Noting, 1 of 2 Parts

Here's how I like to conceive of the structure of the note 8.

There's

A rhythm that is set up.

Of Acts of noting each act typically but not inevitably consists of two parts a brief moment of clear acknowledging.

That some sensory.

Category or some sensory event is present, so that's that cleared knowledge ING and then there's a few seconds of intent focusing.

The main exception being that sometimes as soon as something is acknowledged it immediately disappears so there can't be that few seconds of intent focus.

In that case, and in fact, as I pointed out the immediate disappearance. Whether it's due to the fact that you acknowledged or it's due to some other fact makes no difference. That's a huge insight into vanishings.

The default, meaning what you fall back on all other factors being equal is not to label.

But just to be clear about the category with direct awareness, however, that is often very difficult. You'll find as soon as you try to track those things without at least mental labels. You just in Lala land in that case.

Got a label.

But the ideal is to be able to track with clarity and no mental not even a mental label. So that's sort of the default that you can gradually work towards with time, but don't fault yourself if you find that you have to use labeling most of the time I mean, sometimes I'll go for the no labels. But even for me. It's hard work is you know it's easier to do it with the labels of some sort.

You can to a certain extent control.

The concentration sensory clarity and equanimity that you have at a given time. You don't have a huge amount of control over it because those are the skills were trying to build if we have a lot of concentration clarity and equanimity to begin with, we wouldn't be doing these exercises. You don't lift weights. If you're already strong so we don't expect that you'll have much concentration clarity or equanimity. But there are things that you can do with the options in the noting apparatus that can.

Help in those directions and the options come under 3 broad categories options, with regards to labeling.

Options with regards to how you spatially direct your attention during the focus on phase.

And options with regards to the pacing of the labeling if you come to me and report difficulty with practice the first thing I'll ask you is what techniques are using second thing I ask you is which options have you used to deal with the challenge.

It's perfectly OK if you say, I tried them all and none of them helped.

Then we'll go creative and I'll give you special exercises and so forth, but you should have at least tried them and see well could any of them help with the challenge.

OK, with regards to.

A clear acknowledge phase you have the following options. You can speak a label out loud, you can think a label Mentale you could not label at all, and some People finger label. We won't go into that, if you're ever interested. Maybe we'll talk about it someday, but that has been something that People. Some People have found useful it basically you just assign categories to fingers.

In any way you want.

If you would like to speak the labels out loud, you have sort of 3 levels. Strong medium and weak. The weak level is you whisper them so another can't hear you subvocalize that would be for a group meditation situation. The medium level is an ordinary voice. The strong is that you're forcing yourself to make the label you probably have resistance to doing it, making it loud and clear and crisp and you're really listening to make sure that that.

Label stream does not stop and that's when you're really going up a Hill.

Intentionally.

Create a kind of gentle matter effect almost impersonal quality to the mental or spoken labels and that may seem artificial, but that will tend to induce equanimity.

And it's a sort of like the tail can wag the dog kind of situation because you wouldn't think that artificially forming any quantumness voice would authentically induce equanimity into consciousness, but typically it does sometimes it might take. As long as a half an hour. Sometimes I work with People going through major physical and or emotional freakouts and I have one of the main tasks is to sort of get them to the point that they're willing.

Perhaps in between sobbing and even screaming in pain. They're willing to have that equanimous voice to the labels. They don't have to be quantumness with regards to expression. They can flail they could scream they can cry, but they keep the labeling voice all be, it artificially with that, gentle matter-of-fact. NIS usually within 1/2 an hour consciousness itself has dropped into equanimity and my phrase for that is use the voice use the voice 2.

Meaning the tone of voice, including the mental voice of your labeling to induce equanimity.

In general, you do it not too fast, not too slow but everybody finds what's good for them.

It's too fast, it's making you phonetic if it's too slow. You might be spacing out you find the rhythm that works for you?

Sometimes the phenomenon that you're noting.

Happens very, very rapidly. There's like a rapid fire stream like a machine gun shooting OK. It's like like really quick like talk dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot OK. It's like they've been my bank or sensations are by their very, very rapid.

You just average OK.

So every few seconds you just say touch and that's an abbreviation for.

I just had a dozen.

Lightning fast touch events, but you just go touch and you understand that OK. That's averaging what I experienced over the last few seconds. Some People find that the rhythm of the noting tends to entrain with the natural rhythm of their breathing that's fine.

If that happens, let it happen do you should you try to make that happen certainly not but you don't have to prevent that from happening so that's the sort of pacing peace with regards to the rhythm of the breath of the rhythm of the noting relates to the rhythm of the breath if it entrains naturally and that really works for you, great but you don't have to fight with that happening and you certainly don't have to try to make that happen.

The option to repeat.

The same note more than once it can.

Sort of slow down your internal Clock.

An make it a little easier to.

Detect things and so forth it's more likely that you will start to notice vanishings. If you constrain yourself to go back to the same thing for more than just a few seconds. If you say OK for a period of time? I'm going to do it that way.

A further option is repeat until gone.

OK, these are options, so you're going to go touch touch OK.

And you're just gonna.

Lock on to that touch.

And keep noting touch touch until there's a vanishing.

Until some part of it.

Abruptly subsides.

Then you're not God.

And maybe if it doesn't disappear. Then you could move on to something else or whatever, so you can repeat until gone.

Until there's some indication of abrupt subsidence is an option.

An depending on what's happening and how things are presenting themselves that might be something that you would decide to do so. I know this is a lot of information, but actually.

Most of you have heard this before many times, but I wanted you to get the whole picture of sort of the apparatus of noting with all the bells and whistles, so you realize how really powerful. It is if you internalize all of these variations. You should be able to deal with the bulk of challenges that would come up.