Backgound:
It's been a long time since I have read this forum or posted. I'm a classic slacker when it comes to steady practice or aiming for anything in life. It's not that holding down a job or doing regular chores is an issues, but I had given up pursuing goals like study, losing weight or importantly for me going after stream entry. I hope to become a reformed slacker (like Tarin).


Question:
What are the ways of developing noting - noticing practice?

I try to develop the practice but am not making much progress. Doing 30 mins at a stench without distractions can result in sensing some degree of no-self or impermanence. But during the day, having a sense of continuous practice has not proved productive at the moment.
There are far instances where after a particularly god sensation then later in the day I can sneak I a few minutes of noting here and there and I can detect a little of no-self and impermanence but they are few and far between.

I am keen to get on and make some progress but know that I need a better approach and explore what ways I can become an expert at noting - he goal being stream entry.

At the moment I get about 25 mins of noting practice a day sitting in the train. Before that I do about 30 mins of kasina practice as this gives me a clear mind.

What approaches, techniques or tips would help me progress to become an expert in noting and get me on my way to stream entry?

It's about consistent noting and when you note you have to note as much as possible (including any analyzing and strategizing about practice). Note "doubt" or "don't know" if you can't find a lable. Use the 4 foundations of mindfulness.  There's lots in there.  Consistency with gentleness is needed. People can strain and push too much. It's not like a concentration practice where you try and get absorbed but more like interrupting the stream of ruminating/fixating/worrying thoughts which trigger the stress in the first place. Keep doing it (except when you do deep mental processing work) from the time you get up to the time you go to bed. I would recommend some other tips to keep the noting from being too boring or as a way to prevent thinking.

Here are some tips to prevent over-conceptualizing the practice:

http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articles/mental-noting/

My tips:

• Consistency of noting brings momentum where you're free of stress and desires for an extended period of time. The purpose of noting is to relax the push and pull of likes and dislikes. Practice each foundation of mindfulness and eventually include all the categories. That's a lot of work right there.
• Welcome unpleasant sensations. Equanimity can hide some aversion. Welcoming reduces aversion to sensations (this includes treating thinking as a sensation). Any time you say "this shouldn't be like this, this shouldn't be here" you are increasing stress. Welcoming should be judged as working when the body muscles are starting to relax because stress tightens muscles in the body and face.
• Notice as much cause and effect as you can. What seems like a self is cause and effect. Notice how quick intentions and actions appear when they are habitual. Even if you move quickly on a habitual action try to remember why it happened and the motivations behind it. Studying dependent arising is useful here.
• Note how a thought feels from before, during and after. If you're paying attention to them then they shouldn't hurt. If you're on automatic pilot then the old habits return.
• If you view everything as cause and effect then you should see how expectations and entitlements about life can cause stress. By not looking at things as deficient you can focus on actions to deal with cause and effect as opposed to ruminating/spinning wheels about the causes endlessly.
• Apply these practices to daily life without constantly examining your progress. Examining the progress is measuring the "self" and measuring is the territory of the "self". The "self" wants to feel special and if anything competitively challenges that specialness the brain wll go into sadness and depression.
• As you get better at practice try to notice with less and less force because a sense of self can creep in to the meditation and make you cling/ruminate/obsess/fixate. The secret is that the intention to pay attention can hold some aversion to the present moment as well.

Good luck!

Thanks Richard, fabulous advice,I especially liked the last two (definitely something I need to work on)

Oh and one more thing: The intention to pay attention holds aversion in it especially if it bats away thinking. If you are naturally aware that the mind just wandered you're already back so there's no need for an impulse of aversion to get rid of it. That should smooth out the practice.

Glad I could help!

Thanks very much Richard. I have quite a few questions and will apply what you have said straight away. It's the first time I have come across gentleness being talked about in regards to noting pratice. When I first read MTCTB I just went gung ho and was dissapointed I did not get results, not to mention intense dissapointment and frustration as I was noting hard unpleasent sensations. The attitude brought to noting makes a big difference.

I wanted to ask is work and studying considered "deep mental processing work"? So that noting is not something to be done in these time periods where one is applying and thinking and figuring things out during the course of the day. As noting will just be a distraction and not usefull anyway in that setting?

Bingo! That's because noting involves concepts and they will conflict with other concepts you need for mental tasks. By allowing the mind to wander and do its thing you can resume noting when the working memory load is much less.  Manual labour and non-conceptual work can handle much more noting. Really watch that attention to pay attention because it could be aversion trying to bat thoughts away. Thoughts should be treated like waves in the ocean of consciousness/knowing/awareness. They are all interdependent. Watch the thoughts before they start, during the thought and after. If you do you should notice that it doesn't hurt (even if it's a negative thought). If you go into automatic pilot and get lost in day dreams then the brain will act as prior habits dictate and any stress patterns will return. Use blunt concentration practice to reduce agitation and use investigation of the 3 characteristics to bring up energy. That's how the 7 factors of awakening work in balancing emotions and stress.

Noting is supposed to develop acceptance/equanimity but having an attitude of welcoming before hand will really help with what you encounter in life. Trying to see things as more cause and effect and not about deficiency can allow you to reduce stress so you can develop positive causes and effects in response to what life brings.

Good advice given above.

It is common for people to miss the point about being with reality now in an accepting way in MCTB, even though it is in there many, many times. Hopefully MCTB2 will correct some of that. Try reading the section on the 7 factors of enlightenment and the section about goals in MCTB and see if those help lend some balance to things also. Pushing inherently involves not being where you are right now, and being where you are right now is the only thing that works, as this is a reality-based practice.

Also, if you are doing low-dose (half-hour per day, that sort of thing) it is doing something, but obvious rapid or dramatic results are less likely than high-dose, so less expectations, more settling into what is going on now.

If you spend a lot of time slacking and doubting and then intermittently pushing, try noting those: "slacking", "doubting", "pushing", such that you are in in sync with what is actually going on. This is key. Insight practice is about that sense of this side integrating in real-time with the sense of a that side, with thoughts of future and past being in sync with this present in which they occur.

Consider reading the Trungpa section in Journey Without Goal, Chapter 9, where he talks about Buddha family neurosis and wisdom and see if any of that applies. It is highly recommended. I have read it probably 50 times and get something out of it every single time. It is about relating now with your own style, with what is going on. If slacking is your style, inhabit that style and relate clearly to it, being in it and with it clearly as it is.

Thanks for the advice. If I'm a slacker, or more correctly my ingrained habits of the mind are to waste time rather than face the challenges I want to take on then investigating it by non-judgemental noting (or a simple paying of attention) really makes sense. I have tried it for a few moments and can see the cycle occurring in the mind as well as sadness, fear, reluctance and empathy to a degree that comes straight after.

Being with the slacking once again shows the impermanence and sequence of events (kind of like the cause and effect structure that Richard has stated).

Re - MTCB, it is the inherent faults of some readers like myself. I see enlightenment is possible and think, HOLY CRAP I WANT SOME OF THAT!! and start pounding away at what I think is the proper approach. But to be fair there is also a great sense of a surge of enthusiasm in the book that pulls in those that are inclined that way (as I was when I first read the book) - to ignore the basic but subtle mechanisms of the practice.