Q&ASpirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat3 May 2015
Group B · session 3 — Working with Defilements and Nature of Mind
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 46 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:46:26
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
This group interview clarifies vīriya, working with defilements without wanting them to disappear, and seeing the mind as natural processes. The teacher explains maintaining right view during anxiety and delusion (moha), and recognizing multiple objects in the present moment without striving to reproduce past insights.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat · 38 talks
- 181 hr 43 minGroup E session 2 — Greed, Aversion, and Stabilizing the Mind with Right View2 May 2015
- 192 hr 3 minGroup F · session 2 — Seeing and Looking, Right View, and Investigating Aversion2 May 2015
- 2040 minMorning instructions day 8 — Observing the Nature of Mind and Defilements3 May 2015
- 211 hr 39 minGroup A · session 3 — Wrong View, Stories, and the Sense of Self3 May 2015
- Viewing221 hr 46 minGroup B · session 3 — Working with Defilements and Nature of Mind3 May 2015
- 2329 minMorning instructions day 9 — Wisdom, Concepts, and Ultimate Realities4 May 2015
- 241 hr 34 minGroup C · session 3 — Building Awareness and Managing Defilements in Daily Life4 May 2015
- 251 hr 46 minGroup D · session 3 — Working with Defilements and Practice at Home4 May 2015
- 2636 minMorning instructions day 10 — Bringing Dhamma into Daily Life and Continuous Mindfulness5 May 2015
- 271 hr 24 minGroup E session 3 — Energy of Defilements and Mindfulness in Daily Situations5 May 2015
Transcript
English
Okay, so this is Sunday, the 3rd of May, and the discussion group is "Sayadaw U Tejaniya" at Spirit Rock, group B, second meeting.
English
Third. Third. Third? Third meeting. Is it? Mm-hmm. Third meeting.
[Burmese segment]
English
Um, so we're going to just read this little bit, because somebody asked about it last week, and we want to clarify this. There's, uh, possibly it the way it's written in the book, "Dhamma Everywhere," page 45, is incomplete.
English
So the passage is "Vīriya," starts on page 43. It says, "How do you understand Vīriya? Vīriya is the spiritual faculty of patience and perseverance. I understand Vīriya as persistence, not exertion or force. Please don't wear out your mind or body by striving forcefully when you meditate." So I think the key is that it, it, it comes from the forcefully.
English
Um, so understanding can't develop when your mind or body is tired. And I think this is not a general sentence. Um, and it's, uh, I think it's common to understand in meditation that your body can be tired and you can still gain insight, uh, so long as your mind is not tired. But what would you consider a mind that is tired is a mind that has deformity in it?
English
So when you say understanding can't develop when your mind is tired, it's about the mind that has deformity in it. So you mean. . Yeah. . Yeah. So when. . "Tired" is used in this, um, in this line, it's only referring to the tiredness that comes from striving forcefully, which means that first there's wrong effort, which means that the mind is, you know, there's some deformity.
English
There's probably greed or aversion or delusion that's driving the practice. So the you tire the mind and the body out from wrong practice, and that's when they're saying that that understanding perhaps can't develop. Um, it's not to be taken in a general sense. Um,
English
so long as the mind has right view and, um,
English
and, you know, no deformities in the way it watches, then you won't consider that mind to be tired. And understanding. Dhamma Yeah. So if the mind and body are tired because if the body is tired because, um, of natural causes, like you have illness or you, you have been exerting the body, like exercise and all that, that is no hindrance to understanding arising, so long as the mind is in the right frame and being aware.
English
And yeah, being aware and. Aware. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Good. Mm-hmm. It's hard to have the book. Thank you.
English
Okay, so out of the first group, we've, uh, started.
English
Yes. Um, is it all right if I add, if I kind of elaborate a little bit more on a question I asked originally? So I, I apologize for the repetition. Oh, of course. But, um, I had an opportunity, um, the last couple of days, to practice with this extreme aversion that I get. Mm-hmm. And I, or, uh, uh, not aversion, I meant to say, um, anxiety and aversion.
English
So, and I, and I tried to, uh, put into practice some of the things that, that Sayadu told me the other night. And, uh, it brought up some questions, and I, I tried to watch it carefully. And, uh, the situation is, uh, I have a child that has, uh, well, she's an adult, but severe issues, severe problems. And so sometimes when I think about the situation she's in, I get, I, I what I saw when I was paying a lot of attention, trying to be very aware of, because it came up, I had this two or three times, um, the thought, I have this thought, and I'm very aversive to the situation.
English
And then I get, uh, this, like an attack of anxiety instantly. And then I get aversion to the anxiety. Okay. So, but I, what I also noticed was that
English
I can have that exact same thought other times, and, and I, and I right view comes up immediately. So what's going on there?
[Burmese segment]
English
Just depends on your, um. Staying mind at that time, you know, when the mind is in a good state or it has the right attitude, has more right view, more wisdom is operating, maybe mindfulness, a stability of mind.
English
When all these are more present, um, the mind is okay. And when they're not so present, um, then the mind reacts. Sayadaw says the deformants are the wholesome, they're like on a seesaw, and whichever one is loaded heavier gets to. wait, wait. I messed up, I messed up the Sayadaw,
[Burmese segment]
English
MY
[Burmese speech]
English
came to IMS many years ago, I think 2007. So, um, somebody was teaching him English. And, um, and his English teacher told him how he, um, had gone for a heart operation. And when he was, uh, going in for the operation, he did not have any fear.
English
He was all right. He was at peace. Um, and then the operation was successful. He got home. He was, and then he had a, a heart attack. And then he was afraid. And he asked the teacher, "Why?" When he's going on in for an operation where you don't know the chances of survival, why was he not afraid? And why having come home was, and then having an attack, was he afraid?
English
Um, and Sayadaw says, "Because the state of mind is different. Going in for the operation, he had already prepared himself. He had accepted that it could go either way. And so he wasn't afraid. But having come home and recovered, the hope that he would remain alive was there." And so when that.
English
Yeah. So there wasn't an expectation before the operation of what the outcome would be. So he had, he, you know, he'd already sort of accepted the worst-case scenario. This was just, you know, uh, a chance to. khả năng tôi sẽ bị sinh . Sinh trên lý vậy. But now the, the hope had been planted.
English
So there was no fear. When I, when I was on, when I, when I did become anxious, very anxious, I had the same anxiety issue. I, I, I stepped, I tried to step back and I, and introduce right. Excuse me. Right view. And then I, um, I,
English
rather than looking
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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.…