Q&AGaia House Retreat3 Jun 2015
Interview groups A and B session 3 with priority for group a to speak — Working with Emotions and Thoughts with Right View
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 31 min
Original audio: English
0:00−1:31:12
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
This group interview explores handling stress, uncomfortable feelings, and traumatic memories. The teacher advises applying right view, observing mental processes rather than conceptual stories, and feeding the mind with mindfulness rather than clinging to craving or aversion.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Gaia House Retreat · 22 talks
- 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
- 1123 minMorning Guided meditation — Recognizing the Workings of the Mind2 Jun 2015
- 121 hr 18 minQuestion and answer session in the hall — Observing Defilements with Right View and Equanimity2 Jun 2015
- 1330 minMorning Guided meditation — Cultivating the Wholesome and the Value of Sati3 Jun 2015
- Viewing141 hr 31 minInterview groups A and B session 3 with priority for group a to speak — Working with Emotions and Thoughts with Right View3 Jun 2015
- 151 hr 48 minInterview groups C and D session 3 with priority for group c to speak — Recognizing Wrong Attitude and the Difference Between Goal and Expectation3 Jun 2015
- 1626 minMorning Guided meditation — Knowing the Awareness and the Object, Thinking, and Intention4 Jun 2015
- 171 hr 41 minInterview groups E and F session 3 with priority for group E to speak — Wisdom and Defilements4 Jun 2015
- 181 hr 46 minInterview groups A and B session 4 with priority for group b to speak — Observing Aversion and Watching the Mind Door4 Jun 2015
- 1922 minMorning guided meditation · intro to talking meditation — Being Mindful When Speaking5 Jun 2015
Transcript
English2015 at Gaya House with Sayadaw U Tejaniya,
EnglishWednesday.
EnglishJune— June 3rd. Any other. Two night sessions. Group. Group. Oh, yes. Group A and B. Session 3. Session 3.
EnglishYes. I have to kick off because I've been a bit nervous, and I think the question has to do with nerves, really, and stress, or stress disorder, traumatic stress disorder.
EnglishAnd the question has to do with how mindfulness
Englishcan get in, maybe, before the body's had a chance to react. So if I give you a situation—this was last night, and I was in bed and getting ready to go to sleep, and relaxing and being mindful, I hope, and being very open, I think—and then there was some noise starting in there nearby, and
EnglishI could feel the beginning of reacting to the noise and
Englishthe mind saying, "It's just sound," but actually something else. There was another process kicking in which was triggering a lot of anger because of the disturbance. And
EnglishI just was lost in that. And so my question is something to do with—and then it took a long time to calm down, to find mindfulness again. So it's really about how mindfulness can play into the situation where the body is already maybe predisposed to be triggered.
EnglishSo when you were in that situation, you're saying you didn't know what was happening?
EnglishI did know. So why do you say it took a long time to come back to mindfulness? Because there was so much going on already in the— But you knew all that?
EnglishYeah.
EnglishThroughout your—
EnglishAnd if you bring in this more deliberate awareness, you will notice in the process that, in the beginning, it's very little, the reaction. It's only because the mind is allowed to continue thinking the way it's thinking, that it's growing the emotion, that it's allowing the emotion to keep growing and become more agitated.
EnglishCan I interrupt a moment? Because my experience of it is that, actually, the emotional reaction is in. It's in. The body's already in high alert. Maybe there's a gap in there that I'm finding
Englishmy way into, but that isn't so much my experience. Okay.
EnglishSo then the mindfulness is to be aware of all those bodily sensations
Englishproperly.
EnglishDid you not try to pay attention to what was happening in the body at that time?
EnglishI did. And
Englishthere's some awareness, and then there's the distress. And the distress is seeming to use more of the energy. And then the rishi there, the monk,
EnglishI need to—you need to help yourself by bringing in right view at that time. He says you need to remind yourself, sound is just sound. Feelings are just feelings. Sensations are just sensations. These are nature. They're not a disturbance. They're objects to be aware of.
EnglishSo that's when we apply all this knowledge that we—all this information we've got and apply it to the moment, reminding ourselves of all the right views, the right attitudes,
Englishto help mindfulness. Yeah. And that's it. That's it. I remember a lot. He says if we don't bring in the right view, because we don't bring in the right view, then the distressing energy is allowed to continue on its way.
EnglishSo you're saying there is distress here. There's somebody who's feeling very distressed, or there's nature? Not somebody. Okay. Nature's feeling very distressed. There is distress. This is distress. Distress feels like this.
EnglishOkay. But the announcer wouldn't have. Yeah, it's because the— But the mind's idea is that distress is distressing, rather than distress is one of the qualities of the mind. Or distress is something the mind can experience. Distress is an experience. Distress is nature. It's, you know.
EnglishI'm an attitude here. So the need to change the idea of the mind about distress.
EnglishAnd then, with that application of this sort of intellectual adjustment, Sayadaw says, then it becomes easier to observe the sensation of distress and, yeah.
EnglishYeah.
EnglishOkay. Choose the homemade.
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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.…