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I recently passed the fifteen hour mark in my practice, so I thought this would be a good time for an update.
At this point, my practice time is divided into half concentration and half insight.
Concentration work involves following all sensations related to the breath with special emphasize on mindfulness, presence, and paying attention to paying attention.
Insight work involves moderately fast noting (one to six seconds per note). I've mostly based my noting labels on Shizen Young's teachings, possibly incorrectly. (See his website: touch, sight, sound, feeling, image, talk, relax, light, silence, peace, blank, quiet.) I add two additional labels, "grasping" and "resistance", also adapted from Young's teaching.
Additionally, I am intermittently working with a simple kasina, and I'm toying with ideas for bare-bones dream yoga.
I base all practices above around repeating short time intervals with tiny breaks in between. Eyes are generally open.
During concentration (following the breath), influx of sight, sound, image, thought, body sensations, etc., continue to be distracting. The winners are image and verbal thought which are infinitely more insidious than all the others combined. I still find myself losing the thread of mindfulness as well as having my awareness "thinned out". In general, it's very hard to notice gradual changes, but overall stability and mindfulness seem to have improved. |