Dhamma talkBangkok Retreat7 Nov 2015
Day 1 instructions — Right Effort, Right Attitude, and Working with Experiences
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 4 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:04:37
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
Meditation instructions explain practicing with right attitude and gentle persistence. The teacher emphasizes that objects are natural and meditation focuses on knowing mental reactions rather than changing experiences. Yogis are guided to sustain continuous awareness regarding sounds, thoughts, and bodily pain.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Bangkok Retreat · 22 talks
- Viewing11 hr 5 minDay 1 instructions — Right Effort, Right Attitude, and Working with Experiences7 Nov 2015
- 21 hr 27 minDhamma discussion group A1 — Meditation Is Being Aware7 Nov 2015
- 317 minDay 2 instructions — Mind as Nature, Knowing and Object8 Nov 2015
- 41 hr 23 minDhamma discussion group B1 — Facing Emotions, Dropping Methods, and Knowing Without Labelling8 Nov 2015
- 52 hr 3 minDhamma discussion group C1 — Can We Really Make a Decision? / Resting in Awareness8 Nov 2015
- 612 minDay 3 instructions — Reality and Concepts in Meditation9 Nov 2015
- 71 hr 55 minDhamma discussion group D1 — Knowing with Right View and Observing Reactions9 Nov 2015
- 81 hr 58 minDhamma discussion group A2 — Observing the Mind, Working with Greed and Fear9 Nov 2015
- 915 minDay 4 instructions — Knowing the Mind and Continuity of Awareness10 Nov 2015
- 101 hr 33 minDhamma discussion group B2 — Mind as Reality and Working with Pain and Attitude10 Nov 2015
Transcript
English
Okay, the deeper there. Ajahn Buddha, tell me— So Sayadaw is going to talk to us about the practice of mindfulness, particularly the— in particular, the four foundations of mindfulness, called sati-patta. So, Ajahn U Tejaniya, you know the Ajahn Buddha's
English
pāleśa— pāleśa— So first, Sayadaw is going to tell us what meditation is, in general. The Ajahn Buddha's sīla— sīla— what does it mean to you now? Meditation is a practice that we use to improve the quality of our mind. You say mind, you say— ? All of us have many qualities of mind.
English
We have good qualities of mind, and we have, um, not-so-good qualities of mind. ? And the practice of meditation is the practice of cultivating those good qualities of mind. We're going to, um, bring them up, we're going to keep using them, so that the good qualities grow like a muscle.
English
, bāvanā-sudevi, . Bāvanā-sudava, . The word, um, for meditation in Pali is bāvanā, and bāvanā means cultivation. So when you do— do something repeatedly, or allow something to happen repeatedly, that thing becomes stronger, like habits, you know?
English
. So what we need to understand about meditation is that meditation is the work of our mind. . And when we meditate, we'll realize, we'll come to realize that there is, um, two parts to the equation in meditation.
English
There is our mental part, and then there's the physical part that comes into meditation.
English
. And these two parts, we'll call them objects, okay? Objects, because they are what we will observe. . And of these objects in mind and body that we can observe, um, in Buddhism, they're classified into six objects.
English
. And these six objects are basically— one of them is mind. They don't reclassify the mind into sub-classifications. But the body, we're told, um, there are five objects in the body.
English
And these are our five physical senses, which are sight through the eyes, hearing through the ears, touch, taste, and— — And smell. . And when it comes to the mind, the object which is mind, um, there is everything that happens in the mind, all the activities that the mind is capable of.
English
. And when we use these six objects— use them— in order to develop awareness, stability of mind, and wisdom, if we use these six objects to develop these good qualities of mind, which are called awareness, stability of mind, and wisdom, that is called the practice of meditation.
English
. And these six objects that arise for us, that— the experiences we have of these six objects, the— the five physical senses and the mind. Sayadaw says, "The experiences we have," Sayadaw says, "we can't do anything about them.
English
We don't need to change them, because they're already happening of their own nature." They're already happening because they have a reason to be there. . So when we meditate, Sayadaw says, "Our meditation is not about what is happening to our experience."
English
We don't have to do anything to our experience. It doesn't need to change.
English
. What we do need to work with, in meditation, is to watch for our mental response to these experiences. Our mental response. So do we— have we brought awareness to the experience? Have we— do we have stability of mind as we experience the experience?
English
Um, do we gain any wisdom about the experience? Yeah? So our concern is our mental response to these experiences. , awareness ? And everybody understands— . Everybody understands the meaning of awareness? Just in a general layman word, you know, just in English, awareness.
English
And it's just that simple. Just bringing awareness, or becoming aware, of our experience. That's one part of meditation. . Okay, so Sayadaw wants to just test your understanding of awareness. So Sayadaw says, "Those who already know, please don't answer the questions."
English
. So now you're sitting. Do you know that you're sitting?
English
Yes? Yeah. . And you're hearing. Do you recognize that you're hearing? Yeah?
English
. And you're seeing, right? You're looking, you're seeing. Do you recognize that looking and seeing is happening? Yeah? . You're very sure. You know that this is happening. Okay. Are you sure?
English
. And when did you begin to notice that you were seeing?
English
When he mentioned it. . Awareness . So Sayadaw is trying to point out awareness to us. That moment when we recognize our experience, that's awareness. We know this is what we are experiencing in this moment. .
English
. We all wake up in the morning and we open our eyes and we see. But none of us actually wakes up, opens our eyes, and realizes, "I'm seeing." Right?
English
, awareness . So this is what awareness is, Sayadaw says. Awareness is consciousness. Becoming conscious of ourselves. When you see, you know seeing is happening. When you hear, you know hearing is happening. You touch something, you know touching is happening.
English
You know all your experiences. You recognize the experience as you go through them throughout the day. a-sai ? Now, when Sayadaw said, "Do you notice that you're seeing?" Sayadaw says, "Did you need to use a lot of effort to recognize that you're seeing?" No.
English
. A . So that's all the energy you need to be aware. Right? . So you don't need much effort at all to be aware, but you do need to keep being aware like that, moment after moment after moment, throughout the day. All day long.
English
Mm-hmm. Need some perseverance. chi a-sai So Sayadaw says, "What is more important in meditation is the persistence." Is the, "Oh, you know, I'm aware of my experience again and again and again." Um, it's not important to do it
English
strongly or effortfully. You know, you don't have to work hard. You just have to keep doing it. concentrate , penetrate soft energy . So Sayadaw never uses the word "concentrate." He never says that you need to concentrate on something. He won't say that you need to, you know,
English
penetrate into the nature of the object or anything like that. Okay? He— he wants us to become familiar with this gentle energy of awareness. That is the persistence of gentle awareness throughout the day. That is more powerful than trying to concentrate our effort into every moment. A-sai chinh tu-tu .
English
. If we use too much energy in any moment, um, for any length of time, we won't be able to do it for long. Because we'll run out of energy. And Sayadaw says, "The goal of meditation is to take it throughout our life." It's a long-term goal. We want to do it as— as much as possible, as long as possible.
English
So we don't want to run out of energy. chinh . Here on retreat, Sayadaw says, "We have the time and we have nothing else to do. We're going to be trying to practice from the moment we wake up in the morning and open our eyes till we fall asleep at night." .
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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.…