Sadalsuud Beta Aquarii:
Now my practice while sitting and in day-to-day life is just trying to relax and open into the sense fields continuously, and keep the attention 'spacious', relaxing the attention outwards when it starts to contract or coalesce around any objects. I relate this sort of contraction to the sense of a me-ness forming.
The other I was doing noting in pairs with someone and it just feels really icky. Feels like I am just trying to force the attention to "land" on something. Anyone else find this?
Just realising as I write, basically it feels very unnatural to try do anything with the attention other than relax it into everything....
is this a phase?
Noting has its limitations. Basically it good for disrupting a certain sort of habitual afflictive energetic pattern.
But it is still an artifically fabricated mental patter, and after some point it is limiting.
Check this out...
http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.ca/2011/10/yogi-experiment-riding-wave.html
There is no need to fabricate 'paying attention'. It's already occurring at the senses. Recognize this fact and the salty water ceases pounding 'you' in the ear, as 'you' don't exist at the point of unsegregated, unobjectified sense contact. Drop all 'focus' and simply recognize what is happening without the need to focus on one part of the field of experience over another. Let the entire field of experience show itself without the need to selectively focus on fabricated 'parts' of it. Stop cutting up the entire field of experience!