Hi Brian,
Brian K.:
Ok, so after a few months of varying and unfocused (no pun intended) shamatha and vipassana meditation practices, I've come to the decision to work solely on shamatha practice for the time being, and step up my practice a few notches. Very weak concentration right now, but its been getting better.
I'm focusing solely on the breath right now it works best for me and i enjoy it. I tried doing a kasina practice for about a week and it just wasnt for me at this point i couldnt get it to hold my attention so, breathing it is. My goal right now is to access the first jhana hoping it wont take too long (a month or two?) idk if thats realistic or not but either way it really doesnt matter i'm gonna keep practicing til i get it.
My plan right now is two 1-hour sits a day, . . . All in all, good practice today. Had that post meditation serenity goin on a bit for a little while after, happy with how it all went.
Overall, sounds like a good plan. Develop concentration so that later insight will be easier to achieve. That's how I approach it way back when. You need to get control of the mind first (experiencing longer and longer moments of mental silence), and the only way to do this is to strengthen concentration. Work on not letting unnoticed breaks in concentration get past you. Gradually, you should experience fewer and fewer breaks in concentration as your focus strengthens.
Two one hour daily sits should be sufficient to help calm the mind enough to achieve samadhi/jhana. Just be determined enough to maintain it, even when things don't seem to go well. Every sit is important. Especially those times when you don't feel like sitting. You have to train the mind to become obedient to your wishes, to be silent when you ask to be. When the mind finally gets the idea that you will not let this go, that you will no longer tolerate any "monkey mind" activity, it will eventually settle down. You just have to be firm in your conviction and consistent in your practice.
Since you are using the breath as a meditation object, try to focus your attention on
the pleasantness of the breath and how, with deeper and deeper calmness, your breathing becomes shallower and shallower until it eventually just seems to disappear within a huge center of calmness. This is how you train to enter samadhi/jhana. Sounds simple, but it's more difficult to achieve than first appears.
Brian K.:
Also, perhaps someone can give me some advice on mindfulness practice in daily life? I've been trying to do noting practice. I do like it and i can see the benefits a little bit already, it forces my mind to be more aware of everything, but its hard to sustain. Like, when im at work, playing guitar, at school or whatever its hard to note inside my head when i have other things to focus on. Also, its difficult to REMEMBER to note alot of the times haha. I was wondering what some people opinions were on noting practice vs. just general being aware mindfulness in everyday life, without noting the words in your head. Also, it occurred to me this may be more conducive to concentration building?
Noting, the way it has been taught in recent decades, has been meant to help build present moment awareness and to give the mind an alternative activity to counteract the mind's incessant rumination or chaotic mental activity. Once you've been able to somewhat stem this mental chaos, it's okay to drop the mental verbalization. If you use noting for present moment awareness which blends nicely into present moment mindfulness, you should be okay.
Mental noting (mental verbalization) can quickly become mundane and boring if not totally superfluous. It can be okay in the beginning. But after a while, just being mentally aware of whatever is happening around or inside you without verbalizing about it becomes a more efficient way to practice. You KNOW when you are experiencing any phenomenon without having to verbalize about it. Transitioning into this kind of noting awareness, is, I think, the next step you are seeking, which may be seen as being analogous to plain, everyday mindfulness.
If you need some helpful tips about mindfulness and how to achieve it, there's a
thread about it here.
In peace,
Ian