Cut to the chase

Start thinking in terms of co-opting your enemies. Every discomfort that reminds you to note is a goad for you to awaken. When anxiety or self-criticism arises, go immediately to the bystander: see how it stands (walks, sits, lies). See how it feels anxiety. See how it feels tension, unpleasant. See how it feels release, pleasant. See how it thinks about the future. See how it thinks about the past. This technique, done properly, is freedom. Raise your baseline to "conscious competence," understanding that it will become "unconscious competence" automatically through repetition. You can do this.

People fail to get enlightened by the 4 Paths model because they don't do the technique. There is no mystery. People don't know how to do basketball layups because they don't do layup drills. No mystery whatsoever. All of the shortcuts end up being long cuts. Master the noting technique, systematically, and be free.

Try not to make it complicated. Whatever happens is perfect. Note it. You don't have to have equanimity. You just have to note anxiety or confusion. Do you see how insisting upon equanimity is just an extra step? You don't have to be clear. Note dullness. You can't afford all those in-between steps if you hope to be enlightened in this lifetime. This is infinitely simpler than even some of the most popular dharma teachers understand. With all due respect, that's why so many of the most popular dharma teachers insist that they are not enlightened: they are not. And that is probably because they keep adding all kinds of cleverness and "view" to this practice.

(cont)

(cont)

U Pandita's talk about going to the concert with festival seating, rushing to the front of the auditorium and plopping down in the best seat before anyone else could sit down there completely changed my life. "You don't have time to think about it!," he said. "There is no time to wonder which practice is best or which teacher is the wisest. You must put mindfulness in that place before the hindrances arise. If you do this, you will attain enlightenment."

As soon as I embraced that concept, my practice took off. We can rationalize being embedded in thought six ways from Sunday. "I am an intelligent person, a thinking person; I am the kind of person who has to understand what is happening before I can do it; I don't want to be a 24/7 mindfulness machine; The Tibetans stress the importance of View; blah, blah, blah." The question is: am I the kind of person who is willing to suspend disbelief and master a simple technique?

See how it sits. See how it feels fear. See how it feels shame. See how it feels anger. See how it feels doubt. See how it feels amused. See how it feels hope. See how it feels wonder. See how it feels joy. See how it feels gratitude. See how it feels embarrassed. See how it feels tension, unpleasant. See how it thinks about the future. See how it sits.

Kenneth

Do you understand the point I'm trying to make? I'm not telling you that View is not important. I'm not interested in bashing other teachers for the sake of bashing or for self-promotion. I'm telling you that every moment you spend making love to ideas is a moment that you could be doing the practice that leads to developmental enlightenment.

Thanks.
Equanimity may or may not come from doing the actual practice, right? One can't think their way into equanimity.

I think I get your point Kenneth. Thank you for this direct teaching. I was going to class late today and the taxi driver took me somewhere off track thinking that is where I wanted to go. So Realizing I was going to be even later I yelled F--- at no one in particular. Then I came back Anger, unpleasant. Anxiety, Unpleasant. Sure I was still not pleased about being late but this simple technique I was able to not embed in my experience.

And I had the presence of mind to tell the taxi driver that I wasn't saying anything to insult him I was just frustrated. So win win. I owe it all to noting practice...

I am willing to try; you have my word that I will, but I need help with it.

The main thing that trips me up when it comes to noting is a lack of vocabulary. For some reason I have a real problem with not knowing what to call things as they arise and also with not having a solid grasp of which arising fits with which foundation of mindfulnesss.

If I could get a dharma christmas present all I would want from santa is a glossary of 25 terms from each of the four foundations of mindfullness which characterize some of the most common notable phenomona which arise in each of the four foundations.

At the moment to get comfortable with noting practice I desperatley need a foundation to build a noting vocabulary from. I am sure a personalized vocabulary will develop and grow on it's own from there, but a dependable foundation of vocabulary would be immensely helpful for me, and I can't seem to forumlate one on my own.

I have looked at translations Mahasi Sayadaw's original texts and I am not sure why but he (or his translator) seems to exclusively use words ending in "ing" for ALL notes. Feel"ing" intend"ing" swallow"ing" think"ing" yet I see others (Kenneth included) using concrete nouns "heat" "cold" "pressure" etc for all notes.

Exactly which language does this program run in? I keep getting syntax errors!

Kenneth:

I'm a little curious here. At what point do I devote more of my "sitting" time to this practice vs. devoting it to Samatha?

I'm relatively new on the scene and have been all over in my meditation to this point...sort of doing what I feel like. I'm making strides, but I'm wanting to make a more structured approach (sort of like doing lay-up drills, then free-throw practice, then knocking down the treys vs. playing spiritual h-o-r-s-e on the mind-court).

My last two sits have been all "follow the breath counting to ten" (after brief metta to myself). I spend much of my wakeful day trying to note and dis-embed off-the-cushion though.

Should I stick with Samatha for a while until I get that "access concentration" before I do more intense noting practice on the cushion?

I'm sitting a 5 day retreat starting Friday, so lots of practice is coming...

Thank you Kenneth. This is a great thread.

You reference that 'People fail to get enlightened ...' in your original post . I like your definition of enlightenment on the Home page.

"The main thing that trips me up when it comes to noting is a lack of vocabulary. For some reason I have a real problem with not knowing what to call things as they arise and also with not having a solid grasp of which arising fits with which foundation of mindfulnesss. "

Mark,

Check out Shinzen Young's website. His basic technique has 6 flavors:

1. Sight
2. Sound
3. Touch
4. Image
5. Talk
6. Feeling

Feeling-image-talk is for internals, sight-sound-touch is for externals. That will cover all of your experience.

Awesome. Thanks.

Kenneth - Do you have a finite list of noting categories akin to the above Shinzen list?

Thank you Kenneth.

Printing this out.

Reading it daily.

This morning I realized what you told me on Skype, Kenneth, about how when you catch it, it feels like home run, this morning it was 'See how it thinks about the future.'. Bam!

There is no time to think about it.

"Check out Shinzen Young's website. His basic technique has 6 flavors."

Interesting teaching, I think it covers a lot of ground. I really do like what Kenneth was talking about in his BG interview as per noting what aries in terms of the four foundations of mindfulness, but I will try whatever finally works.

I have a lot of confidence in being told "go do it and it will work" by someone who's done it and made it work. So I'm sold.

Daniel talked about "shooting aliens" and I guess we all played space invaders, but it's so much easier playing space invaders with a joystick than on a keyboard. I'm confident that noting will work for me, I just haven't found it taught in a way that makes it an easy and fun game to play. I think a lack of foundational vocabulary is still my #1 hang up and a recommendation/discussion on when to use nouns or verbs would be a big help too.

-Thanks msj123, I'll give this Shinzen Young technique a look. It seems pretty logical and simple.

"Interesting teaching, I think it covers a lot of ground. I really do like what Kenneth was talking about in his BG interview as per noting what aries in terms of the four foundations of mindfulness, but I will try whatever finally works.

I have a lot of confidence in being told "go do it and it will work" by someone who's done it and made it work. So I'm sold.

Daniel talked about "shooting aliens" and I guess we all played space invaders, but it's so much easier playing space invaders with a joystick than on a keyboard. I'm confident that noting will work for me, I just haven't found it taught in a way that makes it an easy and fun game to play. I think a lack of foundational vocabulary is still my #1 hang up and a recommendation/discussion on when to use nouns or verbs would be a big help too.

-Thanks msj123, I'll give this Shinzen Young technique a look. It seems pretty logical and simple."

Don't worry about vocabulary. The important thing about noting is that it keeps you honest about whether or not you are truly objectifying an object.
You may feel something in your foot and call it a vibration, a tickle, an itch, warmth, whatever. As soon as you note it as something you are DONE.
THERE IS NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT.

I know this might not be in line with Kenneth's advice, but when the mind gets quite fast for me, or rather things are seen arising and passing at great speed, I can't figure out what to say anymore so i just note with the word "noted". It worked for me all the way to stream entry. This was only when the mind sped up and there seemed to be a natural equanimity established towards everything. But when the mind was slow and not so on the ball, I would resort to feeling, hearing, smelling, tasting, and seeing for both what I saw with my eyes and in the mind's eye like that generic image of myself that supports the feeling of "I".
Only when it got intense and the mind was prone to embed itself too much would I note exaclty what it was, heat, passion, hating, blah, blah..etc
Some times I would even note with an imgainary head nod or a mentally verbalised "hmm".

"Don't worry about vocabulary. The important thing about noting is that it keeps you honest about whether or not you are truly objectifying an object.
You may feel something in your foot and call it a vibration, a tickle, an itch, warmth, whatever. As soon as you note it as something you are DONE.
THERE IS NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT. "

I'm not sure MM, but I appreciate what you are saying. .

For me, I have very well established and stable khanika samadhi so notice the empty chairs in the auditorium coming-and-going at super speed, but for some reason I can't seem to move towards an empty seat at anything other than super slow speed. I just want a good set of running shoes without the laces tied together!

So I feel for me vocabulary would help, and also, I'd bet there are a lot of spaces to sit down that I generally don't even notice, I'd like to have a vocab based on the four foundations so I'd be confortable that there is not much (if anything) that can arrise which I can not note as quickly as it comes and goes. Rushing into an auditorium with 4 different color chairs is a good image for me.

"

U Pandita's talk about going to the concert with festival seating, rushing to the front of the auditorium and plopping down in the best seat before anyone else could sit down there completely changed my life. "You don't have time to think about it!," he said.


See how it sits. See how it feels fear. See how it feels shame. See how it feels anger. See how it feels doubt. See how it feels amused. See how it feels hope. See how it feels wonder. See how it feels joy. See how it feels gratitude. See how it feels embarrassed. See how it feels tension, unpleasant. See how it thinks about the future. See how it sits.

"


Very helpful. Not entirely new to me, just better and more succinctly articulated. As the thread title says.....

Still like that 'view' though.

"Don't worry about vocabulary. The important thing about noting is that it keeps you honest about whether or not you are truly objectifying an object.
You may feel something in your foot and call it a vibration, a tickle, an itch, warmth, whatever. As soon as you note it as something you are DONE.
THERE IS NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT. "

Yes!

And if you do this well, all that effort to 'let go' or 'stop clinging' becomes irrelevant. Things just come and go on their own. There is no "thing" to let go of or to cling to. And there's no "person" to do the letting go or the clinging (or the suffering), even if what's arising or passing away is a thought of I.

"I know this might not be in line with Kenneth's advice, but when the mind gets quite fast for me, or rather things are seen arising and passing at great speed, I can't figure out what to say anymore so i just note with the word "noted". It worked for me all the way to stream entry. This was only when the mind sped up and there seemed to be a natural equanimity established towards everything. But when the mind was slow and not so on the ball, I would resort to feeling, hearing, smelling, tasting, and seeing for both what I saw with my eyes and in the mind's eye like that generic image of myself that supports the feeling of "I".
Only when it got intense and the mind was prone to embed itself too much would I note exaclty what it was, heat, passion, hating, blah, blah..etc
Some times I would even note with an imgainary head nod or a mentally verbalised "hmm".

"

Yeah, Daniel Ingram talks about this in MCTB, using a monosyllabic note, like "dat," when things speed up.

I often use monosyllabic notes like "T" (shorthand for Three-characteristics), because at a certain point phenomena all start to take the same shape, for lack of a better term, both inside (wrist pain, or thought of tomorrow's lunch) and outside (door squeaking, or computer tapping).

In my experience the honesty, as Chris put it so nicely somewhere, of my knowing matters far more than the note itself. And I can verify from experience that whenever or whatever I'm noting, the technique works best when the note is light enough that the actual knowing is more center-stage, if you will, than the note itself.

It's like putting your hand in your morning shower's water stream to tell how hot or cold the water is. You don't stick your hand in and leave it there for even a second past the time when you KNOW whether it's too hot or too cold or just right. Too cold? Drop it and adjust. Too hot? Drop it and adjust. Just right? Jump in the shower.

Speaking as someone who has recently been a regrettably lazy meditator, I would describe it like this:

Getting embedded in phenomena is like sticking your hand in the water and leaving it there. Dumb, right? I mean, you didn't turn on the water in order to stand there with your hand getting wet! Similarly, you didn't sit down to meditate in order to obsess over some past or future junk, however important that junk may be within one's conventional life.

The important part is the getting to the real heart of the project. And the problem is dawdling.

"[...] but for some reason I can't seem to move towards an empty seat at anything other than super slow speed. [...]"

sounds like you should note "slowness"! you're already at that seat, after all

"

Try not to make it complicated. Whatever happens is perfect. Note it. You don't have to have equanimity. You just have to note anxiety or confusion. Do you see how insisting upon equanimity is just an extra step? You don't have to be clear. Note dullness. You can't afford all those in-between steps if you hope to be enlightened in this lifetime.

(cont)"

I kind of knew this on some level but it's so easy to fall into subtle cravings for particular states, this is a very good reminder not to do that, and deconstruct those desires as just another thing to note.

I've got a small question - I've been using the four foundations of mindfulness practice in sitting meditation, and at a certain point the noting gets so fast the verbal labels can't keep up with it, and it kind of breaks up into meaningless babble. Doing that verbal noting definately has helped me catch the more subconcious level of thought and images in a way I was not doing so consistently before. So i'm not sure whether to follow Nicolai's suggestion of switching to 'noted' or just keep trying to note the seperate categories when it gets choppy and confusing.

Mark VanWhy for what it's worth here are the words I seem to use most.
Body

pressure
tension
touching
heat
burning
cold
coolness
itching
tingling
softness
sitting/standing/walking etc

Thoughts

anticipating
planning
worrying
stratergising

Visualising
daydreaming
imagining
fantasising
memories

judging
analysing
abstract
discourse
dialogue

Mindstates
peaceful
contented
curiosity
investigation
amusement
agitated
irritated
anxious
shame
guilt
bored
dull
angry
frustrated
Then feeling tone is pleasant/unpleasant/neutral.

" I think a lack of foundational vocabulary is still my #1 hang up and a recommendation/discussion on when to use nouns or verbs would be a big help too. "

Mark,

The point is, there are a million reasons not to practice, so why not just jump in and do what you can?

Matt