. It's pretty intensive, but it's the manual ...
Odd experiences
As concentration grows stronger, you may experience unbearable pain in your body. You may feel strong pressure, as if an airbag were being inflated inside your chest, a sharp pain, as if being stabbed with a dagger, a stinging pain, as if being pricked with many small needles, or an overall irritation, as if insects were crawling all over your body. You may feel fierce heat, severe itchiness, unbearable aching, extreme cold, or a variety of other unpleasant sensations.
If a meditator becomes frightened and stops noting when any of these kinds of extreme sensations occur, he or she will find that they immediately disappear. But they will generally reappear when his or her noting becomes strong again. A meditator should not be afraid of encountering any of these kinds of experiences. These are not signs of some serious disease; they are ordinary sensations that we often have in our bodies. We rarely notice them, however, because our attention is usually occupied with more obvious sensations. It is actually the strength of our concentration that makes them obvious in this way. So you needn’t worry that something is wrong. Simply continue to note the sensation in order to overcome it. If a meditator stops noting, he or she may end up encountering the same kind of sensation every time concentration becomes strong. If you note it with patience and perseverance, though, at some point it will suddenly disappear for good.
If you feel like your body wants to sway, note it as “wanting to sway.” If your body starts to actually sway, note it as “swaying, swaying.” If a meditator finds him- or herself swaying unintentionally, he or she should not be afraid of it, nor should he or she encourage it. You simply continue noting it, steadily and gradually, as “swaying, swaying,” confident that it will disappear if noted. If the swaying becomes very strong, you can practice while sitting against a wall or other firm support, or while lying down; the swaying will soon entirely cease. Follow the same procedure if you experience trembling in the body. Sometimes you may get goose bumps or a chill may run up your back or through your whole body. You needn’t be afraid of this; it’s just rapture brought on by your meditation. Sometimes any sound you hear may cause fear to arise. You needn’t fear this either; it’s just that your sensitivity to mental contact has become very keen as a result of strong concentration.
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Mental states
If a meditator has been practicing for a long time and is not making any progress, he or she may become lazy. Note that as “lazy, lazy.” When mindfulness, concentration, and special insight knowledges have yet to arise, you may assume that noting gets you nowhere, and so doubt will arise. Note this as “doubting, doubting.” At times, a meditator may hope for smoother practice or some special experience. Note that as “hoping, hoping.” If you reflect on previous practice, note it as “reflecting.” If you wonder whether the object is mental or physical, note that as “wondering.” Sometimes when practice doesn’t go smoothly, you may feel frustrated. Note that as “frustrated, frustrated.” Sometimes when you find that practice is going well, you may feel happy. Note that as “happy, happy.”
A meditator should note all mental states in this way, whenever they arise, and then continue to note the primary object.
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Effects of concentration
As concentration grows particularly strong, you may experience a variety of unpleasant feelings, such as itchiness, heat, aches and pains, a feeling of heaviness or tightness, and so on. These often disappear immediately if you stop noting and tend to reappear when noting is resumed. Such feelings are not a sign of any kind of disease. The practice itself is what causes them to appear. So a meditator shouldn’t fear them but should focus exclusively on these feelings, noting them persistently, and they will gradually weaken and fade away.
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Seeing the three characteristics
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After you inferentially realize the arising and passing away of all phenomena, you will simply be aware of whatever arises without any further analysis. The five mental faculties—faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom—will then fall into harmony, and the noting mind manual of insight will become quicker than ever before. Your object—that is, mental and physical phenomena—will also appear extremely quickly.
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Mental and physical phenomena arise and pass away much faster than the twinkling of an eye or a flash of lightning. But when your insight knowledge matures, you will be able to clearly perceive each fleeting phenomena without missing a single one by simply being aware of them from moment to moment. Your mindfulness will become so strong it will seem as if it rushes into the object that arises; it will seem as if objects fall into the noting mind. The knowing mind, too, will clearly and distinctly know each
and every single object that arises. You might even think: “Phenomena are arising and passing away instantaneously; their appearance and disappearance are very fast, like a machine running at full speed. Yet I am able to perceive them all from moment to moment. I don’t think I am missing anything or that there’s anything else that I should be aware of.”
This is the personally experienced insight knowledge that we cannot even dream of.
Distractions from the path
Due to the momentum of this insight knowledge you are likely to see a bright light or experience rapture as a result of being greatly delighted with both the noting mind and the noted objects.
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A meditator may like any of the pleasant experiences that occur—the bright light, good mindfulness, insight, rapture, and so on. This liking will cause him or her to think: “This practice is exceedingly enjoyable!” He or she may really enjoy the practice. But do not waste time enjoying the bright light and other pleasant experiences. Instead, whenever they arise, note them as “brightness, comfort, knowing, reflecting, venerating, happiness, liking, delight,” and so on, according to whatever you experience.
If you notice brightness, note it as “bright, bright.” If you think that you see it, note it as “seeing, seeing” until it disappears. You may often forget to note bright light and other pleasant experiences because you are so happy to experience them. Although you are noting, the light may not disappear very quickly because you are delighting in it. Only after experiencing it many times will you be able to note it skillfully enough that it disappears quickly. For some meditators, light is so powerful that even if they note it for a long time, it doesn’t disappear; it remains. In this case, ignore the light completely and divert your attention to some other mental or physical object. Do not think about whether the light is still bright. If you do, you will find that it is. Any thoughts about the light should be noted so precisely that your awareness of them is very clear and firm. Since your concentration will have become very powerful, other unusual objects besides bright light can arise if you incline your mind toward them. Do not let the mind incline in this way. If you do, quickly note it until it disappears. Some meditators see various kinds of faint shapes and forms arise one after another, like the linked carriages of a train. If this happens, note it as “seeing, seeing.” With each noting, an object will disappear. If your insight weakens, the shapes and forms will tend to become more pronounced. But if you note them closely, each object will disappear on the spot as it is noted. Eventually they will stop coming.
To delight in bright light and other pleasant experiences is to be on the wrong path. The correct path of insight is to just continue noting. If you keep this in mind and carry on noting mental and physical phenomena that actually arise, your awareness will grow clearer and clearer. You will clearly see the sudden appearance and disappearance of phenomena. Every time you note, you will see each object arising and passing away on the spot. A meditator clearly sees that successive occurrences are distinct from one another, break up bit by bit, and cease. Thus every object you note helps you to realize impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self.
After practicing for quite a while, a meditator may feel satisfied with his or her practice and take a break every now and again, thinking: “It can’t get any better than this. There can’t be anything else special to experience.” But you should not just relax whenever you want. Instead, you should practice for longer and longer periods without taking a break.
