Q&ASaddhamma Meditation Society Retreat7 Dec 2016
Day 8a interviews — Momentum, Labeling, and Watching the Mind's Reactions
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 51 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:51:16
AI-written summary
The interview clarifies recognizing mental reactions instead of being absorbed in physical sensations or pain. The teacher explains the difference between mechanical labeling and natural awareness, emphasizing the importance of right attitude toward fear and defilements.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Saddhamma Meditation Society Retreat · 16 talks
- 737 minDay 5b interviews — Observing the Mind as Object and Investigation4 Dec 2016
- 81 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
- Viewing121 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
- 141 hr 53 minDay 9a interviews — Working with Memory, Fear, and Daily Mindfulness8 Dec 2016
- 151 hr 58 minDay 9b interviews — Thinking the Vipassanā Way and Objects8 Dec 2016
- 1630 minDay 10 closing — No End to Meditation: Continuing to Practice in Daily Life9 Dec 2016
Transcript
English
Sadhama Meditation Society, Virginia, Fall Retreat 2016, the 8th day—December 7—interview English Nganmar Group.
English
Uh, my question is, uh, if the summer circumstances—environment—like yesterday, it was raining, also Dhamma house was very cold, so then I would, like, worse—strong desire
English
to escape this kind of situation. Like cold, or try to make the temperature higher.
English
So for the same—since mine is very hard to make a steam.
English
So for this kind of
English
environment, it's so hard to maintain, how do I maintain— You mean how do you make the mind stable? Yeah, like what's the right effort to make—make like awareness. Because it looks like mine is continuously trying to just, you know,
English
aware of my body and immediately change to other things. Okay. So that's a problem? Yeah.
[Burmese segment]
English
. Yeah, that's just—not difficult to calm the mind, only difficult to be patient. Okay. . If you want the mind to calm down, say that's very simple: have the right attitude, and patiently place your attention onto something, some object, again and again and again.
English
Patiently. With the right attitude. Then the mind will calm down. . But it's difficult to be patient with that. Uh, but I feel that mine is always like some different thinking comes automatically. Different teaching? Different thinking. Thinking. Yeah, different. Like, like sometimes I feel like cold.
English
Then I remind me, it's okay, just aware of this disliking mind. Then another, like, fear—fear mind arise. Okay. Oh, if this cold, it can be sick. Okay. Yeah. You know, body can be become sick. So you look at that. Yeah, yeah. So it looks like it's a
English
killed me at the room. Like recognize don't need it. Yeah. So that's a lot of— Actually, all these thoughts come up, but you need to—see I was just—keep backing away from it and recognizing it. So there's thinking that it's cold, disliking it, aware of disliking.
English
Then another thought comes up, aware of the thought. The thought says, "Maybe you'll fall sick." So aware of that thought. There's fear. So aware of that fear. And then the fear continues. Aware of that fear. Aware of that fear. He says you have to keep being aware. But if you stop being aware and you start believing the thought, your mind starts to follow the thought. That's a dream? Yeah. It starts to give you a—it starts to exaggerate that idea.
English
"Oh, it's going to be sick. This is not good." You know, how to meditate like this. It starts to go off into this belief thinking, right? Instead of being aware. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, how about, like, some—do I need, like, take some actions? If I feel cold, do I need, like, put on, like, more clothes or, like, change out temperature or— Yeah.
English
. Of course you should take the correct action. . Yeah. See, I was just—of course we—we have to— . Sao? Sao? See, I was just—of course we have to do what's necessary, right?
English
What is possible to keep the mind and body in balance. What's possible, right? After that, what's not possible, we have to watch. Okay. Yes? He says we always have to balance for the body, the temperature, and the food, right? . Yeah. He says, and if you, you know, in the end, if nothing is possible, you can go in your car and turn on the heater.
English
He knows that, about that.
English
He says, there's many ways to deal with something, but our fear gets in the way. Okay.
English
Um, so a few years ago, uh, I didn't know that much about meditation, but I had just read some stuff about focusing on the breath and stuff like that, and the labeling technique. Um, and so I'd kind of experiment with that. And there's a few times where I would try to clearly see the breath or something like that, and I noticed that, um, I think it has to do with vitthika, maybe?
English
But it seemed like thoughts, and like I could see thoughts and intentions, sort of at a subtle level. And they would come really, really fast. Um,
English
but I was—I would use sort of—it felt like I was always using a lot of intention or energy. But, like, now when I do the practice, I feel like a lot of times I'm not seeing to that same depth, like the reactions and stuff. So then I'm wondering sometimes, am I doing this practice, uh, correctly?
English
Like, was I doing back then, like, something right? I don't know. But it seemed like there was a lot of forcing, so I'm not really sure, but. Right. Um, so when you were doing the other practice, and then you got to the point
English
that you could see the more subtle thoughts and activities in the mind, um, had you been practicing a few years? Um, or maybe more correctly, maybe in that period when you saw that, had you been practicing continuously? Um, kind of. I was doing like two hours per day. And, um, sort of I would go to class and stuff and have anxiety a lot of times, so I'd kind of try to watch my mental reactions a lot.
[Burmese segment]
MY
Yeah. Sayadaw says it's um, um you know, momentum plays a big part in, in practice. So
English
So we don't know whether, in between that time and now, whether you've been practicing. Um, but, but momentum is really the key. If we apply ourselves, if we find it interesting, we keep watching, we find something that, you know, that our mind keeps coming back to throughout the day. Um, and we put in the, you know, the, the, the—we invest the necessary energy to be mindful and so on.
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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.…