WISDOM'S ROAR

◉  If you know the mind, you will notice seeing and looking happening all the time.

◉  Defilement is already doing its job. When we can observe the defilement, also notice that awareness-wisdom is doing its job too.

◉  You have benefited (effect) as much as you have practiced (cause); a yogi who understands cause and effect is not greedy.

◉  Don't push too much – be aware gently and patiently. It is precious indeed to find a patient yogi!

◉  A thought is just a thought, a feeling is just a feeling because reality does its job and it dies.

◉  When there is tension, the mind is watching with craving.

◉  If you care to be aware, meditation is already happening. It doesn’t have to be a particular object.

◉  Every object is very simple; it’s only thinking that makes it complicated.

◉  When the mind is close to the object, you cannot see the complete picture.

◉  The thought may be the same, but the thinking mind is always new.

◉  Awareness is new kamma. Experience is old kamma; so keep going on.

◉  When there is identification, emotions arise. So, check your idea.

◉  Wisdom is not involved with the object. Wisdom stays far away from the object.

◉  Object is already there. You know what is happening if you have awareness.

◉  If there is no practice, it is difficult to have the Dhamma.

◉  Looking is not seeing outside things. Looking is the mind thinking of the object.

◉  If you want to practice, just be aware moment to moment.

◉  If you’re aware moment to moment, you learn a lot every day.

◉  If you can’t change the attitude, change the object because if you can’t step back, you can’t observe.

◉  The meditating mind stays with the awareness, not with the experience.

◉  Awareness is the meditating mind, the 5 Spiritual Faculties. 

◉  However much you practice, you have already progressed by that much – nothing less and nothing more.

◉  When the mind is aware of a defilement with right view, the defilement is removed from the mind.

◉  When you put energy into the awareness, you take energy out of the defilement.

◉  When awareness is weak, the mind cannot learn.

◉  Meditation and eagerness are opposites.

◉  Every time a defilement comes, wait and watch. Make it a habit.

◉  When we pay attention without right view, defilement increases

◉  Don’t set targets in your practice.

◉  Defilements are everywhere – everyday you take a hot shower, but with what mind you don’t know. 

◉  Right attitude for home practice – any awareness doesn’t go to waste.

◉  Stopping runaway wandering mind – watch your intention to think. Because of intention, thinking continues, right?

◉  Meditation awareness observes the 6 senses, not concepts.

◉  The mind should not think that calmness is good because it also changes. Experience is just experience, just an object. 

◉  Boredom arises because of craving.

◉  When we do something repeatedly, momentum will build up naturally – that’s natural effort.

◉  Many yogis tell me that meditation is difficult. What they are actually saying is that they cannot get what they want.

◉  When meditation is difficult, craving is the problem.

◉  If you have right view, samadhi is already there. Wisdom, awareness and effort are the causes, right samadhi is the effect.

◉  Awareness-wisdom meditation is a life-long practice. There is no short cut to enlightenment. In another words, the mind quality improves like growing a new business, not like striking lottery. 

◉  Meditators want to meditate well – that’s why a lot of tension, depression and boredom arise.

◉  Every time you feel something pleasant or unpleasant, you start watching how it feels. Make it a habit.

◉  Stay with the awareness. Remember that awareness is important, object is not important.

◉  You will get attached to whatever you do again and again without awareness and wisdom. This is the nature of delusion.

◉  You cannot avoid defilements. Welcome them and learn from them.

◉  When there is no understanding, the object and the mind appear as one.

◉  If you use energy to focus on the object, the mind starts to think what the object looks like; then it becomes a concept, something the mind imagines.

◉  Many yogis want to meditate but they don’t want to meditate all the time. That’s why they cannot improve.

◉  We’re not trying to remove the defilements and suffering. The process of purification is happening through the watching. 

◉  If you’re not aware, the mind is deluded; and when there is delusion, any defilement can arise.

◉  Any time your mental, verbal and physical actions have awareness and wisdom, you are secure.

◉  When a thought agitates the mind and makes it suffer, don’t believe or follow the thought. It is a nonsensical thought.

◉  Don’t try to create anything and don’t reject what is happening – just be aware.

◉  You are not trying to make things turn out the way you want – you’re trying to know what is happening as it is.

◉  When we notice we have wrong view, that’s right view.

◉  The mind never goes here or far way – just paying attention mind is happening and gone.

◉  Don’t let things happen automatically – know and let the mind choose.

◉  When there is the idea of ‘self’ that takes things personally, then the defilement increases.

◉  Defilements trick us into not wanting to meditate.

◉  Whatever you know in the present moment is absolutely fine because it is being known and you’re meditating.

◉  If you’re aware, that’s enough. No need to focus, no need to try hard.

◉  If we are in a hurry, we lose mindfulness.

◉  Only with mindfulness meditation can you do two things at one time, even in the toilet!

◉  Vipassana object must be natural – therefore, you don’t try to control the experience.

◉  There’s no meditation in the future that we need to be doing; we just need to be doing it now.

◉  Awareness does not use focusing.

◉  When we practice in daily life and we’re successful, we truly, truly experience the benefits of the Dhamma.

◉  Awareness is not ‘I’ – it is a function of the mind.

◉  When sati is present, wisdom can arise. If you do that all the time, the mind can only get better and better.

◉  Don’t think ‘I’m good because my meditation is good’. Think: I’m good because I’m aware’.

◉  You don’t try to see harder; you don’t try to look closer. You just have to wait for the glasses to become clear. 

◉  The meditator is not concerned about the object, or how clear the object should be; he is concerned about how to be aware and how to keep the awareness continuous. 

◉  If you know how to make money, you’re not afraid to lose money.
[If the mind knows how to be aware, it is not afraid when awareness is lost.]

◉  If we know nature, we can use nature. The mind is also nature.

◉  If we know the mind, we can use the mind wisely.

◉  Mindfulness only happens now, not in the future.

◉  When you eat, enjoy the understanding, not the food.

◉  If you don’t know the mind, it can never rest because liking and disliking are pushing all the time.

◉  Yogis need to value the awareness and not complain about the experience.

◉  There’s no need to force to know because the mind already knows.

◉  The mind cannot stop liking and disliking even until you die if you do not know the mind.

◉  When the mind stays with the experience, liking and disliking arise, but when the mind stays with the awareness, the awareness grows stronger and stronger.

◉  Meditation is difficult because of craving and expectation.

◉  Craving always wants the result. Wisdom pays attention to the causes.

◉  Vipassana samadhi is not afraid of the object.

◉  I’m a good meditator because I can be aware, not because I have special experiences.

◉  If the mind cannot separate from the object, then wisdom is not there yet.

◉  All defilements pay attention to concepts; wisdom pays attention to nature/reality.

◉  We eat food with craving our whole life long – food is a craving object

◉  If you open your eyes, you cannot over focus because 80% of the time the mind’s attention naturally goes to the eyes.

◉  If you have peace (samadhi) without wisdom, you become attached.

◉  Peace is not important; absence of suffering is important.

◉  We use the object to grow our awareness; the object is not important.

◉  When any understanding arises, the defilements become weaker and weaker.

◉  Whenever the mind recognizes that awareness is present, the awareness becomes better and better.

◉  Thinking that meditation is good or bad because of a particular place, posture or time is nonsense.

◉  Because of right attitude, any place, posture and time is always good for meditation.

◉  Every time you are mindful, you must check if you have right view.

◉  If you practice the right way, the mind must be pleasant and light because of wholesome mind. But if your practice is very tiring, suffering a lot, then something is wrong.