Q&AInsight Meditation Society Retreat30 Apr 2012
Q&A group E 1 — Seeing Everything as an Object and the Role of Wisdom
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 46 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:46:42
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
This group interview clarifies perseverance, reducing personal effort as practice builds momentum, and meeting experiences with right view. The teacher explains that every state—from low energy and doubt to greed and aversion—is simply an object to be known.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Insight Meditation Society Retreat · 28 talks
- 31 hr 58 minQ&A group B 1 — Observing the Thinking Process and Difficult Emotions29 Apr 2012
- 41 hr 53 minQ&A group C 1 — Natural Process, Delusion and Open Awareness29 Apr 2012
- 546 minQ&A Monday morning — Not Focusing Too Much, Seeing Versus Looking, and Being Aware of Thinking30 Apr 2012
- 61 hr 56 minQ&A group D 1 — Working with Pain, Mental Feelings and Asking Questions30 Apr 2012
- Viewing71 hr 47 minQ&A group E 1 — Seeing Everything as an Object and the Role of Wisdom30 Apr 2012
- 81 hr 47 minQ&A group F 1 — Removing Greed from Effort and Awareness1 May 2012
- 91 hr 48 minGroup A 2 — Functions of Mind and Dealing with Defilements2 May 2012
- 101 hr 55 minGroup D 2 — Investigating Strong Objects, Torpor, and Thinking Mind3 May 2012
- 1140 minDhamma everywhere — Object, Awareness, and Right View3 May 2012
- 121 hr 59 minGroup E 2 — Working with Defilements and Nature of Objects4 May 2012
Transcript
English
Okay. Any of the first, repeat.
English
I'll start. Yes. Okay. Um, when you talk about right— when you talk about vīriya, you say you don't like the word "effort" so much. It seems— and more
English
"patience" and "perseverance." And I have a s— a good sense of patience,
English
and I'm not really clear about how— what the impact is of perseverance. Because it, in a sense, in some ways, in English it has that feeling kind of just "putting up with it." Um, it— you know, it doesn't— Like an endurance.
English
Yeah, kind of endurance to me, but I'm sure that isn't what he means by it. So I wanted to get a better sense of
MY
What he wants by perseverance. Effort
English
Perseverance . Let me show you. Not giving up. Let me show you. That's what he means, just not giving up. , let me show you. Don't give up until you reach your destination.
English
Don't give up. Yeah.
English
So that's what he means by perseverance, or persistence, if that's a better word for you. Not, not an endurance kind of thing. It's more just staying with it. You know, , and staying with awareness. And not, not the object? Or staying with both? But, but, but, , staying with it, .
MY
staying with it
English
Yeah. The awareness will always have an object. So staying with your awareness. Io . You can't separate the awareness from an object.
English
The Buddha wanted people to practice to only become Arahants, not even to stop at being an anagami, yeah.
English
To be single-minded? To be single-minded? So keep climbing the mountain till you get to the top, yeah.
English
, Vipassanā, effort, con , Dhamma, . He says at first it's like personal effort, you know. You sort of keep trying to remember to be continuously aware, and try to build the continuity and the awareness, and— he says, but eventually, when you've persisted for long enough, it starts to become, um, more natural to be aware.
English
Then it gains some momentum. The awareness has gained some momentum in your mind, and it's just easier to maintain that, that awareness, that momentum, um, and, and then, you know, to grow. effortless effortless , effort , Vipassanā effortless, Abhidhamma effortless . Effort .
English
bấy nhiêu vậy đó. Còn effortless là tôi. Some people, um, talk about a time when the practice should become effortless. He says, but effortless just means that we don't need to put in so much personal effort. Effortless is a point where, um, the, the, the natural processes of the mind have been trained to go in that direction.
English
So they start doing it themselves, naturally. So the awareness has been trained to, to be continuous. So it continues to be aware, without so much input from your efforts to be aware. So that, then it feels effortless. But, but the mind continues to work. It's just you don't have to put in so much effort.
English
Next. Okay. And are you done? No, no, no.
English
So, um, my report kind of follows on the personal effort thought, so I thought I'd go.
English
Um, I have a kind of a long description of my experience. Let me know when you want me to stop. Ok.
[Burmese segment]
English
So I've been experiencing a lot of
English
dullness, sleepiness, drifting, that kind of mind state. And, um, in exploring that, yesterday I was noticing a lot of reactivity. So not, not, not big defilements, but, um, you know, resistance, not liking, wanting a pleasant mind state, wanting clarity.
English
Um, so noticing the mind kind of going off of the dullness. And then when I could just be with the— when those, when those defilements dropped, the mind was quite contented.
English
Um.
[Burmese segment]
English
So, um, this morning in an early sitting, I woke kind of early and sat for two hours before breakfast. And, uh, again, noticed this dullness. Um,
English
and I do mostly lying meditation, as I think Sayadaw knows. Um, so I was using the arm up to help keep me from, uh, falling asleep without knowing it. And, um, in that place, I noticed, again, kind of a little off on either side of that dullness, either a little bit of tightness to keep myself awake in the mind, or, uh, the mind drifting into dreaminess.
English
Yeah. And then at some point about halfway through the sitting, the mind perceived the state simply as low energy. And when that perception, that recognition of low energy arose, the mind was very easily able to be with the state, uh, without going off on either side.
English
It was as if— this is a theory, a little bit of a, of, of reflection. The, um,
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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.…