HOW TO MAINTAIN INTEREST IN BEING AWARE

Singapore Q&A 21.7.2023 (00:21-02:40)

Yogi: How do I maintain interest in the practice?

Sayadaw: If you recognize the benefit of awareness, you’ll want to practice.

Do you understand the difference between being aware and not being aware? You’ll be interested if you can see the advantages of the practice.

The benefit is more obvious when people are suffering.

If you can notice the difference in the quality of mind when you’re aware and when you’re not aware, then you’ll be more interested in practicing.

Yogis try to meditate because they’ve already experienced something good from practicing.

KNOW THE OBJECT AND THE AWARENESS MIND

Singapore Q&A 7.7.2023 (01:37-2:44)

When we’re aware there must be awareness and some understanding together.

What kind of awareness do you have? Is it awareness alone or awareness with some understanding? Do you recognize that when you’re aware?

When we practice, we check if the awareness is present. If we know that awareness is present, then we check again what else we know.

Basically, we need to know the object and the awareness mind.

HOW DO WE PROGRESS BY JUST KNOWING AND BEING AWARE?

Singapore Q&A 10.7.2023 (1:01:00-1:01:56)

Yogi: How do we improve if we’re just knowing and being aware?

Sayadaw: If you continue to be aware, this is already progress.

Moment to moment, if you try to maintain the awareness, it is already improving.

If you stop being aware, then awareness will go down.

If you want to improve, try to maintain the awareness consistently.

ASKING WHAT IS THE MIND KNOWING IS RECOGNIZING THE MIND

Singapore Q&A 14.7.2023 (01:50-02:23)

You can start being aware of the body sensations, but later, come to the awareness.

If you’re aware of the awareness, you can also recognize the body.

That is why when I remind yogis ‘What is the mind aware of?’ and ‘Do you recognize awareness is present?’ it is also attention to the mind. The body sensation is already with the awareness, right? That’s enough.

BE AWARE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE MIND AND BODY

Singapore Q&A 14.7.2023 (10:10 -10:52)

Yogi: Just now, I was watching my breathing. When I breathe in and I breathe out, in between there’s a gap.

Sayadaw: Who is breathing in and breathing out?

Yogi: My body is breathing in and breathing out.

Sayadaw: Really? I just said breathing happens because of the intention to breathe. But you said, I’m breathing in and breathing out. This is an idea, the idea that I’m breathing in and I’m breathing out.

DON’T MERELY TRY TO MAKE THE MIND ACCEPT AND LET GO

Singapore Q&A 4.7.2023 (01:00-02:25)

Yogi: I have a lot of anger and was told to accept it and let go. But I cannot; how do I change my view about anger to accept and let go?

Sayadaw: First, you need to think that anger is not yours; anger is anger, and anger is nobody’s anger. This is the first attitude when watching anger.

We’re not trying to accept; we’re trying to think the right way about anger – anger is nature. That’s enough.

Secondly, we try to be aware of this feeling, not the storyline, just the feeling, understand?

LEARN HOW TO WATCH SO THAT UNDERSTANDING CAN ARISE

Singapore Q&A 10.7.2023 (1:07:38-1:09:40)

Yogi: How can we understand the cause of our greed, anger, and delusion through meditation?

Sayadaw: Because your mind is suffering when you practice with craving, your mind cannot be peaceful; you use a lot of energy to focus and the mind becomes tense, right? The effect of defilement nature is suffering. You can know your feelings and mental state.

You watch every time craving and aversion arise – again, again, and again until understanding comes. That’s all.

You learn from your own experience this way.

Yogi: Many yogis observe, but still they don’t have the wisdom.

Sayadaw: Wisdom cannot come immediately. They need to learn how to watch so that understanding can come. That’s the difficult part. I cannot give you this wisdom.

I can only share some experience; that’s all I can do.

HAPPY BECAUSE OF KNOWING EVEN IF THE EXPERIENCE IS PAINFUL

Singapore Q&A 14.7.2023 (21:00-21:44)

Yogi: I’m happy when I see pain because I see it rather than be angry there’s pain in the body. Pain is natural; when there is a body, pain is bound to arise.

Sayadaw: Why are you happy when pain arises?

Yogi: Because I see it.

Sayadaw: Because of knowing, you’re happy. You’re happy because of knowing, not because of the object.

THE PAUSE BETWEEN THE IN-BREATH AND OUT-BREATH IS ALSO AN OBJECT

Singapore Q&A 14.7.2023 (10:04-11:56)

Yogi: When I breathe in and out, there’s a pause in between the two. And, in the gap, the mind will look for another object or wander off.

Sayadaw: You can be aware of the gap because it is also an object. The mind can know it because the meaning of an object is being known.

If you can understand that the gap is an object, the mind cannot wander off – the object and the awareness are there.

Because you think that the gap is not an object, you try to look for something else.

UNDERSTANDING WHY NOT TO JUDGE THE OBJECT AS GOOD OR BAD

Singapore Q&A 10.7.2023 (25:08-34:55)

It is better not to judge the object as good or bad because if you think that it’s good, the mind gets attached, and if you think that it’s bad, the mind resists.

How not to think that it is good or bad? It is when the mind understands the meaning of an object. The meaning of object is something that is being known by the mind – it means it is not good or bad and when there is this understanding, the mind becomes equanimous to the experience.

Knowing is the mind and being known is the object. Do you understand this when you practice?

THINKING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE OR BEING AWARE

Singapore Q&A 14.7.2023 (26:10-27:05)

Yogi: During a retreat, if I experience something that I have never had before and it is hard to name the experience, what should I do?

Sayadaw: If you don’t know how to name it, it is okay to call it an object or something being known.

Sometimes, it is hard to express because the experience is something new.

Even if we cannot think of a name, we can still understand that it’s an object; then, the mind won’t be agitated and go into thinking.

THE APPROACH TO WATCHING PAIN

Vietnamese Retreat at Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya 11 September 2023 (5:48-7:13)

Yogi: When the pain arises, the object is very clear. Why then do we watch aversion instead of the pain?

Sayadaw: When the pain arises, there is anger. For the normal yogi, when the pain arises, the mind reacts to the pain with aversion.

If the mind watches the pain with anger, then we’re not meditating because the pain will increase; for example, if we’re angry with someone and we pay attention to them, then the mind will get angrier and angrier.

This is the same principle. That is why if we want to know the nature of the pain, we need to watch it with equanimity by taking care of the anger first.

YOGIS ARE AWARE OF THE OBJECT, NOT THINK OF THE PAIN

Singapore Q&A 14.7.2023 (22:45-24:14)

Yogi: When the physical pain is not intense, I can still watch it in a detached way. But what about cancer patients who are in great pain?

Sayadaw: For yogis, the mind can be peaceful when pain arises if there is some understanding or realization.

We don’t think about cancer but know that experience is an object. Understanding of the object is not thinking about the cancer.

Pain is the object when there is an understanding of the object and the knowing mind. When you’re aware of nature, there is nothing to be upset about.

The mind does not react because of wisdom.

WATCH REACTIONS VIA PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT FEELINGS

Singapore Q&A 10.7.2023 (28:38-30:32)

The mind is quick to judge because of pleasant and unpleasant sensations. We should watch the pleasant and unpleasant sensations until they become neutral, then only we think.

We can think neutrally only when the mind doesn’t react to the sensations. The neutral state of mind can understand the meaning of ‘as it is’. That is why we watch the feeling until the pleasant or unpleasant feeling becomes neutral. That neutral mind can understand ‘as it is’. There is a relationship between mind and object – the state of mind can see its related kind of object.

We can watch our feelings continually because the mind judges all the time. Like when watching pain, we watch the unpleasant feeling until it becomes neutral; at that time the mind can understand the nature of the pain.

DEFILEMENT PAYS ATTENTION TO CONCEPT; WISDOM PAYS ATTENTION TO NATURE

Singapore Q&A 4.7.2023 (05:40-06:58)

Yogi: When anger arises, I also see the thoughts and the storyline. I’ve been seeing the same thing with the same triggers for more than 2 years, usually about the same person.

Sayadaw: It means that the mind has not learned yet although you can be aware.

There is nature and the storyline – feeling is nature. Feeling has no concept, it is only intensity, strong, weak, strong, weak, that’s it.

The storyline is the problem – who, where, or what. Concept is defilement object while nature is wisdom object. Choose what you want to do.

Now, you understand that if you pay attention to the concept, defilement will arise. If you pay attention to nature, the mind will calm down.

So, which way do you want to go?

Sayadaw: If you think, it means that you do not know, right? Thinking and knowing are different. If we think, it means that we don’t know.

Now, we try to know if awareness is present or not, checking if awareness is there or not. That is why I ask you: What is the mind aware of?