I know this is a very late response, but anyway here it is

Thanks for the relevant quote. U Tejaniya has been my main meditation teacher since 2000 when I went to his meditation center. FYI, the effort to produce a revised edition of the book is now in my hands. Nothing new. Just checking through the Pali words and add diacritics.

kb

flrobert2000 wrote thus at 09:23 AM 31-03-09:

>Dear Kumara Bhikkhu,
>
>Thank you for reminding this important fact which is quite obvious but which seems to be overlooked by many meditators. There's really no need in trying to repress our thoughts, whether their contents are good or bad, but one should rather try to observe the fact that there is thinking happening in this very moment. I would like to cite the following answer made by U Tejaniya (a Vipassana meditation teacher here in Myanmar who has a different approach from the traditional Burmese way) to a Yogi about the awareness of thinking (from his excellent book "Awareness alone is not enough"):
>
>"Most people have very little practice in recognizing thoughts, i.e. in acknowledging that a thought is happening and in remaining aware of the thought. What most people are used to is focusing on thoughts in order to make them disappear.
>I advise beginners to simply recognize a thought, to just acknowledge it and then bring their attention to whatever object they had been observing before. Doing this grounds them again. Watching the thought continuously would suck them in the story. You can try yourself by doing this over and over again; recognize that a thought is happening and bring your attention to whatever else you had been observing. This builds up awareness. But once you get involved in the story in some way, you will get lost."
>Once you have some practice in recognizing thoughts in this way, you can ask yourself the question: Do I see that this is a thought or do I recognize that this is the mind?
>The contents of what you are thinking might be about the past or the future but the mind arises in the present moment only. We often use the expression `wandering mind' which seems to suggest that the mind has wandered away, has moved somewhere. The truth is, however, that the mind does not go anywhere; the mind is only happening here and now. All it does is arise and pass away. A thought about someone far away or about an event in the past or the future is simply a thought that has arisen here and now. Awareness alone can only recognize that a thought is happening. But when there is a realization of the nature of thoughts, when there is some understanding, wisdom can see that this is only the mind.
>You can look at thoughts from many different perspectives. You may realize that this thought is just the mind, that it is a defilement, that it is important or unimportant, or that it is wholesome or unwholesome."
>
>Sorry for this long quote, but I thought it could be really useful to those who practice vipassana meditation.
>
>With metta,
>
>Florent