noting question from novice.

Context: Meditating in Garden

1 the sun falls on my shoulders do I note:

warmth or pleasant or happiness or remembering or all in a sequence.

2 the sun falls on my shoulders, the breeze on my bare arm, the dog barks do I note

warmth or cold or hearing or pleasant or unpleasant or neutral or happiness or aversion or bored or remembering or planning or or wondering or all in a sequence (rapid or slow)

Does it matter how busy you could get noting (especially with several multiple events occurring simultaneously - or nearly so).

Any thoughts comments advice gratefully received.

Bill

I am unsure what Kenneth's advice will be but for me, when I was highly concentrated and noting, I was noting so fast that all the mind could register at that speed was if the sensations felt on the body were pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Then when it got so fast that even that seemed to much to think about, I would just note "feeling" or "vibrations". But when my mind was slow, I would be more specific with what i was feeling, like "warmth", "happiness" "anger".

It might depend on how fast you can note. When I say I was noting fast, it was every moment of experience.

For example with the dog barking example, I would have noted what is predominant because, in my experience, no two conditioned conciousness will arise together but in order, one after the other. It may seem they arise at the same time but if your mind is quick and concentrated enough, you'll notice they don't arise together but quickly in succession. So for me if the mind was fast enough, I would note warmth! pleasant!happiness!sensation(arm)! hearing(dog bark)! as each consciousness arises. Or if I was aware of all vibrations on the body, I would not even distinguish pleasant, unpleasant or neutral but just note (for the dog example) "vibrations, vibrations, feeling, hearing, feeling, hearing etc.

But this is just me. Kenneth and other's will have better advice!

In my experience, it depends on context. Sometimes it feels more natural to note at a somewhat leisurely pace. Sometimes the mind feels very fast and powerful and it is more natural to note very rapidly. Sometimes verbally labeling sensations helps give you clarity and momentum, and other times you have so much clarity and momentum that adding the verbal label only gets in the way.

I think this is an issue of balancing effort and concentration, if you're familiar with that teaching about the 5 spiritual faculties. You don't want to overexert yourself but you don't want to muddle along either. Probably at first it's best to err on the side of effort, which means using verbal labels and noting at a faster or more continuous pace. As you get more experience doing the technique you'll get a better sense of how to adjust it to your situation.

In addition to effort/concentration balance there's also a balance between breadth and depth. By breadth I mean making sure you cover different categories of experience like body sensations, feeling tone associated with sensations, emotions, thoughts, mental processes, etc. By depth I mean how finely and precisely you investigate a given category. Sometimes you may want to focus on depth and other times on breadth; just be sure not to favor one too heavily over the other, but go for a good balance.