Atlas›Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines›Guide 062
Guide XIII-062

U Tejaniya mind-watching

Sayadaw U TejaniyaYangon, Myanmar
A 25 · L 49 · M 2619 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the mind-watching (awareness of the mind) practice as taught by Sayadaw U Tejaniya (also published as Ashin Tejaniya), Burmese Theravada, Shwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Forest Meditation Center, Yangon, Myanmar; drawn from his own website and books (the 23-point "Right Attitude" text, When Awareness Becomes Natural, Shambhala 2016, and Relax and Be Aware, Shambhala 2019, ed. Doug McGill), a 2020 Tricycle interview, and teaching extracts published by the Hong Kong Insight Meditation Society. [source: ashintejaniya.org; Shambhala Publications pages; Tricycle 2020; HKIMS 2025]

This is a contemplative practice of a living Buddhist tradition, not a psychotherapy. U Tejaniya trained as a young teenager under Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw (1913–2002), worked in business (the textile trade, per his publisher) and lived as a householder, and became a permanent monk in 1996. [source: ashintejaniya.org; Shambhala, When Awareness Becomes Natural] His teaching sits within the Burmese vipassanā (insight) movement; its precise relation to the Mahasi noting lineage is [uncertain: not verified].

Core idea of change, as the teacher states it: the object of meditation matters less than the quality of the observing mind working in the background. The meditator learns to notice, in a relaxed and continuous way, whether the watching mind is coloured by wanting, aversion or not-knowing (in Buddhist terms the defilements, kilesa: greed lobha, aversion dosa, delusion moha). Practice is "accepting, observing, and learning from your experience just as it is"; calm and insight (paññā, wisdom) are said to follow from this rather than from forcing the mind into special states. Awareness is meant to run all day, not only on the cushion: "The right time to meditate is all day long." [source: Shambhala, When Awareness Becomes Natural; Tricycle 2020; Shambhala, Relax and Be Aware] Liberation and the Buddhist path are the tradition's own aims and are attributed to it here, not stated as fact or as a clinical outcome.

For the psychotherapist, the guide has two layers: (a) what the tradition openly teaches, so a client's practice can be understood in its own terms; (b) the therapist's own work alongside it: client-led integration, secular adaptations, referral to qualified teachers, trauma-sensitive adaptation and adverse-effect monitoring. The therapist does not teach this practice as a religious teacher. [synthesis]

2. Framework

The tradition does not publish a staged protocol, session count or graded curriculum for this practice. What it does publish is a set of attitude guidelines, formal sitting and walking practice inside a retreat schedule, and continuous daily-life awareness. [source: ashintejaniya.org; Shambhala, Relax and Be Aware] The phases below are an organising frame for the therapist [synthesis], not the teacher's own stages.

  • Phase A, orientation to right attitude. Goal: the meditator understands that practice means watching, not producing states; learns the attitude checks (am I relaxed, am I wanting something, am I actually aware). Source material: the 23-point "Right Attitude" text. [source: Right Attitude text, as reproduced on a third-party site, dhammacetiya.com, and listed on ashintejaniya.org] Moving on: the person can name when the watching mind is tense, wanting or rejecting, without needing that to change first. [synthesis]
  • Phase B, establishing continuity. Goal: awareness kept up across ordinary activity (washing, eating, typing), with short formal periods. Relax and Be Aware is organised as 31 short chapters, "A Month of Daily Life Meditations", one per day, and centres on gently and continuously renewing the intention to be aware rather than on forceful effort. [source: Shambhala, Relax and Be Aware] Moving on: the person reports catching the mind more often during the day and is not exhausted by practice (tiredness is a sign the method needs checking). [source: Right Attitude text; synthesis]
  • Phase C, inquiry and wisdom. Goal: using awareness to learn how the mind works: noticing details, intentions before actions, how defilements arise and pass; continuing to investigate after a defilement fades. [source: Tricycle 2020; HKIMS 2025] There is no criterion for completion; the tradition frames this as ongoing practice. [synthesis]

Format in the tradition: individual practice with periodic interviews or Dhamma discussion with the teacher, at the Yangon centre or on retreats abroad; recordings from retreats in many countries from 2011 to 2023 are published on his site. The centre's site stated that from 22 June 2021 it was not accepting new yogis "until further notice"; check the current position with the centre. [source: ashintejaniya.org] Durations of sittings, retreat lengths and daily schedules are not given here [uncertain: not verified].

Format in therapy: no published clinical protocol of this specific practice is cited here [uncertain: not verified]. In therapy the practice appears as the client's own spiritual practice, brought in by the client, with the therapist working alongside it (section 4, items 11–19). [synthesis]

3. Guiding principles

Tradition principles (paraphrased; source: Right Attitude text unless marked):

  • Observe, do not create or reject. Whatever arises, pleasant or unpleasant, is watched; creating experiences is framed as greed, rejecting them as aversion, not knowing what is happening as delusion. Practical meaning: the client's goal is noticing, not getting rid of a feeling.
  • Relaxed, comfortable body and mind. Tension, forcing, controlling or restricting block practice. Practical meaning: if the client strains, the practice has gone off course.
  • Tiredness is feedback. Fatigue signals the method needs checking; practising with wanting only exhausts. Practical meaning: exhaustion is information, not a reason to push harder.
  • Check the attitude, continually. Look for hidden wanting, expectation or anxiety in the watching mind. Practical meaning: the first question is about the observer, not the object.
  • The object is secondary. The background observing mind matters more than the object, so any object is usable. [source: also Shambhala, When Awareness Becomes Natural] Practical meaning: clients need not fix on the breath; sound, body or a finger touch will do.
  • Thinking is not the enemy. Thinking is acknowledged when it arises rather than stopped. Practical meaning: "I can't stop thinking" is not failure.
  • Know whether you are aware. Is the mind thinking or aware, inside or outside, genuinely or superficially aware? "You must know again that you are aware" (HKIMS 2025). Practical meaning: a light self-check, not self-surveillance.
  • Accept good and bad experience alike. Wanting only pleasant experience is not the Dhamma's way. Practical meaning: unpleasant sessions are workable material.
  • Don't follow the defilement. Watch fear or worry but do not let it lead thought or action; "defilements always bring in other defilements" (Tricycle 2020). Practical meaning: notice the pull without obeying it.
  • Continuity over intensity. Gentle, continuous remembering, all day; home can be treated as a retreat. [source: Shambhala, Relax and Be Aware; Tricycle 2020] Practical meaning: many brief returns beat long effortful sits.
  • Use wisdom; adjust to conditions. Choose concentration or insight, inside or outside attention, as the situation needs (HKIMS 2025); "noticing details is the territory of wisdom" (Tricycle 2020). Practical meaning: the practice is flexible, not rule-bound.
  • Faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, understanding support one another in a cycle. Practical meaning: confidence in the practice is expected to grow from understanding, not be demanded upfront.

Therapist principles [synthesis unless marked]:

  • Client-led, consented, in the client's terms. The client decides whether their practice enters therapy; use their vocabulary (yogi, defilement, knowing mind). Spiritual and religious competence is a recognised professional expectation: Vieten et al. (2013) propose 16 basic competencies across attitudes, knowledge and skills. [source: Vieten et al. 2013, via noetic.org]
  • Not the teacher. The therapist does not give Dhamma instruction, interpret attainments or act as spiritual director; meditation questions go to the client's teacher.
  • Safety outranks practice. Adverse effects are not uncommon and occur in people without prior mental-health history. [source: Farias et al. 2020] Reduce, change or pause practice when it destabilises, and coordinate with the teacher if the client wishes.
  • Trauma-aware by default. Attention, arousal, relationship, dissociation and social context shape whether mindfulness helps or harms survivors. [source: Treleaven 2018, publisher description]
  • Even-handed about religious claims. Buddhist concepts (defilements, wisdom, liberation) are described as the tradition holds them, neither endorsed nor dismissed.
  • No health claims. The practice is not presented as treating physical or mental disease; any health claim is the speaker's, and the evidence for this specific practice is not established. [uncertain: not verified]

4. Intervention inventory

Items 1–10 are the practice as the teacher publicly teaches it, given so the therapist understands what the client is doing; the steps are paraphrases, and the client's own teacher remains the authority on them. Items 11–19 are the psychotherapist's own work. Example language is illustrative throughout. [source for items 1–10: Right Attitude text; Tricycle 2020; HKIMS 2025; Shambhala book pages]

1. Establishing the right attitude

  • Purpose / when: the foundation of the whole practice; revisited whenever practice feels strained, effortful or disappointing.
  • Steps (as taught): (1) Before and during practice, notice the attitude of the watching mind rather than the object. (2) Ask whether there is any wanting for something to happen or stop, any expectation, any anxiety. (3) If present, simply know it; that knowing is itself the practice. (4) Relax body and mind; do not force, control or restrict. (5) Take good and bad experiences alike as things to learn from. [source: Right Attitude text]
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your tradition, what matters seems to be how you're watching rather than what you're watching. When you sat this morning, what was the watching like: relaxed, or a bit grabby?"
  • Watch for: the attitude check turning into harsh self-monitoring ("I'm doing it wrong again"). Working: the client describes their attitude with curiosity and reports less strain. [synthesis]

2. Watching the mind (the knowing-mind side)

  • Purpose / when: the central practice; turning attention from the triggering object to the mind that is reacting.
  • Steps (as taught): (1) When a reaction arises, shift attention from the outer trigger to one's own mind. (2) Notice what the mind is doing: thinking or aware; attending inside or outside. (3) Stay with the knowing rather than complaining about the experience; the teacher frames being able to know as something to be glad of. (4) At sensory level, recognise experience simply as seeing, hearing and so on, rather than getting caught in the story. [source: Tricycle 2020; HKIMS 2025; Right Attitude text]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned your teacher says to look at the mind rather than the person who annoyed you. When you did that this week, what did you find there?"
  • Watch for: turning inward when it increases distress (e.g. in trauma, panic, rumination); detachment used to avoid needed action. Working: the client can describe the reaction as well as its trigger. [synthesis]

3. Checking that one is actually aware

  • Purpose / when: guards against superficial or mechanical practice.
  • Steps (as taught): (1) While knowing an object, also know that one is aware ("know again that you are aware"). (2) Ask whether the awareness is genuine or superficial. (3) When alone, practise more diligently and keep checking: do I know what I am doing? [source: HKIMS 2025; Right Attitude text]
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like the question 'am I aware right now?' comes up a lot. Is it a light check, or does it start to feel like watching yourself too closely?"
  • Watch for: hypervigilant self-observation, depersonalisation-like reports, checking that becomes compulsive. Working: a brief, light check that does not add tension. [synthesis]

4. Working with defilements without looking down on them

  • Purpose / when: when greed, aversion, fear, worry or irritation arise during practice or daily life.
  • Steps (as taught): (1) Recognise the defilement as present (one of his books is titled Don't Look Down on the Defilements). (2) Watch it but do not follow it into thought or action; defilements breed more defilements. (3) Accepting fear as natural can help settle the mind. (4) Study the defilements that arise around an object rather than rejecting the object. [source: ashintejaniya.org book list; Tricycle 2020; Right Attitude text]
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your practice, anger isn't something to be ashamed of, it's something to study. What did you notice about how it started?"
  • Watch for: moral self-accounting turning into scrupulosity (see item 18); using non-reaction to tolerate harm in a relationship. Working: less self-condemnation, more curiosity about reactions. [synthesis]

5. Relating to thinking

  • Purpose / when: when the client is troubled by a busy mind.
  • Steps (as taught): (1) Do not be bothered by thinking; do not try to stop it. (2) Acknowledge it when it arises. (3) Return to knowing what is happening now rather than drifting into past or future. [source: Right Attitude text]
  • Example language (illustrative): "So your teacher's view is that thinking is just another thing to know, not a failure. How does that sit with you?"
  • Watch for: rumination or intrusive memories that do not settle with acknowledgment, a reason for grounding (item 16). [synthesis]

6. Brief concentration to ground and steady the mind

  • Purpose / when: when the mind is agitated or fearful and needs steadying before or alongside awareness practice.
  • Steps (as taught): (1) Pick whatever object grounds best: the breath, whole-body sensation, the touch of one finger on another, or a peaceful memory. (2) Rest attention on it for whatever time is available, even a few seconds, several times a day. (3) Then return to ordinary awareness. [source: Tricycle 2020] No breath control, counting or retention is involved in this description.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your teacher suggested the touch of one finger on another as an anchor. Would that, or something outside you like sound, feel steadier right now?"
  • Watch for: breath focus that raises anxiety or trauma memories; switch to an external or tactile anchor. [source: Treleaven 2018 principles; synthesis]

7. Continuous awareness in daily life

  • Purpose / when: the teacher's emphasis for lay practitioners with busy lives.
  • Steps (as taught): (1) Set a positive intention at the start of the day for speech and action. (2) Keep knowing what one is doing through ordinary tasks (laundry, eating, typing). (3) Treat home as a retreat. (4) Renew awareness gently and repeatedly rather than with forceful effort. (5) Notice the intention before an action, which creates a choice to stop a habitual act. [source: Tricycle 2020; Shambhala, Relax and Be Aware; Shambhala, When Awareness Becomes Natural]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned noticing the urge before you reach for your phone. What happens in that gap?"
  • Watch for: continuous self-monitoring becoming exhausting, detached or perfectionistic. Working: practice feels light and fits with daily duties. [synthesis]

8. Inquiry and developing wisdom

  • Purpose / when: once some awareness is established; to learn how the mind works.
  • Steps (as taught): (1) Notice details: noticing details is described as the territory of wisdom. (2) Adjust practice to conditions: attend outside only when needed; choose concentration or insight to suit the situation. (3) When a defilement fades, do not stop; go back and investigate so understanding can arise. [source: Tricycle 2020; HKIMS 2025] Awareness Alone Is Not Enough collects his practice discussions on this theme. [source: ashintejaniya.org book list; uncertain: not verified]
  • Example language (illustrative): "What did you learn about how the irritation worked, not just that it went away?"
  • Watch for: intellectualising as avoidance of feeling. Working: the client's observations become specific and experiential. [synthesis]

9. Loving-kindness (mettā)

  • Purpose / when: taught alongside awareness, e.g. in times of fear.
  • Steps (as taught): begin with oneself, then benefactors, friends and beloved beings; extend to difficult people only once the feeling is genuine. [source: Tricycle 2020] Phrases are not given here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "He suggested not forcing kindness toward difficult people. That might fit for you with your father, for now."
  • Watch for: self-directed kindness triggering grief or shame (common in self-critical clients; compare Domain II compassion approaches). [synthesis]

10. Formal sitting and walking within a retreat

  • Purpose / when: intensive practice at the Yangon centre or retreats abroad, with interviews and Dhamma discussion with the teacher.
  • Steps: the tradition's retreat rules, schedule and health guidance are published on the centre's pages (preparation, rules, health); follow those and the teacher's instruction. Schedules and sitting lengths are not reproduced here. [source: ashintejaniya.org; details uncertain: not verified]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before you book, can we look together at how you've been sleeping and how intensive practice has gone for you in the past?"
  • Watch for: see item 16 (screening before intensive retreats). [synthesis]

11. Spiritual assessment and consent to integrate the practice

  • Purpose / when: at intake or whenever the client mentions meditation; decides whether and how the practice enters therapy.
  • Steps: (1) Ask open questions about religious and spiritual life, practices, teachers and community, as part of cultural assessment; the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, with its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions, offers a structure [uncertain: not verified]. (2) Ask what the practice means to the client (path to liberation, stress relief, identity, community). (3) Ask explicitly whether they want it discussed or used in therapy, and record consent. (4) Agree that the teacher remains the authority on technique. [source: Vieten et al. 2013 on competencies; steps are synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You've said meditation with Sayadaw's method is central for you. Would you like it to be part of what we talk about here, or would you rather keep it separate?"
  • Watch for: clients who feel judged for religious commitment, or who expect the therapist to approve or teach the practice. Working: the client uses their own vocabulary freely. [synthesis]

12. Client-led integration in session

  • Purpose / when: when the client wants their practice to support therapy goals (spiritually integrated psychotherapy, Domain VII).
  • Steps: (1) Invite the client to describe how they would apply their own practice to the current problem. (2) Reflect connections in their terms (e.g. "watching the mind", "not following the defilement"). (3) Link to therapy work, for example noticing the intention before a habitual act fits relapse-prevention or impulse work. (4) Leave technical questions to the teacher. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When the urge to check your partner's phone comes, how would your practice say to meet it?"
  • Watch for: spiritual bypassing (using equanimity talk to avoid grief, anger or decisions); therapist imposing secular meanings. Working: the client experiences therapy and practice as compatible. [synthesis]

13. Cross-referral to secular and clinical adaptations

  • Purpose / when: when the client wants mindfulness for a clinical problem but not a religious path, or when a structured, evidence-based protocol fits better.
  • Steps: (1) Distinguish the religious practice from secular programmes. (2) Consider MBSR, MBCT, MSC or CFT (Domain II), contemplative and Buddhist psychotherapy or spiritually integrated psychotherapy (Domain VII), and trauma-sensitive yoga (Domain IV). (3) No published clinical adaptation specific to U Tejaniya's method is cited here [uncertain: not verified]. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "There's a structured mindfulness course designed for recurrent depression. It's secular and runs alongside your own practice if you want both."
  • Watch for: the client feeling their tradition is being replaced. [synthesis]

14. Referral to and collaboration with the teacher

  • Purpose / when: questions of technique, retreat suitability, or meditation-related difficulty.
  • Steps: (1) Encourage the client to raise practice questions with a qualified teacher in this lineage (the centre and retreat hosts are listed on his website). (2) With written consent, offer to share relevant information with the teacher. (3) Keep roles clear: teacher for practice, therapist for mental health. [source: ashintejaniya.org for centre; synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "That sounds like a question for your teacher. Would it help to write it down and take it to your next interview?"
  • Watch for: teachers or clients dismissing clinical symptoms as "just practice", or clinicians dismissing practice experiences as pathology. [synthesis]

15. Trauma-sensitive adaptation

  • Purpose / when: clients with trauma histories, dissociation or high arousal.
  • Steps: Use Treleaven's five areas as a checklist: (1) attention: offer external or neutral anchors (item 6 already allows any object); (2) arousal: keep practice within a tolerable range and stop or shorten when it rises; (3) relationship: practise with support, open eyes allowed; (4) dissociation: watch for numbing or spacing out; (5) social context: consider how power, identity and safety shape experience. [source: Treleaven 2018, publisher description of five principles and 36 modifications; specific modifications here are synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "It's fine to keep your eyes open and listen to sounds instead of turning inward. Your teacher's method says the object doesn't matter much."
  • Watch for: flashbacks, numbness, intrusive memories during sitting. Working: the client can stay present and choose how much to attend. [synthesis]

16. Screening, dose-reduction and grounding for adverse effects

  • Purpose / when: before intensive retreats and whenever practice is followed by new distress.
  • Steps: (1) Know the evidence: Lindahl et al. 2017 documented a wide range of meditation-related challenges among Western Buddhist practitioners, with symptom domains described by Cheetah House as perceptual, affective, conative, cognitive, sense of self, social, somatic, and hyperarousal and dissociation; Farias et al. 2020 found adverse events in 8.3% of participants pooled across 83 studies, most often anxiety, depression and cognitive anomalies, including in people without prior mental-health history. [source: Cheetah House VCE page; Farias et al. 2020, PubMed abstract] (2) Before a retreat, ask about psychiatric history, recent sleep, trauma, current stressors and past intensive-practice reactions. [synthesis] (3) If difficulties arise: reduce or pause formal practice, shift to daily-life awareness of external objects, physical activity, routine, sleep and social contact; consult the teacher if the client wishes. [synthesis] (4) Use Cheetah House resources for meditators (consultations, support groups, crisis help) and clinicians (First Do No Harm training, professional consultations). [source: Cheetah House]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people go through hard experiences in meditation, and it isn't a sign you've failed. For now, let's scale back the long sits and keep your awareness on things outside you."
  • Watch for: insomnia, derealisation, panic, energy-like somatic experiences, loss of sense of self, functional impairment. Working: symptoms settle with reduced dose. [synthesis]

17. Distinguishing spiritual difficulty from psychiatric illness

  • Purpose / when: unusual experiences, "dark night" accounts or crisis after practice.
  • Steps: (1) Take the experience seriously without pathologising it or missing illness. (2) Assess for psychosis, mania, severe depression, dissociation and suicide risk using standard assessment. (3) DSM-5-TR includes a code (Z65.8) for a religious or spiritual problem as a focus of clinical attention that is not a mental disorder. (4) Refer for psychiatric assessment if features of illness are present; coordinate with the teacher if the client wishes. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to understand both what this means in your practice and how it's affecting your sleep and functioning, so we don't miss anything."
  • Watch for: sleep loss, grandiosity, persecutory ideas, inability to function. [synthesis]

18. Scrupulosity and moral self-accounting

  • Purpose / when: constant checking of one's attitude or defilements can become compulsive in people prone to OCD.
  • Steps: (1) Ask whether checking ("am I really aware?", "was that greed?") brings relief only briefly and must be repeated. (2) If OCD is likely, offer ERP adapted to religious context, ideally in consultation with the client's teacher about what the tradition actually requires (the teacher's own emphasis on relaxed, non-forcing practice can support this). [synthesis; IOCDF guidance on scrupulosity uncertain: not verified]
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like the checking has become another thing you have to get right. Would your teacher say that's the right attitude?"
  • Watch for: reassurance-seeking from therapist or teacher. [synthesis]

19. Roles, boundaries and the teacher relationship

  • Purpose / when: throughout.
  • Steps: (1) Do not act as meditation teacher or spiritual director for a therapy client; avoid dual relationships (e.g. sitting retreats with clients). (2) Reflect on your own religious commitments; disclose only when it serves the client. (3) Explore the client's relationship with teachers and communities, including power, dependency and any pressure; listen for signs of coercive control (isolation, financial or sexual exploitation, punishment for questioning). No misconduct by this teacher is reported in the sources used. (4) Follow your professional ethics code on competence, multiple relationships and respect for religion. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not a meditation teacher, so I'll leave the technique to yours. What I can help with is how all this is affecting you."
  • Watch for: idealisation of the teacher or therapist; religious trauma after leaving a group. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The tradition's own texts address several of these difficulties (striving, tiredness, aversion to unpleasant experience, busy mind); they are marked with their source. Clinical responses are [synthesis] unless marked.

  • "I'm getting nowhere" / stuck. The teacher's texts treat wanting progress as itself something to observe; expectation and desire make meditation harder. [source: Right Attitude text] Therapist: explore what "progress" means to the client, refer technique questions to the teacher, and check whether clinical goals need a different route (item 13). [synthesis]
  • Striving and exhaustion. Tiredness signals the method needs checking; practising with wanting exhausts. [source: Right Attitude text] Therapist: normalise lighter practice; frame rest as consistent with the teacher's guidance. [synthesis]
  • Busy mind and self-criticism about thinking. Thinking is acknowledged, not fought. [source: Right Attitude text] Therapist: if thoughts are ruminative or intrusive, treat them clinically (e.g. CBT for rumination, trauma treatment) alongside practice. [synthesis]
  • Overwhelm, panic or dissociation during practice. Reduce dose, use external or tactile anchors, eyes open, movement; pause formal sitting if needed; screen for trauma; consult Cheetah House resources and, with consent, the teacher. [source: Treleaven 2018 principles; Cheetah House; specific steps synthesis]
  • Severe adverse effects (insomnia, derealisation, mania or psychotic features, suicidal thoughts). Stop intensive practice, assess risk with standard methods, arrange urgent psychiatric review where indicated, and do not frame symptoms as spiritual progress or as mere pathology before assessment. [synthesis; prevalence context Farias et al. 2020]
  • Using equanimity to avoid action (staying in a harmful situation because "it's just aversion"). Gently distinguish watching a reaction from accepting harm; the teacher's guidance is about not following defilements, not about tolerating abuse. [synthesis]
  • Compulsive attitude-checking (scrupulosity). See item 18: assess for OCD; ERP adapted with the teacher's input. [synthesis]
  • Non-adherence. If the client stops practising, explore without pressure; the practice is the client's, not a therapy homework requirement. [synthesis]
  • Rupture over religion. If the client feels the therapist dismisses or over-promotes the practice, name it, apologise for misattunement, and return to the client's own meanings. [synthesis]
  • Conflict between teacher's advice and clinical advice (e.g. to keep practising through severe symptoms). With consent, contact the teacher; safety guidance takes precedence; help the client weigh both without forcing a choice. [synthesis]
  • Access to the teacher. The Yangon centre was not accepting new yogis from June 2021 "until further notice"; recorded teachings and retreats abroad have been the route for many students. Check current arrangements with the centre. [source: ashintejaniya.org]
  • Health claims. If the client hopes the practice will cure a physical or mental illness, keep medical and psychiatric treatment in place; evidence for this specific method as a treatment is not established. [synthesis; uncertain: not verified]

Sources

Web sources:

Books and papers cited:

  • Sayadaw U Tejaniya (2016). When Awareness Becomes Natural: A Guide to Cultivating Mindfulness in Everyday Life. Shambhala.
  • Sayadaw U Tejaniya (2019). Relax and Be Aware: Mindfulness Meditations for Clarity, Confidence, and Wisdom. Ed. Doug McGill. Shambhala.
  • Ashin Tejaniya. Right Attitude; Don't Look Down on the Defilements; Awareness Alone Is Not Enough; Dhamma Everywhere (free-distribution titles listed on the official website; dates [uncertain]).
  • Lindahl, J. R., et al. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. PLOS ONE, 12(5), e0176239. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0176239
  • Farias, M., et al. (2020). Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: a systematic review. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 142(5), 374–393. doi:10.1111/acps.13225
  • Treleaven, D. A. (2018). Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing. W. W. Norton.
  • Vieten, C., Scammell, S., Pilato, R., Ammondson, I., Pargament, K. I., & Lukoff, D. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5(3), 129–144.
  • American Psychiatric Association (2022). DSM-5-TR, Cultural Formulation Interview and the religious or spiritual problem code [uncertain: not verified].
  • APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, https://www.apa.org/ethics/code.
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