Barebones vipassana practice and my experience with it so far

This was written for a meditation group but I started writing too much so I put it up on my blog too.

Basic Vipassana/Mindfulness and Walking/Moving meditation instructions:

Once you've developed a bit of concentration, it's time to direct that ability towards one's overall sensory and mental experience to gain insight into the nature of your experience. I've had only glimpses of this but it is basically just shifting your perspective such that it fully immerses you in the present moment "as it is" rather than being obfuscated by our mental talk, emotional storms, etc.

1. Take a seat and get comfortable. You can also just start with walking meditation first, then sit, there are really no rules here.

2. Begin with a bit of concentration on the breath, then note your observations of the breath, "rising, falling, etc".

3. Now begin to note every sensation you experience both mental and physical as it comes up. For example, you might start thinking, "oh man, I was supposed to water the garden yesterday" this can simply be labeled as "thinking, thinking" or "past, past" then go on to note the next thing.

4.For walking meditation it's the same concept but now it has to do with how you're moving, "lifting, moving, stepping" as you're doing it. It's possible to do this practice while doing any kind of movement such as parkour or even just doing the dishes. It's just easier to start with simpler movements because it can get pretty difficult to track.

The point of noting is to ground you in your sensations and break them down into their smallest components but it's possible to do that without noting anything, though it is easier to get mixed up in the contents of sensations (our abstractions about them) rather than simply experiencing the sensations. Shinzen Young's system uses more formal noting labels which simplify things greatly in my opinion but you can use your own. One of the effects of the "focus out" technique is a feeling of merging with your external surroundings, becoming part of the landscape without any sense of separateness. Surely this has happened to you at some point spontaneously but it can become an every day if not every moment experience.

This kind of meditation practice is very different. While concentration meditation can be quite peaceful and relaxing, when you switch over and jump into the torrents of the raging river that is your bodily/mental sensations it can be pretty overwhelming. When I first switched from a deep concentration state and tried to do vipassana,it was so overwhelming that I got this strange flickering sensation somewhat like an old movie reel, there was so much going on. I jumped in without the noting idea and it was pretty difficult to swim. Another thing I've noticed is that this practice can lead to a lot of negative effects which you want to look out for. In particular, it can make you a bit agitated. At least for myself, I was so used to the blissful trance-like state that concentration can give that it felt like I was starting all over again. I thought that I had control over my thoughts, but concentration just helps to suppress them for a bit(there's no attention left for everything else that is not your object) which is certainly nice when you need it. Agitation or any other negative mental state can be dealt with through the noting practice too though, so while it may be an unpleasant experience, it will not last, just keep noting. You can also always retreat back to concentration of the breath if things get too heavy.

Another thing to look out for with both concentration and insight practice is disassociating from others as you've been practicing letting go of things so much that you can have kind of a "neutral affect" thing going on. Other people are just another distraction or another thing to note and move on from. I see this a lot in other meditators who clearly have much more experience than I do (like certain monks). I interpret this as a matter of personal preference. Not everyone has to be cheery and smiling all the time, i'd just personally prefer to have that going for me,mostly so I don't put others off with robot-like expression and behavior.This is where Shinzen's "nurture positive" can come in to alleviate these effects which i think also pushes you to be able to fully express yourself in an untethered kind of way. More about this kind of stuff in the next post. Just read the nurture positive section in Shinzen's Five ways manual if you're interested.