WHOLESOME MINDS NATURALLY DISPLACE THE DEFILEMENTS

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 14 (1:50:55-1:54:00)

Yogi: There was repeated sadness, but when I checked the quality of the mind and the knowing, the mind was bright, calm, strong and peaceful, and the sadness disappeared.

Sayadaw: Your awareness and samadhi are quite good – you just needed to use some wisdom by checking the condition of the rest of the mind and it made the view much clearer.

When the wholesome minds become stronger, unwholesome minds will become weaker.

Bhavana is meditation – bhavana is cultivation of all those wholesome minds. That is why we keep the wholesome minds always ready and strong so when the unwholesome minds come, they have no chance.

Just look after the wholesome minds with mindfulness.

Sayadaw: Because your mind understands what the object is – it knows how what is being seen as an object – that’s why you can use thoughts and develop samadhi.

In that case, you can use any object – for you, the thought is the same as the breath as an object.

Both options are fine.

UNDERSTANDING THINKING AS AN OBJECT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 13 (1:31:00-1:32:08)

Yogi: When I notice a lot of thinking and the mind is not so clear, I can check the attitude and see if some defilement is feeding the restlessness, or I can focus on the thinking process which gives me the concentration not to fall into the thoughts. Are these two valid options?

Sayadaw: Because your mind understands what the object is – it knows how what is being seen as an object – that’s why you can use thoughts and develop samadhi.

In that case, you can use any object – for you, the thought is the same as the breath as an object.

Both options are fine.

MINDFULNESS NATURALLY CULTIVATES THE 4 BRAHMAVIHARAS

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 14 (26:00-29:26)

Yogi: I was doing walking meditation and saw someone sick. Immediately a caring arose. That was interesting because the cultivation of the 4 Brahmaviharas and mindfulness may have different approach but they seem to go to the same goal.

How do they come together in the mindfulness practice?

Sayadaw: It’s simple – for me, it’s cultivation of mindfulness first. The mind becomes more wholesome.

When the mind is more wholesome from mindfulness, it is readily given to the wholesome impulses of the Brahmaviharas.

When I was practicing very dedicatedly at home, I wouldn’t let any unwholesome feeling or mind stay – whenever I noticed it coming up, I would take the time to watch it until it was gone.

I did that over and over again, never getting involved in the story, always taking care of the unwholesome volitions that came up.

Unwholesome stuff was not allowed to grow and the result of keeping the mind clear like that was that if I saw other people, I felt metta for them; if I saw someone suffering, I felt compassion for them; if I saw someone doing well, I felt happy for them; and if it was a situation where I couldn’t do anything about, the mind was equanimous.

Because wisdom was there, the greed and aversion weren’t given room in my mind at all; the mindfulness would just keep at it.

START FROM WHERE WE ARE WITH SOME RIGHT INFORMATION

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 13 (35:25-38:24)

Although it is not so simple to be skillful at having the right attitude all the time – we will still have wrong attitude and we will find it difficult to observe difficult experiences – we learn from it and will become more skillful.

For example, a yogi comes to practice and he’s depressed. I give him all these information to try and get him to understand how meditation might be helpful so he is willing to practice.

Different kinds of information that we get help to settle the mind in different ways and they adjust the attitude of the mind so that it is willing to be mindful.

Although in the end, it is when the attitude is right that the most effective meditation happens, but we all start by practicing with wrong attitude.

There’s nothing wrong with that – it is still practice and we learn from it.

RECOGNIZE THE RIGHT ATTITUDE THAT GUIDES THE PRACTICE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 15 (47:45-48:18)

Yogi: I’m doing very well. I’m learning a lot – every day and every hour I’m learning new things. I’m happy and grateful about that.

Since I’m not trying too hard, I’m less tired.

Sayadaw: Yes, meditation is not tiring when you practice right. When it gets tiring, it gets boring, tedious and challenging.

RIGHT ATTITUDE IS A MANIFESTATION OF WISDOM

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 12 (00:05-1:24)

Yogi: It’s a challenge to maintain the awareness in the kitchen especially when I’m drinking coffee and talking. But I’m neither disappointed nor angry because I recognize that it is difficult as my awareness is not strong enough to manage it.

Sayadaw: That’s right. Just accept it; it’s okay.

Practicing the Dhamma is a life-long undertaking. We don’t have to have results now. We have lots of time to keep practicing.

WE’RE NOT OBSERVING THE MIND TO GET A BETTER EXPERIENCE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 13 (1:16:06-1:17:14)

Yogi: I was observing my mind and I learnt a lot.

My mind doesn’t like to change any habit; and one of my habits is liking to comment on anything that is going on and the mind gets to be adverse. Sometimes, in between, it becomes quiet and peaceful again – and the cycle is repeated.

I try to just know, to just see it.

Sayadaw: It’s okay.

IT IS EASIER TO BE AWARE THAN TO CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 13 (1:12:36-1:13:02)

Once you think something is good, you need to be more mindful.

We think something is good, greed is in; we think it’s not good, aversion is in. And yet we will; it’s not that we can stop it.

We just have to watch it.

DESPITE THE MIND IN A BAD STATE MEDITATION CAN CONTINUE IF ATTITUDE IS RIGHT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 13 (29:36-32:17)

It is possible to meditate when the mind is in a bad state because I have done it when I had depression.

So long as we have the right attitude, even when we’re feeling tired, heavy and all that, we can just be simply aware that we’re tired, heavy and all that.

If we’re not reacting to it and expecting it to be different, it is okay; we can still be mindful.

Sometimes, in the book, it says that when you practice continuously, the mind may get into a state where the mind is bright and it feels better to meditate.

It doesn’t mean that it is the only way you can meditate. Putting aside what is in the book, it really boils down to attitude.

If we have no aversion towards the experience or greed for some other experience, then every experience is fine; we can be aware of it simply.

WHAT DOES THE YOGI WATCH WHEN THERE IS PAIN DURING THE SIT?

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 14 (44:05-49:13). [summary of Sayadaw’s instructions about watching pain]

Watch the reaction (disliking/resistance/pushing away) in the mind. We are not observing the experience to make the pain go away.

Why do we watch the reaction to the pain?

We watch our disliking of the pain to understand how the mind’s experience of pain changes with its reaction to the pain.

What to watch?

How does it feel when there is disliking? When the disliking increases, how does the pain feel? When the disliking decreases, how does the pain feel? When the disliking disappears, how does the pain feel?

As the state of the disliking changes, we’ll find that our view of the pain changes. And, that is important to see.

We can only understand the true nature of what pain is and who is in pain when there is no more disliking in the mind to the pain.

COMPASSION AND SADNESS ARE TWO DIFFERENT MINDS

Swiss Retreat2019 Group Interviews 14 (53:24-57:44)

Yogi: Sayadaw said that sadness is aversion, but I don’t quite understand it.

For example, sometimes I wake up feeling lonely, I can see that there is sadness and that this sadness is aversion.

When someone very dear dies, I feel sadness, but I think this is karuna. I don’t see this sadness as aversion.

Sayadaw: The near enemy of karuna is dosa.

Karuna is a wholesome mind; a wholesome mind will not make you suffer. But dosa can come in – it is a mixed feeling.

Karuna is the feeling of compassion – it wants to help and it wishes well to the other person. The dosa bit is the non-acceptance of the way it is.

For example, someone has died and you wish they weren’t dead. That’s the sadness – but using the word aversion seems to suggest anger the way we usually know aversion, but this is subtle aversion where it is just the pushing away the reality as it is.

Yogi: But compassion never has the flavor of sadness?

Sayadaw: That’s right.

My awareness jumps from object to object – sometimes rapidly and sometimes in a smooth rhythm. And I have the expectation to know everything at the same time.

Sayadaw: There is no need to expect it. We just accept the present moment awareness as it is.

The way you know it is fine. Just stay with that; it is okay.

So long as you’re with the knowing, that is fine.

IT’S OKAY SO LONG AS WE KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 13 (1:00:20-1:01:28)

Yogi: Is it possible to know several objects at the same time?

My awareness jumps from object to object – sometimes rapidly and sometimes in a smooth rhythm. And I have the expectation to know everything at the same time.

Sayadaw: There is no need to expect it. We just accept the present moment awareness as it is.

The way you know it is fine. Just stay with that; it is okay.

So long as you’re with the knowing, that is fine.

CONFIDENCE GROWS WHEN WE RELY ON OURSELVES TO PRACTICE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 14 (1:13:14-1:17:15)

Yogi: It is helpful that I can move and just walk because it helps me with my bodily pain.

What you said that we would really experience confidence in ourselves if we practice seriously was really helpful. That is exactly what I learn now.

I experience lots of self-confidence and ease in my practice because there’s like a guardian in my mind.

Sayadaw: It’s true that when we are really responsible for our own practice, the confidence that we’re doing it is incredible.

When we have to use our own will, strength and motivation to do something, because we use them, they’re stronger; they get exercised. They really get stronger; so, that’s why it feels so confident.

When we have to rely on an outside structure or somebody else to make everything nice for us so that we can feel like we’re meditating then we’re never sure that we are.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

SEEING THE WAY THE MIND WORKS

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 15 (49:15-50:45)

Yogi: Sometimes, I cannot find out the reason why I’m angry.

Sayadaw: It is in the thinking or talking mind in the head, but not the story.

It is a process that is making the mind angry. You want to understand the process that is making the mind angry. So, what is it that you know about the mind that is making the mind angry; that’s what you’re looking at.

What is it that you know that is making the mind angry? It is not what you’re thinking about that is making the mind angry. You think about the person, but it is not what you’re thinking about. It is what you know that is happening in the mind that is making the mind angry.

Before you get angry, do you know what is the mind doing?

If we watch and the mindfulness is continuous, we’ll see the way the mind works.

HOW TO REDUCE SELFING

Swiss Retreat 2019 Group Interviews 15 (06:05-09:20)

Yogi: I feel that there is a lot of identification with all my thinking and experiences, and sometimes there is a glimpse of when it is not like this – when there is space and calmness.

Last few days, there wasn’t so much clinging to the ‘I’; otherwise there was so much stickiness. It’s my wish for some suggestions now.

Sayadaw: You’re not the only one identified with the thinking and experiences.

Be more mindful.

The mindfulness allows the wisdom that understands the nature of things to be present so that the selfing doesn’t feel so sticky. Mindfulness is the only thing that will allow the wisdom to be present.

So, we have to continue to be mindful.