Help with "sitting" noting

I think I pretty much get what I'm "supposed" to be doing on a Mahsi style retreat as regards noting when I'm doing formal slow walking as well as going about my other day to day business viz. eating, bathing, general walking from A to B etc.
My question is what exactly should I be doing or noting when I am in sitting meditation. From reading Mahasi Sayadaw's "Practical Insight Meditation"my understanding is that you are not supposed to mentally note the rising and falling of the abdomen (RAFA for short) but rather just observe this process. The noting aspect comes in when sensations in the body arise and you turn your attention towards them instead. For examples you've been sitting a while observing RAFA when your knee starts to throb and you note "throbbing" or there's an itching snesation in your nostril and you note "itching" or you hear the bark of a dog and note "hearing" etc. And when nothing in particular areises you turn your attention back to observing RAFA. [It's worth saying that despite reading this from Mahasi Sayadaw's words, a teacher in Thailand actually told me to note RAFA - but maybe something got lost in translation as his English was not fluent]
1) Is this more or less correct so far?
2) Without wanting to jump the gun, what comes next as it were? I've already spent years using the "Goenka Method" seemingly without much progress. I've done countless retreats observing bodily sensations not at a subtle level either but mainly gross). I can already forsee that I might end up noting this or that initially when sitting for an hour but then ending up noting the pain in my knee for example again and again and again... "pain" "pain" "pain" plus getting perhaps bored and frustrated with that (and then noting that too).

The instructions are to note the RAFA. Here's a direct quote from PIM: "Then make a mental note, 'rising' for the upward movement, 'falling' for the downward movement. Your mental note of each movement must be made while it occurs" This is from Part I: Basic Practice - Basic Exercise on page 3.

At the risk of causing confusion it's worth mentioning that neither Kenneth Folk, Shinzen Young nor Joseph Goldstein direct students to use the abdomen as an anchor for awareness. Rather their instructions are to use all phenomenon as they arise as the object of awareness.

And yes noting the same thing over and over again is tedious work yet it seems to be an essential part of the process. Good luck!

I would suggest using 4 foundations noting. Kenneth explains it best on the home page:

1) Objectify body sensations. If you can name them, you aren't embedded there. Notice sensations and note to yourself: "Pressure, tightness, tension, release, coolness, warmth, softness, hardness, tingling, itching, burning, stinging, pulsing, throbbing, seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing." If I am looking at something it is not "I".

2) Objectify feeling-tone. Are sensations pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? If you can sit there for five minutes and note pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral every few seconds, you are not embedded at that layer of mind.

3) Objectify mind states. Investigation, curiosity, happiness, anxiety, amusement, sadness, joy, anger, frustration, annoyance, irritation, aversion, desire, disgust, fear, worry, calm, embarrassment, shame, self-pity, compassion, love, contentment, dullness, sleepiness, bliss, exhilaration, triumph, self-loathing. Name them and be free of them. These mind states are not "you;" we know this because if there is a "you" it is the one who is looking, not what is being looked at. Below, we will challenge the notion that there is any "you" at all.

4) Objectify thoughts. Categorize them: planning thought, anticipating thought, worrying thought, imaging thought, remembering thought, rehearsing thought, scenario spinning thought, fantasy thought, self-recrimination thought. Come up with your own vocabulary and see your thoughts as though they belong to someone else. The content of your thoughts is not relevant except to the extent that it helps you to label and therefore objectify them.

You can practice them one at a time to really get it down and then note any of the 4 categories that arise. Try noting outl oud to really keep you on track!

"
1) Objectify body sensations. If you can name them, you aren't embedded there.

2) Objectify feeling-tone. Are sensations pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? If you can sit there for five minutes and note pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral every few seconds, you are not embedded at that layer of mind.
"

Thanks for your guidance. I don't understand the phrase "embedded there". What does it mean?

"Embedded" in this context means that the sensation is not obvious, not objectively experienced, part of the background, assumed, un-noticed. The goal is to be able to see everything in your experience objectively no matter what it is.

"The instructions are to note the RAFA. Here's a direct quote from PIM: "Then make a mental note, 'rising' for the upward movement, 'falling' for the downward movement. Your mental note of each movement must be made while it occurs" This is from Part I: Basic Practice - Basic Exercise on page 3.

"

However, what's a bit confusing is this contradiction, also a direct quote from Part 1: Basic Practice, Basic Exercise l, in the last paragraph before Basic Exercise II:

"Continue with this exercise in full awareness of the abdomen's rising and falling movements. Never verbally repeat the words, rising, falling, and do not think of rising and falling as words. Be aware only of the actual process of the rising and falling movements of the abdomen. Avoid deep or rapid breathing for the purpose of making the abdominal movements more distinct, because this procedure causes fatigue that interferes with the practice. Just be totally aware of the movements of rising and falling as they occur in the course of normal breathing."

Both approaches work. A classic recommendation is to use verbal noting when you are having difficulty staying with the breath, but when this becomes second nature, kick off those training wheels and just pay attention to the sensation itself.

One thing that has helped me is to see that tedium and difficulty are assumptions we bring to the table--i.e. these are just more mind states that can be taken as object and let go of. For example, the idea that noting for an hour is extremely difficult is just an idea. The "best" noting sessions, for me, have been those in which I was able to relax and just note one object after another, nice and easy, without having too much concern about the duration of the sit or the required effort.

This is probably very familiar to you. Otherwise, making it through all of those Goenka retreats would have been impossible!

If you go to Dharmaseed.org, there's a new series of talks by the Mahasi teacher U Vivekenanda. Just look for the series with the 2012 date. He has some helpful stuff to say about attitude and balance, and he gives some good practice instructions, if you're looking to work with the Mahasi method specifically.

"If you go to Dharmaseed.org, there's a new series of talks by the Mahasi teacher U Vivekenanda. Just look for the series with the 2012 date. He has some helpful stuff to say about attitude and balance, and he gives some good practice instructions, if you're looking to work with the Mahasi method specifically.
"

Great link and info!
Thanks!

"Never verbally repeat the words, rising, falling, and do not think of rising and falling as words. Be aware only of the actual process of the rising and falling movements of the abdomen."

I believe the difference is this. Verbally means to say the words out loud as in when your speaking. Mental noting means to think the words not say them aloud. Repeating the words mentally but softly will help you maintain awareness on the RAFA, which is the anchor. At first if feels forced. In time it becomes natural.

Thanks to all of you. Your replies have given me much to consider. All very constructive and helpful. I shall have a listen to U Vivekenanda's talks soon when time.