Sayadaw U Tejaniya emphasizes that the right attitude is crucial, especially in meditation, as it determines the quality and effectiveness of the practice. For him, the "right attitude" essentially refers to wise attention or proper consideration (often translated from the Pali term yoniso manasikāra).
The core elements of the right attitude, particularly in the context of awareness and meditation, include:
- Relaxed and Comfortable Awareness: The mind and body should be relaxed, not tense or forcing anything. Awareness should be light and continuous, not strained or too hard.
- Non-Greed/Non-Aversion/No Delusion: The right attitude is fundamentally free of the three unwholesome roots:
- No Greed: Don't try to create anything, want any specific experience, or have expectations about what should happen.
- No Aversion: Don't try to reject or stop what is happening (even unpleasant or unwanted things like thinking, pain, or dullness). Don't be anxious or disturbed.
- No Delusion: Simply know what is happening as it is without getting lost in the experience or not knowing if it's there or gone.
3. Observing and Learning: The purpose is to acknowledge and observe whatever arises—pleasant or unpleasant—with patience and understanding, to learn about the nature of mind and objects. You are not trying to make things turn out a certain way, but trying to know what is happening.
4. Accepting All Objects: Any object that comes to attention is the "right object," as long as the observing mind has the right attitude (free from wanting or rejecting). The focus is on the quality of the observing mind (the attitude) rather than the object itself.
5. Perseverance over Forceful Effort: The effort should be one of continuous awareness and patience, rather than intense focusing or concentration that leads to tiredness or tension.
In short, the right attitude is one of relaxed, non-interfering, continuous awareness that is interested in knowing the true nature of things as they are, without wanting or rejecting.