Q&AShwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat8 Mar 2017
Day 8 Discussion group A — Cause and Effect, Anatta, and Role of Samatha
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 9 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:09:51
AI-written summary
A group interview addresses observing thoughts without defilements driving them and clarifies the causal nature of not-self (anatta). The teacher explains how concentration meditation (samatha) can settle an agitated mind before applying Vipassanā.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Shwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat · 18 talks
- 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
- 111 hr 19 minDay 6 Discussion group C — Working with Six Sense Doors and Reactions6 Mar 2017
- 121 hr 36 minDay 7 Discussion group B — Being Aware of Thinking and Noticing Judging Mind7 Mar 2017
- 132 hr 16 minDay 7 Discussion group D — Observing Defilements and Looking for Cause7 Mar 2017
- Viewing141 hr 10 minDay 8 Discussion group A — Cause and Effect, Anatta, and Role of Samatha8 Mar 2017
- 151 hr 57 minDay 8 Discussion group C — Samādhi, Quality of Awareness and Attitude8 Mar 2017
- 1620 minDay 9 closing — Carrying Practice into Daily Life9 Mar 2017
- 171 hr 16 minDay 9 Discussion group B — Reality, Stability of Mind, and Wisdom9 Mar 2017
- 181 hr 46 minDay 9 Discussion group D — Talking Meditation, Dealing with Defilements, and Uncovering Subtler Layers9 Mar 2017
Transcript
English
8 March 2017, Wednesday, in Kallol in the morning, 8:30 a.m., group A. Yes. Sayadaw, I'm not here about thinking. Hmm? Thinking question. When you meditate here and you watch your thoughts,
MY
I don't have problems. But then the question comes up when I'm at work and I have to think a problem through and I have to find a solution. What I have to be aware of?
[Burmese segment]
English
So she understood she needs to watch out for the defilements that might be motivating the thinking. She needs to know her thoughts and her feelings so that she can identify if there are defilements in the process, and clear the defilements. So that she does the thinking she needs to do without the defilements.
MY
But you will need to think. You can't not think.
English
So at that time you have your thoughts and your feelings, and she says you want to check to see if there are defilements, and if there are defilements you want to clear them first. And you clear them by watching your feelings, and when the feelings become clear then you continue what you need to think. That's what you have to do at work, because you can't not—you can't work without thinking.
English
You have to plan. Okay. Can I just ask you to elaborate more on, like, the defilements? I mean, how do you identify that defilements
MY
[Burmese speech]
English
As you watch, you know. You don't have to go out of your way. Sometimes the mind recognizes clearly what it is, you know. This is greed at work, this is delusion at work, or this is aversion at work.
English
And that would be wisdom, that understands what each of the defilements are doing. Yeah. Yes. So this time when I came, I realized. Less comment. Less comment, less. Because before comment, the system let you know this is your way, this is only your, how do you say, habit
English
Your own way. Idea. Your own idea. One idea. After? After the lesson. After? Go. After. So nothing to do. No.
English
You're like a little shell with your role. Oh, nail it. That's why it's lost, yeah. If you're aware, the mind understands it's not necessary, then the mind less comments. Yeah. Same like talking. If you're not aware, the delusion all the time talking this with that, with this with that, very confused. If you're aware, the mind knows it's necessary or not. Right? Okay. If you're aware there's a—the Samba sanya, it's followed together.
English
There's also some kind of wisdom. Sati is Samba sanya. Together. Every time you're aware, Samba sanya is followed. This is a—that Samba sanya is a should. Samba sanya is a Sam— Samba chanya. Samba chanya. Yeah. Spanish. Samba chanya. Sam chanya. Sam chanya.
English
It's some kind of wisdom. They call clear comprehension, but there's four types of wisdom. Four types. Okay. When you're aware, whatever you do, awareness present, the mind slowly realizes it's should or not, need or not, necessary or not. How to do. Slowly the wisdom follows. That is also some kind of wisdom. We call Samba chanya. Yes.
English
Samba chanya. So he naturally—that's why awareness there, the wisdom slowly growing. Yeah. That's why the mind knows it's not necessary. Then the mind don't think too much. Right? Aware is important. Ah, yes. Aware is the cause of wisdom come. So the aware you long, so the— Wisdom is slowly growing. Yes.
English
That's why we try to continue aware. Right? Awareness is a collected information. If you continue practice information, slowly get it again and again and again, the mind is growing. Wisdom is growing. Then the mind decides, ah, this should or not. Understood. Sayadaw, when awareness is continuous, wisdom naturally will come in to guide, I mean, to show.
MY
Yeah, this because of cause and effect. Yeah. This is a mental conditioning. Every time the awareness present, the wisdom must be together. It is a mental. Every time
English
So what Sayadaw is trying to say is that only when sati is present, then wisdom can arise. Yeah? Only then wisdom can arise. Not that it's always wisdom. Right. So in my practice, I notice over some time, let's say if I have certain habit, when there's awareness, somehow the mind knows how to perceive it correctly, what to do.
English
But so in the end, let's say after some time, the habit drops. Then only when I notice, eh, how come I don't have this habit anymore, I try to reflect back what happened. Because I didn't know the process. I only know intellectually. Mind has been aware, it has picked up many information, collected data, and therefore it says this habit not necessarily anymore.
English
And therefore no more habit. But is it important to really see the process? See the process. Yeah. Then this is more sure. If you reflect, not sure. Momo, momo.
[Burmese segment]
English
. Yeah. So when there's more wisdom, it will be able to understand the process. When there's not enough wisdom. . Yeah, it doesn't understand. But although it does understand the conclusion, right, the understanding now is that this is not beneficial or not necessary, and it's let go of. It doesn't understand the process of how it happens. But that's okay.
MY
Okay he says it's not that you have to be able to know that also right? You remain content with what you have and then you just keep observing. Sometimes the mind will understand the process, sometimes it doesn't.
[Burmese segment]
English
Yeah. That's right. He says that reflecting might help us to intellectually see that this seems to be the elements of the process, but there's not a hard understanding that this is the cause-effect process, right? So when there's a true understanding of the cause-effect process, it will just come to you in the moment, you know, without your having to reflect on it.
MY
[Burmese speech]
English
. Yeah. He says now intellectually we know that, you know, if we pay attention to the process, that the mind, this sort of understanding might come to the mind. But he says we don't have to work at it so deliberately, right? He says so long as the mind has that information, eventually it will, when it is able, it will use that information and put the elements of its experience together and be able to see the, have that understanding.
English
But until then, he says, we just work with what we have and what we know. You know, this is evidentially true in my space so far. Because that day when I asked about thinking too much. But this is only upon reflection. But maybe because the awareness after that was more stable, the information comes in again to say that, eh, that question that I asked, I didn't realize that there was aversion towards.
English
Remember I said I was thinking too much and then I come back to the breath? Yes. Yes. And I didn't realize there was already aversion to say that. The aversion is that thinking too much is wrong. I label it wrongly. So, but this is reflection later. Yes. Later. At a. But not, you didn't consciously reflect? No, I didn't. It came to me. It came to me, yeah. So that is what he means by the understanding will come.
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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.…