Preparing for long retreat - Tips while on retreat?

In two weeks I am flying out to attend part 2 of the 3 month course at IMS. The course is 6 weeks or 42 days. This will be the longest course I have sat, so far I have done a 10 day Goenka, 2 five days, and 2 weekenders.

It has been kind of a rough summer where I have fallen out my meditation practice and back into samsara. While I know I should be spending all my free time preparing for the retreat I just don't find myself doing it. It's hard for me to sit even once a day, and just so much easier to let it all go to waste. I would like for this retreat to be transfomative and possibly lead to SE.

Any tips for getting motivated again? And any tips on preparing for such a long retreat?


On another topic: While on retreat I can feel guilty about not following the teachers teachings. I have my own practice that has evolved since I began sitting. I am not sure how the teachings work at IMS (but would love to hear from someone that does) - I am often torn between doing my own practice or following the teachers, and can end up somewhere in the middle which feels not as productive as going all the way with one.

My meditations usually start out with noting while feeling as much of the body as I can, while trying to stay in the witness, and coming back to it when I fall out. Then after reaching a certain point I am able to stop the noting and simply dwell in the witness while feeling the body and the breath, just aware of everything that is arising and passing. I stay in this state until it beings to slip then I resume noting.

And one more point for consideration: In my last sit I remembered the 3 characteristics. I used to try and see at least one of them in every sensation, but now I sit in a board overview of all sensations and don't look for any of the marks. Suggestions or tips on this way of practice?

I know I put a lot out there, but would be grateful for any response to any of it.

Don't have link handy so you can google 'reformed slackers guide to stream entry'. Study that. In the past I let bad habits trickle back in before a retreat figuring they'd all be dropped on day one. I now know this drains critical energy that takes multiple days to reclaim on retreat. It's wiser to go in w as much momentum as you can. Yet I only had experience with maximum of ten day courses. Good Luck!!

If I was going on retreat, here's what I would say to myself:

1. make sure your physical body follows the schedule
2. remember there are always physical sensations occuring in this moment -- "breathing", "sitting", "walking", "eating", "drinking", "washing", "poop/peeing" all have a flow of sensations that can be an anchor.
3. a strand of thinking should be noted as "thinking"
4. a mood of ill will (for self or others) should be noted as "ill will"
5. after noting thinking or ill will, return to a physical sensation
6. if things get too mentally tight, go for a walk and listen to dharma talks
7. if things are balanced and light, cultivate that to the exclusion of doing other things (except eating and getting good sleep)
8. Remember that during tough stages, you'll debate everything about practice - the teachers, the practice, the retreat setting, the possibility of progress - remember to note those as thinking or ill will and return to a physical sensation.

I think that's about it.

I personally don't think that "practicing like your hair is on fire" is appropriate for longer retreats, rather it is low but consistant effort. (It just hasn't worked for me, just makes me "think" more.) If you can hang out in the rich space of this present moment, being open to it, not trying to push away sensations, not trying to "get somewhere", but feel the truth of the sensations of being alive... good things happen.

I agree, it's hard to figure out whether to follow the teachers directly, do some version of their recommendation, or ignore completely. I would probably follow them for the first week or two, until I had some momentum going.

Don't worry about the 3 characteristics, it's just thinking, note thinking. Be kind to your body, especially your knees and back. Noting pain is great for concentration, but don't spend your time noting pain in your joints without moving, change posture if you feel pain in your knees or even meditate on a chair, it makes no difference. During the breaks, try to do some stretches or very light exercises for avoiding compression of the discs of your lower back. You can note while doing this (or anything else). You may want to find good exercises for this before leaving.

Noting out loud is great, but hard to do in this sort of retreat if it has silence rules. You can do it in your room on the breaks or you could make very quiet notes.

If you've been following the instructions correctly and noting more or less once a second (in a relaxed way, no need to force any sort of fast noting, just don't stop noting) from the moment you wake up until you sleep and you're at 40 days, there's no stream entry in sight and you start feeling depressed (or really if you start feeling depressed at all at any point), cheer up and keep in mind that these are the dukha ñanas tricking you. All the usual crappy stuff that gets worse on a longer retreat is great fodder for both noting and laughter. Stick to the practice (though make sure that you're doing it right) and you will get it. I got SE on the second to last day of a 32 day retreat. I didn't get a tangible feeling of being in equanimity until the night before. Stay happy and don't take anything other than noting too seriously. You might find that some days, your usual noting styles give you no traction or gets so boring that you wander, but you have a great new idea for a new way to note. Try it until it wears out. As long as it's valid noting and consumes your attention it's fine. Also, if you're in samadhi, make sure to keep noting.