I sat a couple month-longs in the Mahasi-style and ultimately walked away frustrated with its insistence on dry vipassana and frustrated with my own inability to "watch the breath". Thinking the Buddhist community might be a little biased toward the Lord Buddha's own favorite method (of 84,000), I read "Buddho" and "Ajaan Sao's Teaching" and was inspired to begin my own mantra practice.
Within days, my sustained concentration, effort, and general mood had improved more in a week than in the eight months I had practiced alone and two months of intensive rise-and-fall observation on retreat. A brightness had entered my mind, literally, though not to the recognition of nimitta.
That said, are there schools or monasteries people know of that teach in this style? Specifically, either using mantra until emptiness is reached and then switching to the breath or else using mantra the whole way: through jhana, though insight, to liberation.
I have seven months free to pursue these practices and I'd be happy to travel anywhere in the world to receive guidance.
