Teaching
of ThaBarWa Sayadaw U Ottamasara
Question
and Answer and Dhamma Discussion
with
the Yogi from Holland
Part
- One
If you still need this kind of question 'who'
and 'why', there will always be desire in your mind. If you want to be free
from desire, try to stop that kind of question.
'Who?' means grasping, grasping to the cause.
'Why?' means grasping, grasping to the effect.
'Who?' means grasping to the cause.
'Why?' means grasping to the effect.
'What is this?' means grasping to that thing.
'Who am I?' means grasping to the
person.
This grasping is the habit of our mind. What we must do is to abandon this habit of
grasping. The real practice, the Middle Way is trying to stop that habit of our
mind. If you cannot stop that habit of your mind, there will be always problems
in your mind. In order to be problem-free, stop this habit of grasping to the
time, to the person, to the place.
Paying attention to the time is grasping to
the time.
Paying attention to the place is grasping to
that place.
What we must do is to stop paying attention
to the place, to the time and person. This is the only way to be free from
desire.
Question
: How to make choices without
considering why and what, how to give a direction to your life ?
Sayadaw
: Change the attention from your
life to your mind. Pay attention to the
mind. No attention to the body (Do not
pay attention to your body). No
attention to the person.
Fulfill the desire of mind. Do not think
about the person (body).
Just work with the mind. Not with person (body).
Mind is the master. Body or persons is not the master.
Mind is more important than the person (body).
This is why you should change your attention
from the body to the mind. Work with the
mind, not with the body or the person. No need to pay attention to your body. Just pay attention to your mind ... not only your mind but
everybody's mind. Working with mind
society and not with human society. It is possible to work like this.
Changing the attention to the mind is to stop
paying attention to the body. The more you pay attention to your body, there
will be more attachment to your body. So just pay attention to the mind and in
this way the power of detachment to the body will appear. This power is very
powerful. Detach from the body by paying
attention to the mind. In this way there
will be attachment to the mind but the attachment to the body will be lesser
and lesser.
Question
: So attachment to the mind is
ok?
Sayadaw
: Ok temporarily, not for ever.
Question
: Like a step in between?
Sayadaw
: Yes. All attachment must be detached from. This is
why changing attention from the body to the mind is necessary. Working with the
mind. You can use your body but no need to pay attention to your body and to
other people. Just pay attention to the
mind.
Obey the desire of mind, not the desire of
person (body). That is very effective.
Working for mind is very powerful.
Fulfilling the desire of mind will solve the problem of mind. If you pay
attention to the person (body), there will be problems in your mind. There are
problems in every mind because of paying more attention to the body. Because of
ignoring the mind there are a lot of problems in the mind.
Question
: In order to do good deeds I
have to think about others mind as well…what is a good deed, making someone
more successful or healthy or helping for more understanding?
Sayadaw
: Not for the sake of someone but
for the sake of mind. Mind is the master
so if you pay attention to the master it will be ok. If you pay attention to
the body, there will be problems in your mind. This is why the master is more
important than the followers.
If your mind is free to stay here or if your
mind is free to listen to my teaching just do it. Do not think about other situations. Just
think about the situation of your mind. If your mind is ok, when you deal with
other minds will also be ok ... Pay attention to the situation of other minds
is more important. Paying attention to
the situation of who you are or what you are doing or what is happening to you
is not important.
Just think about the situation of the mind.
It will solve the problem of the mind.
The problem of the mind is much bigger than the problem of human. If you
can solve the problem of the mind, there will be lesser and lesser problem in
your life. That power from solving the problem of mind is very high.
We traditionally are trying to solve the problem
of human society, not the problem of mind society. This is why, with the time, the problems
still remain in the mind.
What I want you to know is ... to use the
power of mind, not the power of a person. We are always using the power of
person. That is not complete. So instead of using the power of someone just use
the power of mind.
What I am guiding to is to have powerful in
mind. I am guiding to detach from
everything except from the mind.....
- in the first step, try to detach from everything except from the mind.
- and then, try to detach from the mind.
- if there is power to detach from everything, try to detach from the mind.
- pay attention to nothing except to the mind and
- then lastly try to stop paying attention to the mind.
It means, take care of your mind ... not your
body, not your life, not your money or your health. Just take care of your
mind. Abandon the traditional way. Just pay attention to the mind, not only
your mind but all minds. Observe the mind society, there are various types of
mind.
If you pay attention to the mind, there will
be wisdom which knows about the mind. Directly observing the mind but not
grasping at it as 'this is my mind', 'this is an angry mind', 'and this is easy
mind'. Just pay attention free from grasping.
Try to experience-only, try to use-only ... you
are using the mind but this using must be without grasping.
You think the mind is something, this idea is
wrong. This is why you should abandon
this idea of something ... just use our mind as use-only, just experience
whatever happen to the mind as experiencing-only. Not grasping such as 'I am
afraid' or 'I am sorry'. Not grasping like that.
Not grasping to the situation. Just try to experience-only without grasping
to the situation as 'I understand' or 'I know' or 'I don’t know'. Try to
experience-only. There may be knowing or
not knowing, whatever happens, whatever situation happens ... no need to grasp
to that situation, just experience-only.
This practice is very effective. It really works. Not theory but very practical.
We are always using our mind but we forget
the truth of use-only. Not grasping but using-only. When we are using our mind,
when we are using our body, try not to forget the truth of using-only, not
grasping. Not forgetting to that truth is important. In this way you will be
able to use your mind in the right way which is using-only and whatever happens
to your mind is to experience-only.
If something happens to your mind, just
remember the truth of experiencing-only, not grasping. If you remember the
truth you will be able to experience the situation in the right way which is to
experience-only. If you know something, don’t forget the truth of knowing-only
and in this way, you will be able to know all knowing in the right way which is
knowing-only.
The truth is just too use-only, to do-only,
to experience-only and to know-only. If you don’t remember that truth, you are
using your mind with grasping ... the mind as 'my mind' or as something. I want
you to stop that grasping. You can use your mind but the habit of grasping is
wrong. Try to stop this grasping habit.
Without grasping you will be able to use your mind as using-only.
Now I am using my mind, using-only, without
grasping as 'my mind' or 'your mind'. Without grasping as stable mind or
unstable mind, just using-only. The mind is always changing, but there is the
quality in me to be able to use it in the right way, to use-only. You must try
to use-only. Whatever mind is always changing this is the nature of the mind,
it is to be used-only, and whatever happens to your mind is not important.
To be continued