Q&ASaddhamma Meditation Society Retreat5 Dec 2016
Day 6a interviews — Overly Active Mind and Observing the Thinking Mind
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 50 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:50:01
AI-written summary
The interview clarifies how to handle an active mind that knows too many objects or gets lost in thoughts. The teacher explains that the mind naturally knows things, so yogis can ground awareness without rejecting other experiences.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Saddhamma Meditation Society Retreat · 16 talks
- 41 hr 47 minDay 3a interviews — Light Awareness, Observing the Mind, and Recognizing Feelings2 Dec 2016
- 51 hr 46 minDay 3b interviews — Knowing the Mind Process and Natural Experience2 Dec 2016
- 61 hr 47 minDay 5a interviews — Watching the Reactive Mind and Knowing the Awareness4 Dec 2016
- 737 minDay 5b interviews — Observing the Mind as Object and Investigation4 Dec 2016
- Viewing81 hr 50 minDay 6a interviews — Overly Active Mind and Observing the Thinking Mind5 Dec 2016
- 91 hr 20 minDay 6b interviews — Samādhi, Sampajañña and Awareness in Daily Life5 Dec 2016
- 101 hr 56 minDay 7a interviews — Distinguishing Reality and Concept, Observing Emotions with Right View6 Dec 2016
- 112 hr 5 minDay 7b interviews — Being Aware of the Knowing Mind6 Dec 2016
- 121 hr 51 minDay 8a interviews — Momentum, Labeling, and Watching the Mind's Reactions7 Dec 2016
- 131 hr 43 minDay 8b interviews — Working with Emotions and Right Thinking7 Dec 2016
Transcript
EnglishSadhama Meditation Society, Virginia, Fall Retreat 2016, 6 December 5, Interview English. Nganmar Group.
EnglishUh, good morning. Um, I think the last couple of days there is a lot of information that will come, and most of them are really brand new, so I'm continuing to hear what the teacher said is, "Continue to practice. Continue to do your awareness and all that stuff." But my question is, it's not how or what, but what process or how do you do to
Englishslow down, or actually shutting down, the overly active mind?
[Burmese segment]
EnglishOverly active mind
EnglishWould you like me to expand that? Overly active mind Okay, what do you mean by overly active mind? Okay. Um, basically,
Englishyou're trying to be aware of what's coming at you, all the objects. And some of them are coming a lot. And so, as a beginner, you just want to be aware one at a time. But sometimes I think your mind is just like a little kid. It's coming all at once and you go, "I'll take it all in," and then keep thinking and thinking and thinking.
EnglishSorry, thinking and thinking? More like aware and observe, observe, observe. And sometimes you just want to say, "Whoa, slow down. One at a time." But then they continue to keep thinking, thinking. And sometimes it's just overwhelming. You just say, "Look, I'm tired. Stop." Is it thinking or knowing things? Um, knowing is coming.
EnglishYeah. You're right, I'm using the wrong word. It's knowing. It's more like knowing rather than thinking. Okay. So you're knowing that things are happening. Yes. And you're knowing a lot of things are happening. Right. And sometimes you just want to say, "That's it. Enough." That's just stop. Wait till tomorrow. We'll do some more.
English , . , . , . ? You cannot interfere with nature. You have to let nature take its course. This is what is happening naturally in the mind.
[Burmese segment]
EnglishHe says you, you know, you—
English Okay. So Sierra says you,
Englishum, you know, he said let nature
Englishdo its own thing. And you don't sort of need to struggle with it. He says, um, this is the way the mind is naturally knowing things. And you cannot
Englishprescribe to the mind, "Oh, you should know the objects in this way or that way." You should not have an idea that, "I only want to know the objects one at a time." You know? That's the—so that's what makes it frustrating. Or you think—makes you think it's overly active. Okay? But if you want to feel a little more stable, you cannot stop the objects from coming, okay?
EnglishBut you can maybe help yourself by grounding yourself with one object. Okay? And the other thing is, he says, you don't have to know each object individually quickly. He says, all you need to do is know that many objects are being known, without having to name them individually or look at them one by one.
EnglishYou know, you can just—all you need to acknowledge is a lot of things are being known. That's, you know, enough. But if you still feel you need help, then he says, take one object, one of those, and stay with it, but don't ignore the rest. So maybe you know the breath, and then at the same time you know that all these things keep being known. And I do agree with that.
EnglishAnd maybe if you do that during the day or during meditation, that would work fine. But this is like at 10 o'clock at night, and you say, "I want to go to sleep." And so you say, "Let's go back to just one object," which is, "I'm just going back to my breathing." Okay? So in and out. So I can focus on that. So I can, like, subdue my mind.
EnglishSo I can go sleep, and then maybe we can work again tomorrow. But somehow the mind goes, "No, I know that technique, so I'm not going to let that happen." And it continues to—it continues to. You know, if you try to sleep, it's harder to sleep.
EnglishSo the problem is not that you are knowing many things or that you're trying to anchor the—the problem is that you are trying to sleep. If the— So it can be on a meditation retreat that your mind becomes so clear that at night, the mind feels clear.
EnglishAnd that's a good opportunity to continue being mindful. Because being mindful is actually more restful for the mind than going to sleep. But if you, at that time, try to sleep thinking that you need to sleep, then you're going to have the struggle. Yeah. Because the mind just wants to do what it has always done its whole life. It just wants to follow its little habit patterns, right?
English When we are mindful all day long, we are doing something that the mind has not usually been doing, right? It's sensitive in a different way now. So at night, it might not immediately need to go to sleep. Sleep is to give rest to the body, and sometimes the mind.
EnglishBut when you've been mindful all day long, the mind is pretty rested. And then at night, the mind finds that it doesn't need to rest so much because, you know, it's being mindful. And then you'll also—you can also find, on a retreat, you know, and your mindfulness is continuous, that you don't sleep for long hours either. Like you will, you know, drift into short sleep moments, and then you wake up again and you're aware.
EnglishAnd then you're aware and you might drift off for a little bit again, then you might wake up again and then you're aware. And, you know, you might drift in and out of awareness and sleep, awareness and sleep. But the mind is always aware. So that's fine. That's good. Good. I'm just going to try to keep it short. But I think I do understand what you're saying. You're right. Mindfulness all day, at night should be sleep very well.
EnglishUnfortunately, I was in an orchestra, so there's a lot of snoring and noising and everything. That is when you're— Wake up, you know. Yeah. And that's why you're going to go, "Okay, go back, be aware." Aware of all the noise, the snoring, and all that. But don't name it. Just aware it's there. Yes. at that time you don't like what's happening.
EnglishYou should be watching your disliking mind. That's exactly— So don't listen to the snoring. Listen to your mind. And that's exactly what I did, and that's why you keep saying, "No." But anyway, I understand. I understand that now, and I'll continue to work with that. I know. I know. I know this mind. He says, you know, the disliking mind says no, but you ignore the disliking mind and say yes, and keep watching the disliking mind.
EnglishYeah. He says the disliking mind will do its job. And its job is to say no to everything. And you do your job, which is to be mindful of it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.
[Burmese segment]
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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.…