Q&AInsight Meditation Society Retreat1 May 2014
Dharma discussion C2 — Concepts and Experience, Being Aware of Awareness
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 26 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:26:58
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
The Q&A addresses applying concepts like impermanence skillfully and sustaining awareness amid rising defilements. The Sayadaw advises relaxing pressure, knowing awareness itself rather than chasing objects, and maintaining right livelihood free from greed, aversion, and delusion.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Insight Meditation Society Retreat · 35 talks
- 101 hr 53 minDharma Discussion group F1 — Awareness of Mind, Thinking, and Dosa29 Apr 2014
- 111 hr 47 minDharma Discussion group A2 — Working with Depression, Reactions, and Simplicity30 Apr 2014
- 122 hr 10 minDharma Discussion group B2 — Concept, Reality, and Observing Mind30 Apr 2014
- 1332 minGuided meditation — Strengthening Awareness Rather Than Following Objects1 May 2014
- Viewing141 hr 27 minDharma discussion C2 — Concepts and Experience, Being Aware of Awareness1 May 2014
- 152 hr 2 minDharma Discussion group D2 — Working with Past Trauma, Sleepiness, and Right Speech1 May 2014
- 1624 minGuided meditation — Four Right Efforts and Developing Awareness2 May 2014
- 172 hr 15 minDharma Discussion group E2 — Natural Awareness, Dealing with Pīti and Effort2 May 2014
- 181 hr 52 minDharma Discussion group F2 — Taking Care of Awareness, Thinking Productively, and Working with Sleepiness2 May 2014
- 1934 minGuided meditation — Present Moment Knowing and Momentum of Awareness3 May 2014
Transcript
English
So this is Thursday, May 1, at IMS, discussion group C.
English
Okay, raise your hands again, the first group, just so I can get a close. You raised your hand.
English
I have a question. Mm-hmm. Um,
English
it's a question about conceptual ideas and how they relate to the practice. Mm-hmm.
English
Um, and I hear— we hear about and read about all these wonderful and fascinating ideas like anicca and anattā and many other ideas. Mm-hmm. And, um, I sort of grapple with them intellectually and think about them and imagine what the experience would be like. Um,
English
I'm not— Not the experience, maybe the understanding. Right. Yeah. I'm not quite sure how they— how to bring them into the practice, and how— how those actually— in general, how the conceptual ideas, um, relate to moment-to-moment experience and moment-to-moment awareness. Mm-hmm. As part— rather than just being some separate, fascinating thing out here.
MY
Something to think about yeah.
[Burmese segment]
English
He says there's two way— well, two ways that the mind could use these concepts. He says one is, sometimes we're at home, our practice is not very strong, our life is full of defilements, and if we just intellectually think about these concepts, he says
English
it could even— they can even bring up feelings of depression or despair. Because he says greed wants things to last, greed wants to be happy, greed wants, um,
English
you know. . Need to be— yeah, to be established. And, you know, thinking about the fact that things are impermanent, that they're inherently dissatisfactory, and, um, nature— not me, you know— sort of like wobbles the whole picture. It can be very depressing to just think about it intellectually.
English
Um, however, he says
English
when we are practicing and the practice is going well, when the awareness has momentum and, um, you know, um, there is a flow in the practice, the practice is getting better, as he says, awareness, effort, confidence, um, samādhi, all that is getting good, he says, at that time, he says, we can actually, um, introduce,
English
uh, the idea of anicca, dukkha, or anattā. Like, what is it? And maybe, um. Maybe. Because the mind already has other information about it. But if you just introduce that question, in a time of good practice, he says, it actually opens the mind to seeing that true nature. Mm-hmm.
English
Because we're still engaging with the objects and, and, and being aware. Mm-hmm. He says so he gives an example of for anicca.
English
He says, um,
English
we already intellectually have some idea about what anicca is. He says when we are practicing and we're actually engaging, we're, we're being aware moment to moment of the objects, the awareness, and so on. He says at that time, he says, we can see that the objects are known, and then the moment passes, and then known, and then the moment passes, known, and then the moment passes, and the same with the awareness.
English
And he says that's when you can, you know, if you recognize, you incline the mind to recognizing that the moments— that every moment is new or something like that. He says
English
the intellectual understanding that was there before might sometimes get a deeper. Mm-hmm. Um, insight, get a deeper feel of what it means. I think the— that's very helpful. I think what feels tricky to me is the idea of introducing, because the tendency at times is to go off to more conceptual thought.
English
And I think what he means by introduce is more like just present it or something. Yeah, just one. Yeah. Like one word or one question. Yeah. Yeah, not, not to start thinking about it. Yeah. And only when the practice is going well.
English
It cannot be mere thinking. Mm-hmm. If we are merely, um, like postulating in the mind about the theory, then it just stays relegated to theory. It has to be brought to bear upon the experience of the moment.
English
Mm-hmm. Of the moment-to-moment experience. So you have to, um, bring that concept to bear on, you know, as a background
English
information or understanding, and bring, bring that into the light of your experience. So in, yeah, regarding the object itself. Interesting. Interesting moment. He says you just have to be interested in the concept.
English
So then the mind cannot fail to notice that in every moment the object arises and then the object passes, the moment arises and the moment passes. And he says if this is continuously being recognized, he says at some point the wisdom can't help but.
English
sa . And what he wants to really caution us about is having a concept of what anicca means already.
English
So you, you know it means impermanence. That's about enough. He says because everybody's experience of it is different. Some people feel like every moment is new. Some people just notice everything is eternally changing. Some people feel that things are completely gone. Different, different. Completely gone. Completely different. You know, so you— and it could be something else also.
English
We're just naming a few things. So open yourself to what your mind, how your mind will discover that. Yeah. Some people think that knowing impermanence means you must see arising and passing away, like, like a some, some sort of a mechanical.
English
And he says then they, they look for that. And he says then the, the, the insight doesn't come because they've got that concept blocking the. Yeah. They only post the concept on the phone. Yes. And because they have an idea of how they should see it, he said that's all they see. And even if they, they saw arising and passing away, he says insight doesn't arise, just more greed.
English
It's like, "Oh yeah, now I know this." Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay.
English
. Good one. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Because I saw the two yogis, they asked me why they, they become changed, believing the, the, the Buddhism, the Buddhism. They, they reading and they think about the nature dukkha anattā.
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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.…