Dhamma talkOther Dhamma talks28 Jan 2020
Maintain the awareness, not just the calmness
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 11 min
0:00−11:04
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
The teacher advises a yogi to maintain awareness rather than calmness to avoid subtle attachment to the object. Recognizing not-self must stem from real understanding, as greed (lobha) and delusion (moha) easily construct deceptive ideas.
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Transcript
EnglishThis place I used the calmness as a main object, and found the awareness is very good. The, um, how do you say, he can see many other objects rise simultaneously before it doesn't happen like that. Like, aware the calmness of the body, then many other— And you're not sleeping at all.
EnglishYou're not sleeping at all. No, walking. Walking. Walking or— Walking. Very, very natural. And the mind immediately recognizes them as objects and not me. Right. Because he thinks the awareness is me, calmness is me, and other things immediately he knows it's not me. It's right, right? Yes. If your awareness there, wisdom there, then the idea changes.
EnglishYeah. So the next day I continue to do that, use the calmness as a main object to go out to eat, talking, eat, or maintain the calmness as a main object. It feels very good. So, but the next time
Englishin the afternoon I want to continue to do that, but slowly cannot do. He too much want to follow that experience. He feels so good to maintain this main object of the calmness. We are not maintaining the calmness, we are maintaining the awareness. Oh, awareness, yeah, yeah. Sometimes he cannot find the calmness because he is too eager to continue that practice.
EnglishBecause the mind becomes attached to that discomfort. That's why the mind more attention to the calmness. So if you want the calmness with awareness or knowing mind,
Englishif you want to watch the calmness as main object, then you need to be go through the awareness. Awareness and calmness together. Yeah, yeah. So you know that. Otherwise the mind becomes slowly attached to the calmness, then the mind more attention to the calmness.
EnglishSo you mean I should— So we are maintaining the awareness, not calmness. Oh.
EnglishOkay.
EnglishOkay. Now you try to maintain the calmness, right? Yeah, yeah. Together, like, you know, like, yeah, yeah. Like seeking for the calmness sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Become attached. Yeah, yeah. So later I just check. We need to see the why the mind calmness gone.
EnglishThen we can see why the mind calmness gone. If your calmness continue, why the mind continue calmness is happening. So we can see the cause. Only the object you cannot see the relationship, the cause. So you need to see the whole process. Yes. Watching mind together with the watching mind.
EnglishAwareness and calmness together.
EnglishRight. Okay. And so sometimes, because that experience, sometimes even do not meditate, do not intend to be aware. Sometimes mind can know some phenomenon happens and he immediately recognize it object and say it's not me. Is that right? Yeah. Say again. Sometimes because the main object is aware is the calmness, he follow that main object.
EnglishSometimes he didn't do that at that moment, but some object arise, like some like dislike arise, he know it arise and immediately say it's not me because the feeling is different. Or he didn't mind understand. Because of the mind understand, the mind say or immediately mean is because of intellectual level or.
EnglishYeah. That's also confusing me. I feel like it's different from. If you're the mind understanding, then the mind understand and the mind say is okay. The mind not understand, the mind just say this not me, this not me. It's not good. Okay. If he feel it is separate from the main object. So checking do you really understand or not? Okay.
EnglishHonestly asking yourself. Okay.
EnglishSo I have another question. Is that when pay attention to the, like, comfortable feeling. Sometimes if really keep effort on that and do not involve, sometimes the comfortable become a very big joy. Joyness comes. Like that. But very gross level. Yeah. I notice for this, if you knowing the calmness, the mind more knowing calm, more and more calm.
EnglishIf you right attitude, no? If you right attitude, if you aware the calmness, the calmness become more increased. More and more calm. If you are not knowing the calmness, the mind start to confuse.
EnglishStart to confuse. If you knowing the confuse, the mind become calmness again. Oh, yeah, yeah. Understand? Yeah, understand. Depend on the knowing about right attitude and knowing this, you can see calmness or confuse the mind changing.
EnglishYeah. But continue to see that joyness is just like joyness. Nothing. Yeah, that's aware the joyness. Joyness. If you're the joy calm, then aware the joy. So that's okay. Your main object is awareness. Okay. Yeah.
EnglishThat is the most safe. Because if you stay with the object, the mind liking disliking will come. If you more attention to the awareness, the mind not resist or not attach too much. It's busy to be aware. So the mind not judge, cannot judge about this good or not.
EnglishMy feeling is that the awareness is not as obviously as if there's a main object there. Then the awareness become obvious because he know the main object is there. But if just awareness itself is. Yeah. Any object the same, right?
EnglishYeah. Any object the same. Main object or other object, the awareness and object together, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So any object, whatever object you aware, go through the knowing mind or awareness. Don't lose the awareness. Okay.
EnglishHello, Sayadaw. I noticed the moha and the breathing work together. And
EnglishI think the moha is
Englishreally believe this object is good.
EnglishYeah. He believe, not believe, he think. He think. And he think and he believe, yes. He thinks and believe. Because one time we have the biscuit and then this thing I and then my mind ask the question like, why you think this biscuit you like? Is because the sweet smell or because the texture?
EnglishYeah. And then other time I realize if everything stays the same, just if the biscuit become soft, already the mind already will not like this biscuit. Just one condition change. Yes. So we like the biscuit mean is we will not really like the biscuit. We like something in the biscuit or color or tasty or what.
EnglishSomething liking. That's why we say, oh, we like this
Englishbiscuit. But all biscuit we don't like, right? Yeah. I mean, we don't like.
EnglishSo there is a some, like every time the mind liking disliking, the mind have idea which one is he think is good. If you someone, you like someone, the mind like something about, no, you don't like everything. Something the mind will like intend. He think this person, he like this person. So there's idea have.
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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.…