So I started noting. It's something that made a lot of sense to do, but was hard to put in practice: partly because it brought about all kinds of confusion (am I doing it right?) and partly because it seemed to bring about or worsen unpleasant sensations.

The past two days I noted in my sits (at a rate of around once a second). My approach when being unclear whether I´m noting correctly, is to note this, the confusion, or doubt. As for the unpleasant sensations, these weren't there.

I also did noting in daily life. The effect was that I noticed a lot more. How surprising .

When I sit and do noting, most of the time there is a delay between having a thought and realizing I had the thought. It seems the deeper I'm in the noting, the more instant the recognizing of a thought (recognizing it somewhat, but not as clear as I would like)

I also keep in mind something by Kenneth Folk. He talked about 'disembedding' in relation to noting. That makes a lot of sense to me. I can feel it happening when I note, mostly though when I'm disembedding from confusion relating to the howto of noting practice.

http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/1973107

I liked 'the Hierarchy of Vipassana Practice', a good thread with some stuff by Ingram on practicing Vipassana, and noting. Also 'A Path with a Heart' by Jack Kornfield is a great book on Meditation, one of the best ever intros and also great for experienced practitioners. And for a broader overview, 'Living Dharma' by J. Kornfield has ten buddhist lineages and their teachers descriptions of Vipassana, you couldn't start at a better place than that. G'Luck

So I booked a place at dhammacari medtiation centre. Going to note my ass off for two weeks, starting april 14th.

In regards to noting, when I find the experience becomes less pleasurable I, as far as I'm able to, make the experience more pleasurable by 'working' with the pleasurable sensations surrounding the breath. While that is more of a jhana than a vipassana approach, I can still execute the noting technique. That's good right? Perhaps the fact that I find noting hard when the experience is of the less pleasurable type, shows a weakness?

Daily life: I often note (but not as often as I could). It's very easy to start noticing the intent to do something (before I do it). Is this a sign of progress?

In regard to insights into noting practice. In my practice I tended to linger on thoughts. Eg a thought happened, I only notice it happened after a second or so, and then note it, and shortly try to figure out/remember what the content was. It seems a better approach is to just not note it at all and only note those things that are happening as I note them (not my own insight, but taken from a book, which sais in principal you only note things other than the breath if these are distracting you from noting the breath.)
On the right track there?

thanks

Hi neem nyima, I found some vipassana instructions on the net which made a lot of sense, and reading that has corrected a big flaw in my practice (noting thoughts that have arisen already). On the retreat there will be a teacher who should be able to guide me. Thanks for the book recommendations!

I recently came back from the vipassana retreat at dhammacari. It was an introduction to an intensive retreat, starting with sits of only 10 minutes and then building up to 60 minutes, including meditating through the night. Unfortunately I didn't take the full program.

Upon my return I felt 'detached'/neutral. I'm returning to normal, but try to maintain mindfulness throughout the day.

I try to put in some meditation (mahasi style) each day, but don't meditate everyday.

I have a couple of experiences I wish to share:

Often I wake up in the night, feeling I'm 'in my body'. I try to remain there for as long as possible, but generally don't have much control over it.

Sometimes when I'm 'in my body' (which is always at night time, inbetween periods of sleep), I'm in touch with the various sensations in the body. The sensations are moving, fluid, coming and going. There's also a sense of 'letting go'/not getting involved. Other than that, not much to say, it doesn't last longer than a few seconds.

Is the method of vipassana designed to catapult you in the above state? Should I aim for this on the cushion? Should I drop the vipassana and try to intuitively go there?


Thanks for any answers. I'm intending to do some longer sits this weekend. I have some other stuff I'm wondering about, but it seems I should first try to answer them myself.