Q&ASpirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat7 May 2015
Group C session 4 — Concept, Reality and Mind Door
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 33 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:33:23
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
In this group interview, the teacher addresses open versus focused awareness, the non-self nature of intention, and the role of jhānas. He also instructs yogis on maintaining mindfulness during speech, managing psychological reactivity, and recognizing defilements in daily activities.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat · 38 talks
- 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
- 321 hr 40 minGroup B session 4 — Defilements as Forces of Nature and Understanding the Mind7 May 2015
- Viewing331 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
- 381 hr 8 minMorning instructions · closing day — Continuing Practice at Home9 May 2015
Transcript
English
Okay. It's Thursday, May 7, practice discussion group with Sayadaw U Tejaniya at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. This is Group C, session 4. Yes.
English
I'd like to really thank you, Mata. I'm sort of feeling overwhelmed with gratitude for your work.
English
Um, I have a question. It's related to the toothbrushing incident last week.
English
It's related to
English
how—let me start again.
English
I still ha—I have a lot of confusion for this point in the retreat.
English
Um, I feel like I can either have what I would call choiceless awareness. Mm-hmm. Phenomena are occurring. They're not being known, like, with their names, but they're known. They're known. They're known, yes.
English
Clearly. Yes.
English
Or
English
there's a mo—much more, um, inward-pointed knowing of knowing. Okay. That has very
English
little, um,
English
or even less knowing of the sense-door phenomena. Mm-hmm. There—there's—it's known that there's stuff happening at the sense doors, but I wouldn't—I didn't hear what everybody laughed at. I heard the laughter, but I didn't, you know. Okay. There was hearing, but I didn't identify what it was at all. Right. Yes.
English
So my question is, where in that continuum. Mm-hmm.
English
Should I be
English
attempting to place my attention? And in asking that whole long question, what I really noticed now, this morning, formulating it, was the greed that's in the asking of it. Hmm.
English
The way you are. Um, through the retirement, through choiceless, through the di—the kulo loyale,
English
through the dis. Choiceless? Very ashamed, no shame. Choiceless loyale. Through—I'm—you're able to—thing it out of shame. Hmm. Thing it, man—thing it. Shame it. Now, bro, not to quote one, and therefore, bro, at twin way neither. Attachment aside neither. Error to what? Proud to yourself. Um. Proud. To yourself. To yourself. To yourself. To yourself. To your side.
English
No. To your side. Do I row? To your side. Do I row? To your side. To your side. To your side. To your side. To your side. To your side. To your side. To your side. To your side. To your side. To your side. Chama mantira. Bacha mantira. Oh. Error, too rage you got. Too bhai mantira. Too deep. No look no good there. Damn it. Too up your—delay to what? To pivot to how, uh, to chain loyale. Kulo come.
English
Chain loyale, yeah. No ho. Damn it. Deha ho. Oh. Ape—atwa—along no ho. Too much. Say that again. Saza shida. Saza shida. Error, too thick up. Bear my taught le ball. Damn it. Too many at mouth. Too lobha pane asra gumyan. Oh. Too tabhava and awa. Counsel pitching, I say. Too tabhava and awa. I say that. Ebo, tabhava dine ewe counsel it.
English
Tea it. Nature it. Yeji dah, nyanga nature tea it. Tabhava dine ewe gong. Yeah. See I just say some. Think side thing. Amealo see. Think that job. Yeah. The cutter it all pithy. Yeah. Yeah. Nyana no gong. Thai na cheng ma pitha kesam see. Change deli di di ma to tha miawa le. See I just say some. To wherever you are, you know, um,
English
that you
English
clearly know what's concept and what's reality. Mm-hmm. Or at least have some idea. Mm-hmm. Of what's concept and reality. See I just say, if we're too much inside, as you describe, he says it means that there's a little bit too much, uh, focus. But he says sometimes that happens. Mm-hmm. And when that happens, uh, we can't identify what's happening outside in the out in the physical sense doors.
English
Yeah. Um, he says if we are just sitting meditation, it's not so bad. It shouldn't happen throughout the sitting or all the time, every time or something. He says, um, but if it, it, it can we can drop into that sometimes. He said it's, it's not such a big deal. But he says we shouldn't be in that space outside of the sitting because we need to function.
English
And then we shouldn't be so, um, locked into something that we don't know the meaning of things. Mm-hmm. You know, we need to know the meaning of things to function. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So we need to know what is conceptual reality and what is ultimate reality. We need to, uh, hold both. Same with tea nee. If you see fancy nee, light tea nee, you can't think.
English
Tea nee a little bit to concept upon. Mm-hmm. So, for example, when we see the mind at work, say I just say, when we watch perception at work, sanya, he says sanya perceives. So, uh, concepts are already used. But knowing that sanya is doing this work, you know both the concept and the reality. Yes. You know, like that. Yes.
[Burmese segment]
English
What tea nyanga low di, that tea nyanga low di. Mm-hmm. See I just he gives an. First yamalo. He gives an example. See I just say, if somebody is saying something to you and you are not, um,
English
this is not your something you're familiar with. See I just say, you t we will tend to pay a lot of attention. Mm-hmm. To the person and what they're saying, and we will be a bit focused. Yeah. Because we're trying to get everything. Yeah. So that that's the sense of being in a bit, uh, you know, inside it. Yeah. Um, see I just say, if they were speaking about something that we generally understood, um, we would be much more relaxed in listening.
English
We wouldn't need to be paying such ca careful attention to the person. He says if we, um, understood it even better, maybe this is something that we, we are really good at. Yeah. See I just say, our stance would be even more relaxed. He said you would not only know what they were saying, you would, um, you know, be able to, um, tune into the sound of their voice, um, you know, where they're coming from.
English
You'd know your own thoughts about it. Um, you'd know that you understand what you're hearing. Um, and so there's a whole range of things that you, you would know at that time when you're much more relaxed and because you already understand the subject matter. Yes. He says you would be able to know the experience of hearing your thoughts and understanding meaning.
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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.…