Pablo P. Practice Journal

[b:lk2sta8o]Date:[/b:lk2sta8o] 02/15/2013
[b:lk2sta8o]Length of Sit:[/b:lk2sta8o] morning: 10' concentration (ReWire), evening: 20' stretching & qigong plus 70' sit
[b:lk2sta8o]Posture:[/b:lk2sta8o] half-lotus
[b:lk2sta8o]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:lk2sta8o] Low EQ ???
[b:lk2sta8o]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:lk2sta8o] noting out-loud singles, pairs and triplets; silent noting for subtle sensations
[b:lk2sta8o]General Thoughts/Reflections: [/b:lk2sta8o] It’s hard to say whether I’m dwelling in A&P or reaching Low Equanimity, as DN didn’t show up with mental/emotional stuff or rather it was mainly physical
[b:lk2sta8o]What Sensations/Phenomenon Arose, and How Were They Noted: [/b:lk2sta8o] This time it didn’t start with the usual A&P stuff. Instead there was a “calm” state. But it was rather easy to find “vibrations” if I watched carefully. “Tension/drop”, “tightness/drop”, “contraction”, “pulsing”, “gross vibrations”, “itches”, “warm/burn”, “cool”, “tickling” were noted. When I focused the attention in the face to see if there’s some tension unnoticed, there where “contraction/hardness” in the temples which every now and then triggered “spams” in the belly, an acute “sting” or “burn” in the torso and sometimes “words” or “stories”. Other times, the tension in the temples grew high, felt like “hard/solid” in more like a square frame around the eyes, but the eyes weren’t stiff. Later at around the 20' mark, I was in a “calm” state again, not knowing how did it happen. I noted “happy”, “relaxed”, “fine vibrations”, “no tightness”. Even when I focus in the throat and chest, there were only fine vibrations and some “green” abstract image but nothing more. I looked like there weren’t much to label, so I suspected that I was in Low Equanimity. I reflected that I might have crossed over DN without the creepy images and sadness. And I speculated that by noting phenomena at the throat and chest there was some cleaning of blockages. In fact, later I focused the attention back at temples and eyelids, and some strange images showed up and spams at the belly were triggered, so I thought that I was back-sliding to DN. Will see if this pattern repeats in future sessions. This reaching LEQ and backsliding to DN happened three times. Once in LEQ, I tried two things. First, see if there’s some pulsing or vibration in the eyelids (there was some kind of flickering but I’m not sure). Second, I investigated the general “fine vibration”. It felt like a “fluid”, with no clear difference in its aspects but with a sense of change (didn’t label that). Then I had some “drop”, a sense of “spatialness” and briefly some “lights” and “red nimitta” at sight. So I reflected that I was using the fine vibration much like breath is used for concentration practices. Occasionally, the vibration had some discontinuities, for a split second.
[b:lk2sta8o]What worked? What didn’t?: [/b:lk2sta8o]Labeling “drop” (‘soltar’) is better than “relax”, it has a positive feedback loop as it triggers further un-clinging-ness. It’s interesting that even if I don’t try to actively relax but let it happen, the words chosen to label the event do have an effect in the process. In other words, labels do let my see the 3Cs, but same labels are better than others in showing the 3Cs. It’s like a point of contact between NLP and Noting, where some labels have more affinity with our own mix of visual, auditory and proprioception tendencies. In the particular case of relax vs drop, the later recruits more neurons and have more impact, as it has a kinesthetic component that I have being cultivating in my TaijiQuan practice. Happy to extend the session for another 10'.
[b:lk2sta8o]Goal for Next Session: [/b:lk2sta8o]Extend another 10' for a total of 80'.

[b:hdolv23b]Date:[/b:hdolv23b] 02/17/2013
[b:hdolv23b]Length of Sit: [/b:hdolv23b]20' concentration (ReWire), evening: 20' stretching & qigong and 30' sit
[b:hdolv23b]Posture: [/b:hdolv23b]half-lotus
[b:hdolv23b]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:hdolv23b] DN
[b:hdolv23b]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:hdolv23b] noting out-loud singles, pairs and triplets
[b:hdolv23b]General Thoughts/Reflections: [/b:hdolv23b] I had abdominal cramps and a headache, so it was not a very productive session. But ReWire was interesting!
[b:hdolv23b]What Sensations/Phenomenon Arose, and How Were They Noted:[/b:hdolv23b] I tried to investigate both the qualities of the headache and abdominal cramps, with little success. Many phenomena showed up, only physical, with high intensity. The “tension/drop” labeling helped a lot. By the end of the session, there were more calming sensations (spaciousness, fine vibrations, relaxed limbs), but unstable.
Regarding ReWire, I observed two interesting things. When I use the headphones there are three places for the mind. The first one is at the finger (which taps), and there’s a clear display of Mind & Body. It’s also a effortful, neurotic place for the mind to be. The second place is the eyelids, the standard place to be. If in the first one, I make more mistakes tapping when there were no silences, in the second is where precision (time to tap) is weaker. The third place, is at the back of the skull, where sensations and mindfulness is highest. The second observation was that I could detect that there’s some kind of “auditory inertia”, there’s a split second when the sound is really fading but the mind seems to keep it hearing at the previous volume, and switches to reality only when it was evident that something has changed. When I managed to be in that “third place”, it was easier to connect with the sound fluid and so early detect the fading, which boost my tapping precision.
[b:hdolv23b]What worked? What didn’t?:[/b:hdolv23b] Just by sitting it felt to have succeeded. I managed to do some insight practice while doing the concentration (ReWire) practice.
[b:hdolv23b]Goal for Next Session: [/b:hdolv23b]Extend gradually 5' per day until I can sit for 90' in a row.

[b:ee6c8m8a]Date:[/b:ee6c8m8a] 02/18/2013
[b:ee6c8m8a]Length of Sit:[/b:ee6c8m8a] 20' concentration (ReWire) plus 2×20' stretching & qigong and 65' sit
[b:ee6c8m8a]Posture:[/b:ee6c8m8a] half-lotus
[b:ee6c8m8a]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:ee6c8m8a] A&P or EQ
[b:ee6c8m8a]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:ee6c8m8a] switching between silent or out-loud noting whenever necessary
[b:ee6c8m8a]General Thoughts/Reflections:[/b:ee6c8m8a] Qigong and probably meditation helped a lot with abdominal cramps. The funny thing is even though I’m doing choiceless awareness, the cramps didn’t show up during the session, only when I looked specifically there. Today there were very interesting insights regarding impermanence and aversion/clinging.
What Sensations/Phenomenon Arose, and How Were They Noted: Didn’t start with the usual vibrations, but lots of “stings”, “burns”, “tightness”, “itches”, it reminded some of the DN stuff but without solidification of pain (as in the temples/eyes area) nor creepy images, so probably it could be the 3C ñana. It lasted just a few minutes and then easiness of noting came in, I noted “fine”, “good” regarding mood, and “gross vibrations”. Later in the session “fine” and “gross” vibrations alternated, but then I noticed that even fine vibrations with relaxed arms hide more subtle vibrations. The fine ones were narrow and superficial, while the subtle wide and airy. I labeled them as “earth” and “air”, just to use short words and don’t disturb the calmness. These subtle vibrations were some times so widespread in some areas, that I reflected how Impermanence could actually be experienced in full scope if the subtle sensations would cover all the body. It felt like there were no meat between them.
I have already seen in past sessions how I unconsciously switch to other physical sensation, image or auditory memory when I focus in one spot for some time, thus showing aversion. But it was really “awesome” to watch how I’m always clinging to something. It’s easy to rationalize it when spotting physical sensations, but today it was very clear that I was trying to cling to anything even when I was in a calm state, noticing everything as a whole and nothing in particular popping up. Even in this situation, samatha-like but with no lights nor sense of getting into a hole, my mind was trying to cling to a ‘perspective’, like a point of reference. It’s the same thing I have reported in the last ten days, but I had no adequate words (still don’t). Don’t know if this is First Gear or Second/Third Gear, but I found it interesting nevertheless!
[b:ee6c8m8a]Noting Mix: [/b:ee6c8m8a] 70% physical sensations, 5% degree of pleasantness, 5% mental states, 20% thoughts. The physical ones formed pairs with the others, but the other three rarely were noted together. Much of the thoughts labeled were “reporting” and “mapping”…
[b:ee6c8m8a]What worked? What didn’t?:[/b:ee6c8m8a] Happy to have briefly un-cling to ‘no perspective whatsoever’ for a few times. Also, seeing that fine vibrations were hiding subtle ones.
[b:ee6c8m8a]Goal for Next Session: [/b:ee6c8m8a]Extend gradually 5' per day until I can sit for 90' in a row.

02/19/2013

Today was a busy day, so I’m skipping the sitting session, though I managed to do 15' concentration practice (ReWire). Instead, I’ll briefly report some pre-jhanic stuff I’ve being recently experiencing. I’m happy that at least some concentration is building up (I’m starting 100 meters below the ground level), which I attribute to noting out-loud and that app. Admittedly, I was not actively working towards 1º Jhana, but it happened spontaneously while half asleep and I sized the opportunity to investigate the state once there.

Today, I was daydreaming and I was aware watching a scene where there was a reprehensible misconduct. The indignation I got triggered the access concentration and shortly after pre-jhanic stuff: narrowing of attention, deepening of silence, cloud of lights, a faint white circle then in the middle a small red nimitta in the center, which lasted just a few seconds. Also, there was a clear sense of shortening of the space between myself and the ceiling (I’m with eyes closed). It felt like the ceiling was coming down, not an OBE, more like a shrinking of a dimension.

I was excited with the experience but at least was able not to spoil it too early with anxiety. Few seconds later, the concentration dropped and felt like back to (feeling) my body. What surprised me is that I felt the stiffness/tension of my limbs. I wished it went away but then remembered that it could be one of the factors of 1st Jhana, so I directed attention towards it, and some nice warmth emerged at the legs. It remain there for a few minutes, I got bored and went to sleep.

There seemed to present 1st Jhana factors (attention, rapture, happiness and concentration) at least a glimpse of them. What surprised me is that right from the start I was rejecting the tension, it felt unnatural as right before there was no sense of physical body. More on the speculative side, what was interesting is that “indignation” triggered the concentration state. Some weeks ago I reported that watching the 3Cs at display, the same has happened. Though there could be some mental process developing after the indignation which I’m not aware of, probably it’s just that there are simply many ways that could trigger a concentration state, not easily tided up with the 3Cs.

[b:33xby7hx]Date:[/b:33xby7hx] 02/20/2013
[b:33xby7hx]Pre-Meditative Context: [/b:33xby7hx] 10' stretching & qigong plus 15' concentration (app) right before meditation. After reading Fitter Stoke’s “Throwing Away the Ladder”, I set as the goal of the session to see clearly how embedded am I in thoughts.
[b:33xby7hx]Length of Sit:[/b:33xby7hx] 45'
[b:33xby7hx]Posture: [/b:33xby7hx]half-lotus
[b:33xby7hx]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:33xby7hx] Low EQ
[b:33xby7hx]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:33xby7hx] switching between silent or out-loud noting whenever necessary
[b:33xby7hx]Noting Mix: [/b:33xby7hx] 60% physical sensations, 15% pleasantness/un-pleasantness, 5% mental states, 20% thoughts. One out of three or four physical sensations when noted in tandem with pleasantness/un-pl. Mental States only showed up when there was a change in the phenomena being sensed. Half of thoughts connected to physical sensations, other half to analyzing, mapping, reporting, speculating.
[b:33xby7hx]Noting Dynamics: [/b:33xby7hx] Started with “vibrations” at the chest area and arms and soon showed up “tension”, “tightness”, “hot”, itches”, “stings”, arms “flapping”, “spams”. Vibrations were “gross”. Noted at about one per 1-2 seconds. Then, “pain”, “tightness”, “hot” and “contractions” at the throat, chest and the back at chest level. Noted “bothers”, “hurts” with those sensations. Just a few “images” appeared, none creepy. No auditory or smell registered. I focused on the painful spots and soon and easily noted “pulsing” and “vibrating”. Many times those sensations triggered “remembering”, “planning”, “reporting”. These ones were noted only 20' onwards. Finally, at around 35' I noted “relief” , “curiosity”, “attainment” (logro) when the mind did “sink” and some “fine vibrations” appeared at the arms . The problem was that those mental states & thoughts triggered “analyzing”, “mapping”, “reporting”, “speculating”. And the desire to found how to repeat reaching there and how to stay there. Unfortunately, that lessen the concentration and slid me back to gross vibrations, pain, tightness, etc. At this time, I was noting silently and with lesser speed. I switch to noting out loud to gain speed, concentration and avoid mental spinning. At around 40' the previous attainment-analyzing-spoiling cycle was experienced again.
[b:33xby7hx]General Thoughts/Reflections: [/b:33xby7hx] It was interesting to notice that once analyzing/mapping/reporting/speculating starts, it has a strong inertia. I did my best to note when they emerged, but they kept (stubbornly) returning nevertheless.
[b:33xby7hx]What worked? What didn’t?: [/b:33xby7hx]I felt relieved and proud that I could get back to early Equanimity, but ashamed that because of anxiety, fear, aversion or need of attainment I start analyzing things.
[b:33xby7hx]Goal for Next Session:[/b:33xby7hx] Watch the analyzing/reporting/speculating cycle.

[b:8qonf5ot]Date:[/b:8qonf5ot] 02/21/2013
[b:8qonf5ot]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:8qonf5ot] 10' stretching & qigong plus 15' concentration (app).
[b:8qonf5ot]Length of Sit:[/b:8qonf5ot] 60'
[b:8qonf5ot]Posture:[/b:8qonf5ot] half-lotus
[b:8qonf5ot]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:8qonf5ot] Low EQ
[b:8qonf5ot]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:8qonf5ot]switching between silent or out-loud noting whenever necessary
[b:8qonf5ot]Noting Mix:[/b:8qonf5ot] 60% physical sensations, 15% pleasantness/un-pleasantness, 5% mental states, 20% thoughts. Noted pairs physical sensations + pleasantness/un-pl. Mental States only showed up when phenomena changes. Half of thoughts connected to physical sensations, other half to analyzing, mapping, reporting, speculating.
[b:8qonf5ot]Noting Dynamics:[/b:8qonf5ot] Started with a general “calm”-ness, searched por physical sensations and found “vibrations” at the torso. Soon showed up “tension”, “tightness”, “hot”, itches”, “stings”, “spams”. Noted at about one per 1-2 seconds while noting out-loud. When I switched to silent noting for subtle sensations, many “thoughts” showed up. Noted “remembering”, “planning”, “fantasies”. As the day before, in the last quarter of the session I noted “wide”, “sinking”, “attainment” and that triggered “analyzing”, “mapping”, “reporting”, “speculating”, which lessen the concentration and slid me back to gross vibrations, pain, tightness, etc.
[b:8qonf5ot]General Thoughts/Reflections:[/b:8qonf5ot] the attainment-analyzing-spoiling cycle has at the end “jeer” (bronca) and after that “spams”.
[b:8qonf5ot]What worked? What didn’t?: [/b:8qonf5ot]There was more calmness during the session, but coming and go.
[b:8qonf5ot]Goal for Next Session: [/b:8qonf5ot]Watch the analyzing/reporting/speculating cycle.

[b:nrralcjy]Date:[/b:nrralcjy] 02/22/2013
[b:nrralcjy]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:nrralcjy] 15' stretching & qigong
[b:nrralcjy]Length of Sit:[/b:nrralcjy] 60'
[b:nrralcjy]Posture:[/b:nrralcjy] half-lotus
[b:nrralcjy]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:nrralcjy] A&P or EQ
[b:nrralcjy]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:nrralcjy] mostly silent noting
[b:nrralcjy]Noting Mix: [/b:nrralcjy]50% physical sensations, 5% pleasantness/un-pleasantness, 15% mental states, 30% thoughts.
[b:nrralcjy]Noting Dynamics:[/b:nrralcjy] Started as usual, noting out-loud with “vibrations” at the torso, which quickly solidified into “tightness” and “tension/pain/unpleasant” at the chest with no apparent reason. Focused the attention in the area and there were a “contracted” center, then further “pulsing” and “vibrations” which dismantled the spot. I spread the attention to whole torso and arms and noted “fine vibrations”, by then noting silently. I decided to focus a little closer at them and noted how those “pulsing/vibrations” turned into “waves”. Noticed my amazement but didn’t note it. Those “expanding waves” and “contracting waves” were not only at surface but also seemed to be a little out of my body. I tried to expand the span to the whole body, but they were observed only by patches [ off-cushion, I felt some of these waves (but stronger) at the abdominal area a couples of times this week ]. May be the scanning lost steam or is a byproduct of silent noting, but soon there was a plethora of mental phenomena: noted “ill-formed words”, “musical words” with the rhythm and changing pitch of words but with no meaning, “images”, “melodies”, “remembering”, “planning”, “reporting”, analyzing”. Noted “doubt” because was unsure if those mental phenomena were daydreaming, but more inclined to think that they were “pre-thoughts” and felt “proud” that by noting them, they didn’t have the chance to form a phrase that would derail the session. Will see in future sessions.
[b:nrralcjy]General Thoughts/Reflections:[/b:nrralcjy] Noting out-loud is a handy tool, but I found that in some ways it gives some sense of control, as its outcome is predictable: 90% of notes are non-mental phenomena. When I switch to silent noting, mental phenomena explodes and predominate over physical ones, and they are much less predictable and difficult to ride…
[b:nrralcjy]What worked? What didn’t?: [/b:nrralcjy]Allowed myself to let the mental phenomena do its show, I’m just the audience.
[b:nrralcjy]Goal for Next Session:[/b:nrralcjy] alternate between watching subtle sensations like waves to silent noting.

[b:243i6y1d]Date:[/b:243i6y1d] 02/23/2013
[b:243i6y1d]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:243i6y1d] 20' stretching & qigong, 15' concentration (app)
[b:243i6y1d]Length of Sit:[/b:243i6y1d] 50'
[b:243i6y1d]Posture:[/b:243i6y1d] half-lotus
[b:243i6y1d]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:243i6y1d] DN
[b:243i6y1d]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:243i6y1d] mostly silent noting
[b:243i6y1d]Noting Mix:[/b:243i6y1d] 50% physical sensations, 5% pleasantness/un-pleasantness, 15% mental states, 30% thoughts.
[b:243i6y1d]Noting Dynamics:[/b:243i6y1d] Started with noting out-loud “pain”, “tightness” and “contractions” in the chest and then some “tightness” in the throat. Hands were noted “full/warm”, but one fuller than the other, and sometimes one “higher” the other “lower”. Reached some “calmness” then, noted “space”, “wide” with those tightness still present but with a much lesser degree. That made hands fuller but equal. I investigated the finer sensations at the fingers, noted “hot/warm tinkles”, being some of the very subtle and in bundles. Switched to silent noting, and investigated “vibrations” to see if they were hiding “waves”. There were little amount of them. By then, after some minutes of silent noting I noted “words”, ill-formed words /phrases”, “musical words”, and some “images”. Unlike yesterday, today there were more of well formed phrases, and were felt/heard like they were not me and noted “satisfaction” as within a few sessions more of thoughts are showing up, seen as not me and are not derailing my practice. Having said that, there wasn’t a moment of relief, widen attention and subtle vibrations as days before.
[b:243i6y1d]What worked? What didn’t?: [/b:243i6y1d]Allowed myself to let the mental phenomena do its show, I’m just the audience.
[b:243i6y1d]Goal for Next Session:[/b:243i6y1d] alternate between watching subtle sensations like waves to silent noting.

[b:3pfyvl7v]Date:[/b:3pfyvl7v] 02/24/2013
[b:3pfyvl7v]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:3pfyvl7v] 20' stretching & qigong, 10' concentration (app)
[b:3pfyvl7v]Length of Sit:[/b:3pfyvl7v] 60'
[b:3pfyvl7v]Posture: [/b:3pfyvl7v]half-lotus
[b:3pfyvl7v]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:3pfyvl7v] Low EQ.
[b:3pfyvl7v]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:3pfyvl7v]mostly silent noting
[b:3pfyvl7v]Noting Mix: [/b:3pfyvl7v]60% physical sensations, 5% pleasantness/un-pleasantness, 10% mental states, 25% thoughts.
[b:3pfyvl7v]Noting Dynamics:[/b:3pfyvl7v] ”vibrations” right at the start, “tightness” in the chest which turned into vibrations and “burn” sensations. Then “contractions” in the neck, a “line” of chi/vibrations that connected the chest with the burning neck. This line/burn emerged recurrently over the session. Then noted vibrations in arms which grew to “strong steam” (that is, wider vibrations like in a pipe), and when watched close more “subtle vibrations” appeared, and then “empty”. At first, part of the arms were gone, there were no sensations; later, only “warm/hot” remained. Notes were now slowed down from one per second to one every 3 seconds. I noted “waves” where Cause & Effect was clearly connected with the pulse.
I searched if those steam / vibrations were also at the torso. They were noted at the belly and to a lesser degree in the chest. Then went as if scanning to the head to see if they were there too. That turned my sight inwards. I noted vibrations at the skull, “warm/hot/vibrations” at the Crown Chakra which then descended through a line to the Brow Chakra, which after some vibrations “dissolves” into “cool water” that descend to the eyes. This has been happening in every sit during the last few days. When I was watching the vibrations at the head an “image/not mine/fun” were noted which meant “that’s cool!”, and later “phrase/not mine” (“ya se va a dar”, it will eventually happen). Then kept alternating attention between hands, arms, head, chest, where vibrations and tightness were noted. “Creepy image” showed up, with “stronger vibrations” and tightness at the temples. There were much “analysis” and “reporting” that went away quickly as were being noted, but that were replaced with “remembering/images” or “remembering/words”, which then lead to analysis and that brought “spams” at the belly (frustration).
Next I turned attention to the lower body, and noted “fine vibrations”, “calmness”, and no tightness was spotted. Went back to the head and “relief” was noted. Sight opened below y went dark, everything was “quiet”. In only 10 seconds that was lost and heard “you don’t have to be jealous” (that other people can stay easily in Equanimity). Noted “surprise” and “satisfaction” that I was able to observe it, and noted “not mine”. Then there were much analysis, reporting, tightness, “frustration” and “fear” of sliding back to DN. But soon calmness, “spaciousness”, “sinking” were back, but nevertheless it reached a limit. I observed and reflected that there’s some resistance trigger by fear that I see connected with growing “tension” in the eyeballs. This cycle EQ–>DN–>EQ repeated five times in 10 minutes. Ended noting “satisfaction” for coming back easily to EQ even if it was unstable.
[b:3pfyvl7v]General Thoughts/Reflections: [/b:3pfyvl7v]Frustration is not outspoken but shown through physical sensations like spams. The calmness that tai chi have grown over the years also masks and don’t let me see deeper issues beneath.
[b:3pfyvl7v]What worked? What didn’t?: [/b:3pfyvl7v]Silent noting seems to be working, though it’s much harder to work with. Today it was the first time that I ended the session with no pain nor burn in the legs.
[b:3pfyvl7v]Goal for Next Session: [/b:3pfyvl7v]alternate between watching subtle sensations like waves to silent noting.

[b:13oypje7]Date:[/b:13oypje7] 02/25/2013
[b:13oypje7]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:13oypje7] 20' stretching & qigong, 15' concentration (app). Had only 3,5 hours of sleep.
[b:13oypje7]Length of Sit:[/b:13oypje7] 70'
[b:13oypje7]Posture:[/b:13oypje7] half-lotus
[b:13oypje7]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session: [/b:13oypje7]DÑ
[b:13oypje7]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:13oypje7] initial 15' of choice-less out-loud noting, then mostly silent noting.
[b:13oypje7]Noting Mix: [/b:13oypje7]60% physical sensations, 5% pleasantness/un-pleasantness, 5% mental states, 30% thoughts. All most were single notes, just a few pairs.
[b:13oypje7]Noting Dynamics:[/b:13oypje7] Started noting “gross vibrations” in all the torso, specially the low abdomen/sacra area. It showed up like the day before the “tightness” at the chest, though with lesser intensity, and the “line” connected to the neck. In the neck soon noted a “scarf”, which meant a wide cylinder of ‘steam/chi’ all around the place. I noted for 15' at about 1 (or 2) per second. A 90% of them were physical sensations, the reaming 10% degree of pleasantness, mental states and thoughts. Did single notes mostly, and some pairs with physical and pleasantness degree. When noticing tension, I noted either “tension/tension/tension…” or “tension/drop/drop/drop…” whenever felt that was more appropriated.
After some time those tightness, “tensions” and “contractions” subsided somewhat and noted “finer vibrations” and “relaxed” arms. Switched to silent noting, did some notes of vibrations at the head and quickly some “cool fluid” went down from the Brow Chakra. As vibrations were the most visible sensations, I looked for “waves”, which were noted “back & forth”, “open & close”. Notes were naturally slowed down to one every 3-5 seconds. Soon there were popping up “images” (only a few creepy), “remembering” either visual or auditory, and “phrases”. I noted “satisfaction” that phrases were seen as “not me”. And that the phrases were caught at the start or middle, not at the ending or afterwards. By this time nearly 50% of the notes were thoughts. The phrases/not-mine were in most cases prescriptive, or laudatory by content. I noted “surprise” as not only those phrases were seen as not-mine but also those that were thought consciously had some “not-mine” as well !! This situation lasted most of the session. At the ending of this ‘period’ I noted that I had very little “analyzing” and “reporting”, noted “proud” but then reflected that it could have been that I was so tired that it was near the border of falling asleep.
Finally, I got more “alert”, feeling and sensing again the whole body. There were some hints of Low EQ as I noted “spaciousness” and “sinking” but never really took off, and I slid easily to “remembering”, “analyzing”, “planning”, “reporting”. Ended after giving some attention to the leg in pain.
[b:13oypje7]General Thoughts/Reflections:[/b:13oypje7] All thoughts have not-mine flavor, but conscious ones have less of them. The strange thing is that I didn’t care of getting out of DÑ as spotting that was very interesting.
[b:13oypje7]What worked? What didn’t?: [/b:13oypje7]Once analyzing starts, its difficult to stop them.
[b:13oypje7]Goal for Next Session: [/b:13oypje7]alternate between watching subtle sensations like waves to silent noting.

[b:1za67d2a]Date:[/b:1za67d2a] 02/26/2013 and 02/27/2013
[b:1za67d2a]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:1za67d2a] 20' stretching & qigong, 15' concentration (app). Growing anxiety as I’m adding a new job on Friday, I’m relocating in two-three weeks and will have to do it mostly by myself as my wife is 6 months pregnant.
[b:1za67d2a]Length of Sit: [/b:1za67d2a]4×10' at noon plus 60' in the evening
[b:1za67d2a]Posture: [/b:1za67d2a]half-lotus
[b:1za67d2a]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:1za67d2a] DÑ
[b:1za67d2a]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:1za67d2a] 4 x 10' rounds noting of physical sensations (PS), feeling-tone (FT), mental states (MS) and thoughts (TH). Then, out-loud and silent noting of all four phenomena combined.
[b:1za67d2a]Four Foundations Notes:[/b:1za67d2a] PS, FT and MS were noted out-loud, while TH silently. Noted at about 1-2 PS per second, and noticed a few thoughts and aversion/attraction reactions. Noted FT every 3-5 per second and noticed that I’m overlooking some PS that do have links to FT. Noted MS whenever possible, it wasn’t an easy job, and the top contenders where “calm”, “annoyance”, “acceptance”, “curiosity”. I noticed that MS showed up after PS or FT. They did show up also after TH but much as a reaction to recurring TH. Noting TH was much easier, as soon as I switched to silent noting. Noted “planning”, “image”, “analyzing”, “doubt”, “memory”.
[b:1za67d2a]Noting Dynamics:[/b:1za67d2a] Unlike previous days started with mental chat, and no vibrations. Noted “tightness”, “contraction”, “hot”, “cool”, “sting”, “full”, “tension/drop”, “noise”. There was no particular place where tension was hard enough to be the center of attention. Did try to add pair notes PS-FT, which is doable, but I can get easily distracted so after noting some MS or TH, I get back to not single PS…Should try harder. Then some creepy “images” appeared, but with less tightness in the chest or temples. Once TH and MS were more visible I switched to silent noting, as they are my weakest area. Like yesterday, “memories”, “phrases” came in but where seen as “not-mine”. Even thoughts that were consciously triggered had some of this “not-mine” thing. There was some “sinking” of the mind, “dark” sight, and “silence” which didn’t last long, as thoughts came back soon. But “satisfaction” on body sensations stayed right to the end of the session, no leg pain nor strong tightness. Really can’t say it as Low EQ as, there were too many thoughts distracting.
[b:1za67d2a]General Thoughts/Reflections:[/b:1za67d2a] I noticed that the “mapping”, “speculation” and “reporting” notes has lessen significantly, though “analyzing” is still strong.
[b:1za67d2a]What worked? What didn’t?:[/b:1za67d2a] There are very little pairs and triplets noting combos.
[b:1za67d2a]Goal for Next Session:[/b:1za67d2a] Get out of silent noting when there’s too much thoughts to note, get back to noting out-loud to cool down.

[b:1kn5g4ev]Date: [/b:1kn5g4ev]02/28/2013
[b:1kn5g4ev]Pre-Meditative Context: [/b:1kn5g4ev]15' concentration (app). Anxious and irritable all day long as I’m adding a new job tomorrow.
[b:1kn5g4ev]Length of Sit:[/b:1kn5g4ev] 4×10' plus 30' at noon
[b:1kn5g4ev]Posture: [/b:1kn5g4ev]half-lotus
[b:1kn5g4ev]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:1kn5g4ev] DÑ
[b:1kn5g4ev]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:1kn5g4ev]4 x 10' rounds noting of physical sensations (PS), feeling-tone (FT), mental states (MS) and thoughts (TH). Then, out-loud and silent noting of all four phenomena combined.
[b:1kn5g4ev]Four Foundations Notes: [/b:1kn5g4ev]Noted at about one PS per second. Noted a FT every 5 seconds. Noted at most 15 MS in 10 minutes: “calm”, “annoyance”, “acceptance”, “curiosity”, “guilt”, “worried”, “Nervous”, “Distraction”. Notes of TH grew in time, there were few at first: “planning”, “image”, “analyzing”, “doubt”, “memory”. As I’m doing only 10 minutes of each, I found myself doing less y none “reporting” and “speculating”.
[b:1kn5g4ev]Noting Dynamics:[/b:1kn5g4ev] As I jumped into this integration practice just when finishing the 4 ten minutes round, I didn’t have the body sensations anchor, which over the past weeks have shown a predictable path. Instead, there were lots of thoughts doing their thing. The nice thing is that it was easier to spot mind states…but the session was pure crap!!! All in all, there were the usual A&P and DÑ stuff phenomena, but jumping back and forth many times.
[b:1kn5g4ev]General Thoughts/Reflections: [/b:1kn5g4ev]Tried all the meditation practice in one sit, and that’s probable the cause of the messy session.
[b:1kn5g4ev]What worked? What didn’t?:[/b:1kn5g4ev] Unlike the last few days, I couldn’t dis-embed from thoughts.
[b:1kn5g4ev]Goal for Next Session:[/b:1kn5g4ev] Split the session, do 4×10' rounds in the morning and the long sit in the afternoon.

[b:43rels7j]Date:[/b:43rels7j] 03/01/2013
[b:43rels7j]Pre-Meditative Context: [/b:43rels7j]20' stretching and Qigong plus 15' concentration (app). Interestingly, lately I was hitting 0.30-0.31 reaction time in the medium difficulty level (started at 0.38), and after three weeks of practice I decided that it was time to try the next level. Surprisingly, I got 0.27 reaction time (99% precision). In this level there are much more stops per minute, and probably it approaches to the 1-2 notes per second I do in Vipassana. So, the bottom line seems to be that actually it’s harder to practice when stop gaps are longer, as that means that I should be fully concentrated listening to sounds between stops. I asked ReWire developers if they will introduce in the future more variability in the gaps. I think that would be a nice enhancement. I’m waiting for an answer.
[b:43rels7j]Length of Sit: [/b:43rels7j]2×10' at noon plus 50' in the evening
[b:43rels7j]Posture: [/b:43rels7j]half-lotus
[b:43rels7j]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:43rels7j] Low EQ
[b:43rels7j]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:43rels7j] 2 x 10' rounds noting of physical sensations and feeling-tone. Couldn’t do the others two because of time constraints. Then at night, it was 30' of noting out-loud (the 4 combined) and 20' silent noting.
[b:43rels7j]Noting Dynamics: [/b:43rels7j]The last few sessions were disappointing. Even though I was noting many thoughts as “not-mine”, the territory was pretty unstable, like never being able to stay above water. So I decided to get back to noting out-loud, and stay at it long enough to put DÑ behind. It was a 30' work, noting at about 1-2 per second, which included mostly body sensations and feeling-tones by pairs. It was interesting to notice that there was a link between “contraction” or “tension” in the temples with “tightness” “hard” and “burn” in the throat area. Just a few seconds focusing in the throat and the hardness dissolves into “throbbing” and “vibrations”. But there’s “aversion” / resistance to let go tension in the temples and eyeballs, and when I focused there no vibration soever happened, but triggered tension/hardness in the throat. I tried to widen the span of attention in the eyes area, but it was not effective. Nevertheless, the mind did sink (little) a few times, and when thoughts showed up it was possible to note them as “not-mine”. Strangely, I noted “repeating”, as when “phrases” appeared, many times I ended up repeating them consciously. Don’t know why am I doing this. Is it that I want them “to be mine”? I ended up the session with no pain leg and feeling good. In general I end feeling neutral, so it was a nice change.
[b:43rels7j]General Thoughts/Reflections: [/b:43rels7j]My new job workload was not as difficult as I anticipated, but I do get really tired to do the Four Foundations rounds in the morning. Will try to do them early in the afternoon, after nap.
[b:43rels7j]What worked? What didn’t?: [/b:43rels7j]Noting out-loud pays back! I could dis-embed from many thoughts. Little “reporting”, “mapping” and “speculating” notes.
[b:43rels7j]Goal for Next Session:[/b:43rels7j] Stay in this mode long enough to stabilized Equanimity.

[b:1zqmonmy]Date:[/b:1zqmonmy] 03/02/2013
[b:1zqmonmy]Pre-Meditative Context: [/b:1zqmonmy]20' concentration (app). Downloaded the 2.0 version and a 30' long tape of iAwake that works with ReWire. Despite being tapping in the hard difficulty level, the combo (app+tape) allowed/trigger some pre-Jhana: flickering horizontal lights and then lights collapsing in a spiral at eye sight.
[b:1zqmonmy]Length of Sit:[/b:1zqmonmy] 45' at noon
[b:1zqmonmy]Posture: [/b:1zqmonmy]half-lotus
[b:1zqmonmy]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:1zqmonmy] n/a
[b:1zqmonmy]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:1zqmonmy]Four Foundation Noting: 5' noting out-loud of physical sensations, noting silently 15' of and feeling-tone, noting silently 10' of mind-states and noting out-loud 10' of thoughts.
[b:1zqmonmy]Noting Dynamics and General Thoughts/Reflections:[/b:1zqmonmy] As my ‘strongest’ point is noting physical sensations, I did only 5' to start the engine, and proceed to the rest. Also, I had already some momentum tapping silences with the app. I was planning to do 5' with feeling-tones too, but extended to 15' as it was a very productive practice. As I was already noticing all physical sensations, I used them as objects of attention to see in every one if there were “attraction”, “aversion” or “neutral”. Instead of noting pairs, I noticed the physical sensation and noted silently the feeling-tone. I could noticed that some are “subtle aversion” and others “gross aversion”. So I used the same methodology that I already apply to physical sensations: repeatedly noted the aversion to see if there was a reaction. And it did happen! There were whole-body “letting go”, sinking into deeper concentration. And I felt really good.
I wanted to stay in that practiced but knew I had to switch to mind-states and thoughts. Keeping in mind what it happened before, I tried to notice physical sensations and feeling-tones to see if I could note associated mind-states. This time it was not easy, but noted more ones than usual. Noted “calm”, “acceptance”, “disgust”, “shame”, “pride”, “optimism”. Then switched to thoughts, and by then I could hardly dis-embed from them. The strange and interesting thing was that doing the other three foundations noting, I caught myself many times dis-embed from thoughts that were spontaneously emerging. The funnier ones were: “You’ll miss me” (the mind), and “In two minutes you’ll fall asleep”. When I ended the practice, I lied down in bed to have some rest. I noticed a deep 8 seconds long low-pitch wave. Never had that one before. I guess it’s some residue of the new app.
As a general reflection, that could be a productive way to enrich the noting from singles to pairs, triplets an quadruplets. If anyone is reading this, I would love to read some advice, comment or account of you practice.
[b:1zqmonmy]Goal for Next Session:[/b:1zqmonmy] Do a longer sit just noting physical sensations and feeling-tones as I did today.

[b:2ej8x9sm]Date:[/b:2ej8x9sm] 03/03/2013 and 03/04/2013
[b:2ej8x9sm]Length of Sit:[/b:2ej8x9sm] 40' in Sunday, 55' in Monday
[b:2ej8x9sm]Posture: [/b:2ej8x9sm]half-lotus
[b:2ej8x9sm]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:2ej8x9sm] n/a
[b:2ej8x9sm]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:2ej8x9sm]noting out-loud only physical sensations and feeling-tone, while occasionally noticing mind-states and thoughts.
[b:2ej8x9sm]Noting Dynamics and General Thoughts/Reflections: [/b:2ej8x9sm]The Sunday session was not very productive, I was sleepy and cut it earlier than planned. Nevertheless, noting feeling-tones did trigger whole body relaxation, though less than the day before, probably because I was very tired.
The Monday session was more productive than thought, as I’m still getting to know my new job and doing some work for my relocation into a new flat. Started noting body sensations only for 15-20' then switched to feeling-tones, and finally either noted both of them or one only. I was not very rigorous, just exploring the new practice. There were two interesting things happening. After the usual vibrations, warmth, tightness, tension and releases, there was a coolness in the lower abdomen (dantien) and lumbar region (mingmen) that stayed present all the session. I noticed attraction and/or neutral. But when the same coolness was noted at the Crown Chakra, I noted excitement and anticipation. Unlike the lower abdomen, the upper coolness (there were some previous tension in the area) didn’t last more than 5'. This time the coolness didn’t flow down to the Brow Chakra. I tried to explore the Dantien coolness, but I ended up transforming the cool vibrating area into a fast pulsing one.
The other interesting thing I noticed is that, I was not actually noting “seeing” as a physical sensation, but only when it where images-thoughts. I noticed that much of the physical sensations I note have a seeing label attached. It’s like I adding some visualization of the body part every time I’m noting a physical sensation. When I noted seeing-seeing-seeing… there was a drop of tension and release in the sight. I also noticed that it’s easier letting go the seeing tension when focusing in a distant part of the body, like hands, legs, lower abdomen, than when focused in the head. Happy with this discovery, I tried to note more “hearing” (I’ve been already doing this), “smell” and “taste”.
I ended the session trying to decompose the “attractive” and “aversion” notes, into tinier components: attractive, aversion, neutral. It’s a very exciting practice, there’s a lot to do that I was not aware of.
[b:2ej8x9sm]Goal for Next Session:[/b:2ej8x9sm] Keep doing this.

[u:2ej8x9sm]Added:[/u:2ej8x9sm] Several times, strong coolness in dantien were followed by expansive hot in the chest.

[b:2eqbio0o]Date: [/b:2eqbio0o]03/05/2013
[b:2eqbio0o]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:2eqbio0o] 2 x 20' stretching and Qigong plus 20' concentration (app). Before going for a nap a noon, I did some Qigong and noticed coolness at my upper back, the thoracic area, plus the usual strong vibrations. When I lied down on bed, I started samatha and after 2' I had a strong limbs jerk. I continued watching the body relaxing and probably had a micro-sleep, because all of a sudden I saw myself descending and my body (specially arms) like stone and with hot vibrations. After a minute, the stiffness relaxed somewhat but not all. What was new actually is that, even though I could feel body sensations and thoughts, I was not distracted and able to stay staring at the lights display. There was a proto-nimitta, with cloudy lights and then it transformed into more complex set of lights, like a bunch of semicircles with different (dull) colors.
[b:2eqbio0o]Length of Sit:[/b:2eqbio0o] 60' in the evening
[b:2eqbio0o]Posture: [/b:2eqbio0o]half-lotus
[b:2eqbio0o]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session: [/b:2eqbio0o]A&P or Low EQ
[b:2eqbio0o]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:2eqbio0o]noting physical sensations out-loud for 20' and then added feeling-tones, noting both silently.
[b:2eqbio0o]Noting Dynamics:[/b:2eqbio0o] Started noting with some tightness in the chest, vibrations in arms and torso, fullness in the hands. Just two minutes later, coolness was noted in the lower abdomen, and some time later coolness descending through my face. Briefly there was coolness in both the chest and the back (thoracic curve). There were no coolness in the mingmen like yesterday. Sometimes I was noting at around 1 per second, but many times I was noting only in the exhaling phase of the breathing cycle. At around the 20' mark I switched to silent noting and then mental noting of body sensations and feeling-tones, with a much heavier focus on the later ones. This, had a deepening relaxing effect, with more clear noticing of sensations and thoughts. A 50% of thoughts were seen as not-mine, as there were proto-thoughts or single words. Noted tastes and sounds. Taste was usually sweet, but I didn’t find any clear connection to body sensations or thoughts. Sounds were high pitch but after trying to decomposed them, they disappeared leaving just sounds with much lower volume. I also noted analyzing, but no reporting (until the end). When focusing in the attraction-aversion-neutrality of sensations, I noted that attractive ones had aversion notes and viceversa. This had a calming effect on both of them. By the end of the session I noted that the overall sensation was very good, calm and with no leg pain.
General Thoughts/Reflections: This was the session with the longest calmness, given by the combo of some increasing concentration and the feeling-tones noting as if they were body sensations. There were no DÑ stuff (other than some inquisitive proto-thoughts), I probably never reached EQ. But still, it was an interesting session.
[b:2eqbio0o]What worked? What didn’t?:[/b:2eqbio0o] This time noting “seeing” didn’t have the calming effect, just a few times.
[b:2eqbio0o]Goal for Next Session:[/b:2eqbio0o] Keep doing this.

[u:2eqbio0o]Added:[/u:2eqbio0o] When noting feeling-tones, I observed the temperature and location (center or periphery) of attraction ones to aversion ones.

[b:x15aok8c]Date:[/b:x15aok8c] 03/06/2013
[b:x15aok8c]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:x15aok8c] 20' stretching and Qigong.
[b:x15aok8c]Length of Sit:[/b:x15aok8c] 60' in the evening
[b:x15aok8c]Posture:[/b:x15aok8c] half-lotus
[b:x15aok8c]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:x15aok8c] Low EQ
[b:x15aok8c]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:x15aok8c] noting physical sensations out-loud for 20' and then added feeling-tones, noting both silently, and whenever possible noting mind-states and thoughts.
[b:x15aok8c]Noting Dynamics:[/b:x15aok8c] Noted vibrations in the torso, warmth, some tensions. Soon noted coolness in the lower abdomen and mingmen, and some time later coolness, vibrations and pulsing in the Brow Chakra and Chest. Then, stretching, and coolness pulsing in the Crown Chakra. Actually, the pulsing into space was felt 1-2 inches above the head. Noted seeing and hearing. Later, there was some tensions and contractions in the eyeballs, skull and throat, and some little tightness in the chest. When watched closely, the throat began to vibrate and felt coolness. Then some warmth/hot and back to coolness. The other cool spots kept cool all the session (when thoughts were proliferating, coolness went to background but was easily found). After 20' to 30' I switched to silent noting, noting both body sensations and feeling-tones. The tensions and tightness subsided, and noted calmness for a while. When thoughts showed up it was easy to note them as not-mine, at least in the first minutes when concentration was higher. Thoughts were also noted in pairs with “tensions in the skull/face”. Every time there was a thought, I could sense those tensions. All steady body-sensations and thoughts were noted as unpleasant. I found relief only when that steadiness (uninterrupted) decomposed into vibrations or pulsing. On the contrary, calmness and ‘empty clear sight’ were noted attractive, but when felt steady I began to note some vibrations on the ‘periphery’. Also investigated pleasantness inside ([u:x15aok8c]un[/u:x15aok8c])pleasantness and vice versa. Ended the session with lots of speculations, reflections and reporting. No leg pain.
[b:x15aok8c]General Thoughts/Reflections: [/b:x15aok8c]What a great session! Body-sensations and feeling-tones are like two sides of the coin. Now I understand why I didn’t like even subtle tensions: anything that is felt solid is unpleasant. That’s why when noting feeling-tones the body-sensation connected changes. Even ear-tones disappeared when observed as feeling-tone (and not as body-sensation).
[b:x15aok8c]What worked? What didn’t?:[/b:x15aok8c] The general method works, and investigating pleasantness inside ([u:x15aok8c]un[/u:x15aok8c])pleasantness and vice versa shows hidden stuff.
[b:x15aok8c]Goal for Next Session:[/b:x15aok8c] Keep doing this.

[b:2w6vqefc]Date: [/b:2w6vqefc]03/07/2013
[b:2w6vqefc]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:2w6vqefc] 5' stretching and Qigong. Previously a really busy day, full with anxiety
[b:2w6vqefc]Length of Sit:[/b:2w6vqefc] 35' in the evening
[b:2w6vqefc]Posture:[/b:2w6vqefc] half-lotus
[b:2w6vqefc]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:2w6vqefc] DÑ
[b:2w6vqefc]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:2w6vqefc]noting physical sensations out-loud for 20' and then added feeling-tones, noting both silently, and whenever possible noting mind-states and thoughts.
[b:2w6vqefc]Noting Dynamics:[/b:2w6vqefc] Full DÑ came in. Did note vibrations and the usual body sensations at the beginning. This time, coolness were noted only in the mingmen. Like some weeks before, the steamy pressure in the neck showed up. It didn’t dissipate or changed. There were some tightness and contraction at the base of the throat, and little contractions and swirling in the chest. Noting the feeling-tones didn’t make a change. Only 10% of thoughts and images were noted as not-mine. Words didn’t have content, but images were sad. Felt grief for a couple of minutes (a closed neighbour recently died). At around 30' I was much more calm, but also dreamy and not noting thoughts. I ended the session earlier as I felt it was pointless.

[b:3veexsax]Date:[/b:3veexsax] 03/08/2013
[b:3veexsax]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:3veexsax] 10' stretching and Qigong, 10' concentration (app).
[b:3veexsax]Length of Sit:[/b:3veexsax] 30' in the afternoon
[b:3veexsax]Posture:[/b:3veexsax] half-lotus
[b:3veexsax]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:3veexsax] n/a
[b:3veexsax]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:3veexsax]noting physical sensations out-loud for 20' and then added feeling-tones, noting both silently, and whenever possible noting mind-states and thoughts.
[b:3veexsax]Noting Dynamics:[/b:3veexsax] It was a quick session, I don’t want to loose momentum. It was much like my last report, without coolness but also without the steamy collar at the neck. This time, there were few thoughts but persisting music coming in.
[b:3veexsax]Goal for Next Session:[/b:3veexsax] Keep exploring aversion and craving with this method.

[b:1en1u94b]Date:[/b:1en1u94b] 03/09/2013
[b:1en1u94b]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:1en1u94b] 10' stretching and Qigong.
[b:1en1u94b]Length of Sits:[/b:1en1u94b] 60' and 40' in the morning
[b:1en1u94b]Posture:[/b:1en1u94b] half-lotus
[b:1en1u94b]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session: [/b:1en1u94b]Low EQ
[b:1en1u94b]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:1en1u94b] noting physical sensations out-loud for 20' and then added feeling-tones, noting both silently, and whenever possible noting mind-states and thoughts.
[b:1en1u94b]Noting Dynamics:[/b:1en1u94b] Started noting some tightness at the chest, spotted tension in the skull and face whenever thoughts showed up, vibrations came in much later than usual. The steamy collar at the neck didn’t display this time, but there were some contractions at the chest that connected to the right side of the neck, probably a meridian. When I switched to silent noting, noted calmness, but also spacing out. My noting skills weren’t sharp, I was noting just the obvious. Felt fine at times, but boredom sometimes too. In the end of the second sit, the leg pain came to the front stage. I could easily manage to focus on the feeling-tone of it and letting go of. But soon pain came back. After several rounds in a few minutes, my meditation was centered on this issue, so I gave up.
[b:1en1u94b]General Thoughts:[/b:1en1u94b] The intense business week and fragmented sleep did harm my practice. But still there were good days, and interesting things emerged. I feel confident with this noting method.
[b:1en1u94b]Goal for Next Session: [/b:1en1u94b]Keep exploring aversion and craving with this method. Switch back to out-loud noting when spacing out.

[b:39qwbxnu]Date:[/b:39qwbxnu] 03/12/2013
[b:39qwbxnu]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:39qwbxnu] 30' stretching and Qigong, 15' concentration (app), 20' samatha watching whole body relaxed while laying in bed. In the last week I have noticed signs of rapture to 1st Jhana.
[b:39qwbxnu]Length of Sits:[/b:39qwbxnu] just 30' in the afternoon
[b:39qwbxnu]Posture:[/b:39qwbxnu] half-lotus
[b:39qwbxnu]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:39qwbxnu] DÑ
[b:39qwbxnu]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:39qwbxnu] noting physical sensations out-loud for 20' and then added feeling-tones, noting both silently, and whenever possible noting mind-states and thoughts.
[b:39qwbxnu]General Thoughts:[/b:39qwbxnu] I haven’t done the whole Qigong set in the last two years, just the exercises that open and nurture the dantien and mingmen, as I know from the past that channeling energy into the the higher dantiens is problematic. Today, I tried the whole set to check if this +2 months of noting made a change. The answer is: sort of. It’s true that pain disappeared and that tightness shattered into vibrations, but instead while in sitting meditation, an uneasy hot was noted in the chest and back, even after taking all clothes. .
What worked, what didn’t: It work to get back to the zafu after two restless days. But couldn’t get deep because of the Qigong experiment.
[b:39qwbxnu]Noting Dynamics:[/b:39qwbxnu] Noted vibrations in the lower torso at the beginning, with some waves/contractions in the chest, and tension in arms and head. Vibrations in the Brow Chakra. Vibrations (and no tension or “steam pressure”) in the throat. Noted physical sensations (PS) not as fast as two weeks ago. When switched to feeling-tones (FT), sometimes tightness disappear, not always. I noted pairs (PS+FT) from time to time when noticed I was loosing concentration. I decided to switch to noting thoughts. And suddenly, the relative calmness was gone in a second, with hot and painful tightness in the throat. Then really hot in the chest and back, and didn’t know how to handle it.
[b:39qwbxnu]Goal for Next Session:[/b:39qwbxnu] Keep exploring aversion and craving with this method. Switch back to out-loud noting when spacing out. Just do the usual Qigong subset.


[u:39qwbxnu]Added:[/u:39qwbxnu] I forgot to write something important. When noting “seeing” repeatedly, there was a change of perspective of sight, like watching (with eyes closed) from below the eyes level. I have experienced this many many times in Taichi exercises, but never on cushion until yesterday. I guess this is The Witness?

[b:2me7v1eh]Date:[/b:2me7v1eh] 03/14/2013
[b:2me7v1eh]Pre-Meditative Context: [/b:2me7v1eh]10' stretching and Qigong. Added: it has became easier to note thoughts as not-self off cushion
[b:2me7v1eh]Length of Sits:[/b:2me7v1eh] 50' in the evening
[b:2me7v1eh]Posture:[/b:2me7v1eh] half-lotus
[b:2me7v1eh]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:2me7v1eh] Low EQ
[b:2me7v1eh]Meditative Techniques Utilized: [/b:2me7v1eh]noting physical sensations for 20' and then added feeling-tones, first noting both out-loud and then silently, and whenever possible noting mind-states and thoughts.
[b:2me7v1eh]General Thoughts: [/b:2me7v1eh]At a point in the practice, when noting out-loud I noted boredom and speculate about that boredom and its probable corresponding ñana, or if I have derailed from good practice habit. But when I went to silent noting, I could connect clearly feeling-tones and thoughts. I'm starting to think that feeling-tones are like the pivot of the noting practice.
[b:2me7v1eh]What worked, what didn't:[/b:2me7v1eh] There were very little planning thoughts, remembering thoughts and fantasies with this method, as it all pivots around feeling-tones.
[b:2me7v1eh]Noting Dynamics:[/b:2me7v1eh] Noted vibrations in the lower torso, tinglings and warmth in the hands, tightness and tension in the left shoulder, sparse tightness in the throat (which already is vibrating when noted) and the chest free from tightness and contraction. Instead, noted tightness in the lower ribs (an old time postural problem). When corrected the curve in my lower back, noted cold in mingmen and dantien. I forced myself to note at a faster rate, as I tend to do notes only in the exhale of breath. I can keep the 1 notes per second (out-loud) only for a few minutes. Then I switched to note feeling-tones out-loud. Did that for 10', just labeling the feeling-tone part of the body sensations I was already noticing. Then I went on noting silently. This time, more subtle physical and mental things showed up. The good news is that 70-80% of mental phenomena were noted as not-self. There were full words, ill formed words, a few phrases and some words of songs. And many of them (when not happening fast) lead to physical sensations. So it goes full circle! A couple of times, the sight widen and the body felt easy, light. Ended with some warmth / hot in the legs, not painful just fine and noted anticipation.
[b:2me7v1eh]Goal for Next Session:[/b:2me7v1eh] Keep exploring aversion and craving with this method.

[b:2nb0zyj5]Date: [/b:2nb0zyj5]03/16/2013
[b:2nb0zyj5]Pre-Meditative Context:[/b:2nb0zyj5] 20' stretching and Qigong.
[b:2nb0zyj5]Length of Sits:[/b:2nb0zyj5] 50' in the morning
[b:2nb0zyj5]Posture:[/b:2nb0zyj5] half-lotus
[b:2nb0zyj5]Cutting Edge Insight Stage of the Session:[/b:2nb0zyj5] Low EQ
[b:2nb0zyj5]Meditative Techniques Utilized:[/b:2nb0zyj5] noting physical sensations for 20' and then added feeling-tones, first noting both out-loud and then silently, and whenever possible noting mind-states and thoughts.
[b:2nb0zyj5]General Thoughts:[/b:2nb0zyj5] How can "relief" be classified in the feeling-tone spectrum? It's not only the release of tensions, but also the absence of them...
[b:2nb0zyj5]What worked, what didn't:[/b:2nb0zyj5] I could note thoughts as not-mine, and stay longer in a jhanic-like state noting. The problem is that if I'm very active noting things, I get out of it.
[b:2nb0zyj5]Noting Dynamics:[/b:2nb0zyj5] Started noting tightness, contractions and tensions, but no vibrations, despite doing Qigong right before sitting. At the 10' mark I switched from noting body sensations to feeling-tones. Noted some tightness in the skull turning into pleasant coolness flowing down to the Brow Chakra. Noted feeling-tones in pair with the corresponding body sensations. Most unpleasant ones. There were pleasant ones connected to warmth. But there were other oddly related pleasant tones through relief and openness tension-free sight. Lots of thoughts came in, and fast, most of them (specially the simple ones) were noted as not mine. Navigated through sleepiness for a while. At the 10-15 last minutes the sleepiness disappeared and felt fine, and could kept noting till the end.
[b:2nb0zyj5]Goal for Next Session:[/b:2nb0zyj5] Keep exploring aversion and craving with this method.

"PabloP":24ijruaj wrote: Keep exploring aversion and craving with this method.[/quote:24ijruaj]

Pablo, here is something you might try along those lines; I call it single parameter evaluation.

-Choose one mental factor at a time to evaluate, in this case, aversion.

-We'll define [i:24ijruaj]aversion[/i:24ijruaj] as any sense whatsoever that you'd like this moment's experience to be other than it is. This actually would include both aversion (pushing away something unpleasant) and desire (reaching toward something pleasant), so it may be closer to what the Buddhists mean by the word [i:24ijruaj]tanha[/i:24ijruaj].

-Note aversion over and over again, while assigning it a number, 0-5. 0 = no aversion as defined here, and 5 = as aversive as you can imagine being in this moment.

-Just stick with aversion for some period of time and see how the numbers change.

Does aversion sometimes go to zero? When that happens, what are you paying attention to? Are there body sensations correlated with aversion? What is your baseline of aversion?

You can do the same exercise with any mental factor. It's instructive to look at aversion, agitation, and thought-looping as a kind of package. Just be sure to do each one in isolation for some period of time. See if there is any correlation between those three mental factors. And always be alert to the possibility that some body sensation or pattern of body sensations is correlated with a mental factor.

Thank you very much Kenneth for all this help! Crystal clear instructions! I'll start tomorrow with the single parameter evaluation.