Q&AShwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Retreat9 Mar 2017
Day 9 Discussion group B — Reality, Stability of Mind, and Wisdom
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 15 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:15:48
AI-written summary
In this group interview, meditators discuss cause and effect when working with aversion, fear, and desire. By recognizing physical sensations rather than identifying with conceptual stories, yogis see how the arising and passing of mentality and materiality reveal impermanence.
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
- 141 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
- Viewing171 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
9th of March, 2017, in Kallong, Thursday, 8:30 a.m., group B. Sadhbhu. Yes. I had a very interesting observation of cause and effect. I was wearing my hotel slippers, and I walked toward the bathroom. I nearly had a slip, and immediately there was an aversion that came out so fast, and I blamed the slipper.
English
I immediately took out the slipper and, like, put it to the side. This is mind-about-relationship. Yes, and walked on. It's like, "Ha, stupid slippers." It realized that, oh my gosh,
English
the slippers are innocent.
English
Yes, and then looking at, oh, cause conditions. Because why I had a near slip? Because there were slippers, there was some water on the floor, and I walked onto the water, and there was that angle that I walked that my leg almost slipped. Right? And then create the effect of me slipping, almost slipping.
English
And I had a reaction so, so upset because I have a bad knee. I need to protect my knee. So there's a fear that if I fall, I might hurt my knee further. And then at that moment it was like, so clear, cause and effect, all conditions, they have a, they are all innocent.
English
They are neutral. All neutral. Yes, only in the mind. So all experience is the same, right? Of cause and effect. Experience and experience, right?
English
It's the same. Experience is not the problem. So that's also a clear benefit for me that when there is awareness, I can look at it. But if not, I just react to it and totally just go on with the next thing. I look near it. Next thing. Yeah, this is very good.
English
To recognize that because there's awareness, therefore the mind could recognize these things. And without awareness, then the mind would have gone in another direction.
English
Right. Obviously by the time you need that. When we see what happened and also what might have happened. Obviously, right? Without awareness. Yeah. When there's not enough wisdom, or no wisdom, the mind only sees one thing. But when there's wisdom, the mind sees more angles. Yeah. Yeah.
English
Awareness, that's right. Wisdom can see more than one point of view. It can see sometimes two, three different, more than that, you know, different things that were involved in the same thing. When the Buddha talked about things, it was never about one cause and one effect.
English
It was always about several causes, conditions, for one effect, you know? At least three or four or five.
[Burmese segment]
English
Aśvin Anuruddha became enlightened after the vassal, and he reflected on what he had understood, and the conditions that supported his enlightenment, he went to the Buddha and expressed his understanding of the conditions that supported his enlightenment. And he enumerated seven conditions that he detected, and the Buddha told him one more.
English
So there were eight conditions that supported his enlightenment. First is lobha-mati. Non-appetite, right? Less desire. And then contentment. Result with contentment. Content with the result. Okay? Body and mind. Body and mind in solitude.
English
Solitude of body and solitude of mind. I'm not talking about living alone, yeah? That. Yeah. It means not unnecessarily socializing. Yeah. And then the mind. The mental solitude is that the mind is not entertaining the defilements.
English
Yeah. So it's not about living alone. It's about being circumspect. effort. And then? Persevering, trying again and again. And then awareness that is sustained, sustained awareness.
English
And then there is samādhi, stability of mind. And then there must be wisdom. So he told the Buddha that these were the conditions that he saw contributed to his enlightenment. And the Buddha added one more.
English
Yeah. And the last one the Buddha pointed out. Was how the mind. Doesn't complicate things, like being simple.
English
So the mind that likes simplicity. So the qualities that tend to complicate things or exaggerate things are tanhā, which is lobha, mānā, which is under the dosa, and ditti. Ditti is view, wrong view, and that is under delusion. Yeah. So for example, when we go on retreat and then we think.
English
We need to have this, you know? We need to have a clean toilet. We must have somebody to cook for us. You know? So the belief that. Things must be the way we need it for us to be able to function. Yeah, that's. It's a delusion. That's complicating things.
English
That's expanding our universe beyond the net. So the Buddha explained this, and it's a little verse. It says, "Those who like." The word in Burmese is narrow, but I guess it means simplicity. Those who like simplicity.
English
Those who don't follow, then the Burmese word is broad, so I guess those who don't like to complicate things. And this is the Dhamma that is deserved by those who have these qualities. Yeah. So there are many. Always many conditions for one effect, and the more the wisdom, the more complete our picture of the conditions that contribute to one thing.
English
So the mind's wisdom always can see two ways or four ways or eight ways or whatever. You know, it can see broadly. Okay. Also, Sadhbhu, in the sittings. Earlier there were a lot of drowsiness. Then from some sitting I was interested to find out when does it go drowsy and when does it, you know, become awake.
English
And there were, like, moments when it got into drowsiness. It just kind of, the awareness was delayed, but recalling what was the thoughts before it became drowsy. And it seems to this mind, the thoughts were not interesting thoughts, you know, like going into, I don't know, La La Land. And then when the moment of wakefulness, the thoughts were more interesting ones to the mind, like planning or what to do and stuff like that.
English
So it caught that, oh, because of that, one of the conditions, it went into drowsiness, and then it woke up because of, you know, the more interesting thoughts. Read an aversion also may play a bit.
English
Wake the mind up. Correct. Energy to it. It gives us energy. Oh, okay. And then after that, it seems there were more interest, maybe the momentum of awareness is there. There were less, much, much less drowsiness in the following sitting day after. Once there's no momentum. Yes. When all the five faculties start waking up, you know, when they are working more steadily, yeah, then the development, right, sloth and top or tinamita, it gets less because sati, and samādhi, and wisdom, they all wake up.
English
They make the mind alert. You know, sloth and top, it's not just dullness, it's also laziness. Yeah, it's a combination of dullness and. I have a question about. I was checking when the mind seems to be quite stable, quite, quite calm.
English
I was checking is there any craving, any aversion stuff. It seems to be quite, like, peaceful. And then I said, oh, it seems like this moment there's no aversion of any sort, quite calm. Is it a checkpoint when I noticed there was some mucus, mucus coming, and there was a desire to sneeze it out to bring comfort?
English
Yes, blow it out. That itself, is it, like, kind of aversion or grasping to have a comfort? How did it feel? It feels nice after. Okay then. Yeah.
English
He said you have to see for yourself whether there's a quality of aversion there or not. Because, you know, wisdom can also know that this is something you need to do. You know, like you need to go to toilet. Yeah. So what's the quality of the mind? You can be aware. Yeah. The action does not define the quality of the mind.
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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.…