SKILLFUL AT PRACTICING

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 with Sayadaw U Tejaniya (36:30-37:42)

If the watching mind can be equanimous when observing unpleasant objects or unpleasant situations, it means that the mind is skillful at practice.

For the unskillful mind, when the experience is pleasant, the mind enjoys the experience and when the experience is unpleasant, it resists the experience. In both instances, the mind cannot be detached from the object.

If someone knows how to practice well, the mind can step back and watch regardless of whether the experience is pleasant or unpleasant.

TO PRACTICE AT HOME, MAINTAIN THE MOMENTUM OF AWARENESS

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 (09:42-10:28) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: Sayadaw’s teaching is aware, aware and aware. The mind gets bored after a while and I’ll stop practicing at home.

Sayadaw: At home, you need the continuity of practice – that makes the mind settle down. When you don’t have enough practice, when the mind is so messy, how can the mind settle down?

If you practice more continuously at home, it is easier for the mind to calm down; otherwise if the mind is too complicated, it is difficult to meditate because the agitated mind already has a lot of momentum.

If your awareness is weak, how can the mind settle down?

DEALING WITH FEAR

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 1 (12:55-17:45) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: These few weeks I have been living in a state of fear – it is extremely painful and my mind is really agitated.

I tried to bring it into feeling it in the body. Sometimes I managed to do that, but then my mind always jumped back to the thoughts that used the fear. How do I practice with that?

Sayadaw: All of us have fear – it just comes in different ways and different triggers gives us fear. What exactly is it and how does this fear work?

If you see the identification ‘I’m afraid’, you can see that it feels more fearful. If you can separate it, you can see the difference between ‘this is fear’ and ‘I’m afraid’. That helps.

Is there always this fear, moment to moment? Have you noticed it?

Yogi: There are short times when there is less fear.

Sayadaw: Fear is also conditioned – it is there because certain conditions are present. If those conditions aren’t present, fear couldn’t be present.

If you see fear for what it is, that it is not mine, that it is conditioned, then you won’t fear fear so much anymore.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEFILEMENT JUDGING AND WISDOM JUDGING

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 2 (1:02:49-1:04:30) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: You say not to judge but to accept everything. But you also say to look at what is wholesome and what is not wholesome. Isn’t that judging?

Sayadaw: You know the difference between something wholesome and unwholesome – that is not what I mean to judge. What I mean to judge is that the mind is not accepting it.

If the mind is differentiating something, but it accepts that this is how it is, that’s fine.

And if it is not accepting it, you know that the mind is not accepting it – that is all.

WHATEVER MIND STATE, LET NATURE HAPPEN

Singapore Q&A 18 November 2022 (03:00-7:48) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: Last time when I practiced, the mind was more calm. But now, the emotions arising from joy can be very strong.

Sayadaw: Don’t think that our mind should be equanimous all the time – that is only achieved in the very high level practice of sankhara upekkha.

When we concentrate too much, we think the mind is equanimous, but actually the mind becomes stuck like a zombie. That is not the right way; it is not a natural process.

Even by seeing joy arise again and again, we can also understand the impermanent nature of that mind.

Let nature happen – there is no need to target equanimity all the time.

THE MIND WANTS TO CHOOSE, NOT ‘I CHOOSE’

Singapore 18 Nov 2022 Q&A (00:30-02:22) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: Although there is awareness of the emotion, sometimes I choose to engage with it.

Sayadaw: Who chooses to engage in the emotion? You think that intention is you, but intention is not you.

Choosing mind is choosing mind, not ‘I want to do this and that’. People have the habit to think that this mind or any mind state is ‘me’.

Next time, just say that the mind wants to choose, not I want to choose. This is better because when we’re aware of whatever mind is happening; it is more open and natural. Otherwise, we get attached to the idea of self and that is wrong view.

REALITY AND CONCEPTUAL EXPERIENCES

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 3 (1:24:00-1:28:18) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: When I look at the tree and I’m mindful of it, something changes because I connect to it. The tree transforms and I transform. I feel that a different level of seeing is involved.

Sayadaw: Seeing. When you see, you’re supposed to be aware of the fact of seeing which happens in the body, not the tree. The seeing is only your ability to see. The tree is what we think about to recognize it, and that’s concept.

Sight is reality, but sight is again not the tree.

When you want to practice seeing, stay with the knowing that you’re seeing and stay with that. Never mind what you’re seeing. It’s not I’m seeing a tree, but I know that seeing is happening. Stay with the knowing of seeing.

If you know you’re looking at the tree, that’s fine, you can know that you’re looking. ‘I know I’m looking.’

Yogi: I like the intensity of what I see and the feeling that this is a different level of consciousness.

Sayadaw: That’s thinking and following the imagination and cultivating the enjoyment. Meditation is about knowing; not just indulging.

NOTICING THOUGHTS IS A GOOD PRACTICE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 3 (44:19-46:05) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: When I am out for a walk, it is easier to be aware of walking, seeing and hearing, but It is more difficult when I sit in the hall because there are a lot of thoughts coming up again and again. It is hard to come back to the moment.

Sayadaw: Do you know that when you know the thought, you’re in the present moment?

Yogi: Yes, but sometimes it takes me away and I have to come back.

Sayadaw: That’s not bad; it’s just part of how practice is and it’s ok. Just practice with that.

When you realize the mind is thinking, you acknowledge it and then you bring it back. You can do that over and over and it’s fine.

The more we acknowledge thinking when it arises, the more skillful we’ll become at recognizing thoughts and not getting involved.

It’s actually a good practice – when we don’t see thoughts enough, we don’t know how to practice with them and every time they come, we get lost.

If we notice thoughts more and more, we get less and less involved.

REALITY AND CONCEPT ALWAYS ARISE TOGETHER

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 1(20:27-20:46) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Reality and concept always arise together. The concepts are always built on the reality that the mind experiences. And we often just experience the concept of the reality that we’re experiencing, that is how we know it.

CONCEPT AND REALITY REGARDING MEMORIES

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 2(45:32-46:10) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

The mind that is arising now is new every moment, but the story or concept sounds the same.

Even our memories, we have memories of our childhood and those stories, are a concept, that is why they feel old, but the mind that is having the memories is new because this mind that is having the memories is only happening now.

WANTING TO SEE THE OBJECT CLEARER

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 1 (29:26-30:19) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: Today, there is stronger feeling of aversion and I want to look at it, but there is a barrier. There is something which hides it and I cannot look at it.

Sayadaw: Just recognize its presence without wanting to see it more clearly. You are probably trying too hard to see it in a certain way and that is not necessary – you already know it. That’s enough.

You already see it; so, don’t try to look at it.

GETTING RESTLESS FROM OVER EXERTING

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 3 (18:15-22:40) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: The mind is very interested in what is happening inside, but I experience a lot of restlessness. It becomes difficult to know the knowing of the process because it is not as clear as the body. Sometimes, I feel that I over focus on the mental processes and I don’t know how to make them lighter.

There is a wish to solve it like solving problems. How can I help myself when it gets too entangled?

Sayadaw: You just need to change your attitude – you probably want too much to know what is going on in the mind. That is why it feels restless although you know your mind.

It’s good that you recognize that you’re probably over focusing; too intent on knowing what is in the mind. It is very good when the yogi can recognize how much energy the mind is putting into what it is doing.

Knowing that it is too much helps you to recognize that you need to back off. So, you can now learn to adjust.

Whenever we’re restless, always check the attitude and usually you’ll find that the mind is wanting something.

Is the mind simple and relaxed, or is the mind trying too much?

FEELING AND REACTION ARE DIFFERENT MINDS

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 2(33:00-33:57) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

We always resist things that are unpleasant, but as we watch the resistance and aversion to the unpleasant, you will sometimes find moments when the resistance is not there although the unpleasant is still there, then you see a different view.

It is not unusual – many yogis recognize surprisingly that sometimes what is happening is unpleasant but the observing is okay.

When the attitude is right, the observing feels okay even though the experience is still unpleasant.

CONSISTENT MINDFULNESS BRINGS IN UNDERSTANDING

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 1(1:19:15-1:19:55) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

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

If we want the mindfulness to be sharp, to be able to understand and see more, we just have to be mindful consistently – and persistence and time will bring in those things.

BACKING OFF ALSO MEANS NOT TO BE TOO INTERESTED IN THE OBJECT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 3 (30:44-35:05) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Sayadaw: The experiences from our practice are the way through which our mind learns to adjust. We have these sorts of experiences and sometimes the mind can have an insight about what is right effort or right object and know how to apply it.

It is good to reflect on how we’re practicing, how the mind is applying its effort and awareness and backing off sometimes, not trying to be aware but sitting back and checking to see how it is going.

Yogi: Does backing off also mean not to be too interested in the object that is arising?

Sayadaw: That’s right.