How Specific-Precise in Mental Noting in Real Time?

Question

Dear Fellow Dhamma Students,

Reduced to bare attention, there're only six experiences, seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, touching, thinking. In real time everyday activities, and when not formally meditating, what works best? Example, I'm rushing down the hall to make the elevator on my floor; there's no time to do anything slowly. Do I note, "Rushing, Rushing" and "Walking, Walking"?

Or while sitting on the bus, a memory of a teacher I had in J.H.S. over fifty years ago comes to mind. Is that better noted as "Remembering, Remembering" or still just "Thinking, Thinking"?  Or am I going about this all wrong, and should confine noting to practice only?

Your personal experiences would help.

Thanks and Metta, Ernest

Answer 1

You should try to note from the moment you wake until you fall asleep. The speed and detail of noting will vary with activity and experience. When doing something quickly or an activity that contains many experiences you may need to use more general terms like walking instead of stepping left, stepping right.

When thinking about something that happened in the past try to note all of experiences that arise. You may see an image in your mind. That should be noted as seeing. You may hear a sound or someone's voice in your mind. You could note that as hearing. Like or dislike may arise. Not those as liking or disliking.

It sounds like your practice is going well if you're realizing reality is made up of just seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, touching, thinking. If you're practicing at least one hour per day you should consider doing an online meditation course with Bhante or one of our other teachers.

Answer 2

When you are walking fast, you can simply note left, right, left, right as each foot touches the ground. After few days of practice, you should be able to note "stepping right", "stepping left" and note both the lifting of each foot and placing of it.

When you are sitting in the bus, you can either note the sitting posture focusing on where contact is made on the seat or note the rising and falling of stomach as if you are doing regular sitting meditation. Any thought arising should be noted with an appropriate word. So if it's a past memory, you can use 'remembering'.  

Since your eyes are open, there will be many distractions. When the distractions become overwhelming, you can also be generally aware of what's going on as if you are watching raindrops falling on a pond.