In everyday life - when practicing on the three characteristics (six sense doors) - is it advisable to practice one characteristic at the time - one sense door at the time or some other method?

Does the advice differ depend on whether we are pre stream entry or not? 

​​​​​​​thank you ! 

I can not see a difference between the three characteristics, they are 3 expressions of phenomena. Observe your sensations as closely, fast and relaxed as you can, just observe. I do it mostly by being mindful of the breath, but just being mindful will notice the breath also. Sometimes I found it edgy to observe the breath while doing things, but maybe that has been a insight stage? Is it better or equal to just be mindful of the doing, while doing something? It is a subtle question for me, if there's no answear, just be mindful of that too and let it pass

For practicing concentration it can be beneficial to choose one sense door, like visualising or hearing sounds etc. For insight practice too. But insight practice always boils down to mere sensation. But see for your self! It only becomes joyful or real when seeing for one self. So just pick your way!

I'm not sure there is a right or wrong answer.

I tend to relax and watch the activity of the mind and take notice of dukkha because I feel it. That's how I notice it, by feeling something, emotionally and by physical sensations in my body that accompany emotions. Then when I notice dukkha I look to see how the ego is involved and if attachment to something impermanent is involved, and all this arising a fading of dukkha, and the constantly changing sense of self, the arising and fading of egocentric/egotistic feelings, is another facet of impermanence. I don't focus on one a particular sense door at a time.

I am mainly interested in ending suffering so I think focusing on dukkha works best for me because it is what I am interested in, I am motivated to understand it, how it is caused, and how it ends. I also want to be less selfish so that I have an interest in how the ego arises and fades and changes over time. I see how the ego is usually involved with dukkha so I see how understanding that interplay is important. Over time dukkha which first seemed to be involuntary later seems to be just a habit that is done inadvertently but which can be stopped. Observing impermanence leads to a sense of disenchantment that helps letting go of attachments and aversions.

Hello Olof,

Normal part of investigation is to check what things do - would be useful what noticing each characteristic does to your mind.
Because if you didn't know these practces are designed to induce qualities in your mind.

Also to clean mind from characteristics it normally has - which is normally an unworkable mess.
Still mind won't become perfect mirror if reason for doing any practice to clean it will itself be unwholesome and practice itself is done heedlessly.

And to do it better would be to get to know what noticing each characteristic does when 'noticed' separately, in pairs and all three.
And to do it right would be to figure what other characteristics you can notice in the same way. If there is impermanence then why not notice permanence? And while at it ask yourself this question: why do you want to notice 3C and not eg. anti-3C or something else?

Wouldn't eg. noticing characteristics of metta in all sensations be superior vipassana practice anyways?

What I noticed in my vipassana is that people when reading Buddha mentioning run-of-the-mill people assume he doesn't talk about them and for pathetic "because I was told to notice 3C of sensations so I know what to do" type of reasons. This is exactly what being run-of-the-mill person means.

On that pleasant note I'll end my post. No, not the rant directly above but one paragraph up...

Metta Frutions
Ni

My advice is one sense door at a time, as advised to the Venerable Poṭhila.  His instructor (a child ahrat) gave him the metaphor of a lizard mound with six holes.  To catch the lizard, stop up five holes and concentrate on the sixth.  As for the three characteristicsm, they are interedependent so understanding one naturally leads on to understanding another. If you can manage to contemplate all of them exactly simultaneously, something will probably happen!

Malcolm

When you practice on one characteristic, what do you do exactly?

You sit down, you close your eyes ... and then what?

Could you please break this down into algorithmic steps.

​​​​​​​Thanks.

Thank you for these insights. It sounds to me like you are focusing on one characteristic (dukkha) in one sense door (thoughts). I think it might be wise to apply this method in everyday life, as focusing on all three at the same time in all sense doors might be to ambitious at the stage I think I'm at. Thanks again! 

Thank you. I think for me, maybe it is too difficult to catch all three c's at the same time in all 6 sense doors in everyday life. So I think I will try a version where I select for one or two sense doors (e.g. thoughts and feelings) with either the characteristics I usually find the easiest to see (not-self and impermanence) or (just to complicate things) perhaps the one I have focused the least on during the last 4 years (dukkha). 

Thank you for this; I think you may have inspired me to focus a little more on dukkha. I have done much more work on not-self and impermanence than dukkha. 

Wise and inspiring - thank you! 

Sure. In everyday life what are the steps you follow. What is the technique?

Hey, thanks for explaining your process.

A technique that works very well for some people is to select the most clear and present grounding object - the sensate experience of having a body. The fact of the meat. Its heavy, it has temperature, it has a sense of movement, of humidity or dryness and define this as a declared holding  ground for awareness. An anchor so to speak.

Now as one goes about their lives one needs to simply observe that awareness abandons the anchor on its own! and moves on its own! and becomes sharper more clearly defined on its own! and forms like an arrow of attention on its own! The arrow of attention lands on something on its own! then against the object  at the arrow head is formed a sense of a self paying attention sitting at the nock end of the arrow ... on its own. then this too collapses and something else forms and then something else and then something else ... on its own!

Whenever confused or unsure of whether one is doing this exercise optimally, one can simply close their eyes, take a few deep breaths and ground awareness in its defined anchor for a couple of minutes.

Slow deep gentle abdominal breathing simply relaxing any agitation one feels in doing this exercise in daily life helps to maintain this exercise.

Obviously in tasks that are cognitively demanding this exercise is difficult to do. so one can simply practice for brief periods when one is goofing off at work. Then as one gets better at doing this, the exercise itself starts happening in other tasks ... on its own! And it can get really fascinating.

In Anicca you see it all really. As long Anicca is ripping stuff up these are automatically unsatisfactory and not self. 

KISS. 

Keep it simple. Anicca will lead you a long way. Anicca is your friend. 

If you relax and watch the activity of the mind, you see it constantly changing what it is focused on, changing from one thing to another (impermanence). If mind is self you see that the mind/self is not continuous and or constant or a separate thing (anatta). The mind is just a collection of separate processes. Since there can be no observer without observation, (if there is nothing to see there is no observation of sights, the same is true for thoughts, emotions, impulses, senses of self or feelings of no-self) the observer is not separate or different or distinct from those processes that form the mind. (This becomes clearer when you are fully involved in experiencing and the experiencer disappears while experience remains.) As you observe the activity of the mind you will notice dukkha arising and fading etc (see my previous post this thread).

I find a good analogy is that when you observe the activity of the mind it is like mindfully focusing on words as you read a novel. If you mindfully focus on the words as you read, you know what they mean and you understand the sentences, paragraphs, the plot, the novel, but you are not drawn into the virtual reality, into the dream, you know you are reading so you do not become immersed in the action or the characters or the plot. You may feel emotions since you understand what you are reading, but they are not part of any (virtual) reality - as long as you maintain mindfulness.

When you observe the activity of the mind, each moment of awareness is like a word in the novel. You understand the big picture but you don't believe the story about good and bad, winning and losing, better or worse, ego attachments have nothing to stick to. So you have emotions but as long as you stay mindful, the thoughts, emotions, impulses don't take over your mind, you don't get carried away by them.

Because of this you suffer less. And when you are mindful and not immersed in the "story", you have the chance to try to let go. Letting go is still something you have to learn to do if you want to reduce suffering even more.

Relax and be aware of your moment to moment experience. Notice your thoughs, emotions, impulses, sensory experiences, sense of self, and feeling of no-self. Notice how the activity of the mind is constantly changing, notice when dukkha arises and when it fades, notice when dukkha arises how the ego is involved. Observe the feeling of being an observer and  notice how it is just like any other thought emotion or feeling, how it is not separate or different or distinct from the other activity of your mind.