Q&ANirodha Insight Meditation in Finland Retreat30 May 2019
Week 1 day 6 group B — Superficial Awareness and Observing Reactions to Suffering
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 3 min
Original audio: Burmese · English interpretation
0:00−1:03:51
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
This group interview addresses working with fear through the breath, understanding proper versus superficial awareness, and observing the mind's reactions to suffering. The teacher also explains how right view and wisdom help alleviate defilements and heal psychological trauma.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Nirodha Insight Meditation in Finland Retreat · 33 talks
- 52 hr 9 minWeek 1 day 4 group A — Differentiating Functions of Mind and Reality vs Concept28 May 2019
- 655 minWeek 1 day 4 group B — Wisdom, Specific Characteristics, and Natural Awareness28 May 2019
- 71 hr 33 minWeek 1 day 5 group C — Cause and Effect, Right Effort, and Letting Go of Expectations29 May 2019
- 82 hr 20 minWeek 1 day 6 group A — The Meditating Mind, Balancing Effort and Observing Defilements30 May 2019
- Viewing91 hr 4 minWeek 1 day 6 group B — Superficial Awareness and Observing Reactions to Suffering30 May 2019
- 101 hr 53 minWeek 1 day 7 group C — Recognizing the Mind at Work and Working with Lobha31 May 2019
- 1137 minWeek 1 day 8 — Practicing at Home and Cultivating Wholesome Qualities1 Jun 2019
- 121 hr 47 minWeek 2 day 1 group A1 — Talking Meditation and Working with Defilements1 Jun 2019
- 131 hr 10 minWeek 2 day 1 group A2 — Wisdom at Work, Subconscious Mind, and Decision-Making1 Jun 2019
- 1459 minWeek 2 day 2 group D — Recognizing Thoughts as Mind and Working with Judging Mind2 Jun 2019
Transcript
English
This is my last check-in for this group, I think. Yes. Yeah, okay.
English
I'm fast, little identifier.
English
Okay.
English
So, my first question is about, um, I have been lots of fears
English
in the mind, and I noticed that I cannot watch them directly, because of if I watch them directly I get lost to the thoughts and to the fear itself, or the mind gets lost.
English
What I then have done is that if I notice the thoughts coming back up, I'll skip them and, uh,
English
I'll be aware of my breath, for example, and
English
notice
English
how the breath feels when I'm feared, and so on.
English
My first question: is this right? Should I do something else also, or—
English
Yeah, it's, uh, you can just— Look, look, Anabana feeling is right. Anabana would you say? So she addresses, "Watch your breath. Keep that as your anchor, your main object." And then notice the feeling of fear.
English
You know, the feeling of fear is different from the thoughts of fear, right? But the feeling of fear should not be your main object, okay? So main object is breath. And then when the mind feels calmer, just, like, pay a little bit of attention to the feeling of fear together with the breath, okay? Don't leave the breath. Together with the breath.
English
But don't watch the thoughts of fear at all. Yeah. Yeah, because the thoughts are just concepts, so we— it's easy to get lost in them. Yeah.
English
So, because exactly when you said that, Alexis, I interpret it in this way: so just friendly awareness. And this relates to my question, which perhaps is a little bit to do with Dhamma-vicaya, I don't know if I pronounce it correctly. So, because
English
I have quite a lot of worldly pleasures, it's like, for instance, I'm— I play music, so I always go to concerts, and then I sit in the concert hall, and then I'm pretty aware. So I have my observing mind, it's pretty there, present, because I know there are quite a lot of temptations there, okay?
English
And then I see there is another mind arising, saying, "Wow, I like this music, wow, that's, I don't know, Beethoven," and I try to say, "Yes, okay, good, yeah, okay, we are here, don't worry." And then, for instance, and then I notice, for instance, when there is a neighbor perhaps being a little bit noisy or whatever, I immediately hear this mind saying, "Well, yes, there is this person here, you can't listen," because I try to quiet down and say, "No, I mean, you can still listen to the—" Well, of course, I don't say it's just noise, it's just noise, because I love this music, for me, it's more than just noise.
English
But you're able to— I don't know, so that would be the first question: is it— because I see so many different minds arising, so there is one mind, then there is another one, then another one. And of course, my job is, I do it really in my daily practice, that's my life, I do it really. But is it— I don't know, there is— is there an end to the minds that can arise?
English
So somehow, am I doing it correctly? Perhaps I'm making up things, I have no idea.
[Burmese segment]
English
classical music, so time ere, so
[Burmese segment]
English
ame lone ere, lope
English
Yeah. She addresses the minds will never end. Degradable, yeah, informational, yeah. The minds will never end. They will keep doing their job. But you're doing the right thing. You're recognizing what's happening. And she addresses, "Recognizing what's happening, that's a profit." It doesn't go to waste.
English
Because eventually, when the mind has enough, been watching enough, it pieces all of it together by itself, and then it understands something about the way the mind works. Ama
English
Tu motivation ya nadani ato chene so we chen neno. She addresses that is what he notices is that if when you go, when you're there in the concert hall, say, you know, the music is lovely, someone is making some noise beside you, and he says, "If your motivation is to practice, you know, to really be mindful," she addresses, "then you won't be so much listening to the music, but you'll be looking at the reactions, and then the reactions will get less.
English
But when the motivation is to listen to the music and it's being interrupted, it's being interrupted, so then the reaction will keep coming. But you can notice this. Both of them are processes, and for you it's just to notice which process is doing what. And it's okay. The mind will learn. Tuchene na tuchinje lo, tucheni wae, na time ina tea ato luyae.
English
It's possible. Yeah. It's always possible to meditate even when listening to music, she addresses, because you're just being aware of hearing. Yeah. Thank you so much. And I have another question. Again, I think it's related to why— no, how, not why— how I observe some of my observing mind again.
English
And it has to do with the fact that I have a very intellectual job, so I have to use my intellectual mind quite a lot. And I notice they are different. So when I do my intellectual job, which is thinking quite heavily, then I notice I still have the observing mind, okay? And so I was wondering, what is actually the role of the observing mind there?
English
Is it to avoid— of course it's to be aware, definitely, all the time, but also to avoid that the, I don't know how to call it, the working mind, the intellectual mind resolving, solving puzzles, gets into trouble somehow? Because I notice, for instance, the observing mind sees that the other mind, I don't know how to call it, perhaps thinks, "Oh, yeah, I have to do it, put in so much effort."
English
And then the observing mind says, "Well, do you really need so much effort?" And there is like this continuous dialogue. I mean, it's, I don't know if it's— so my question is, how, is there a way to do it better? Or, I mean, just— Kuna watu wengi. No? Begin to what? Tu walauka tua, senza abri tua, loware tu ba, loloa loloa lo.
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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.…