Dhamma talkShwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat1 Mar 2017
Day 1 · introduction talk — Right Effort and Right View
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 35 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−35:58
AI-written summary
The teacher outlines essential principles for the retreat, emphasizing right attitude and right effort without excessive striving. Yogis are encouraged to view bodily and mental processes as natural phenomena, appreciate awareness itself, and observe noble silence to maintain continuous mindfulness.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Shwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat · 18 talks
- Viewing136 minDay 1 · introduction talk — Right Effort and Right View1 Mar 2017
- 21 hr 20 minDay 2 Discussion group A — Adjusting the Mind and Observing Experiences2 Mar 2017
- 31 hr 19 minDay 2 Discussion group C — Motivation in Practice and Understanding Realities2 Mar 2017
- 41 hr 24 minDay 3 Discussion group B — Seeing Thought, Concepts and Realities, and Sensations3 Mar 2017
- 52 hr 4 minDay 3 Discussion group D — Wrong View, Reactions to Objects, and Meditation as a Way of Life3 Mar 2017
- 61 hr 25 minDay 4 Discussion group A — Nature of Thoughts and the Sense of Self4 Mar 2017
- 71 hr 47 minDay 4 Discussion group C — Recognizing Wrong Attitudes, Defilements, and the Nature of Mind4 Mar 2017
- 81 hr 17 minDay 5 Discussion group B — Observing Defilements, Conceit, and Habits5 Mar 2017
- 91 hr 47 minDay 5 Discussion group D — Natural Effort and Not Personalizing Experiences5 Mar 2017
- 101 hr 15 minDay 6 Discussion group A — Free Will, Knowing the Mind and Anchor Objects6 Mar 2017
Transcript
English
Are you ready? Yes.
English
Yes to what?
English
I'm glad to see you again.
English
Okay, now we can start.
English
Now, that is hermit, so she translates.
English
Better for you.
English
. So he's going to talk about meditation.
English
" hay "thanh"? So we're going to practice sati meditation.
English
So, meditation.
English
Meditation is basically the cultivation, cultivation of the good qualities of our mind.
English
And what we're going to do is use sati, which is remembering, and we use the remembering of the moment to cultivate five good qualities of mind. And these five good qualities are sati itself, remembering, and steadiness of mind, samādhi, right effort, vīriya,
English
paññā, wisdom, and faith or— Wisdom. Faith or— Confidence. Confidence, saddhā, yes.
[Burmese segment]
English
So when you meditate, Sayadaw says the most important thing he wants to remind us is that it doesn't take a lot of energy to meditate. So that's the right effort, not a lot of energy.
English
Because meditation happens all day. From the moment you wake up until you fall asleep at night, you're going to be with yourself in the moment all day long. So you don't want to put in too much energy into every moment because you don't want to tire yourself out.
English
And the mind has a special quality or principle that governs it, which is that when you repeat something in the mind, or you allow something to arise in the mind over and over again, that quality becomes stronger.
English
So every moment that you remember to be in the present moment, you're actually strengthening all those five qualities. They're called the five faculties, and they actually arise together. We call that mindfulness. When we're in the moment, we call it mindfulness, but it's actually five of these qualities arising together. So every moment that you remember the present moment, all these five qualities are being strengthened.
English
So Sayadaw does not want us to worry about whether our practice is growing. He says we need to trust that if we continue to do this, just, just continue to do it, even though it feels like nothing is happening in the beginning.
English
If we just continue to do it and have faith in it, after a few days maybe you will start to see the effect of just remembering to be in the moment as much as you can. And he says the thing we really need to watch out for is the effort bit.
English
He always says write effort for vīriya because we can't put in too much effort. And he wants us to watch out for too much effort. It can bring intention and tiredness. And the reason he warns us about using too much effort is because usually when we put in too much effort, it's because the mind has already started to get some unwholesome motivation in the practice.
English
So it's starting to want something out of the practice, or it has an idea that it should be getting something in the practice, or it's starting to reject something or resist something that it's experiencing in the moment. And this sort of thing that's greed and aversion is usually starting to push the mind when you're starting to make too much effort.
English
And it's a habit we carry from home. He says at home, so much of what we do can be motivated by, you know, greed and aversion, unbeknownst to us, like we need to rush somewhere. That's really a greed.
English
We could probably get there at a normal pace in not much less time than if we rushed. But we rush because we have this reaching. That's the greed or aversion. And these two qualities govern so much of the way we do things in life that it can easily filter into meditation. .
English
effect of trying too hard is just that you become tired. You become tense, irritable, things start to feel hard and stressful, and it's just a sign that we're trying too hard.
English
Okay? And he says that's what he calls wrong, inverted commas, wrong meditation. We're trying too hard. He says when we practice steadily and without expectation, when we practice steadily without expectation, we will find that we start to feel lighter, fresher, more energized, even though we don't seem to be trying too hard.
English
All we're trying to do, all we're doing is just being with the moment.
English
So Sayadaw says when you come on retreat, please don't take the retreat too seriously. Because he says a lot of you are actually making an effort to practice in daily life as well. You're trying to practice at home.
English
And when you come on retreat, he says, don't take it up as a special time. Don't take it too seriously. Relax. Enjoy yourself. , yogi retreat sitting meditation , retreat , yogi .
English
He says he's been talking to yogis for so many years, and he's seen that, you know, the concept of retreat comes with the concept of a lot of sitting meditation. And he says either this, the word retreat, or the word sitting meditation, can bring a lot of anxiety and tension to many yogis.
English
So in meditation, Sayadaw says, it's the important thing is more to just work steadily rather than to try very hard.
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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.…