Q&AShwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat2 Mar 2017
Day 2 Discussion group C — Motivation in Practice and Understanding Realities
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 18 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:18:44
AI-written summary
In a group interview, the teacher clarifies maintaining awareness with right attitude rather than forcing calm. Yogis simply recognize whatever arises, from thoughts and defilements to direct characteristics of the mind.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Shwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat · 18 talks
- 136 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
- Viewing31 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
EnglishSo March 2, 2017, in Kallol, group C, in the evening.
EnglishUm, Sayadaw, just on the report— Yeah. Sorry. So my practice is mostly sitting, and
Englishif it's too tired then I'll do some walking and standing, open eyes. Sitting mostly I do close eyes. For the last 2 days, mostly it is engaging in talks, and mostly talks. Mm-hmm. On and off I'll remind myself that everything that happens to me, everything that's observed, is just happening, it's just nature, and that's the best I can do at the moment.
Englishyang mana? Dah
EnglishSo the mind is not stable.
EnglishStart. Do you mean not stable by because it's thinking? Because it's engaging, very much engaging thoughts and images. Betul tu. Apa-apa. Yeah. So when you notice, when you realize that the mind has been lost in thinking, and you know, once you are aware again.
EnglishHe says, um, bring it back to the body, you know, so that— Not yet. So you gain some awareness. Macam-macam ni waktu ni, tak nak tunggu ni. And ask yourself, um, regularly, am I aware or am I thinking or lost in thought, you know?
EnglishSure. Jawatan apa? Tinggu jawatan apa ni? Because
Englishwhat we're trying to do is to know, right, to know what's happening now. At least to be conscious of it, to recognize what's happening. Thai nak berfikir, Shah pun tak berfikir. Tengok India pun baru berfikir. Jawatan ni dah dapat tu ada something pun. Yeah. Whether we are, you know, we sit and walk and do all these things in this retreat, all in the name of
Englishbeing aware, of knowing the moment, ourselves in the moment. One of the challenges I have is when I open my eyes and walking and standing, it is always seeing the outside and engaging the objects. Beautiful sun, moon, stars, people, instead of observing it as nature.
EnglishIt continues to forget. Observing that seeing is nature. Yes. It forgets. It just— It doesn't come to the seeing at all, yeah. 。 。。，，。？，？。 。，，。，。，，。，。。，，recognize it。 Yeah.
Englishrecognize the low. So when you set out, Sayadaw says, when you set out, okay, like you're going for a walk, you're going to— he says you need to, like, prep your mind, okay? I'm going to look at something, you know that you're going to look at something, then you prep your mind. So you're, like, prepared to look and then know that you're looking.
EnglishSo it becomes like an exercise, you know? So you need to do it that way, to prep your mind and exer— go through the motions of the exercise in order to train your mind to observe these things. Otherwise we— you're just going to— if you just— naturally, then it's just going to go the way it always has.
EnglishIt's not difficult to recognize that you're seeing, right? Like if you— Look. Yeah. Apply yourself, right. Yeah. Then I remember when I noticed that. Sorry? If I remember. If you remember, yeah, you can see it. Yeah.
EnglishOkay, I'll just continue. Okay. Um, I also had about the same thing when I came yesterday. A lot of thoughts coming up, so I decided to follow Sayadaw's advice and just keep coming back to awareness whenever I remember. So, um, so I couldn't sit for very long. I mean, at most it was like 20 minutes.
EnglishWhen you say you come back to awareness— I will notice the, yeah, my body touching. Body okay. Yeah. Something very basic, simple awareness. So, but then my mind kept going into thoughts, getting lost in thoughts a lot. So I keep doing that, and then today, um, the mind managed to calm, to calm down already. And then actually yesterday also there were periods that I calmed down and had joy when the deepam is up, like, no more, then the joy is there, but just very short.
EnglishBut today, um, it was a prolonged period. Basically the mind managed to calm down and stabilize, I think. So it managed to sit for one hour. And then notice that, um, basically even if I sit on a normal cushion, I mean, basically the thoughts wasn't a problem anymore. I noticed that actually the thoughts are still there, but it's just not a problem.
EnglishAnd it's able to just meditate and just notice whatever arises.
EnglishOh, itu yang cik ni nak tahu sikit. Itu logo-logo apa? Aku logo-logo dia sama. Tak nak cakap yang logo-logo ya. Sabar marah. Sabarlah. Ya. Alah, itu tengok TV. Mama, tengok Mama tu apa? So you're going steadily. So that's good. Just do that. So it made me realize that on hindsight, when I try, actually I was, there was this like of the
Englishrestless mind, yeah, which I didn't notice. Even like trying a little too much is already, there's a dislike there. I try to observe it like a little bit more, yeah, and actually. Aku
EnglishSpecial, special, special, biar aku. He says, um, yeah, it's just interviews are just like this, you know, just to tell what you're experiencing.
EnglishIt doesn't have to be special, it doesn't, yeah, just. Special, special, cuba melawa. To lay it out. To lay it out, yeah.
EnglishOkay, I do have one question about practice at home. In December I was in Seoul in Yangon, so I was also practicing there. And then when I went home, there was the usual, you know, after retreat kind of momentum, you know, the mind is still clear and all that. But once it gets home, it already doesn't want to, um, apply the effort to maintain the awareness.
EnglishIt just doesn't have the same motivation. So at first I thought, oh, because life is so busy, you know. But actually my life became free, you know, I was very free. But yet the mind, although I seemingly am watching the mind, it always still choose to follow greed. It always choose to follow comfort and greed. It doesn't want to sit down and meditate.
EnglishSo what I do is I still observe the, I mean, the bad or negative consequences of following greed. And then, um, the few times that I'm motivated to sit, the mind actually come back to clarity and, you know, again, you know, and then it become very efficient and all that. So I'm, but that is, but then again it goes back to the greed, you know.
EnglishSo it's not motivated for very long to keep up the practice. You mean to sit? Because you do keep up the practice since you're noticing the other things, no? I do, yeah, but not to sit. So I think maybe the momentum is not the same like in retreat.
EnglishYou know what I mean,
[Burmese segment]
EnglishTime nak hati garam tu. Jadi tarikh jen saya nak hati juga. Yeah. So Sayadaw says sitting is not essential, you know, in that sense. But it's reasonable, it's essential.
EnglishWhat is essential is, uh, motivation. Oh, time je lah ni. Atas ni nak nombor 2. Jadi tarikh nak ni, time je nak ni. Different je. Nyawa aku. And noted, um, what is essential is a motivation to practice, which means to be aware of yourself, to know yourself, to notice yourself, you know, recognize what's happening with yourself. That, that's, that's the practice. Sitting is a form of practice.
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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.…