Hi and welcome!
Frank El:
I have some doubts if I should change something in my sitting practice. I read MCTB and I very much appreciate
Daniel`s straight-forward attitude. But I still need to find my way of doing this and I am not sure if that, what I am doing is leading somewhere.
Where are you trying to go? What are your goals? We'll need to know that before telling you whether you are getting there =P.
Frank El:
So I began to do this: I sit for two times for one hours a day, observing the breath going in through the nostrils and out, focusing on the breath and the sensations that arise. When something happens I go back to the sensations of the breath around the nostrils.
After a while there are tingling sensations on the skin especially on the upper lip and around the nose and the "mental comments" become less. Other sensations like pain,tensions, pressure etc on the body begin to stand back behind the sensation of the breath until theres only the focus on breath (more or less).
It`s quite peaceful and the body breathes on its own. I try to be aware of appearing itches, pain, muscle moving etc and when they are gone I focus back to breath.
I agree with Bruno - this is concentration practice. It can be very relaxing, and also will help you with insight if that's what you want to do. It sounds like you are getting access concentration or 1st jhana, here, so that's a good step.
Frank El:
Would it be better to do something like scanning the body like SN Goenka says, to become aware of all sensations on the body and not just the obvious? Is this important?
Regardless of what technique you use, you definitely don't want to limit yourself to just the obvious sensations! If you want to do insight, simply observe what sensations are arising. Mental calm is a sensation; the feeling that the body is breathing on its own is a sensation; those itches, pains, etc, are all sensations; the breath is a sensation; etc.
Frank El:
Daniel writes about the noting technique, but am I already doing this? It sounds probably silly, but if I note mentally "itching" for example it seems to me like a repetition of something I already noticed before.
Noting is a really good way to make sure you actually are observing sensations and your mind isn't wandering. If you notice an itch, then a few seconds later you notice another itch, that's a whole bunch of seconds you could've been using for observing other things. If you notice some itching and you obviously did, then i guess no need to note 'itching', but getting into the habit of just labeling everything you see can get you into the habit of observing everything. Also noting is really good later when sensations get more subtle. E.g. if you are bored/feeling 'meh' and just sitting there, if you're not used to noting you might be inclined to be like 'lah dee dah dum de dum kinda bored', but with noting you would just go 'bored bored meh bored indifferent', etc. - that is, observing more sensations. So for example:
Frank El:
in sitting it ends always in something I would call in my words "watching sensations in silence" and thats it. I feel somehow stuck.
feeling stuck, feeling stuck, silence, watching, silence, feeling stuck
