Q&AGaia House Retreat30 May 2015
Interview groups A and B · session 1 (priority for group A) — Open Awareness and Working with Resistance to Pain
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 43 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:43:00
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
A group interview addressing questions on being aware of seeing, working with bodily pain, and handling defilements. The teacher guides yogis to recognize mental processes rather than get caught in objects, emphasizing right attitude and maintaining continuous awareness in daily situations.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Gaia House Retreat · 22 talks
- 11 hr 30 minOpening instructions and questions — Cultivating the Mind with Right View29 May 2015
- 223 minMorning Guided meditation — Concept Versus Reality30 May 2015
- Viewing31 hr 43 minInterview groups A and B · session 1 (priority for group A) — Open Awareness and Working with Resistance to Pain30 May 2015
- 41 hr 36 minInterview groups C and D · session 1 (priority for group C) — Working with Aversion, Right Attitude, and Everyday Habits30 May 2015
- 529 minMorning Guided meditation — Three Yogi Jobs and Right Attitude31 May 2015
- 61 hr 43 minInterview groups E and F · session 1 (priority for group E) — Middle Way, Right View, and Working with Dullness31 May 2015
- 71 hr 46 minInterview groups A and B · session 2 (priority for group B) — Natural Speed, Concept and Reality, and Working with Craving31 May 2015
- 826 minMorning Guided meditation — Right View and Right Attitude Towards Experiences1 Jun 2015
- 91 hr 26 minInterview groups C and D session 2 with priority for group d to speak — Protecting the Knowing Mind and Practicing with Fear1 Jun 2015
- 101 hr 42 minInterview groups E and F session 2 with priority for group f to speak — Being Aware of Thinking and Knowing Without Focusing1 Jun 2015
Transcript
EnglishRecording on, blah blah blah, date: 8 May. Saturday. This is May 30.
EnglishSaturday? Saturday, group A and B, session 1. In the guided house. In the guided house. 2050.
EnglishWho will go first?
EnglishWho will go first
Englishin group A? I'll go. Okay. Thank you.
EnglishUh, I'm very new to meditation, and I haven't meditated for more than 20 minutes before coming here, so I have lots of questions. Minimal sessions. But I think, because I don't want to overwhelm everybody else, I think, in the group, I think, um, one question is about
Englishseeing and looking. I'm an artist, and I naturally observe things very intensely, but without effort as such. So, you know, I tend to look at the different colors of something, or the relationship between the plant and the mantle piece, or, you know, all those things.
EnglishAnd without necessarily incredible effort, but there is awareness. But I was just wondering if is that the correct way to meditate, or am I seeing too much? Or is that too loop? Do you see what I mean? I don't know if that makes any sense. Yeah. Yeah.
Englishคือว่าอาทิตย์สดคือว่า เอียงจริงๆ อะ ถ้าไม่หงส์ คืออาทิตย์อะ เป็นหงส์แบบ ทุกๆ ดอกบอกว่าอาทิตย์ดูแบบ ตัวจะดีถ้ามีเนี่ยได้เลย ที่มันดีอย่างบอก เออ ถ้าไม่ถือว่า พี่ซีเรียลจะดีถ้ามีเนี่ย เออ ที่เหล่าที่เราดู คือ ที่เรากูวิอาจจะใส่แหละ คือคอนเซ็ปต์แบบที่มันบอกว่าแบบนี้ใช่ไหม คอนเซ็ปต์ก็อาจจะดีได้ มันไม่ดีแบบการเมนเทลไทยหลายคน เออ ลูกเดียว เออ บอกดีแบบไหนๆ ก็ยอมเบียร์ แต่ยิ่งเริ่มในยามหงส์มันสอนจริงๆ สิทธิ์เรา แต่ว่าบอกอาจจะมีเตียง เสียงอาจจะใส่ในแหล่ง แต่ว่าไม่เอา Yeah.
EnglishSo I just want to clarify your meaning when you say you have awareness. Are you aware that you're looking, or you're aware of what you're looking at?
EnglishI think both. Both. Okay. So service isn't meditation. It is, um, more the awareness of the fact that you're looking. Right? So, well, the other bit gets done. You know, you notice the relationship of something to something, and artistically you sort of know, you sort of feel whether it feels right and stuff like that.
EnglishBut if you know that the mind is doing that, and the mind is seeing. Okay. You know, so you can already do the rest of it, but to also add in the noticing of the mind's, um,
Englishparticipation in that. Looking is happening. Yeah. So you know. It's more important for me to realize that I'm actually seeing rather than what I'm seeing. Well, generally, yes. But, I mean, you can't cut out the seeing bit either, right? If you want to do your art. Yeah, so, yeah. Looking, listening, pay attention. That's it, look.
EnglishTo do it. Yeah. Pay attention to do it. The way we look, we pay attention when we look, when we listen, we pay attention. And the way the mind pays attention, you know, when it's paying. The gap of it what? It's the same movement of the mind, the attention. It's just at a different door. You know, eye, ear, or mind. But you can feel that movement of the mind.
EnglishYou can know that.
Englishมีลูกจีบแล้วนะ
Englishจีบอยู่เนี่ยนะ He said, "Do you see because you look, or do you look because you see?"
EnglishDo I see because I look?
EnglishBoth, I guess. Both. Looking. Yeah, yeah. That's right. อะ มันน่าจะบอกว่ามีหลายทางที่ดูอยู่อะ But generally, we can only look at the things that we see. มันมีเนื้อหามันรู้ตัวจีบไง If we can't see something, we can't look at it. กูจีบที่เนื้อหายาเหรอ จีบมาเนี่ย But when we want to see something, as in like we want to not see in the sense of the function of sight, but we want to actually be able to search for and see something, then we have to look for it.
EnglishWe look at it in order to see it. You know? อันนี้ได้ยินแล้วก็รู้สึกว่ามีหลายทางที่บิดามาที่ดูอยู่อะ But, um, and then this becomes a little more to do with the way we use words. When we search for something to see, it's sometimes we might see what we're searching for, but we might end up with just what we were searching for. But the natural condition of things is that there are things that are being seen, and we can only look at what's already being seen.
EnglishRight? But if we have an idea of what we want to see and look for it, and see that, it might not be real. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. มันมีเรื่องอยู่ว่าเป็นที่จีบที่ดูเอา But if we don't see at all, if we don't even have an idea of what we might see, then we don't even look for it.
EnglishThank you. Look at it.
EnglishAnd anything? ถ้าไม่รู้เลยที่อาทิตย์อะไร And how do you find have you been trying to practice? How I've been trying to practice? Yeah. Well, usually, before coming here, I've only just been doing a bit of breathing, you know, sort of concentrating on the breathing and. Mm-hmm.
EnglishBut then since I've come here, it's been more interesting because
Englishit's sort of opened up. Oh, I can listen, and I can look, and I can do lots of other things. But I found also my, uh, I've been, you know, walking quite a bit in the countryside, which is, um, it's what I love doing. And I've been, I don't know if I've been doing it a bit too much. You know, I've been listening and looking and feeling my legs walking and feeling my breath, and actually I've been doing it.
EnglishSo that's last, like yesterday, I was like, maybe I'm doing too much at the same time. So I don't know. ก็นานแล้วครับ เหมือนจีบแล้วจีบแล้ว ถ้าถามผมเรื่องจีบแล้ว ขนาดคนหลงชอบเราทีละหลายๆ ทีนะ ตัวเราจีบแล้วมีอานี่ล่ะเมื่อทีเดียว ว่าเราต้องการหลง อะ ลูกยาวมากกว่า ลูกยาว ลูกยาวนี่ สังเกตลูกยาวนี่ก็มันดีเร็วกว่า You said, "Well, if the mind is busy, you know, it's being aware, then it's not drifting off into space," right?
EnglishNo, no. But, like, one minute I'm looking at my legs walk, and then the other minute it's like, oh, there's some birds there, and I'm like, oh, no, look at those clouds.
Englishแล้วก็จีบมุก อันอามาป่าน อามาแทนเนี่ย แบบว่าว่าจายาลีจีบตะกูบี ตะกูบ ตะกูบี ตะกูบจีบเลย So you want to look at that sense of, and see where they can just be at. Like that. Yeah. And just. Get excited. Just know one thing at a time. Know one thing at a time. And again, you notice,
Englishyou said you see the birds and the clouds. Again, you want to come back to your sense of seeing. Yes. Of seeing is happening. Yes. Seeing is happening. Yeah. And to notice that it's awareness that's continuous. Yeah. To remember that. That's what's important. It's the awareness, yeah. Yeah.
EnglishOkay. Thank you. Thanks.
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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.…