This means that the instant you have experienced something, you know
that it isn't there any more, and whatever is there is a new sensation that
will be gone in an instant.

The above statement from the MCTB book has me wondering the vipassana instruction that has been given to me.
First of when noting anything in the tradition I just had instruction in it is custom to acknowledge it 3 times. Except for the basic parts that are part of the instruction.
So in sitting meditation you would go riiisiing, faaaaling, riiisiing….hearing. hearing. hearing. then wait for the next riiiisiiiing. Unless of course you see the waiting. waiting. waiting ;-)

In walking a few steps are added. Heel up, lifting, moving, lowering, touching, pushing. Unless you see something. Then you acknowledge stopping. stopping. stopping then the sensation say thinking. thinking. thinking and then standing. standing. standing and intending to walk 3 times before starting with heel up.

Especially the walking meditation confuses me because in my mind when I notice thinking. Then go through the process of stopping before acknowledging I was thinking the initial though is gone already so acknowledging thinking at that time is no longer truth. I have circumvented this by pointing my awareness to the sense organ or sense door that caught my mind. So if a bird flew bye and is gone I would still acknowledge seeing, seeing, seeing with a direct awareness of what is in my visual field at that time.

This technique on the one hand I feel did help me as an inexperienced meditator to sort of take a little more time to get an overview of my sensate reality, and has in that sencse some properties I like and can work with. That said as my skill in noticing my perceptual reality from moment to moment grows I find more and more spaces where my acknowledgements are waaaaay behind the actual arising and passing of the sensation I am silently calling.

What do you think. I feel I am somehow not skilled enough yet to let go my instructions. On the other hand….
Reading the above statement fills me with doubt about how to go about it… Like I said this technique does provide some stability and time to settle the mind. If I were to note every sensation I would not be able to settle on the breath or even take a first step in walking meditation as there’s always something to notice…

With Love
Eelco

Did you ask that question to Asher? If you haven't, you can still simply call him and ask.

I also noticed some differences between noting as taught by ajahn tong-method and MCTB. So far I've always sticked to the Ajahn Tong style. No need to change something that works.



Then note: knowing, knowing, knowing.



You don't get points for noting every sensation there is. If you ask Asher about this, he'll probably answer something along the lines of: "most people make the mistake that they try to label everything, and get totally lost in all the things the mind does, so they fail to really settle on the breath and don't make progress."
When I did a retreat with him, he repeated this point several times. It seemed quite important for him.

Does that make sense?

As it turned out i did talk to him about finding a balance between noting and noticing the breath and how i had taken that hurdle.. He seemed ok with the way i had overcome that hurdle so all was well.

About the time lapse in walking meditation he explained that you can only do one thing at the time. so first you stop what you are doing and then proceed to acknowledge what it was that made you stop. At the time I felt that an adequate enough answer. only in rereading mtcb my doubts about acknowledging something that has passed seems strange to me.

with love
Eelco