nature?

Sayadaw: Aversion is nature but the reason it happens is because of an attention to a concept.

JUST KNOW THE OBJECT; DON’T STARE AT IT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 1 (29:25-31:03)

Yogi: Aversion arose and when I tried to look at it, there appeared to be a barrier, and I couldn’t see it.

Sayadaw: When you already recognize that something is present, stay with that, acknowledging that. And that keeps the mindfulness continuous – that is all you need. Trying to sort of look at it with binoculars might not work.

WHEN THE MIND CHANGES, THE EXPERIENCE WILL BE DIFFERENT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 2 (28:20-30:20)

Yogi: I was sick; there was a lot of pain and the mind felt really tight. I wasn’t very friendly to the pain and I was watching the aversion and doubt. 

Sayadaw: This is enough – there is mindfulness.

Yogi: Do I do this forever?

Sayadaw: Once the mindfulness gains momentum, of course, the mind changes. And then your experience changes and becomes more interesting.

Our work is to keep developing the mindfulness, to keep doing it over and over.