Dhamma talkGaia House Retreat29 May 2015
Opening instructions and questions — Cultivating the Mind with Right View
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 30 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:30:10
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
Meditation instructions emphasize practicing with right view and right effort, being naturally aware without straining on objects. The teacher explains the nature of mind, pain, and intention, while answering questions on walking practice and dealing with attachment to a persistent object.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Gaia House Retreat · 22 talks
- Viewing11 hr 30 minOpening instructions and questions — Cultivating the Mind with Right View29 May 2015
- 223 minMorning Guided meditation — Concept Versus Reality30 May 2015
- 31 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
English
Hello. Hello, everybody.
English
I'm glad to see you here.
English
Are you ready?
English
Okay, so we start to now talk about practicing, but my English is limited, so I use the translator. Can everybody hear me?
English
Yes?
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If at any time you can't hear me, please wave. Thank you.
English
? So Sayadaw says, "We're going to talk about meditation." retreat than ? Mindfulness meditation. This retreat is a retreat on mindfulness meditation, sati pithana.
English
So before we begin meditation, we're going to talk about the nature of meditation.
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Meditation is, on a basic level, the practice of, um, strengthening the wholesome qualities in our mind. Yogi
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If someone has been practicing meditation for a long time, then over time, slowly,
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the mind must have been becoming more, uh, becoming better, more wholesome. And meditation is the work of the mind.
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In Pali, meditation is bhavana, and bhavana means cultivation.
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ca . And what are we going to cultivate?
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What we're going to cultivate is the mind, the wholesome qualities of the mind. We're going to strengthen them, practice them, so that they grow.
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Now, in practicing meditation, there's always two things at work. One is the mind that is being aware, and the other is the objects that you pay attention to, or become aware.
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3 .
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So we need to remember that when we practice meditation, whatever type of meditation we practice, there's always the knowing and that which is being known.
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But that which is being known is not the purpose of the practice. The object is not the purpose of the practice. The purpose of the practice is to grow those wholesome qualities that are doing the meditation, i.e., the mind that is meditating is being cultivated.
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So when we practice, um, mindfulness meditation based on the sati pithana, we are growing the five faculties
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of mind. Does everybody know them? They are sati, we can call it mindfulness, um, samādhi—steadiness of mind, viriya—right effort, saddhā—faith and/or confidence, and lastly we have paññā, which is wisdom.
[Burmese segment]
English
. And all we are doing in every moment that we're mindful is that we are growing these five qualities of mind.
[Burmese segment]
English
The nature of the mind is to arise and pass away. What is left behind when the mind arises and passes away? The mind leaves behind its potential qualities.
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So whatever qualities are prevalent in the mind at that time, it passes on the potential of those qualities to the next mind that arises, and it can be good or wholesome or unwholesome qualities.
[Burmese segment]
English
So when we have unwholesome qualities that we are constantly, um, allowing to arise in the mind, we develop a habit for these unwholesome qualities. When
English
wholesome qualities are what are being allowed to grow in the mind, there's a word in Buddhism for them. It's called parami. So when we, um, when we allow wholesome qualities to grow in the mind, we call it the perfection of the virtues.
English
So if we want the wholesome qualities to become stronger, if we want their potential to grow and grow and grow, then we have to practice relentlessly so that what is growing is those wholesome qualities.
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. This is a very important point to know about the practice of meditation. ? And that's why we have to practice all the time. .
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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.…