IT HELPS IF WE SEE WHICH IS THE CAUSE AND WHICH IS THE EFFECT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 3 (11:15-14:01) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Sayadaw: Touch your fingers – are the touching and the knowing of the touching separate?

Yogi: Yes.

Sayadaw: So, you know the touching and you also know the knowing of the touching.

Yogi: I should try to stay on the knowing side?

Sayadaw: Ok. But if you know the knowing, you already know what it knows; so, knowing the knowing doesn’t mean you don’t know the touching.

When you know the knowing, touching is already known.

Touching is very clear – all of you can feel the touching sensation, right? First, you pay attention to the touching – now you don’t pay attention to the touching and do you know the knowing?

When there is touching, there is knowing of the touching; when there is no touching, there is no knowing of the touching, right?

FREEDOM TO CHOOSE

Swiss Retreat 2016 Q&A Group B4 (00:36-4:15) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: In my practice, I was taught that I could always choose what I wanted to do, but Sayadaw says that it is the mind which decides what to do – the mind thinks and feels.

Do I have the freedom to decide or does the decision happen because of some mental quality? It seems that I can decide to go with thinking or to be aware of the body.

Sayadaw: Since the ‘I’ is an illusion in the first place, what we’re calling ‘I’ is either defilement deciding or wisdom deciding. When defilement decides, we think that we make an unskillful choice; when wisdom decides, we think that we make the right decision. That’s all.

The sense of freedom comes from the wholesome. When it is the unwholesome that is in charge, we’re almost without choice because they have such a strong hold on us. Unwholesome choices are usually automatic.

TRAIN TO OPEN UP THE AWARENESS IN DAILY LIFE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 2 (0:50 -3:31) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: I’m used to walking slowly to be aware and find it hard to walk normally, enjoy the view and still be aware.

Sayadaw: Once there is a beautiful view, it is hard to keep your attention at your feet, but it is not about keeping your attention at your feet, it is about being mindful.

So, if you want to look at the view, look, but be aware that you’re looking at the view. Then, you can put some attention at the feet and then back to the view – aware of looking and aware of movement repeatedly.

This is how you will practice if you’re walking to work or anywhere in life – you have to look at the road sign, people on the street and where you’re going and you still want to be mindful. You just have to be aware of looking and be aware of movement repeatedly.

When we’re only aware of our feet and walking, we’ll never get used to how much more mindful we can be in a freer form – it just takes practice. So, please try.

A LITTLE AT A TIME

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 with Sayadaw U Tejaniya (38:00-38:16)

Too much teaching is not good – trying to remember one or two advices is enough. When there is too much information, we tend to forget everything.

IS IT NECESSARY TO MOVE WHILE SITTING?

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 2 (24:45-27:28) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: When I sit meditate, I start to move a bit. I don’t know if it’s because I want to move. I cannot figure it out and wonder if it’s better to stop it or just leave it.

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

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

People can move when they are bored in sitting. People also move when they have pain.

Whatever it is, if it is not necessary to move, don’t develop the habit of moving involuntarily or voluntarily while sitting.

There are people who develop these habits that just won’t go away. There are yogis who believe that if they have certain movements, it’s a sign of something. They’ll just keep having that over and over because of a belief.

Yogi: So, next time I start moving, is it better that I stop it?

Sayadaw: When you stop it, you’ll also discover why it wants to move.

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.