About this talk
Transcript
Click a timestamp to listen from there. Machine translation, which may be inaccurate. You can suggest a fix for each sentence. The transcript is companion text; the audio itself is untouched.
Keep maintaining awareness.
Everything is cause and effect; however much we practise, that much result we get.
So we need to focus more on the practice, and the result will come naturally.
However much we practise, that much result comes. The greedy mind always aims at results, waits for results, while wisdom always checks and works on the cause rather than the result. Because we cultivate wholesome qualities of mind, wholesome mind grows.
And this is clearly cause and effect.
Nothing happens by chance. Everything has its own cause and effect.
We will have more and more experience of cause and effect.
We understand more about nature, about concept and reality.
Reality is the only thing that exists. Concept is when we give names, when we put concepts onto that reality. Some things are real, some are only concepts.
We need to understand what is concept and what is reality.
The body process and the mind process are reality. Then we give names to this reality, and in that way concepts are formed.
Understanding is different from thinking. Wisdom is clearly knowing what is what, how it arises and why it arises.
Thinking is not understanding. When there is still delusion, the mind thinks whatever it wants to think. Thinking is the opposite of understanding. Clear understanding is wisdom. But when we think, it is because we don't know, that's why we have to think.
Sometimes yogis don't know why the meditation becomes good or becomes worse. So they conclude that it is because of the place, the time, the surroundings, or whatever.
The mind thinks according to what it wants and believes that thought. This is a wrong process.
Whether the meditation is good or not depends on whether the attitude and the way of thinking are right or wrong. Right thinking and right view are wisdom.
And wrong thinking is defilement.
Because of defilements the meditation doesn't go smoothly or well. Because of right thinking and right attitude, the meditation becomes better and better.
But because we don't know what makes the meditation good, we think it is because of the time of day — morning is better than evening, or for some people evening is better.
Then this posture is better than that posture.
But in fact, meditation is the work of the mind. At any time, in any posture, in any place, if we have the right attitude and the right view, the meditation will be good.
Confidence in the practice depends on how much you understand.
The more you understand the benefits and the value of the practice, the more the mind is willing to practise.
In the beginning, we don't have any experience or result yet. But we have intelligence, which is a kind of wisdom. This intelligence can also consider whether this is beneficial or not, and so we try to practise.
You need to take your time, to experience and cultivate the qualities of mind. In the beginning, none of us finds meditation interesting. The objects are not interesting at all — just heat, cold, touch.
But when there is samādhi, when the mind has stability, a peaceful, calm state, then it starts to become interested. Wow, this is good. But here too, attachment or clinging can arise.
Actually, meditation is good because there is understanding. We are not aiming at getting a peaceful state. The purpose of the practice is to get understanding. It is understanding that makes the mind satisfied.
If you understand reality, the mind becomes satisfied and has confidence in the practice.
And when the practice becomes skilful, you can face defilements and dukkha and know how to deal with them. At that time, you will have more confidence in the practice. So when you first begin to practise, don't follow the defilements, which are the attitudes of liking and disliking.
Before we meditate, we always follow liking and disliking.
Now, when we meditate, we no longer follow them; we just step back and check this liking and disliking.
Liking and disliking have been steering our whole life. Everything we do is driven by liking and disliking, by lobha and dosa. That's why liking and disliking have such power.
Whatever object appears,
liking and disliking are already there.
It has become our habit.
Now we learn how to recognise liking and disliking so that we no longer take part in them.
So the mind becomes stable. But when we follow liking and disliking, the mind becomes tangled, agitated, restless.
Whenever we get what we want, we feel very happy; and on the contrary, when something unwanted happens, we get very angry. The mind keeps going up and down like that. And this is the reason the mind goes crazy.
Now we observe these two extremes of liking and disliking. We observe those two extremes with the middle way, which is the way of wisdom.
Observing with wisdom is the middle way. This is what the Buddha taught.
We begin to live with the middle way. Otherwise, the mind will go mad.
When practicing with the middle way, the mind becomes stable, balanced, mature. Understanding and freedom will come.
Just be aware of what you are doing. If everything you do is driven by liking or disliking, then you have no choice at all.
You always follow the attitude of liking or disliking. But now, when there is paññā and sati, you have a choice. What you think, say, and do is no longer driven by liking or disliking, but guided by paññā.
You clearly know what should or should not be done, what is necessary or unnecessary. And this will keep growing.
This process needs to become your life. And because of that, your life will be on a higher level.
The six sense doors are always there. We need to know which state of mind is present — reacting, or simply receiving. Is there liking, disliking, or paññā?
If we are aware of what is happening, then we have a choice, there is space for paññā to arise. If not, the automatic reactions will all be unwholesome, defilements, and we have no freedom at all.
Sati together with paññā is the middle way. Just be aware of the process; there is no need to change, control, or make effort to attain something or make something happen. Just observe as things are, just be aware as things are.
Understanding will come when the mind has no wanting at all. When the mind is simply without any wanting, then paññā will come.
Often you keep wanting to understand, and there lobha may be taking part. So just simply want to understand the truth, to understand reality — that's all.
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.…