Q&APauenhof Center Retreat23 Apr 2016
Group interview a — Attitude, Defilements, and Observing Mind and Body
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 22 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:22:48
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
This group interview clarifies how to observe thoughts and defilements without interference. The teacher explains that right attitude is far more crucial than trying to adjust external conditions. Meditators are encouraged to sustain continuous awareness of both mind and body in daily life.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Pauenhof Center Retreat · 17 talks
- 155 minMorning instruction day 1 — Cultivating the Mind and Continuous Awareness23 Apr 2016
- Viewing21 hr 23 minGroup interview a — Attitude, Defilements, and Observing Mind and Body23 Apr 2016
- 338 minMorning instruction day 2 — Object and Awareness24 Apr 2016
- 41 hr 54 minGroup interview d — Attitude Toward Sounds and Aversion, and Seeing the Nature of Mind24 Apr 2016
- 538 minMorning instruction day 3 — Concept Object and Nature Object25 Apr 2016
- 61 hr 30 minGroup interview B1 — Practicing Continuously and Using Intelligence25 Apr 2016
- 743 minMorning instruction day 4 — The Value of Awareness and Nature of Mind and Body26 Apr 2016
- 81 hr 30 minGroup interview C1 — Mind Activities and Right Attitude Toward Emotions26 Apr 2016
- 940 minMorning instruction day 5 — Recognizing Mind and Continuity of Awareness27 Apr 2016
- 102 hr 10 minGroup interview A2 — Meditation as a Learning Process and Working with Defilements27 Apr 2016
Transcript
[Burmese segment]
EnglishToday is last time, huh? Yes. Today is last time you do.
EnglishRight? The chin, the diya. Why you? Last dance at the gym. Last dance, last chance.
EnglishOkay.
EnglishIt's both me or recording your Dhamma? No. Two methods. Oh, how do we— Oh. Two habits. We are recording Malayalam. You are recording Malayalam. Yeah. We are the music. Yeah. What are you going to do with the recordings? Uh, they plan to put them on SIN, the website. The website.
EnglishSo people can listen to it. Yeah, listen to it. But we didn't record yesterday. Um, I know, but— It was so good.
EnglishUm, yeah. We should do it again. Today.
EnglishYeah. Means that get out control.
EnglishSo I would like to know, is the mind in the brain? Huh? Is the mind in the brain? Brain is rupa. Brain is physical. Mind is mental. No, the etherimal. No, no, no. Meaning reality. It. You're only— You can say that. You know that the mind arises off physical basis, and the brain is one of the physical bases it arises off.
EnglishBecause, you know, if you remove parts of your brain, sometimes the— You remember. The mind stop working. You remember the part in the brain of your— . Meaning your— So the, you know, in the Buddhist texts they say, they call it the heart base from which the mind arises, or the heart arises, so.
EnglishHeart. Well, the translation is heart base, but it's— Mano, which is, uh, ballet blue, called hadiya watu. Hadiya watu. Hadiya watu. Yeah, they call it the hadiya watu, and I don't know if hadiya means heart. I don't know, yes. Because if I watch the mind, I— Over here. Over there, yeah. Yes. Like say right side or, like say right side or left side.
EnglishNot all. I feel— Yeah, all right.
EnglishIt feels like that. Yeah. For some people, yeah. But I think at Dhamma, like Dhamma without diyana, I might think of your mama machine. Whatever we experience, we always need a visual visualization of it to feel steady about it. Um, but there's no actual place, but we can imagine it to be wherever we feel at that time. Feeling got to done it through the rupya yoga.
EnglishThe two are feeling on the Dhamma to it. Dhuhya got to. Dhuhya got to come over. Yeah. So feelings, although it's also mind, we tend to say we feel here, yes, or here. And then thoughts and knowing we tend to feel it's here, yeah.
EnglishBut what I think with the Dhamma means. Sayadaw sees his mind here. Somewhere around there. She did it. Right in front.
EnglishI had the same. And I thought it might be a concept. I'll become a concept then, because I found it always here and always when I— is it real? It's a concept. It's a concept. Or is it a concept? Yeah. Concept is a concept. I think I look like that. I think I'm Dhamma like that. Yeah. So when our mind visualizes something, it visualizes a concept. To make it easy for us to, to, like, get in touch with the reality that's behind the concept.
EnglishSo it doesn't matter. Just leave it like that, it'll change. Yeah, yeah. Totally. Yeah, yeah. And I'll do Dhanta like Dhiya Dhamma without having it. But to biao in, I biao in, biao in my mind. It becomes it. I got it. I understand the thing. So long as you understand that it's a visualization or a concept or whatever, it's fine. Okay. And a question which follows that: how to watch thinking?
EnglishBecause if I catch a thought, it's gone. Stop. Yes. So it's always the past I can watch. Right, yeah. Past mode. Today we're dealing with the Dhuhya machine. Yeah. That's normal. We can't hang on to the mind. We know, and then it's gone. So it feels like it's past, but it's not.
EnglishWe knew it, it's gone now. So it's not the gate in. So you know the next thing. I think I'm here biao in. Yeah. If we know the mind is always changing. The thinking, I mean, the thinking, yeah. But doing my Dhamma music, the two are gross level. Dhuhya is like Dhuhya biao yoga. The two Dhuhya biao yoga, same Dhamma.
EnglishThey're more than Dhuhya biao yoga.
EnglishHe said that there's gross thoughts, you know, superficial thoughts, not very important. When you know them, they stop. But there are other kinds of thoughts that you know them, they don't stop. And then yeah, they come again and again. And those you can watch more, yeah. Most subtle level of thought is dialogue or monologue. Always talking something like this.
EnglishThere's two kinds of thought. One is intentionally think. One is because of conditioning, they pop up, coming memory or something.
EnglishAnd that's something you can watch, probably. Is it a conditional thought or is it intentional thinking? Both. Both. Everything. We need to know. Watching means that they are coming and going, coming and going, coming. We continue looking, seeing, watching. Not only one, continue watch like this, not like this. They come and go.
EnglishThey come and go. The process happening. We continue seeing meaning as watching.
EnglishI have a question about defilements.
EnglishSometimes they are very strong, and I know it's anger or whatever, greed. But sometimes they are very subtle. Subtle. Or they are kind of mixed, different defilements. Different group. And I cannot label it. Yes. Do I have to label it always, or is it enough to know there's some kind of wanting, maybe, or not wanting?
EnglishYeah. He says whatever, however you're presented with it, that's how you take it. Sometimes you know it clearly, you can differentiate the stuff, and sometimes you can't.
EnglishIf you know roughly it's a defilement, or there are defilements, that's also enough. Just however you— But you don't have to find out the details. You don't have to find out, no. You just acknowledge it as it is right there. Api lah rek kajengkung, dua deui, pameget jati we. Yeah. When you've been watching long enough, when enough wisdom is there, it will differentiate for you.
EnglishYeah. And defilements come with different intensities also. Some are lower. Some kisah is a lot of different. Some are very strong, some are just— Atiga aingna pacan aing. Sok cenah. If you are involved in the defilement, if I you, yeah, then it gets stronger.
EnglishThe more you are invested in it, the
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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.…