Q&AMeditationszentrum Beatenberg Retreat22 May 2016
D 1 Group interview — Recognizing Awareness and Working with Difficult Emotions
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 2 hr 2 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−2:02:27
AI-written summary
In this group interview, the teacher explains maintaining relaxed awareness instead of forcing focus on objects. Meditators learn to recognize feelings to avoid thinking spirals, welcoming fear with steady, open interest.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Meditationszentrum Beatenberg Retreat · 22 talks
- 226 minMeditation instructions — Concept, Reality, and Using Objects to Cultivate Sati21 May 2016
- 31 hr 57 minB 1 Group interview — Natural Awareness, Everything Is Nature, and Right Effort21 May 2016
- 42 hr 6 minC 1 Group interview — Being Aware Without Forcing and Working with Thoughts and Pain21 May 2016
- 529 minMeditation instructions — Right Attitude Towards Experience and Thinking22 May 2016
- Viewing62 hr 2 minD 1 Group interview — Recognizing Awareness and Working with Difficult Emotions22 May 2016
- 732 minMeditation instructions — Natural Awareness and Right Attitude23 May 2016
- 81 hr 58 minB 2 Group interview — Recognizing Delusion and Appreciating Awareness23 May 2016
- 92 hr 11 minC 2 Group interview — Natural Awareness, Observing Thoughts, and Non-Identification23 May 2016
- 1030 minMeditation instructions — Knowing the Awareness and the Quality of Awareness24 May 2016
- 111 hr 51 minD 2 Group interview — Recognizing Awareness and Understanding Dukkha24 May 2016
Transcript
English
Hello, in the middle of this—uh, who is on the discussion of the— The services for interviews just means that we tell him about our experiences when we try to practice, and he will have a discussion with us.
English
The first thing you said,
English
um, on the first morning, was, um, "relax." Yeah.
English
And
English
that was a great relief to me,
English
because I'm used to work. Yeah, a little lonely, yeah.
English
And to work hard. And to me, it was a relief because I was just on the way to do some kind of Samādha meditation, trying to explore jhanas, things like that, and now someone is coming and saying, "Just relax."
[Burmese segment]
English
And that changed a lot. Yeah, it did. Um, since then I'm more playful and light, and, um— So you got both parts. There's joy as well, once in a while, in my practice. That'd be pure.
English
And I told them that it will be a big enemy. And these are the results—effects of right practice. Right is a manage when you do it. Same quality of calm, same way that I'm pure, I'm— I told you—just it's too long, the reality that I'm— Yeah. When we practice correctly, you know, we feel happier, lighter, um, makes us want to practice more, more interesting, yeah.
English
Mm. I tell you too— Go ahead. I mean, I tell—I tell you as well, but motivation and losing a body that— When? I just be manag— When we use a lot of energy, we don't notice, but there's also greed in the practice. When we put in so much effort, we feel like we must get some results, and that makes the practice tiring.
English
At the same time, uh, there's coming up some—there was coming up some doubt. Mm-hmm. Because
English
what you, um, tell us to do is impossible.
English
The continuous mindfulness,
English
or the relaxed and the mindful, which— You open up, uh, a mindfulness space of time up to, I'd say, 17 hours a day. Mm-hmm. Like that. Yeah. For me, at least. Yeah. Um, and
English
even, uh, when I do walking meditation in, in a very microscopic— Small, slow walking. Slow walking, really small, slow walking, even then it's not possible, possible to get everything in it. There's so much in it, even in that simple movement.
English
Ah, you don't have to get it in that kind of detail. He doesn't—yeah. Thua, yes? What I want to say is, um, when I'm in my office. Yes. Or I'm doing some more complex work. Yes. How to be mindful of millions of millions of possible things to be mindful of.
English
I only know light now. I only know light now. No, you only have to be aware of the relevant things, not everything.
English
Look at
English
this.
English
Look at this. Look at this. Think like the relevant thing. Seadu says, "The reason you're thinking about how much there is to know is because you're thinking about the objects that we need to know." He's really not interested in the objects. He said, "Think of it very simply like this: you do what you need to do, and you are aware." So all you do is know that there is awareness. That is all. You don't care how much you know, how much, or little, or many.
English
It doesn't matter. There is awareness. That's all. Oh, fine.
English
When you walk, you walk as you do, and then you know. There is awareness that walking is happening. When you eat, you eat as you do. There is awareness that eating is happening. And you just notice whatever is noticed. It doesn't have to be second by second. It's just what you notice as continuously as you can. I couldn't be mindful to do anything.
English
I only like your—I don't focus lower meditation. We think of mindfulness as knowing the objects, like we know one thing, then the next thing, and the next thing. But he says if we would just know that there is awareness.
English
That's much easier. Right.
English
By the way, yeah. Yeah, that's how it should be. The amount, but look at—we must say, but I'm talking. It shouldn't be a practice that's difficult or tiring. For example, I'm a runner. Mm-hmm. So, um, walking, um, being mindful while walking is possible. Um, but being mindful while running.
English
It's possible. Is much more difficult. Oh. Because it seems—it seems— She doesn't need a—the church is letting you, yeah. He says, "Just, just run." And he says,
English
"Even, even if you just knew one thing in the running throughout, that's enough." Like, maybe pounding, that's all. Or seeing one thing. One thing. That's easy.
English
And you'll see that if you relax and allow the mind to just know whatever, you know, and you know that there's—you know that there is awareness. When you keep doing it, that awareness expands. That awareness will know more things.
English
But it's not you. You're not trying to know more. The awareness will know more. I'm just— And sometimes less. It'll go up and down. It's okay. Now you know you're sitting. Yeah. Nobody there. What else? Satsang. TV. And then? Seeing. In there.
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Sayadaw U Tejaniya began his Buddhist training as a young teenager in Burma under the late Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw (1913–2002). After a career in business and life as a householder, he has become a permanent monk since 1996.…