Be free

Practice becoming aware of the body sensations that correspond to a thought. Whenever a thought arises, feel the body. How do you know whether you like the thought or not? It's because the body sensations feel either pleasant or unpleasant. Notice that if you dissociate from this moment, i.e., step into the fantasy and leave the body, you will suffer. Suffering is not ordinary pain; ordinary pain is just unpleasant sensation. Suffering is cause by the dissociation, the stepping out of this moment, out of the body. Stay in the body and ride the waves of body sensation. Watch how the body reacts to the thougts and vice versa. See how the looping between body and mind IS the dissociation. Short-circuit this by returning to the body. Stay with the body as continuously as you can. You are stretching the amount of time you can stay in the body without being blown out of it by an event or a thought. To be in the body is to be free. To be in the body all the time is to be free all the time.

Ajjhattam ca bahiddha ca, vedanam nabhinandato;
evam satassa carato, vinnanam uparujjhati
Suttanipata 1.117

By moving with full awareness, remaining detached from the sensations within and without and observing them objectively, one reaches the cessation of consciousness.

Here is a good link to a number of articles published by the Vipassana Research Institute in India on vedana ie pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations:

www.vridhamma.org/The-Importance-of-Vedana-and-Sampajanna.aspx

Nick

"While you are practicing just sitting, be clear about everything going on in your mind. Whatever you feel, be aware of it, but never abandon the awareness of your whole body sitting there. Shikantaza is not sitting with nothing to do; it is a very demanding practice, requiring diligence as well as alertness. If your practice goes well, you will experience the 'dropping off' of sensations and thoughts. You need to stay with it and begin to take the whole environment as your body. Whatever enters the door of your senses becomes one totality, extending from your body to the whole environment. This is silent illumination."

-Master Shengyen
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikantaza

"See how the looping between body and mind IS the dissociation.

"

Do you mean the moving out of the body to the mind and back?

Exactly right. I've been noticing this for the past week or two. Dropping expectations and staying with the body is the most free, and happy, I've ever been. In this way I've begun to see parts of me and my experience drop away, and it's wonderful.
I've been using a lot of energy to carry suffering around with me my entire life, I'm beginning to put it down.
Thanks.

Kenneth: See how the looping between body and mind IS the dissociation.

Mumuwu: Do you mean the moving out of the body to the mind and back?

I mean the creation of a third "thing," this pseudo-entity that is a composite of body sensations and mental phenomena. Living in this third thing is suffering because it takes you out of what is really happening in this moment; it becomes a proxy for experience. You can train yourself to stop living this proxy life of suffering by coming back to the body sensations in this moment. The body cannot lie. Being in the body is being present in this moment. Being present in this moment does not allow the pseudo-self to form. When the pseudo-self does not form, life is simple and free. It will be pleasant at times and unpleasant at times, but it is always free.

There is no conflict between noting and living in your body, by the way, whether you note silently or aloud. You can note or not note, think, act, talk, love, live; there is very little you can't do; you just can't suffer. If you choose to note, understand that there is nothing magical about the noting itself. The noting is simply a feedback loop to remind you to feel your body and observe your mind in this moment.

This made sense for me in pairing the noting I do now, and the techniques I have used before that made sense. Great!
But is there a rank in effectiveness in techniques?
Why do more people reach faster results noting than some other techniques? (if I understand correctly, that is)
Is it the best way to keep the mind observing itself + body without straying?
(and yes, I use the word "best" knowingly

I sure am glad I asked for that clarification!

It's funny, a few years ago I was almost completely cut off from my body. I was very clumsy and ungraceful. I can't recall the last time I've tripped up and fallen down. Throwing a ball or tossing garbage into a bin, even playing guitar are all much more natural to me these days.

I seem to recall how Eckhart Tolle talked about the body as a portal into the now. How it was something real and in tune with the moment, vs. the mind which depends on the past or future and that by tuning into the body you are automatically tuning into the present moment.

Meekan, the more noting you do, the more you are able to remember to stay in the body. Without developing mindfulness and concentration one tends to wind up lost in thoughts again and again.

I just realized that Kenneth actually partly answered my question when he mentioned why noting aloud is superior in his opinion.
So, just shikantaza - high risk of straying
Following breath + asking "what is this?" with focus on body - less risk
Noting aloud - least risk
If I understand the thinking... But all these techniques exercise mindfulness and concentration and will ultimately lead to the same result, nes pas?

"But all these techniques exercise mindfulness and concentration and will ultimately lead to the same result, nes pas?" -Meekan

Oui, vous avez raison. The noting practice is recommended precisely because it gives you a feedback loop that is not present in some techniques. It ensures that your practice time is spent efficiently. For most people, this results in rapid progress, even where other methods have failed. Any method or non-method that keeps attention continuously in the body and mind in-this-moment would work beautifully. The question is, how do you know whether you are doing it right? Noting solves this problem elegantly by providing the feedback loop.

"Oui, vous avez raison. The noting practice is recommended precisely because it gives you a feedback loop that is not present in some techniques. It ensures that your practice time is spent efficiently. For most people, this results in rapid progress, even where other methods have failed. Any method or non-method that keeps attention continuously in the body and mind in-this-moment would work beautifully. The question is, how do you know whether you are doing it right? Noting solves this problem elegantly by providing the feedback loop."

Very well stated, Kenneth. Thanks for that.

Noting is the best practice I know of for learning to keep a continuity of presence for any given length of time in meditation. It doesn't need to be rapid-fire. It just needs to be consistently and continuously applied.

-Jackson

Very interesting thesis, Kenneth! Most helpful few lines I've read in a long time. Thanks.

So, I have noticed the same thing when staying with the breath all day - zero suffering - the complete freedom of being present here and now, as we are. Do you feel that it is more useful to extend ones attention to include the whole of the body? I think that one's generally attention / awareness encompasses the body, by just staying with the breath. Staying with the breath has other benifets too. Is there a logical and practice progression from staying with the breath to a next step of progression, according to your line of thought?

Adam.

Adam,
I'd love to hear the answer to your question!
From my limited experience it seems that when I stay with the breath my focus tends to come down to a point(the nose), while staying with the body seems to keep my focus more expansive and open. With more practice this difference may decrease or disappear, or maybe not. Maybe watching the breath in the abdomen? Just my best guess.
You mentioned other benefits to staying with the breath, I'd love to hear them as I naturally seem to maintain awareness of the breath/body as opposed to strict noting practice. If you have any good links, that would be great too.
Thanks.

"So, I have noticed the same thing when staying with the breath all day - zero suffering - the complete freedom of being present here and now, as we are." -Adam

So simple, so effective. Suffering happens when you live a proxy life created by constellating body sensations and mental impressions into an imaginary creature that can never be satisfied. When you are in your body, though, the only life you have is the real one, which turns out to be satisfactory after all.

"Do you feel that it is more useful to extend ones attention to include the whole of the body? I think that one's generally attention/awareness encompasses the body, by just staying with the breath." -Adam_West

Let this develop naturally, Adam, in each sitting. The general movement over the course of the sitting is 1) Scattered attention 2) Tight focus 3) Sinking into object. 4) Diffuse focus, with emphasis on edges of object (Bill Hamilton's "donut"). 5) Panoramic object that includes subtlety within it, but does not clamp down or choose one object over another. This natural rhythm will repeat at each new level of subtlety, many times in a given sitting. You can't predict or control the timing of it, so the highest-level skill is to surrender to it, constantly monitoring for the place of perfect equilibrium and allowing it to be as it is.

"Staying with the breath has other benefits too. Is there a logical and practice progression from staying with the breath to a next step of progression, according to your line of thought?" -Adam

The breath is a good anchor that serves a similar function to noting; it helps you stay on track by giving you something to return to. The general movement, long term, is toward not choosing any object at all, in which case it is seen that the body is the most interesting thing going on anyway, so it naturally calls your attention. The breath is part of the perfection.

Hi RevElev,

Nice to speak with you. Yes, when I speak of staying with the breath, I mean at the abdomen. Sorry, I should have made that clear, as I know some traditions do so at the nose or upper lip etc. By staying with the breath at the abdomen, I find that my energy / attention naturally rests there in what seems like the centre of one's gravity, or embodiment / presence. This is very much a Zen / Taoist idea. It seems to be true, at least in a qualified way. This seems to have an overall 'centring' or balancing effect on the mind. Further, it takes our energy / centre out of the head, and apparent 'ego' and its propensity for conceptual / symbolic thought / functioning - with all its judgments of others and our experience, attachment and aversion; which seems to assist in keeping us centred in a sense of 'ego' consciousness or a sense of separate, disparate entity that experiences, controls and suffers. Such that this 'consciousness' or the phenomenon of identification seems to naturally dissipate, or be seen through. By placing attention in the breath, it seems we drop 'down' into a centre-less centre, that opens up into a non-local, just awareness of what is, that simply sees experiences / sensations happening, but not a person or entity that they happen too, even as we see the phenomena of what was previously taken to be a person. Suffering and self is seen through to a greater or lesser degree. This is on a continuum.

[cont.] edited for typo.

So in daily practice, we move towards or away from this open, spacious awareness of experience - the heard and the seen etc - into complete non-duality, that is fully functional, so not a Samadhi, but this could occur also, particularly while sitting, or at other times, a more contracted experience of phenomena, but still a contraction that 'is', but happening not to a person. So effectively, this daily practice is an extension of practice on the cushion. Additionally, the other benefit of keeping attention with the breath at the abdomen is that the navel chakra or Hara is a major energy '˜consumption' conduit and reservoir for pranic force within the energetic body. To remain attentive there, stimulates / activates, energises and balances the energy body / nervous system / mind and overall health; (a kind of chi-gung), steadily awakening kundalini and further progressing, I would argue, along path. So it is, I would suggest, a very efficient practice on many dimensions of purposeful awakening / awareness as we are here and now. I am increasingly seeing it a panacea for spiritual practice, health, awakening and a happy and harmonious human embodiment. Not surprising considering its long history in Daoist / Zen / Theravada practice. Particularly if practiced in combination or in context with Kenneth's three speed transmission, and an understanding of direct practice / freedom as we already are - or across multiple traditions and models of awakening / Being. I don't want to over state it, but my experience is increasingly leading me to this conclusion.

Adam.

Thanks Kenneth. Very useful advice - and a great articulation of what I seem to be increasingly experiencing.

Adam.

Adam,
Wow! That's more then I was expecting. Thank You Very Much!
I'll be picking through all that info for a while. I can really see how it could take the energy/centre out of the head, something I've been wondering about lately.
Thanks again, and take care.

Would dwelling as `the witness` have the same effect ? or would that be dissociation ?

Can't say whether or not the witness is dissociative, but it does build concentration. So it helps with first gear. It can also lead you into 3rd gear when you "bust" the sensation of me-ness.

"
Here is a good link to a number of articles published by the Vipassana Research Institute in India on vedana ie pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations:

www.vridhamma.org/The-Importance-of-Vedana-and-Sampajanna.aspx

Nick"

That's a good link. When reading about vedana and sampajanna you get the idea that we all want the big carrot to avoid the big stick but if we let ourselves get caught up with the little carrots because we are averse to the little sticks we end up getting hit with the big stick.

Friend Kenneth, indeed good stuff...

Although lately, I have been blitz learning Vipassana, by way of the Nana's, having come from the practice of Samatha yoked to Vipassana. I couldn't help but see a correlation between, "becoming aware of the body sensations that correspond to a thought.'

As an aside, earlier on, during my first introduction to 'Kenneth Folk Dharma', in December, I believe I mistakenly associated this similarity of my practice to your "Three Speed Transmission.'

Samatha yoked to Vipassana, is based on seeing the steps of DO, in action by way of Samatha, and as a results seeing the 3Cs in action by way of Vipassana.

To wit: While in Samatha, I mindfully watch my body by way of the mind, move from moment to moment; when a 'feeling' arises dependent on 'contact' (by way of the 5 aggregates, including thought), I note it and let it go (Vipassana), and return to watching the body (Samatha).

Do this a zillion times or so and the process becomes quite automatic; if my attention should drift and attach to a 'feeling', my mindfulness automatically locks onto it and reboots my attention. This is felt as an 'odour/sound/taste/sensation/thought-startle-shock'; subsequently, when I release it, there is an instantaneous reviewing of the hindrance, which is noted by my mind, and I return to watching the body. I don't suppress whatever the hindrance was, I kind of put the hindrance up on a mental shelf and leave it there; if it falls off so to speak, and creates more tension, I just release it and re-shelve it; on and on...

However, most of the time I am able to sense the start of a attachment somewhere between 'contact' and 'feeling', as a subtle physical tension rising in the body; mostly my head that is, and release it right there and then. Still my mind reviews the event; and other than that, my mind sits in still-point, mindfully watching for sensations to arise.

In addition, I am able to maintain the cusp between the nana stages of Jhana, and the Samatha states of Jhanas, since it is so easy to drift into Samatha. I can test it by mentally noting 'rising' and 'falling' of the breath on the abdomen. Other than that I maintain, "focus on becoming aware of the body sensations that correspond to a thought" and "...and ride the waves of body sensation,' as you so aptly put it. I find this method conducive to practicing the 'nanas', as there is a familiarity to how I practiced Samatha yoked to Vipassana. Still, I am experimenting all the time.

I am still working out the kinks in the transition over to the 'Nanas'; and I've just read Daniel's web site blook, "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book"; and between that and your web site information, its been an excellent discovery; now I believe I understand -- well kind of...

I apologize if the above appears a little off topic.

With Metta,
Eezy