| I start here a new practice thread, following Shinzen Young's noting protocols. Below, a short summary of his work.
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Shinzen Young offers four Noting strategies, plus a traverse noting tool that crosses/mixes with all of them.
Focus In: deconstruct the self by exploring mental images and talk, plus emotional body sensations. The divide and conquer strategy (five aggregates, four foundations, four elements). It’s the closest method to Mahasi Sayadaw Noting.
Focus Out: experiencing oneness with the outside world by anchoring to external sights and sounds, plus exploring the physical body sensations. It merges aspects of Zen practice and Taoist monistic philosophy.
Focus on Rest: feel a restful body and mind, by learning how muscles relax either by themselves or because of an intentional relaxation. Also note when the body is without emotional feeling. The main difference with a other Samatha traditions is that you have to note/label whether the restful feelings come from visual, auditory o body aspects. Added: Once in jhanas, look for the Three Characteristics.
Focus on Flow: keep track of the change of sensory experience, and the (outer and inner) forces that create that change. There are two versions of this noting strategy. The first one is focus on the flow of phenomena (akin to noting impermanence, or the Qi flow focus of Chinese medicine and martial arts). The second one is focus on expansion-contraction (akin to Taoism (Yin-Yang), Taichichuan’s filling & emptying, and Joshu Sasaki’s Zen).
In the first version, notes should be done on visual, auditory and somatic flow. The labels are just those three, though they are referring to the many facets of flow. For example, in “somatic flow” you keep track of increase-decrease of intensity, frequency and size, and the inward-outward pressures plus the display of vibrations (as bubbliness, undulations, vibrations,etc). In the second version, you note the simultaneous expansion-contraction forces within each phenomena, or of different ones. IMO, this kind of method works best when coupled with the Gone noting tool, which a describe below. Here the labels are just three: expansion, contraction and both, where you add later “gone”.
Focus on Gone: note vanishings, that is the passing part of A&P. This noting tool feeds and is feed by all other four focuses, though it’s not easy to note vanishings in an already restful body and mind (Focus on Rest). The idea is that by noting a stream of “micro-endings” eventually the gaps between the “gones” get shorter and shorter until a figure-ground reversal takes place. Gone then becomes the abiding ground. IMO, the shortage of labels in Shinzen Young’s noting strategies seek not only reduce the complexity of the job, but also foster an equanimous perception and in particular let those “gone moments” show up.
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So far, I have tailored my own noting strategy (as Shinzen Young encourages), where off-cushion I Focus Out and Focus on Gone, and on-cushion I blend both Focus on Flow versions with Focus on Gone. In particular, I found that there is a (needed) complement to note vanishings, which is noting the “tipping point” when/where and expansion switches to a contraction, and vice versa. It’s like a gone moment while I’m still fully immersed in the phenomena. In that way, I put myself in a situation where equanimously should wait for all phenomena to unravel and show itself. There’s also another third tipping point, where phenomena arises out of a restful state, but it’s harder to catch (unless probably you already have a deep concentration skills, which I don’t). Occasionally, I do see that happen with spontaneous Taoist reverse-breathing.
In short, my noting labels are: “pop” when a visual, auditory or body phenomena pops up, “expansion” when it grows, “contraction” when it shrinks, “change” in the tipping-point, “gone” when it vanishes, and “rest” when nothing arises. All along the sitting session there are plenty of times when I have a broader perspective and I’m able note expansion-contraction by pairs (“both” label). So far, I haven’t seen them both disappear by pairs too often, but do happen individually or in sequence: an expansion-gone moment and then (or before) a contraction-gone moment. |