Hello! 

Long time lurker and learner from all of you - thank you. 

I have been meditating 'seriously' for 3 years, although my practice has taken on all kinds of forms over this time (everything from mahamudra to body scanning to shadow work, koans and self-enquiry etc etc.)

I have enjoyed the process of experimenting and exploring, but recently decided it was time to commit and dig into one technique consistenly over the long term. I've opted for Mahasi-style noting as I've found it the easiest to integrate into daily tasks (e.g. driving, social situations) and find it logically appealing. 

Having been at this for a while now, I have two questions:

1. There is a pattern appearing whereby I'll get on a good roll with noting steadily and consistently at a gentle pace, focussing on really diving into the object with my awareness. This goes on for a while and thoughts like 'this is going well' begin to arise. Inevitably, though, sensations begin to be noticed at an increasingly high frequency and actually noting them with a verbal or mental label becomes impossible, so I try to stick with the myriad things arising and passing away as best I can. Without the noting, though, it seems easy to 'lose pace' with the arising and passing of sensations and my attention wanders off into thinking (sometimes mindfully, but often not) until I 'wake up' a minute or so latter and begin noticing all the sensations again. It seems much easier to notice the thoughts before they pull me off course when going at a slower pace. Does anyone have any tips on how to stay with the fast paced noticing without being dragged off into discursive thought, when noting isn't available as a self-monitoring tool?

2. I notice that my ability to stick with bare sensations is much stronger when I'm in a good mood (say, just finished work on a Friday or have slept well) versus being tired or sick - at which point any period of concentration longer than a minute seems impossible. Any advice around how to stay with the practice under adverse conditions? Is it just a matter of white knuckling it and building more capacity for this over time? 

Thank you in advance for any help!

Fast pace, you stop using labeling words and just go with da da da da da da or whatever sound is fast enough to keep up.
Noticing is great, labeling is optional. Labeling is training wheels until you don't need it, noticing is better without labels, but like beating a drum, you notice when you stop cause it is missing and that reminds you to get back to the task of noticing.

Good Luck,
​​​​​​​~D

Thanks D.

I find the the 'da da da da' approach helpful for a sort of a 'mid paced' style of noting. However, once things get going even quicker it sometimes feels like there's a good 20-30 sensations popping up per second, even via one sense door (e.g. sound becomes a series of super quick vibrations that can be perceived arising and passing in succession). At this point, would you recommend just dropping even the 'da da da da' drum beat style of labeling in favour of trying to keep pace purely by noticing? This is when I find myself going off course into thought more easily, but I also know that going quickly is often recommended, so should I stick at it or slow it down a little to ensure longer periods of concentration?

Thank you again for your help! 

No reason to label-note at that speed. If you are Able to Percieve those 20-30 sensations per second that means that you ARE perceiving/noticing them  
Just watch what you are already perceiving as you are knowing it as it's unfolding. 

Usually at such stage meditation is easy and fun. One is "into it" so to speak. Reserve the noting-labelling for harder times.

​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​Why not notice X sensations per unit time and just label once every 10 -20-30 ?
The hack is just to stay on tempo....not to keep up with anything nessesarily. Eventually you will get so good at labeling that part of your consciousness will label but another part will go into story time, then you have to add more stuff to the labeling....loloolol...
Good Luck,
~D

My two cents is

1. I ran into very similar issues in my practice. The thing I found that worked for me is essentially doing a hybrid where you are trying to notice 100%, but then you actually slow labeling down to a "goldilocks" zone (too fast and it's too much, too slow and it's not useful), for me this was like maybe 1 label/half breath. And then at this point really it's a bare awareness style practice, but the labeling is a mindfulness monitoring tool where if the labeling flags you know mindfulness is probably flagging as well.

2. If you're having trouble staying with bare sensations, going back to labelling is usually helpful. In the cases where there are adverse practice conditions, noticing/labeling them actually makes it very good practice! If you can label things like "poor concentration", "tired", "frustrated" etc these tend to be tricker objects (what the Satipatthana sutta would call "dhamma") that can have bodily, emotional, and mental components. Learning all the different components would get you a gold star sticker from the Buddha himself.

If you go on retreat or go to a group meditation at a Buddhist temple most likely they will do some form of chanting and sometimes bowing practice before sitting. These are forms of meditation but they also help to quiet and focus the mind in preparation for sitting meditation. That is what the monks and nuns do. If the "professional" meditators need to prepare for sitting meditation it makes sense that the amateurs would need to also.

I recommend this as preparation for vipassana:

https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2020/08/preparing-for-meditation-with.html

"Does anyone have any tips on how to stay with the fast paced noticing without being dragged off into discursive thought, when noting isn't available as a self-monitoring tool?"

I find doing concentration practices prior to fast noting helps with staying on target.  Another framing is that the "being dragged off" is happening because the mind is averse to the fast noting and would prefer a gentler practice.  Neither framing needs to be right and both can be right at once imo.

"2.Any advice around how to stay with the practice under adverse conditions? Is it just a matter of white knuckling it and building more capacity for this over time? "

I find having a range of practices that can be done under a wide range of conditions has been helpful.  If you're into noting and have access to noticing, it might be useful to experiment with gentler versions of noticing that can be practiced across a wider range of conditions.  For example, can you notice while going to sleep or waking up?  In conditions like these, the attention will tend to be diffuse and dreamlike, and lack the precision you seem to be going for in your sitting practice.  I've found that gentle noticing is available to me a lot of the time, and has been very supportive.

Hi Jim Smith,
​​​​​​​
I am very grateful for your sharing.
I'm preparing for my first meditation, which will be next week.
The article you shared provided me with quite a lot of information.
Do you have a video to share more about this issue? If so, can you share it with me?