Question: Dear Sayadaw, I have a few questions. First, what is the mind? Second, what is doing good deeds? Third, what is Dhamma and the benefit of practicing Dhamma? The fourth question is: what is the idea of teamwork in meditation? And the fifth: how to be mindful while talking and listening. Thank you!
The Truth of the mind is just impermanent nature. There are 4 kinds of mind: motivation or desire, suffering, condition, and knowing. All these are ever new impermanent nature. The aim of mindfulness and detachment is to know the ever-new-impermanent nature of body and mind. If we see from the side of a layperson, we know body and mind as something which belongs to someone. If we see from the side of nature, you will see only nama and rupa. Nama is the mind: citta and cetasikā ; rupa is four elements.
The number 2 question is about good deeds. The action of helping, volunteering for those in need; sharing, giving what we have; protecting the others; keep precepts by not killing, not stealing, not doing sexual misconduct, not telling lie, not using intoxicants; keeping the mind stable and pure; all of them are the basis of doing good deeds.
Answering for the number 3 question of benefits of good deeds. We get what we give and we don’t get what we don’t give. Volunteering and helping are the cause of receiving that in return. If we don’t volunteer or help the needed people, we won’t receive any helps when we are in need. We share and give, we will get that in return. This is cause and effect, we should not think of the person, just think of cause and effect. We may not be helped by who we helped but for sure we will get help from someone. Caring and protecting are the cause of receiving those from others. By not killing, we will not be killed. By not stealing, our belongings will not be stolen. By not doing sexual misconduct, we will not be betrayed; by not telling lies, we will not be cheated; by not using alcohol, we will not lack of intelligence, we can understand the Truth. I am keeping the mind to be stable and pure, the mind will be stable and pure.
For the number 4 question: benefits of teamwork in meditation. If we are doing good deeds together, we will be able to do good deeds together. If we are not doing good deeds, we will do good deeds by ourselves. By practicing in this meditation retreat, we are helping the good deeds of people and organizations. That’s why when we or our organization do good deeds, we can get help from the other, If we are not involved in doing good deeds together, we cannot get help from others. If we cannot get support from other people and organizations, we cannot survive. If we help this kind of teamwork to get success, our teamwork can get success. If we can help the other’s teams to get success, our team will also be supported.
For the number 5 question: how to be mindful while talking and listening. As human beings, we cannot avoid listening and speaking. On those actions, we will attach more and more. To detach from these physical and verbal actions, we should be mindful of the Truth or ever-new-impermanent nature. Doing with ignorance and attachment is wrong; doing only with the knowing of our present ignorance and attachment is right. We should keep the Truth of ever-new-impermanent nature as the most important of all. In this way we can correct the mistake of emphasizing living beings and non-living beings as real or true.