Rachel Graber

[Russell]

Totally agree Jayson, it all takes a life and pace of it's own once you get going. I was simply trying to show what a 'typical' noting session sort of looks like in a very simplistic manner, because a lot of people add too much complexity in the beginning.

[rachelgraber]

Thanks for the pointers! I've been away for awhile, although I did meditate two of the four days I was gone. Today, I was planning to sit for an hour, but it ended up only being 42 minutes, because I was falling asleep. The general gist of my practice today: fidgeting with posture, rocking, pain in the right upper back, pain became hot and cold and well as pain, irritation (my dog was licking) as indicated by heat in my stomach, then back to the pain and the rocking, then moved to the chair, then heaviness, then feeling of consciousness being split in two by a revolving vertical disk (both a visual disk and a sensation), then more irritation, then moved back to bench, pain, falling asleep . . . ended 12 minutes early.

[rachelgraber]

Alright, practice overview. I meditated with my husband, so we started out doing shamata (sp?), then we did some ping pong noting. The ping pong noting was sort of strange today. I tried to do sensation then mind state then mental objects, but while we were ping-ponging, I only really felt sensations for the most part. Occasionally, I got irritated, but I rarely thought. I can't really describe the trajectory of my practice well, but here's my best shot: posture, itching, heat, irritation, then sensations and thoughts faster and faster, itch, songs, images, ache in the back, itch, song, song, image, moving black and white stripes, irritation, desire to be done, agitation, irritation, desire to be done, ache, agitation. Desire to be done. Yup, that's about it.

[Bill29ish]

Hey: Looks good. Keep journaling. Not to put any expectations on you, but it sounds kind of like 3 characteristics territory. Practicing daily if possible should make this clearer.

Bill