Q&ASpirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat7 May 2015
Group B session 4 — Defilements as Forces of Nature and Understanding the Mind
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 40 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:40:17
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
In this group interview, the teacher discusses recognizing the mind during calm states and maintaining a gentle attitude in practice. He explains that letting go belongs to wisdom, defilements are impersonal natural processes, and continuous awareness reveals the law of conditions.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat · 38 talks
- 282 hr 16 minGroup F · session 3 — Building Continuity and Working with Greed and Defilements5 May 2015
- 2942 minMorning instructions day 11 — Practicing Mindfulness While Speaking6 May 2015
- 301 hr 40 minGroup A session 4 — Defilements as Nature and Right Attitude Towards Them6 May 2015
- 3132 minMorning instructions day 12 — Knowing Intentions and Continuity of Awareness7 May 2015
- Viewing321 hr 40 minGroup B session 4 — Defilements as Forces of Nature and Understanding the Mind7 May 2015
- 331 hr 33 minGroup C session 4 — Concept, Reality and Mind Door7 May 2015
- 342 hr 8 minGroup D session 4 — Maintaining Awareness in Daily Life, Working with Doubt, and Wisdom's Role7 May 2015
- 3530 minMorning instructions day 13 — Maintaining Awareness in Daily Activities and Thoughts8 May 2015
- 361 hr 33 minGroup E session 4 — Knowing the Mind and Maintaining Continuity8 May 2015
- 372 hr 2 minGroup F session 4 — Mindfulness in Speech and Dealing with Defilements8 May 2015
Transcript
English
So this is Wednesday, the 6th of May, practice discussion group with Sayadaw U Tejaniya at Spirit Walk. This is group D, the fourth meeting.
English
Um,
English
my practice is going well. I'm happy with it. I work with, uh, three factors of, um,
English
my energy and awareness, and inquiry, or, you know, when my energy is low or thinking or the walk. For my awareness, it's coming back, you know, the talk, coming back, coming back. And, um, the most interesting has been inquiry, or, or, uh, questioning.
English
Mm-hmm. Um,
English
I, uh,
English
I had those three happening, and then I noticed there was kind of a dull— the other day I noticed there was kind of a dullness going on. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I kind of went with the dullness and paid attention to it, and I just noticed I was kind of dull. Yeah. There was nothing special. Yeah. Uh, and so I was like, "Okay, what else is going on?" And I just went to my sensations, to my body, and, uh, very rich and awake and alert.
[Burmese segment]
English
Um, well, last Thursday I had asked about depression. Mm-hmm. And, uh, Sayadaw said that, um, depression was a result of frustrated desire. Mm-hmm. Which I found very interesting. Of course, we also learned from, um, from Philip's shirt, um, something of the value of breaking rules from the Dalai Lama.
English
Mm-hmm. We'll get into that in a moment. Yeah. Um, so I, I found this theory of depression, um, well, very hopeful, of course, because it's, um, and I began, began doing some inquiry, working with that explanation.
English
da Giang . Mm-hmm. So, um, the following day, Friday, I was sitting on a bench below the meditation hall. . And I saw a snake. . Knotted up in a ball.
English
Hmm. Around a branch of a tree. Very large. Cheaper.
English
Um, I find snakes both, um, fascinating and terrifying. . But I sat and watched the thing for a while. Mm-hmm. And, um, quite a while, actually, about 15, 20 minutes. Mm-hmm. I had this little s— this little scope. .
English
And, um, at some point I realized that what was going on there, that snake appears to have two tails. And then subsequently I determined that there were two heads as well.
English
So, um. . And I realized that they couldn't move. . Um, they were very tightly knotted up. . I, in fact, wondered if they would be able to get untied. To get untied. This knot seemed too tight to me.
English
. Um,
English
that was kind of low back. That's where the rules, uh, came in. I, uh, fortunately I had my telephone, which I'd been using as a clock. Mm-hmm. And I started photographing. phone phone . And that went on for another 15 minutes or so, with no movement at all, except slight little shuffling around. .
English
Um, when things— there started to be more movement, and I switched over to video.
English
. And the video is. video . It is horrifying and appalling and fascinating. Mm-hmm. Um. So over, at some point, they started to get the thing loosened up.
English
Couldn't keep. And, um, this mass of snakes, you know, it was— this is a big ball. . Um, differentiated and finally. Came out. Came out of the tree. . And continued at full length to untwist themselves. . And then till they finally got untwisted and wriggled off into the— into the darkness.
English
English
Which I found very stimulating.
English
Um,
English
So over the next couple of days, I, I looked at the video repeatedly, and it still gives me the Willys, by the way.
English
But it has began to serve as a wonderful metaphor for me. Mm-hmm. And as an inspiration to work out the knotted mass of snakes that I felt, um, I felt this described, the frustrations that were at, perhaps, at bottom of my depression.
English
. Um. . Mm-hmm. They were, in fact, knotted up so tightly. . At some point I thought they might need help getting it open.
English
But they did get away. They opened it up. And they were repeated.
English
And so I started working— this, this helped me to work with the depression idea, and, um. , depression . And if it is frustrated desire, I found this in some ways fairly easy to deal with. handle phun .
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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.…