Discerning Mental Factors

Discerning mental factors that arise with consciousness and contemplating these factors as not-self. Before doing this meditation, you might want to do some samatha (calm abiding) meditation to settle the mind.

Transcript

The air touches your nostrils.

Continue,

Breathe in and out.

Feel the air touches your nostrils.

The air that causes your consciousness to know it,

To its contact,

Feel the contact.

The coming together of the object,

In this case the air,

With the body's sensitivity and the consciousness is called contact.

If you cannot feel the touching point,

Breathe a little bit,

Love.

Then feel the air touches your skin,

That causes consciousness to know it.

And realize,

Recognize it as contact,

The mental factor of contact.

Once you understand the contact,

Mentally note,

It is just a mental factor,

Not a self.

Okay,

Now try to listen attention.

Attention means directing your mind to the breath.

Because of attention,

Continuously direct your mind to the breath,

Then your mind can stay on the breath.

Feel the attention.

If you cannot understand this attention,

Let go of the breath first and let the mind think of something,

Then immediately direct the mind to the breath again.

Then you will understand what is this attention,

Mana,

Sigara.

Once you understand this attention,

Mentally note,

It is just a mental factor,

Not a self,

Not I,

Not I am.

Now try to feel.

Now try to feel how your mind engage in the breath.

This engagement is volition.

Another meaning of volition is the mind is acting upon the breath.

Acting upon the breath is volition,

Jetana.

Feel it.

We must continue breathing in,

Breathing out in order to feel all the mental factors.

The function of volition in this case is accumulating the good karma.

Once you understand the mental factor of volition,

Mentally note,

It is just a mental factor,

Not myself.

Volition also directs all other mental factors to act upon the breath.

Therefore,

Volition is a leader.

Constant mindful of the breath,

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Feel the mindfulness is now a way of the breath.

For those who cannot feel the breath,

Please breathe a little bit intentionally,

So that you can feel the breath.

Then investigate who is aware of the breath.

Understand mindfulness of sati,

Awareness of the breath.

Sati is not myself,

It is not I.

Feel the separation of mindfulness and myself.

There is no one aware of the breath except mindfulness.

Next,

Try to see how the mind,

Is now aware of the breath,

Making the effort to be aware of the breath again and again is effort,

Viriya.

See how the mind is trying again and again to be aware of the breath.

While trying to discern the mental factors,

You must continue breathing in and breathing out.

Who is trying hard to be aware of the breath?

Effort.

Recognize effort is not I,

It is not myself.

Who is trying hard to be aware of the breath?

Some mental factors may be clear to you,

Some may not be clear.

Next,

We try another mental factor of one-pointedness.

Eka gata.

One-pointedness means unification of the mind on the object,

On the breath.

Eka gata,

One-pointedness unifies all the mental factors on the breath,

So that the mind does not scatter.

If your mind is restless,

Then there is no one-pointedness or unification of the mind on the breath.

Who is trying hard to be aware of the breath?

Continue breathing in and breathing out.

Continue breathing in and breathing out.

Place your mind on the breath.

Placing the mind on the breath is vittaka,

Initial application of the mind.

Feel how the mind plays on the breath,

Which is initial application of the mind,

Vittaka.

Feel how the mind plays on the breath,

Which is initial application of the mind,

Vittaka.

Once you understand vittaka,

Mentally note,

Vittaka is not myself.

When the mind is well placed on the breath,

Please sustain your attention there.

Sustain your attention on the breath,

So that the mind will not go off the breath.

This sustained attention is called vichara,

Sustained attention of the mind,

Or sustained application of the mind.

Vittaka and vichara too are jhana factors.

Feel how the mind is sustained on the breath.

When the mind is not sustained on the breath,

The mind goes off.

Therefore,

Jhana cannot be achieved,

Because the mind is not well sustained on the breath,

Because the attention is not well sustained on the breath.

In order to let the mind,

Let the attention be sustained on the breath,

You apply the effort,

Trying again and again to let the mind stay and sustain on the breath.

Try to differentiate the mental factor of effort and sustained attention.

Once you understand,

Sustain attention,

Mentally note,

It is not myself,

Anata,

Anata.

Sustained attention is not yourself,

It is a mental factor that performs its function,

That makes the mind sustain on the breath.

Continue breathing in and breathing out,

While breathing in and breathing out,

If you feel pleasant sensation,

Recognize there is pleasant feeling,

But if you feel nothing,

Neither pleasant nor unpleasant,

Recognize there is neutral feeling.

Or if you feel unpleasant of the breath,

Then recognize there is unpleasant feeling.

One of these feelings must be there,

Recognize it is just a feeling,

Not I,

Not mine,

Not myself.

Okay.

While listening mental factors one by one,

If you are a person with sharp wisdom,

The light also will appear.

Thank you.

Reviews

Excellent. This is probably a mid segment of what was a longer meditation. Don't let the abrupt beginning and end get in the way of this valuable exercise.

Great meditation for going deeper into experiencing Buddhist concepts. Lovely teacher r

Very nice, thank you

Lots of Buddhist terminology and theory in a meditation, much appreciated.

Sound quality not so great but used earphones. Pronunciation wasn't very clear but can be understood whilst i kept listening. This is a very good meditation for deconstructing the mental faculties. Thanks may you be well

Unexpected and helpful even with little context this meditation created structure to my mindfulness

Excellent. Challenging. This is about taking meditation to a deeper level. Thank you.

I've listened to this many times and still find it very helpful and informative. Love it

I love this meditation. It is one of my go to's. Very deep subject and very relaxing to follow

Very profound. Thanks a lot!

This is a deeper and more introspective kind of meditation. And it's guided well by sayalay susila. Many thanks sayalay.

Ah. That's what I have been looking for. Thank you.

Thanks for meditating with me. I was able to get in touch with my breath during this meditation

Very helpful. Thank you.

Lovely meditation...... 🙏🏼❤️

I have heard this beautiful meditation so many times yet always experience something new every time I listen. It has taught me so much about the nature of awareness and I am appreciative and grateful.

Excellent guidance!

Simple yet precise. Really helped me to sustain attention when mind was chaotic. Last few minutes led to moments of excellent awareness.

Added to favorites. Lo-fi but wonderful, thank you!