Q&ANirodha Insight Meditation in Finland Retreat12 Jun 2019
Week 3 day 5 group A — Doubt, Maintaining Balance, and Skillful Effort
Sayadaw U Tejaniya · 1 hr 44 min
Original audio: English
0:00−1:44:36
Uses compressed audio.
AI-written summary
This group interview covers working with doubt, anger, and balancing awareness with wisdom. Sayadaw explains how to understand defilements, maintain the right attitude, and avoid personal identification with experiences.
Topics
Talks in this retreat
Nirodha Insight Meditation in Finland Retreat · 33 talks
- 241 hr 31 minWeek 3 day 2 group F — Purifying the Watching Mind and Meeting Experiences with Equanimity9 Jun 2019
- 251 hr 27 minWeek 3 day 2 group G — Building Momentum and Understanding the Mind9 Jun 2019
- 261 hr 56 minWeek 3 day 3 group A — Nature of Concentration, Delusion and Awareness10 Jun 2019
- 271 hr 45 minWeek 3 day 4 group F — Dealing with Anxiety, Strong Emotions, and Discursive Thinking11 Jun 2019
- 281 hr 23 minWeek 3 day 4 group G — Attitude Towards Defilements and Working with Restlessness11 Jun 2019
- Viewing291 hr 45 minWeek 3 day 5 group A — Doubt, Maintaining Balance, and Skillful Effort12 Jun 2019
- 301 hr 28 minWeek 3 day 6 group F — Seven Factors of Enlightenment and Effort in Practice13 Jun 2019
- 3143 minWeek 3 day 6 group G — Acceptance and Right Action13 Jun 2019
- 321 hr 32 minWeek 3 day 7 group A — Being Aware of Seeing and the Sphere of Perception14 Jun 2019
- 3352 minWeek 3 day 8 — Taking Care of the Mind in Daily Life15 Jun 2019
Transcript
EnglishYes, um,
EnglishI had some doubts still about the practice, and then I had also some thinking about the doubt.
EnglishWhen having the doubt, then there's kind of the anger present somehow, but it's
Englishnot as a direct, clear feeling. It's a bit like having somebody else angry. So I can see that
Englishthe anger is there, but I don't feel it directly. But then the end result is unpleasant. Mm. So that is a feeling.
EnglishYes.
EnglishYes, you could say. But that's quite static, so it's kind of... it gets collecting, kind of building, the longer the doubt is.
EnglishAnd in some sense it feels that, uh,
Englishthey are not maybe the best states to spend time in.
EnglishCould be useful for observation, or for learning, maybe.
EnglishBut there's kind of
Englishwondering about... because in daily life I think doubt is very useful. For example, when I've been walking here on the roads, then I might start walking on one road and then at some point I start doubting that, hmm, maybe this won't take me where I want to go. And I think it's very useful because then I might not end up somewhere too far away, or whatever.
EnglishYou don't think that might be wisdom questioning?
EnglishHmm.
EnglishYeah, but somehow there are similar kind of questions coming to my mind about the practice, so I'm wondering there. They're sort of oriented from doubt, and then, as an example, I talked with you earlier that maybe about 10 years ago when I was practicing on a metta retreat, then I heard that it could be useful to do metta practice even though you don't have the metta feeling.
EnglishSo then I was doing, like, daily metta practice for one year to see how it works, and then at the end of the year I felt the same, that, okay, I don't have any metta feeling.
EnglishSo there are kind of similar things with the road, that, okay, maybe I could decide that I need to do it for 10 years, and then
Englishit might be useful to have this doubt that, okay, what is useful and what is not. Yeah, I think something that considers whether something is useful or not would be considered. No.
Englishthe boa, the
[Burmese segment]
Englishmeta a total
Englishblue come like
Englishtown hala town town hand ndio kivi, town hand out hand
EnglishHave you ever got very angry?
EnglishYes. And did you then feel very angry? Yes.
EnglishBut it's very rare. A young shadow. Out on time chen shilim. So then the other times, do you just prevent the anger from growing? Or is it because you know the anger that it's not growing? Usually there's... it doesn't easily get to the level where I really feel angry. Yeah.
EnglishTuwa lolo lile ene. Tamla. Tu doda kanzala au. Tuseme metepu re tu doda. Achie mishi. Would you say your mind has not a habit of doing that? Of doing what? Of letting the anger grow to the point where you can feel it. Yes. Kili dae ndio mawaa ya unconscious. Unconscious.
EnglishTuwa how dirty. Unconscious at mishi. pile. Yeah. So like... The pile. Down town Yeah. Seara says the nature of. Tarong yao. The nature of a defilement is that if you let it, it will grow.
EnglishBut your mind has already developed a habit, almost like a training, of keeping those under control. Like not letting them grow. So they just don't get to the point where it's like. Anakupa loceng sunge menyala tu the pawa naye. I love chini. Inapita la wewe si wa mawe. But he says, but that's fine. He says.
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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.…