Interview
with Danish Yogi
in
Hpa An
16th
April 2013
(Last Part)
Q : About the Chinese
treatment Sayadaw is having at the moment … some people say disease is because
of defilements, is it so?
Sayadaw : From
my side, I see the desire (intention) of the physician. She has strong desire to help people with her
medicine. I can feel her mind, and this is why I accept the treatment. For me,
compared to the body, I understand that the mind is more important. If your mind is in good condition, it is useful. If your mind is not in good condition, it is
not useful.
This is why I accept her treatment, because of her
goodwill.
Q: But the question is if
the diseases are caused by kilesa?
Sayadaw : For
me, I can detach from all the suffering of my body so no problem for whatever happens
to my body. But because I have connection with the physician, in this way she
also has the chance to change to my side (follow my teachings, the Middle Way).
Now she is not on my side. If we have no
connection she will follow her way and I will go on my way. Because of
connection together it is possible for her to follow the Middle Way.
For me, I accept her treatment because…they have power,
created power, intending for long life.
They have strong attachment for that situation of having long life and
being healthy. For me a lot of people have desire that they get a long life and
stay healthy. Although they have desire,
it is not sure they will get a long life and be healthy.
As a physician though she has strong attachment for long
life and health, she also does a lot of good deeds. This is why I accept her
treatment because for my created life it is also useful to use her created
power. It means not for me, for other people, for everyone. This is also one of
the reasons why I accept her treatment. For my own desire (sake), no need
treatment for me. I can go on my way.
Being healthy or not cannot be the same or constant. So if I am healthy it is better. If I am
unhealthy I will feel more tired. If I
am healthy I will feel less tired. The
situation is different. This is one of
the reasons why I accept her treatment.
Q : So if you never take care
of yourself how can you be healthy?
Sayadaw : My
actions, my doing good deeds is causing my long life, save life of other people
and my life too. I am not a doctor, so I cannot cure by myself but I use the
power of detachment to help other people. Doing like this is also necessary for
me.
Q : What is the cause of the
disease?
Sayadaw : For
me, the food, the habit and the lifestyle.
What I am eating and my lifestyle is causing my disease.
Q : For everybody?
Sayadaw : Yes for
everybody but not only food, what they are doing is also the cause.
For concentration you can pay attention to the in and out
breathing (inhaling and exhaling) and also to the abdomen. But when you
practice concentration, you should try not to forget the truth, not to forget
the right understanding … ‘to do-only, to use-only, to be mindful-only, not to
be attached as reality and to be detached’.
Do not grasp or not pay emphasised attention to the
thought. If there is pain, do not pay emphasised attention to the pain too.
Just pay emphasised attention to the right understanding…‘to experience-only,
to be mindful-only, not to attach them as reality, and to detach them.’
Automatic emphasising will happen on the pain and on the
thought but what you must do intentionally is not to forget the right
understanding…to do-only, to experience-only. To be mindful-only.
Q : Experience-only means to
notice without taking it too seriously?
Sayadaw : To
experience-only means, you must try not to place central emphasis to yourself
and to people outside and your experiences. Because of cause, there will be
effect, this is why it happens. Whatever happens is to be experienced-only. Not
to be grasped as something real. Not to be experienced with the idea of someone,
but to be experiencing-only or mindful only. You must try to understand like
this.
You are used to experience with the idea of ‘I’, because of
that wrong habit, whatever happens to you, you accept it with the idea of
someone or of something. It is necessary to abandon that traditional habit in
order to be free from sufferings and attachments.
End of the interview.
(Note :
Questions are by Danish Yogi and answers are by Thabarwa Sayadaw U
Ottamasara in English language.)
