Keith's first meditation notes, ever!

60 min sit. internal noting.
thoughts past , planning, past , eyes open for the most part , I closed them to try and get deeper into concentration then thoughts appear , when i open my eyes the thoughts seem to linger shorter. planning thoughts, lower back pain, ( from treadmill action ) observing sensations appear then fade. high frequency pitch in ear still present, impatience when the hour comes to close, sitting just one hour a day now resolve to sit 30min before bed has given way to netflix.

Cheers

45 min sit eyes open for the first 30min. wanted to actually sit for 60 made a resolve and broke it after a heavy cough.
Noted sensations of all kinds pleasant unpleasant and neutral. Many thoughts past and future planning.
Last night was the first successful 30min sit after work instead of TV or some other distraction. I guess my question would be is rigorous
insight meditation as relaxing as watching TV or should I switch to pure samadhi meditation at night and not do insight or vipassana?

Cheers

sat 60 min with a timer. noted a loud for a bit sensations, have a bit of a head cold so lots of dry heat aversion,
tensions in shoulders twitching, trying to practice the witness turning my attention around and Kenneth suggested yesterday that I ask " well who is asking?" and i think i felt a bit of that uncomfortable uneasiness with actually getting to the bottom of that questions. I tried a bit to keep up the awareness of all the sensations going on and adding the turned in attention. I'll keep trying. Had bit of the high pitched sound going on, gross sensations in the head, then tried to incorporated the sweet spot eye position. A bit confused as to when to apply vipassana and when to apply 2nd gear cause they are different right with a fluid boarder between the two?

CHeers
gonna check out the other post and participate more.
Thanks all

sat 60 min eyes open noting - spent the last day contemplating the four foundations of mindfulness first in an abstract form
i.e. reading wisdom then applied it today during my sit. Observed the four 1. sensations - 2. feeling tones pleasant unpleasant neutral - 3. feelings or mind states - desire , sloth, jealousy, frustration - 4. Mind Objects or thoughts - past - future - imagination planning.

noticed that sensations are easy for me to note - feeling tones are pretty straight forward thoughts I catch sometimes sooner sometimes later but the states are a place where ai need to fine tune.

Cheers

Sat 60min with a timer and stated a vague resolve to traverse the Jhanas at least up to 4. This seemed to guide the meditation a bit.
I more clearly feel the frustration of not being able to cycle effortlessly and feel a longing for stream entry so this process can start fully.
I feel like a kid on dads motorcycle , I'm on the bike, check, kick start the engine, check , engine turns over ( slight thrill ) but never really
starts all the way. The only time I hear the engine is when " I " kick start it.

- noted a loud for just a few minuets quickly got into a pretty calm relaxed state noted bright itching,
grasping, moisture, dryness, tension and the feeling tones that went along with each one pleasant un pleasant neutral.
I was wondering how clear the feeling tones can get because they seemed a bit for drawn to me now. Like tension in a back is always
unpleasant neutral is always my hands clasped together but are these tones not also always changing like the sensations themselves
and if so do I follow them from unpleasant to neutral to pleasant?

Noted thoughts got stuck in a few pulled out,


Went back and read some of Kenneth's practice tips, which helped a lot.

Kenneth Quote - " If you are noting, you are doing vipassana. You cannot note without doing vipassana."

Keith question - But I can do vipassan without noting right? During the eye posture exercise?

Cheers

In the course of applying myself, so that I may better understand what I'm doing I started reading a concentration post on DHOG and found these links referenced:

www.angelfire.com/electronic/awakening101/janas.html

www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/vip-jhana.html#N1

They helped me understand the usefulness and power of the noting technique.
And how it differs from a pure Jana type concentration practice.

Quoted from the works linked to above:
" Another approach, albeit at the other end of the meditation ladder than Laya, thus considered somewhat more difficult for the novitiate, is momentary concentration, or Khanika Samadhi (sequential momentary deep concentration). It occurs only at the moment of noting and, in the case of Vipassana, not on a fixed object as Samatha-Jhana meditation but on changing objects or phenomena that occur in the mind and body. But, when the practioner of Vipassana Meditation develops strength and skill in noting, his Khanika concentration occurs uninterruptedly in a series without a break. This concentration, when it occurs from moment to moment without a break, becomes so powerful that it can overcome The Five Hindrances, thus bringing about purification of mind (citta visuddhi) which can enable a meditator to attain all the insight knowledges up to the level of Arahat. "

I can imagine that Kenneth and others have stated this view in many ways on this site. I just happened to find this and like corroborating. If I understand clearly Kenneth is teaching me a mixture of both momentary and and absorption or juice concentration.

Is that right? The sweet spot being a sliding mixture of momentary and deep absorption.
Just a little pre-streamer working on his chomps.

55 min sit - tried to recognize first jana, noted a loud for a juts a few minutes - kept noting after that - noted lots of thoughts cloudy -
stuck in past and planning - intense body tingling - tried to cultivate that nice feeling into something more sustained - but gross sensations - in the legs towards the end of the sit - noted the desire to be free of discomfort - I'm getting pretty good and letting my eyes drift into scanning mode - this is raising doubt as to weather I'm doing it correctly meaning i thought i needed to wait until a certain level of concentration was present before doing vipassana eye scanning but maybe that is incorrect.

going to bring some awareness along for the rest of the day - CHeers !!

Hi Keith.
Just curious: What's vipassana eye-scanning? I'm not sure I know what you mean.
Joel
EDIT: Sorry if it's described in the thread somewhere. If so, just let me know and I'll find it.

Hi Joel,
Kenneth showed me a technic in which the eyes flicker under the eyelids, this is what Kenneth calls the sweet spot of a balanced concentration with insight i.e. vipassana. I'm not really scanning the eyes but more like looking at phenomena usually wave like movements on the inside of the eyelids. MuMu sent me a link to a video showing Shinzen Young doing this practice in a very clear way.

Hope this helps I think there is alink to it in my practice thread. I'm also curious if you practice in this way.

Cheers

30 min of metta guided with Gil Fronsdal audio file this morning. I love making the sounds he suggests, always get a giggle out of the fact that it sounds like I'm having a very pleasurable time indeed. I did the practice while in a tent once and my neighbors were more than amused. Metta

Ah, OK. Thanks for the explanation, Keith.
I'm not doing this practice right now--just the noting aloud. Sounds interesting, tho...

Here is a repost of mumuwu's

and a you tube link



" 38. RE: meditation Journal p2
Sep 10 2010, 2:46 PM EDT
The sweet spot.

So yeah, you jam the eyes all the way up and you're seeing lights out side. If you put them on the horizon there is no flicker. But somewhere in between is a sweet spot. When there it is fairly effortless, and you might notice some other twitching in the facial muscles.

Pay attention to the flickering itself. It is a meditation object. What's nice is that it is a great example of impermanence as it is a rapidly changing object.

The idea with using the two positions, I think, is as follows. Putting the eyes in the downward position (mudra) creates a kasina like setup. You are concentrating on the non-diversity you see in that position. This is restfull and causes you to become more and more concentrated in whichever stratum you are currently in. This is a very useful tool for exploring individual strata (because it allows you to go deeper before you start exploring it).

When you move the eyes up, it create interference. It breaks up the strata you are in and hopefully causes you to move on up into the next one. Again you can do the downward eye thing to get concentrated there and then put the eyes up and break through.

I don't know if that makes sense, but it's how I picture the process working.

The exorcist thing is funny. Watch this video of Shinzen Young. It'll take some of the weirdness away by watching him do it too

"

posted by mumuwu

60 min sit eyes mostly open, inspired by Joel, I tried to note a loud for the full hour. I have a bit of a sniffle so there was dryness - unpleasant - moisture - pleasant - curiosity - investigation - resolve - hearing - seeing - tasting - dryness- burning unpleasant - planning thoughts - memory thoughts - after about 15- 20 min pleasant sensations starting arising throughout the body - waves of sensations pleasant - very slow swaying super slow bendy movements upper torso - more pleasant sensations - thoughts - past - future - vision became very focused at one point then relaxed again - slipped into eye scanning for a few minuets but then forced the noting a loud again even with eyes closed felt a pulled to just close my eyes and enjoy the pleasant sensations - the waves a pleasant sensation lasted for about 10min then i observed a gross sensation on my thigh observed the unpleasantness of that and costed out of the hour.

My observations are that the nothing a loud kinda guarantees a dynamic sit for me with what I think is less mind trapped in thought and more observing of reality. I also have to note that my practice is now officially 1 hour a day.
I resolve however to sit an hour after work tonight . I'm really doing noting else after work except watching cartoons so I think awakening is a bit more important than that right? What's gonna set me free in the long run?
Even though this new animae series is really killer.

Cheers

Just as a note to myself
The following tip is something Kenneth Folk teaches so check with him for more explanation:

Four: There is a spot which Kenneth Folk calls the "sweet spot". It is the spot just behind the eyes an inch or so behind what some would call the third eye, within the brain. When you sweep up to the head, you could roll your eyes back towards this "sweet spot". This is a very important spot as it is where one can experience fruitions/cessation moments post-path. It is where one could set off a path moment and become a stream enterer. Here, you can focus and concentrate on investigating the pulsing, strobing, shifting, flickering sensations there and when they end or stop dead. Look for discontinuities. This method could trigger a "dip into nibbana" while you find yourself in very calm, highly equanimous state of mind (read Equanimity of Formations ñana).

so I sat about 50min last night which was good - noted sleepyness - noted slow swaying back and forth - sat 60 min this morning and note more swaying along with thoughts - impatience - unpleasant heat and dryness - I resolve to sit for 30min tonight and chase the end of sensations

Cheers

60 min timed sit
i've been sitting an hour a day, mid day for the past 2 weeks.
eyes closed getting to equanimity / still relatively still mind I can sit comfortable / try second gear / then an exercise Kenneth taught me about 3 rd gear and listening for the a distant sound opening the mind softening perception being all inclusive? I tried this today also tried it during a yoga class. Definitely
opens something. Lots of space shifting going on behind the eyes during the sits. I'm kind of letting it runs its course. The ongoing challenge is to sit more. Two hours a day. I tried to up the mid day sit to 1.5 hours which worked for a few days but I think I'll have to get up a bit earlier for that. Then 30 min before bed. I'll try it tonight and tomorrow and report. CHeers

55 min sit at work last night. Had some pretty intense sensations that felt like I was becoming empty.
A sort of perspective shift happening within the body. LIke a dissolving sensation swelling of energy,
sensations around the third eye area. pulsing there which is also happening during the day off the cushion.
Noting thoughts feeling tones pleasant un pleasant neutral , trying to shift up to second and third gear kind of randomly during a session. Sat this morning for 60 min lots of thoughts being noted planning, second guessing, past thoughts future thoughts - or like right now go get coffee thought.

Cheers

Sat 60 min this morning, eye closed. Noting visual field with eyes closed seemed tight like my head was in a bag with the walls of the bag being close to my face. Ringing in my ears which if I focus I can still hear now. bright itching sensations were noted thoughts noted, pressure, first gear tried to slip into 2nd gear
a bit in relation to the thoughts, who is having these and why are thoughts considered different than sounds? Third gear practice with kenneth's tip of listening for the boats in the harbor. Noting 1st gear as I type this. sleepyness, sloth. I also noticed yesterday that I was having a really hard time focusing off the cushion getting any kind of work done. Unable to work on something for an hour although I can sit for an hour of formal meditation. Seems odd. I'm going to try and set a timmer during the day for other activities and se how that goes. Cheers

sat 60 min this morning trying to re-up the sit time which has been sliding down to nothing for a few weeks. THinking about starting a new set of notes
and partaking more in this forum. It's hard out here for a player on his own, great to have a group like this to call home.

Cheers

Good to see you back here

Best of luck

Welcome back, Keith!

Thanks guys. Cause and effect in action : )