Detailed question about Mahasi style vipassana

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Wet Paint, modified 14 Years ago at 8/26/09 12:52 PM
Created 14 Years ago at 8/26/09 12:52 PM

Detailed question about Mahasi style vipassana

Posts: 22924 Join Date: 8/6/09 Recent Posts
Author: telecaster
Forum: Daniel's Practice Hut

It's like this, right?
1. Note rising and falling of abdomen while breathing.
2. If a sensation such as itching occurs go to it UNTIL IT GOES AWAY before returning to the rising and falling of the abdomen.
If I am right then would proper technique look like this:
1. Start noting arising and falling of abdomen.
2. Note itching on forehead. Stay with the itching until it goes away.
3. Immediately feel itching on one's arm. Note "itching" again and stay with that sensation until it goes away.
4. Do this continuously as sensations arise and possibly never go back to the abdomen because so many sensations are arising, getting noticed, and then experienced until they pass.
Right?
Thanks.
Also, when in the midst of such a sit, thoughts come up and one notes not just "thinking" but should/can be more detailed, like "doubting" or "speculating" or "desiring" etc.? Or, I'll sometimes just get an image without a thought and I'll note "looking." or "desiring."
Glen Robert Stevens, modified 14 Years ago at 8/27/09 9:29 PM
Created 14 Years ago at 8/27/09 9:29 PM

RE: Detailed question about Mahasi style vipassana

Posts: 14 Join Date: 8/22/09 Recent Posts
I am a beginner and what you have described is how I practice. Though I may or may not have gone into the 1st or 2nd vipassana jhana.

As to noting more descriptively, I think it just depends on the sitting at the time. If it is helpful, then do it. If it detracts from being able to see the sensation/thought/voice then just stick to a more generalised type of noting.

Mettha.
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Tina Hamilton, modified 14 Years ago at 8/28/09 11:37 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 8/28/09 11:37 AM

RE: Detailed question about Mahasi style vipassana

Posts: 0 Join Date: 8/22/09 Recent Posts
Hi Mike and putthajana,

Mike, it sounds like you're doing fine with the technique. The only thing is perhaps to try not to abandon the focus of the breath rising and falling. Example - Noting the breath rising, rising, rising... falling, falling... (then you notice an itching sensation on your face) note - itching, itching... it disappears, then back to noting breath - rising, rising...
The point is that the breath is continuing even though the other sensations arise and pass, the breath is your most stable focus point to return to, it's like home base.

Here's a link to another thread that has helpful info on jhanas, nanas, concentration and vipassana practices:
http://dharmaoverground.wetpaint.com/page/Jhana+and+%C3%91ana

.
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Dark Night Yogi, modified 14 Years ago at 8/29/09 4:48 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 8/29/09 4:48 AM

RE: Detailed question about Mahasi style vipassana

Posts: 138 Join Date: 8/25/09 Recent Posts
i guess the detail of the note "desiring, doubting" is a good practice, (though i dont know all about mahasi style, i do mix mix) in discernment and in transforming the suffering in to peace, working with 'stuff' and habits. i guess it will help in developing, balancing the 5 spiritual faculties

i do different styles based on my mind condition at the moment. if my mind is in a place where i want to make progress, i try mahasi.
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Chris Marti, modified 14 Years ago at 8/29/09 4:52 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 8/29/09 4:52 AM

RE: Detailed question about Mahasi style vipassana

Posts: 379 Join Date: 7/7/09 Recent Posts
Mike, I'm not very good at the noting thing. Never was. It seems like too much overhead. What I do is start vipassana meditation by sitting for about five minutes and focusing on one object until I can get concentrated. At that point, when I can focus on that thing without having to struggle too much, I start paying attention to whatever arises. As one thing arises (sound of a car on the street) I observe that carefully until another thing arises (feeling of the breath exiting the nostrils), then follow that thing until another thing arises (tingling sensations in the foot area), and so on. I focus in this way and slowly try to expand the field of awareness to include all the things that are arising and passing, which means I'm watching things that happen very, very fast. I just can't note things that fast, but I can "know" or be aware that they're happening. It's more or less like reading a book, I guess. I try to stay with that awareness as much as possible, paying attention to all the stuff going on - that's impermanence manifestingc - and paying attention to the obvious (by now) fact that none of these things are "me," and as much as I can to the fact that the arising and passing of every "thing" causes an odd tug, a desire to keep it around or to get rid of it, which is unsatisfactoriness.

All this time I'm focusing as much as possible not on the everyday appearance of these things - the undifferentiated appearance I "see" all the time - but on the processes that cause these things to arise. This is a major difference maker for me, by the way. When I hear a bird tweet it's manifestly not one event, but a series of events; the initial sound, the recognition or naming of it, the appearance of the conceptual mental image in consciousness, and so on.

I have no idea if this will help you, Mike, but it is what I do once a day.
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Wet Paint, modified 14 Years ago at 8/30/09 9:09 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 8/30/09 9:09 AM

RE: Detailed question about Mahasi style vipassana

Posts: 22924 Join Date: 8/6/09 Recent Posts
Author: AlexWeith

Thanks Chris. You approach is interesting.
The idea of mental notes Mahasi style has always been a burden for me. Or maybe I'm just not good at noting. Anyway, I feel the most important is to be very very concentrated and focused before switching to vipassana.
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Tom O, modified 14 Years ago at 10/8/09 9:50 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 10/8/09 9:50 AM

RE: Detailed question about Mahasi style vipassana

Posts: 124 Join Date: 7/19/09 Recent Posts
Chris Marti:
Mike, I'm not very good at the noting thing. Never was. It seems like too much overhead. What I do is start vipassana meditation by sitting for about five minutes and focusing on one object until I can get concentrated. At that point, when I can focus on that thing without having to struggle too much, I start paying attention to whatever arises. As one thing arises (sound of a car on the street) I observe that carefully until another thing arises (feeling of the breath exiting the nostrils), then follow that thing until another thing arises (tingling sensations in the foot area), and so on. I focus in this way and slowly try to expand the field of awareness to include all the things that are arising and passing, which means I'm watching things that happen very, very fast. I just can't note things that fast, but I can "know" or be aware that they're happening. It's more or less like reading a book, I guess. I try to stay with that awareness as much as possible, paying attention to all the stuff going on - that's impermanence manifestingc - and paying attention to the obvious (by now) fact that none of these things are "me," and as much as I can to the fact that the arising and passing of every "thing" causes an odd tug, a desire to keep it around or to get rid of it, which is unsatisfactoriness.

All this time I'm focusing as much as possible not on the everyday appearance of these things - the undifferentiated appearance I "see" all the time - but on the processes that cause these things to arise. This is a major difference maker for me, by the way. When I hear a bird tweet it's manifestly not one event, but a series of events; the initial sound, the recognition or naming of it, the appearance of the conceptual mental image in consciousness, and so on.

I have no idea if this will help you, Mike, but it is what I do once a day.


Chris,

As this post is a little stale, may I ask: is this practice what you have continued with to take you to where you are now (which I am reading about in the "Cessation" thread on Kenneth's site)? Or have you modified it (and how) to make the remarkable progress?

-- tomo

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