adam gregory greene:
ello, I'm a pretty new buddhist, I've been doing tons of concentration, just recently started being able to reach first jhana, and when I'm not formally meditating I try to stay with the breath. I stay with it in class, walking, eating, even reading, while doing everything. my question is, is this useful? not the formal meditation bit, the constant anapanasati.
If not should i replace it with noting? all of the teachers who I really respect advocate only jhana practice in formal meditation, at least until a much higher level of concentration than I have now, so for formal practice I'm sticking with that, but throughout the day, is anapanasati useful? should I note? body scan? other?
Concentration is incredibly useful, and trying to stay mindful of the breath is never a waste of time but neither of them alone will lead to 4th path. Insight doesn't "replace" concentration, they're different practices with different outcomes, although vipassana involves concentration, just not in the same solidified way that samatha does. That's my opinion, for what it's worth.
As for noting, my advice would be to leave trying to note through the day until you're more solid in practice and can more accurately label sensation otherwise you're likely to find yourself floundering in content. Find what works best for you though, like I said before there's only so much that can be said about this stuff without actual practice and direct experience.
The teachers you respect are only giving one side of the story, regardless of tradition it's clear from the suttas that the Buddha taught insight practice, along with concentration and morality, as the path to enlightenment. Most communities you'll come across would not discuss vipassana as openly as we do here, the discussion of attainments is generally frowned upon and claiming arahatship will either get you kicked out, or make you into a laughing stock for five minutes 'cause, as you'll find from reading other sites like Dhammawheel, which is actually a very interesting website but populated by some incredibly hypocritical people claiming to understand the teachings of the Buddha, discussion of real life practice and experience isn't high on the priority list.
Keep reading MCTB, there's a whole section on this and Daniel Ingram gives some very interesting opinions and criticisms of the state of Buddhism in the West which, when you actively investigate how the hardcore, pragmatic approach to the Dharma is viewed by the majority of Western Buddhists, are unfortunately correct.
Noting vs. body scanning? Scanning is more of a Goenka tradition, something I'm not familiar with myself but Nikolai H on here spent about ten years practicing so he's your best best. In fact, the blog which him, Owen Becker and Clayton run is very, very interesting and might be of some help to you with regards to "doing" noting. Their podcasts are also a good laugh while being full of good info:
The Hamilton ProjectMy own practice begins with noting the sensation of the breath being inhaled and exhaled at the anapanasati spot, I'll usually do some breath counting at first and get into 1st jhana but then turn to the sensate experience i.e. the physical feelings, the mental images, the various constituent parts which make up "breath" and note them as "rising", "falling", "inhale", "exhale" etc, and
stay with the sensation as awareness naturally expands. If you notice you're getting caught up in thought, gently bring your attention back to these simple sensations of "rising" and "falling". Say it out loud if you want to, it just takes practice but if you commit to it then you'll get there. It's not an easy ride, sometimes you'll feel like shit but it's ok 'cause pretty much every single one of us who post here will have gone through, or will be going through, similar unpleasantness so don't ever think you're alone in this, however true that may feel at that moment.
Anyway, I've talked enough. I'm away to enjoy a well deserved day off from work! Ha!
Good luck,
Tommy