Q&AShwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat6 Apr 2016
Day 10 Dhamma discussion group D — Watching Emotions, Maintaining Awareness and Facing Strong Traumas
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 56 min
Original audio: English
0:00−56:04
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
A group interview clarifying how to be aware of emotions, fear, and past memories without identifying them with a personal self. The teacher advises using neutral objects like the breath when feelings become overwhelming. Continuously sustaining mindfulness with right attitude allows wisdom to grow.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Shwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat · 25 talks
- 161 hr 26 minDay 7 Dhamma discussion group A — Wrong View, Aversion, and Natural Speed3 Apr 2016
- 171 hr 40 minDay 7 Dhamma discussion group B — Craving, the Sense of Self, and Awareness3 Apr 2016
- 181 hr 26 minDay 8 Dhamma discussion group C — Not Aiming for Awareness and Knowing the Mind Door4 Apr 2016
- 191 hr 11 minDay 8 Dhamma discussion group D — Taking Care of Emotions First and Practicing in Daily Life4 Apr 2016
- 2040 minDay 9 morning guided — Knowing the Awareness and the Object5 Apr 2016
- 211 hr 17 minDay 9 Dhamma discussion group A — Pain and Mind's Attitude, Seeing Versus Looking5 Apr 2016
- 221 hr 16 minDay 9 Dhamma discussion group B — Handling Sleepiness and Investigating Aversion5 Apr 2016
- 231 hr 11 minDay 10 Dhamma discussion group C — Sound As Object and Knowing Mind6 Apr 2016
- Viewing2456 minDay 10 Dhamma discussion group D — Watching Emotions, Maintaining Awareness and Facing Strong Traumas6 Apr 2016
- 2527 minClosing day · morning guided meditation and reminders — Recharging the Mind Battery and Maintaining Bare Awareness8 Apr 2016
Transcript
EnglishOkay. Um, first I want to say thank you for this great retreat. Then I want to say thank you for this great technique, because I think it's a technique to avoid burn out. Burn out, yeah, which is what you— you know, burn out. When a manager is burned out, he has no energy.
EnglishYeah. So. So this is a technique to avoid that, yeah? That will not happen to him. Yes. Yeah. Right. We practice with more peaceful way. Yes. Yeah. Relax with peaceful way. Yeah.
EnglishAnd, uh, so I really enjoyed, and I could, I had the chance to get very deep in the meditation. Right. I had a chance to practice it very good, yeah. Right. So, um, at the beginning it took me a long time to get really calm and aware.
EnglishNow I'm really very good. Twenty minutes I arrived to the— I reached a level my body is calm, my brain is calm also.
EnglishUm, after our last speech, I just want to join that. Uh, I went to the pagoda. Yes. For one hour walking meditation, which is also a very great technique. The walking meditation. Walking meditation to the pagoda? No, to— to do the walking meditation.
EnglishOh, yes. It's a great technique. Right. And, um, then I came down to— I was very relaxed. Uh-huh. I thought, okay, it's— you are not sleepy, go for meditation. Yeah. So I went in the meditation hall, and it was empty. Hmm. It was calm, yeah. No, no voice, no nothing.
EnglishIt was calm. I was very relaxed. So I sat down, and it took twenty minutes. I was really on a very good stage. And suddenly, yeah, it was like a shower. A lot of energy was just falling down.
EnglishAnd I was aware. I just realized it's energy. Right. Okay? And then it was very interesting. It took ten minutes. I could just realize my body is taking all this energy. It took ten minutes. Hmm. And the energy was going inside any cell, inside.
EnglishRight? I can see it. And then
Englishmy system said, okay, meditation done, go up, go to bed. So I stand up, I went to bed. And that is a very nice experience to have this here.
EnglishYeah. You, you write— write this— this has good state of mind, good, uh, whole time quality of mind, but affected the body, right? Because of this quality is whole time quality of the mind. But actually, it's a meditation, it's not only peacefulness.
EnglishWe need to stay learning about the nature, right? Yes. Okay. It's really a long process. But peacefulness is helping you to, to learn something, right? Yes. Ready to be understand something. Otherwise, if you are not trying to learn, then start— we are trying to enjoy the peacefulness. No. Yeah.
EnglishOkay. It's okay. So if you understand, it's okay. Yeah. Awakened, or open, and see the process, the some understanding can come, right? Yes. That's right. And to develop the wisdom. Right. Yeah. We need to cultivate this quality of mind. Yes. That's why the meditation, we are practicing for understanding.
EnglishSo the quality of mind must be good. If you're burnt out and if you're tired, that is a very difficult understanding, right? Yes, yes. Yeah, right.
EnglishOkay. So very good. Okay. About practice? Yeah. Um, I just want to recap, because you have so many students, so you might not remember everything. So, um, I had a lot of thinking going on. Hmm. Um, from the previous interview, I mentioned that there was a lot of emotions. And at the beginning I tried to think, um, I tried to be aware of thinking, but then it wasn't working, so I tried to watch the emotion.
EnglishBut there was also— I was not skillful enough. Hmm. And, um, thinking still creeps in. So when— how do you watch your emotion? Yeah, I see. When you have an emotion, the thinking and feelings happening. Yeah. So what are you watching? So this time I— I focused entirely on just the emotion. Yes. And what I realized that, okay, the nature of the news that I got is, um, a little bit confusing, because it actually stirs up a lot of emotions.
EnglishNot just one type, but a few. So what I noticed was that, um, as I was watching one emotion, um, a thought creeps in and, and creates a, a new emotion. And then it's like a, a chemical reaction, and, you know, you suddenly— you just— everything was ha— happening so fast that I had, like, multiple emotions that I was feeling.
EnglishSo I tried to— Whatever emotion, but you can feel the emotion is present, right? I can feel it. But. At the beginning of— Feeling is present, yeah. Yeah. It was a bit mixed, but, like. But I'm, I'm, I'm— maybe the feeling is not, not, not present. Unpresent feeling, right? Yeah. Emotion, bad emotion, unpresent feeling. Mixture a bit, like, um, worry, a bit of sadness, a bit of excitement, a bit of fear.
EnglishOkay. So I started, um, slowing down a bit. I just said, okay, let's just watch one emotion at a time. Oh. So, um, so it was, uh, worry first. But I realized, like, um, my— there's thoughts that creep in to create new emotions, but I wanted to try and pay attention to just one.
EnglishSo I started, like, asking. You can do the general training also, you can do this. Mm-hmm. Because one by one, you cannot do this very— because of many mixed together, then. Yeah. You can say unpresent feeling is already there. Only one thing. There are some pleasant feelings as well. Huh? There are some pleasant feelings. Present feeling also, but you— you just watching the feeling. Mm-hmm.
EnglishPresent, unpresent, you see the present, unpresent, just a feeling. Okay. Right? So then what happened? So for me, what was, uh, quite apparent was worry. So I watched worry first. And to, uh, I tried to create some curiosity with the feeling of worry. So I asked, like, how does it feel to be worried?
EnglishSo I was feeling it, and, and then I said, okay, if worry has a color, like, what, what would it be? It was, like, brown to me. Um. No, no, no need to think about this. Just know that this feeling directly experienced. Hmm. No need to feel. No need to think about it. If you think, it makes it something to concept. So the reason why I did that was because, like, um, I wa— I wanted to
Englishstay with that feeling. Hmm. Because if not, like, jumping around. Aware of it. Yeah, aware of the just feeling, that's enough. Don't. Okay. I try to— I mean, what I mean is don't try to think about this feeling. Mm-hmm. Just knowing you already feel, right? Yeah. Yeah. So
Englishthen this. So, uh, after watching it, and then I, I realized that it's just— actually just chemical reactions in the body that, you know, gives up this physiological response. And, um, it's nature, and everyone has this worry. Right. Yes. This idea must be there. This is nature. Yeah.
EnglishIt's not, not, not personal. Yeah. Not personal. So I could see worry objectively, and then worry just go away. Yes. Right. Yes. But the new emotion comes in the next one. Calm. Let it be. So I, I came, and I did the same thing for sadness. I did for. Right. Uh, excitement, fear, and finally it was, uh, desire.
EnglishCan come any emotion come. Yeah. Just only this. It's like one by one. If I'm done with this one, the next one comes in. Yes. You know? Yeah. So I just watched one by one, and finally it was desire. Then I watched that. On the surface it felt like it was a good feeling. Hmm. But actually, like, desire has this craving attached to it.
EnglishIt's not a good feeling actually. Not very good. Not very good. Yeah. It's not good. Meditation. So. Thanks. I started watching it, and also, um, again the same process that it's just nature. So this, this our responsibility is don't complain and don't try to inter-interfere the process.
EnglishHmm. Just step back, watch objectively. Yeah. That's it. For me, it's. So then whatever come and go, come and go, come and go, we can watch, continue, and learn something about this process. Yeah. That's it. Important is that we are not trying to feed them. Yeah. Right? So they come and they go. They have the energy, they show you, and they go.
EnglishHmm. Right? If you feed, there's a problem. Yeah. You allow thinking the pro storyline, or you feed it, and wrong idea come, then they start growing and overwhelm the whole mind. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I was watching, uh, desire. Hmm. And to watch it objectively, I, I look at it like, like, what is this? Like curious, you know?
EnglishRight. Right. Yeah. And then, uh, so, like, finally it was, uh, I, I again said that it's just chemical reactions. Everyone feel this way, and I, I could feel that, um, like, there was
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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.…