Q&ASpirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat29 Apr 2015
Group E · session 1 — Investigation, Stillness, and Subtle Intentions
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 27 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:27:27
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
This group interview explores levels of awareness, balancing effort, and investigating skillfully. The teacher explains that as awareness deepens, wisdom illuminates naturally without forced interference or subtle craving for progress.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat · 38 talks
- 540 minMorning instructions day 3 — Recognizing Thoughts and Valuing Awareness28 Apr 2015
- 61 hr 32 minGroup C · session 1 — Investigating Aversion, Observing Objectively, and the Role of Wisdom28 Apr 2015
- 738 minMorning instructions day 4 — Differentiating Object and Knowing29 Apr 2015
- 81 hr 54 minGroup D · session 1 — Working with Delusion and Understanding the Mind29 Apr 2015
- Viewing91 hr 27 minGroup E · session 1 — Investigation, Stillness, and Subtle Intentions29 Apr 2015
- 102 hr 20 minGroup F · session 1 — Working with Defilements and Right Effort29 Apr 2015
- 1130 minMorning instructions day 5 — Working with the Observing Mind and Right View30 Apr 2015
- 122 hr 7 minGroup A · session 2 — Nature of Thoughts and Feelings, Mindful Communication and Hidden Defilements30 Apr 2015
- 131 hr 30 minGroup B · session 2 — Balancing Effort and Observing with Right View30 Apr 2015
- 1433 minMorning instructions day 6 — Concept and Reality1 May 2015
Transcript
EnglishSo this is group discussion with Sayadaw, Wednesday, April 29. Group E, the first session of this group.
EnglishAnybody can start with the first date.
EnglishGood. I feel good. You can talk about anything you feel like.
EnglishThe anecdote that I probably will be feel, yeah. Anything to do with the Dhamma you can speak about. Table tennis. Not table tennis.
EnglishOkay. Ping pong. It's only ping pong. Got it. You can. Ping pong. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
EnglishProgress I do at that. Yeah. He says even if you play ping pong or a sport, he says, so long as you remain aware of yourself while you're playing, you'll find your mind learning how to adjust and improve the way your body moves and works.
EnglishProgress Just from noticing how you know you're moving, the subtle shifts in in change of your the position of your.
EnglishSo if it was, for example, tennis or table tennis, then you know you could feel the the pressure of the ball against the bat or the racket. You can you will because you feel it just be and he's not even he says you're not even trying to improve yourself. You're just being aware of all these different facets of the experience of playing, and and you'll find that the
Englishyou naturally start improving. Yeah. So the awareness itself, working with wisdom, I imagine, begins to help you.
EnglishIt seems to come. Because the Dhamma is everywhere.
EnglishWell, I can start seeing I started talking already. So Sayadaw, in practicing, you know there's object, and then there's consciousness of object. Ear consciousness, eye consciousness, whatever. And I can you know most of the time, just aware of that, aware of knowing of the object. But there's obviously a lot of change and things happening at that level of knowing.
EnglishI also notice there's a more still level of knowing that's knowing that. And I'm just curious and I've heard you talk a little bit about this before. You know you can know and know that, but just how much time to spend between the two types of knowing, the one that's more engaged with object or the one that's knowing that is perhaps more still.
[Burmese segment]
EnglishSayadaw says, you know, the still the
Englishspend more time, as you say, with the the more quiet one. He says the other one that you find, which is more active and more related to each object that arises, that's the consciousness. And those are inseparable from the object. And it's good that you see the difference between the object and the knowing of it, you know, the consciousness that arises with the object.
EnglishBut that's always there, whether you're aware of it or not. So you're, yeah.
English Yeah. So the skill that's really critical is understanding how to know the mind, how to know this is the mind. You know the object is right now the mind.
EnglishBecause once you know, he says, objectively or you know. If you recognize it as the mind, then everything becomes known there. So it's easier. Yeah. The most important thing is that that mind that's watching.
EnglishAnd then if you're watching that mind, he said, then you'll notice every other mind that works because you know. And then it's important because it helps you to then under to to to see and understand all the different functions that take place in the mind.
English Yeah. You're always being aware. It becomes easy to know that awareness. You begin to know the other aggregates, you know, of mind.
EnglishYou begin to know
[Burmese segment]
EnglishI have a question. Yeah. So I'm noticing on this retreat a lot of stillness and a lot of clarity and
Englishequanimity. And
Englishso my orientation is my general practice is towards awareness and then knowing. And what I notice when
Englishwhen the mind is very quiet, then
Englishthe knowing gets more and more subtle.
EnglishOr
Englishhow to say,
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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.…