AWARENESS ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

AWARENESS ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

Questions & Answers with Ashin Tejaniya

NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO

SAMMA SAMBUDDHASSA

Homage to Him, the Blessed One, the Worthy One,

the Perfectly Self-Enlightened One

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My special gratitude goes to my teacher, the late Venerable Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw Bhaddanta Kosalla Maha- Thera, who taught me Dhamma and the right attitude for my spiritual development and meditation practice.

I want to express my appreciation to all yogis. Their questions and difficulties have once again inspired many of the explanations and answers given in this book. I really hope that this second book too will help yogis to better understand mindfulness meditation and to deepen their practice.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the completion of this book.

Ashin Tejaniya

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WE PRACTISE BECAUSE WE WANT

TO UNDERSTAND

Most people don't seem to really appreciate the value of the work of awareness. They tend to think that the importance of meditation is in the things that they observe. But the objects do not really matter. People also spend a lot of time thinking about the results. They want to experience peaceful states; they want to `bliss out'. Then they get attached to these states and to the objects they focus on.

The real value of meditation is not in getting such results, however enjoyable they may be. The real value of meditation is the actual process of being aware and understanding what is happening. The process is important, not the result!

Instead of complaining about what is or is not happening, you should appreciate that you are aware ? regardless of what you are aware of ? and learn from it.

Awareness alone is not enough! Having a desire to really understand what is going on is much more important than just trying to be aware. We practise mindfulness meditation because we want to understand.

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