Q&AMaui Retreat21 Nov 2016
Questions and answers — Effortless Awareness, Right Speech, and Working with Anxiety
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 27 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:27:23
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
The Q&A covers maintaining continuous awareness during transitions and working with anxiety by observing feelings rather than feeding thoughts. The teacher also clarifies the role of right speech, studying suttas, and how wisdom liberates the mind from self-created suffering.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Maui Retreat · 18 talks
- 81 hr 34 minQuestions and answers — Choice-Less Awareness and Physical vs Mental Sensations19 Nov 2016
- 942 minMorning instructions — Being Aware in the Present Moment20 Nov 2016
- 101 hr 35 minQuestions and answers — Working with Greed, Fear, and Pain20 Nov 2016
- 1112 minMorning instructions — Right View and Awareness Throughout the Day21 Nov 2016
- Viewing121 hr 27 minQuestions and answers — Effortless Awareness, Right Speech, and Working with Anxiety21 Nov 2016
- 134 minMorning instructions — Maintaining Continuity and Momentum22 Nov 2016
- 141 hr 21 minQuestions and answers — Awareness While Speaking and in Sleep22 Nov 2016
- 151 hr 37 minQuestions and answers — Speech, Relationships, and Wholesome Mind23 Nov 2016
- 1620 minMorning instructions — Being Aware of Thoughts and Restlessness24 Nov 2016
- 171 hr 11 minQuestions and answers — Suicide, Anicca-Dukkha-Anatta and Practicing at Home24 Nov 2016
Transcript
English
So this is the sixth question-and-answer session with students at the Vipassanā Meta Foundation of Maui, on November 21, 2016, with Sayadaw U Tejaniya.
English
Carry on. Oh, yes.
English
So I— I have a question about the process of following continuous awareness when you're in the transition phase. So what I mean by that is, I notice, um, not like deciding whether to have another cookie, but like you're— you've been sitting, and then you decide you're going to move outside, and I— I'm just sort of curious to hear more about, um, the transition: how do you maintain actual awareness
English
while you're making a decision to do something else? Because in the absence of having, you know, set times, which we all, you know, follow like durables or something, we have to— we have to go out and decide, "I'm going to walk here," or, "I'm going to stay."
English
And it just seems to me that there's this point when you're transitioning from one moment to another that is a little confused. Okay. And you're aware of that? Yes.
MY
[Burmese speech]
English
some external advice on a series of things that we should be observing, he said it can feel quite— he used the word "it can feel like it's taking a long time." Like, maybe you have to move your attention to your body as you move, or your feet as you move, or your legs when you— or your hands when— you know, it's like— he said it's sort of stilted, I suppose.
English
But he said if you— if you can just know that you are aware, like you're aware of yourself, maybe you're aware whether you're confused. If you stay with the awareness and just— maybe it's something that you only need to experiment with— he says you will not only know one thing after the other, and it may not be the things that you usually think of, it will actually feel more continuous.
English
You've got to try it out. Yeah. He says if you— when you're planning to transition, you know, and he says if you stay with the mind, one of the first things you'll notice is the mind making the decisions, the wanting to do things.
English
And I said, "You notice that." He said if you notice that, you already know it, the awareness. You know, it's— that's how you know what's happening. Mind state, you think, maybe? So he said just— just stay with it. See how it takes you.
English
Just ask your mind. He says if you want to ask something, you know, like, "What is the mind knowing now?" "What is the mind knowing now?" And you can keep asking.
English
Okay.
English
He said there was a yogi in the center who made great effort to con— to have continuous mindfulness, to keep the continuity going.
English
But the person was so, uh, much more aware of what he or she was observing, that in transition, the person always felt like he was missing spots or, you know, spots of time.
English
And then finally, when the teacher persuaded him to just look at the mind, he saw flow.
English
Yeah. He says these things are much more underst— much more easily understood when you actually try it out. Listening to it in words.
English
He says having to sort of like— what's the word?
English
He says go after the objects. Or, you know, having to like, "Oh, I have to know this and this and that." That always feels like.
English
Energy . Yeah. He says energetically it's less efficient.
English
It can also feel rather involved and unnatural and time-consuming.
MY
[Burmese speech]
English
You've already directed your mind to knowing the awareness. You know, and, or if you might, if it's more helpful, "What do you know now?" You know? Instead of, "What is the mind knowing?" "What is being known now?"
English
And,
English
yeah, whatever you know is already the object. Yeah.
English
And you know, the knowing is also an object.
English
Yeah.
English
This sounds very similar to my experience yesterday, when the— a couple days ago, in the question-and-answer, the Sayadaw said that if you're experiencing pain, that's because you're not just in the present moment, you're linking together all these past moments. We call it sort of, I think as we said, basically pain. So I was looking for a way to prompt myself for the— for what's being present and known in this moment.
English
I tried different things, like walking meditation, like what's being known now, taking a couple steps. Or sometimes when I'm sitting, I can feel my heart beating, so what's being known now. And sometimes that worked, and I was kind of surprised at how different this now was from that now. But mostly— and also I saw that my mind didn't really— wasn't— it has a habit of not really knowing now, but more kind of like recognizing things and putting them together so that it doesn't have to think about them any more or something.
English
But— but I found the effort, my way of prompting for now was so— it took so much effort that I couldn't maintain. Yeah.
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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.…