Johnny's practice nots

Nov 16th Log - These sittings did not happen one after the other, my first sitting is always early in the morning just after I get up and awake, and the last is in the evening before I go to bed. Any meditations in the middle will be done in the middle of the day or evenings with a group.

15m Walking
45m Sitting: Started with counting (1-10 then 1-10) to get focused. Kept on the breath for a while then switched to noting. Note sensations airing in knee and back. Desire to check time, noticed, saw checking in my mind, resisted. Note feelings of boredom and desire to end.

30m Kashina: (Used two color bowl which hindered meditation I think) Count breaths till concentrated (about 150-200 breaths) eyes on bowl. Shadows shift about on edges of bowl. Where dark now light. Sometimes whole bowl is dark, sometimes light. Where the colors switch the line moves about often. Parts of bowl vanish or bleed into the wall.

18m Kashina: (Used dark purplish 7" diameter circle of paper) Small shadows appeared then disappeared on either side of top. Seemed to grow and shrink. Appeared 3d like a ball at times. Blended into wall partially. Fully disappears for a second or two.

15m Walking
45m Sitting: Count breath to get concentrated. Follow breaths, focus on knee pain. Switch positions mindfully due to knee pain. Focus on breath. note beginning of inhale. Then beginning of inhale and end of exhale. Work up to noting beginning and end of inhale and exhale... Beginning end beginning end... Get very deep. Thoughts float without attachment. Notice pause between breaths. No notion of time or anything, just start and end, start and end. Strong sensation in head lasting half a second, timer goes off. Seems to have passed quickly, got very focused.

First off a hello to everyone here. Heard about this site from someone I met on a weekend retreat I just attended, also heard about Daniel Ingram and started to read his book. I have read most of the 1st Gear stuff and a little on the forums. I just started meditating daily 3 weeks ago, starting out at 10 minuets twice a day and progressing from there. I started sitting with a local group and had opportunity to do a retreat, I usually jump right into things and have done so with meditation. The retreat was amazing and afterwords I noticed I was able to get access concentration much easier. Currently I am trying to sit in the mornings and evenings, and have been keeping steady with this. To start I will post yesterdays sitting and some notes from my journal I am keeping. Any insight or suggestions would be very much appreciated. Particularly on noting and how it should be done. Currently I count breaths until concentrated then note mentally when sensations, thoughts or anything else arises.


Edit: Glad to see I still can't spell worth a damn. Enjoy the "nots"

Interesting stuff Johnny. Are you noticing any physical sensations accompanying the kasina? Remember, you want to focus on the bowl. Keep bringing the mind back there. Don't worry about the breath when doing Kasina. The trick is to keep the eyes steady. That's a lot of where the power of that meditation comes from. Locking the eyes in position seems to make the mind go into concentration mode. The visual effects you are describing indicate that you are definitely on the right track with it.

One of the things I like to do to get really disembedded is to note any physical sensations I can throughout the body. I try to break it up into individual experiences, so right now I feel pressure, itching, tingling, warmth, moisture, pressure, vibrations, tension, hardness, coolness. What I'm doing is moving the attention around the body and naming any physical sensations I find. Next I sweep around in the same way noting the same sensations but labeling them as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Next I will be mindful of my mindstate for a while. I notice some slight anxiety, boredom, sadness, tiredness, dullness as I watch it. I will then move on to noting the thoughts I am having (visual thought, memory thought, self talk, judging thought, planning thought, etc.). I then go back to the body and start over again.

In doing this, I am trying to catch and objectify the whole of my experience. It also allows me to avoid getting caught up in worrying about technique, concentration, etc. If I am noting these things at a steady rate (out loud is best) I am doing it right.

All that being said. Great job, keep it up!