Q&AInsight Meditation Society Retreat9 May 2012
Dharma teachers group — Right Attitude, Interviewing and Sharing the Practice
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 10 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:10:05
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
In this group interview, Sayadaw U Tejaniya emphasizes right view and right attitude over fixing on a single object. He advises meditation teachers to understand the mind and guide others strictly from their own actual practice.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Insight Meditation Society Retreat · 28 talks
- 191 hr 49 minGroup F 3 — Seeing Object as Nature and Right View7 May 2012
- 2012 minTaking practice into life7 May 2012
- 211 hr 44 minGroup A 4 — Recognizing Wisdom and Checking the Observing Mind8 May 2012
- 221 hr 38 minGroup B 4 — Observing Defilements, the Illusion of Self, and Cause-and-Effect Chain8 May 2012
- 231 hr 53 minGroup C 4 — Guarding Sense Doors and Staying with Awareness9 May 2012
- 241 hr 47 minGroup D 4 — Working with Wanting, Aversion and Awareness9 May 2012
- Viewing251 hr 10 minDharma teachers group — Right Attitude, Interviewing and Sharing the Practice9 May 2012
- 261 hr 49 minGroup E 4 — Mindfulness of Speech and Noticing Greed in Experience10 May 2012
- 271 hr 51 minGroup F 4 — Maintaining Awareness in Daily Activities and Dealing with Pain10 May 2012
- 2824 minAdvice for taking awareness home11 May 2012
Transcript
English
Uh, U Tejaniya, for two days. So this is a recording of Sayadaw U Tejaniya meeting with some Western Dharma teachers at the Insight Meditation Society on
English
May— May 9. May 9, 2012. May 10, 2012.
English
What's good is if you have questions.
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I think no more questions.
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Enlightenment.
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We thought it would be a good opportunity for, uh, if you had any questions about how Sayadaw understands his role, or
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how we might use, um, what we've learned from him in our teaching, or any other question you have about either practice or, uh, introducing what Sayadaw teaches in your own teaching. Or any other question that's interesting. I have a question. Um, I'm wondering if there were any beginners on this retreat, and if so, would it be given in the same way, um, just in the sense of, um, knowing if there's this notion that we're familiar with, of coming to the body, you know, just very clearly, simply being here and now,
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present, and just allowing kind of a sequence before. So would Sayadaw give instructions differently if there were beginners on the retreat?
[Burmese segment]
English
I don't know, it could be an instruction to beginners to be like it. Actually, the instructions he gave was for beginners. Yeah. Just keep it up with the other, go to teachers. Yeah, those who understand just carry on from there.
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You might enjoy tea from the beginning. Were there any beginners? What's that? On this retreat, a couple of beginners? Uh, there were, there were many people that had not practiced with Sayadaw before, but I think everybody has. No beginners? No beginners.
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In that regard, people who have had walking instructions, you know, know to walk back and forth and back and forth. That was one thing I was wondering about with new people, with just wandering around without having that form. Would Sayadaw feel that would still be fine?
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Shock isn't a shock. No, no form.
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He said walk as you want. That's what he said. shock . What he really wants is for them to do what they do at home, and practice on that.
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He says it's like a Korean yogi asked him, he says this one-hour sitting, one-hour walking schedule, is there a secret to it? Like, is that what gets you to nibbāna faster? Is there a reason?
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He said no, he says because there's nothing to do at the meditation center that they've given you something to do.
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You don't get yourself into trouble. , shock . Otherwise people might just sit around and talk to each other, yeah.
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, sticker , beginners , first yogi . Beginners . Yeah, when Steve tried to persuade him to come to America this time, to IMS this time, um. Beginners retreat . He was. Advanced yogi. He was asked whether he wanted to do a retreat for beginners or advanced yogis, and he had said he would do the beginners.
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Sayadaw had said beginners. So he was surprised to find the rock star retreat.
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Um, sometimes I see in the way Western Dharma teachers teach, the instructions that are given, the basic instructions that are given are, are, um, therefore beginners, and then the guidance in the interviews is tuned to as people advance.
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And in some ways I see, what I hear sometimes happening with interviews with Sayadaw is that he gives the basic instructions for the practice, and then when somebody can't quite do that, then he gives the instructions maybe perhaps to focus on just one thing, just, you know, settle your mind down, because he's seeing that they're not able to do that.
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So it's almost as if he's kind of reversed the usual way that Western Dharma teachers have taught, that he puts the instructions out there and then
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tweaks them for the. For those who can't. Those who can't, yeah. I don't know if that seems accurate, but.
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He says, I mean, if somebody can understand, they will be able to do his instruction, I mean, they will be able to follow the instructions, so he just gives that, yeah.
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He says, he does mention that, you know, it's possible to begin by knowing any object. Um, but he also says not that it's not necessary to stay on that object.
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. So he doesn't specify the object, because different people, different minds are attracted to different objects more easily, so. . So once the, you know, the mind naturally goes to the object that it seeks or, or, you know, experiences, then they tell him about it.
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And then he can talk about other things. Yeah. When we first, um, began, um, you know, learning from Sayadaw, he, he, in those days he still said, you know, stay on the breath or the rising falling. He did say that.
English
But eventually he stopped, like, recommending objects. He, he said, you choose. What do you like? What makes the mind feel more comfortable?
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Yeah. Because it's the yogi's nature, he says, that mind's nature. That mind has to choose. He says it's not his, it's not what he wants for somebody to do, but. And, I mean, over the years he's sort of, um, changed, you know, the instructions over the years to make it more beneficial for the yogi.
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So rather than, um, recommend something that he does, he gives them a choice and tells them that what all things that are possible. There are people who already naturally are able to access the mind then. To get them to just, you know, be doing bodily objects, it's like slowing them down.
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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.…