Q&ASpirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat8 May 2015
Group F session 4 — Mindfulness in Speech and Dealing with Defilements
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 2 hr 2 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−2:02:22
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
This group interview covers maintaining mindfulness in conversation, recognizing greed and aversion upon contact, and sustaining natural awareness at work. The teacher explains that one only needs to recognize the mental process without fighting defilements, allowing wisdom to learn directly from experience.
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
- 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
- Viewing372 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
I'll come get you in.
English
Okay, so this is Friday, the 8th of May, discussion interview group with Sayadaw U Tejaniya at Spirit Rock. This is group F, the fourth meeting.
English
Yes.
English
I'd like to go through some classes. Thank you.
English
Um, I guess I just wanted to say a few words about how the, like, the mindful speech has been going. Um, I've had one or two short conversations every day until today, and it's a little bit more conversation early than by now.
English
Wow.
English
So what I'm finding is, um,
English
it helps a lot to know that I'm going to be speaking, to be mindful, which I don't always in, in real life, or just in regular life. Yes. Um,
English
and but even with that, I find that so there's like this, this distance where I can kind of watch. I'm present, but I can there's a space. Mm-hmm. There's space and receptive, receptivity. Mm-hmm. And so this is a good this is good. And though so I'm kind of watching the conversation and watching my mind, I'm still engaged, and that's fairly easy with a short conversation where there's it's very neutral.
English
Mm-hmm. Conversation. But I've had a couple of conversations where
English
this will be happening where it's kind of feeling like this, the mindfulness. Mm-hmm. But still, like, there's mindfulness there. Mm-hmm. And then not in a bad way, but someone will say something that triggers, like, the little self to want to come up and say, "Ka, ka, ka, ka." And, and I lose it for a minute. Mm-hmm. And then if the other person so I've had different levels of mindfulness with the people I'm speaking with.
English
If the other person is mindful, sometimes theirs, their presence will really help me to stay to come back. Mm-hmm. Um,
English
and it's also helpful, I found, if we they stop or I stop, like, there are pauses in the conversation. But there have been a couple of conversations where, um, I really wanted to say something to someone, and it was like, "Blah, blah, blah," and just
English
lost. It's like the blackout thing happening again. And coming back from that, it was like I could even though the person was very present, I just couldn't quite it's like I was out of my body entirely and just couldn't come back. So, um, this is what happens to me when I'm home as well.
English
I do pretty good a lot of the time, just either not speaking or waiting to speak or being present, and then there'll be a situation where someone says something where I'm triggered, usually having to do with a change in plans, something unexpected, or a challenge to my idea of myself or my ideas of the world.
English
So I guess I would like to know if Sayadaw has any suggestions for coming back to mindfulness when you've just you're, you're in the moment. You can't just leave.
English
And, and coming back in the moment when you've kind of fallen off the horse. Does that help? Mm-hmm. Make sense? Okay. To sit down here and the detail you tell us, to choose our error, um, to put a mouse on the detailed mirror, the di zit down and you're pure or mellow tea, and the detail will pull you. Mm-hmm. Pure or mellow ear tea.
English
Very well. The deep sea love. Pure and the deep sea. Yeah. So that what you said in the beginning about if you know you're going to speak, that helps you to stay mindful. He said, "Of course, because mindfulness has already come." It's, it's like waiting to, to, like, enter the show. I know. Error. Error. Uh, error to the deep tea. , zit down to pure mean, u in the detail .
[Burmese segment]
English
cái này là à chi rồi. không pheo đâu. He says in those, in the thirteen. Ờ, the deep thao mi rồi, không pheo rồi. Where you, you know, whatever, you know, the, the force of wanting to speak that comes out, and even though the other person is very mindful, you feel like you've kind of, you know, you're out of it and you can't bring it back.
English
Sayadaw says in cases like that, the defilements have already done, you know, the wholesome has already presented itself. And in a way, the very realizing or, or knowing that the other person is still being mindful, um, makes the mind more unsettled. So a, a sort of maybe embarrassment or a.
MY
Oh really. Nervous people. Yeah, nervousness and, and so more agitation. Oh, because I'm watching this happen and it's not getting better. Yeah.
English
Yeah. So, um, it may not calm down again, but it. My pillow. So you at least know that you're aware. Oh, yes. Yeah, I see the. The deal actually. I see the mindful. So the key is the mindfulness. The purpose of the mindfulness is not to be like, uh, like, have a perfectly wise.
English
But what's sad channel? It's about being having a mindful conversation. So yes, maybe you're agitated, you've lost your balance and all that, but you still are mindful of it, then you're still mindful. Okay. So. No, no. Perfect No, we're just practicing.
English
But what we want to know is that the mindfulness is present. Okay. Yeah? Through it all. Yeah, through all the ups and downs. Không.
English
Yeah. And at home, of course, then there is, um, he says we have to be careful when, like you said, the things that trigger you. One of them is the, um, when it goes against something you believe in or stand for, you think represents you, whatever.
English
Because we're so strongly attached to those. Yes. Ideas. Yeah. He says it's like South Korea and North Korea being at war. And the only difference is their ideology. Okay. Same.
English
Yeah. Thank you.
Keep listening by topic
Suggestions for what to listen to next · Based on the topics of this talk. No account history needed.
- Day 8 Discussion group A — Cause and Effect, Anatta, and Role of SamathaSayadaw U Tejaniya1 hr 10 min
Shares topics with this talk
- Group interview C1 — Mind Activities and Right Attitude Toward EmotionsSayadaw U Tejaniya1 hr 30 min
Shares topics with this talk
- Day 4 Dhamma discussion group C — Nature and Concept, Object and Awareness, and Cause and EffectSayadaw U Tejaniya1 hr 19 min
Shares topics with this talk
- Week 2 day 1 group A1 — Talking Meditation and Working with DefilementsSayadaw U Tejaniya1 hr 47 min
Shares topics with this talk
- Dhamma discussion — Using Wisdom to Learn from DefilementsSayadaw U Tejaniya1 hr 20 min
Shares topics with this talk
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.…