Noting Style Meditation in 15 Seconds

This comes in part from a stripped down version of noting practice that Jud Brewer, a neuroscientist, mentioned using with research subjects in the fMRI machine.  Apparently it worked decently in terms of aligning brain activity with what has been observed in advanced meditators.  Okay, start your timers:

Notice what is roughly predominate in awareness and label it, about once per second, as either seeing, hearing, feeling, or thinking.  Or don't know.

That's it.

The structure there is based on the 5 basic sense "doors" plus thinking.  Within the 5 senses smelling and tasting have been dropped for simplicity and because those don't tend to come up that often in formal meditation.

Notice that "seeing" is the note even if your eyes are closed, if your attention is on the visual field.  Same for "hearing" even if what you are hearing is imagined.

Instruction Oriented Articles

• A Simple Way to Start - a progression of four simple styles of meditation
• How to Meditate - a multipart series, this is my best attempt to communicate the main style of meditation I recommend
• Basic Meditation Styles - brief descriptions of many effective techniques, kind of like the Monty Python instructions for playing the flute: "Well you blow in one end and move your fingers up and down the outside."
• Getting It Done - many suggestions and finer points for the serious meditator
• Vipassana or Insight Meditation - Mahasi Noting Style - some audio instructions and links to extensive instruction on this type of meditation
• [Advanced] Six Words of Advice - on how to just be

Related editorials

• It's Not About Thinking With Your Eyes Closed
• Upping Your Game
• The Forbidden Topics
• The Big Experience

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