Maya
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Buddhism · 6 minute practice · Unlocks "Noting" in Maya

Noting

A meditation: name each thing as it arises ("thinking", "hearing", "tight"), moment after moment, and let it pass.

Key takeaways

  • Noting is a meditation, not a one-off label. You name whatever is most obvious in each moment, in a plain word or two, then the next thing, and the next.
  • The word is light and quick. No analysis, no judgment. It's there to keep you one step outside the stream instead of swept along by it.
  • Getting pulled away is not failure. Noticing that you were pulled away, and naming it, is the practice working.

Rising, falling

In the 20th century, a Burmese monk named Mahasi Sayadaw taught a way to meditate that anyone could learn, monk or not. You sit quietly and rest your attention on the belly as it moves with the breath, noting "rising, falling". Whenever something else takes your attention, you name it: "thinking", "hearing", "itching", "planning". Then you come back to the belly.

His meditation center in Yangon drew students from all over the world. Several went home and became teachers, and noting became one of the foundations of what is now called insight, or vipassana, meditation.

What noting does

Worry pulls you inside it. One thought leads to the next, and in a minute you are living in a story about next Tuesday. Noting keeps you at the edge of the stream. Each label is a tiny step back: this is "planning", this is "worrying", this is "tight chest". You see thoughts and feelings as events that come and go, not as the world.

It differs from other ways of naming things:

  • Naming a feeling (as in "Name it", from neuroscience) is a single act: you find the word for what you feel right now, and that alone calms the body.
  • The witness, from Hindu thought, is a stance: resting as the awareness behind experience.
  • Noting is a running practice: label after label, for as long as you sit, whatever turns up.

Question 1 of 2

Someone is noting during a ten-minute sit. Which of these are good notes, and which have slipped out of noting?

  • "Hearing."
  • "Worrying, because the rent is due and I still haven't heard back about the invoice."
  • "Tight. Tight. Softening."
  • "Distracted again. I'm so bad at this."

0 of 4 sorted

Try it

Five to ten minutes

  • Anchor

    Sit comfortably, and rest your attention on the belly. Note "rising" as it lifts and "falling" as it drops, softly, in your head.

  • Name what pulls you

    When something else takes over, name it in a word: "thinking", "planning", "hearing", "itching", "sad". Note it once or twice, not more.

  • Come back

    Return to rising, falling, until the next thing comes.

  • Keep it light

    The note is about 5 percent of your attention. The rest stays with the experience itself.

If you can't find a word, "knowing" or "this" will do. And when you realize you've been lost in a story for five minutes, note "wandering" and come back. That moment of waking up is not a failure of noting; it is what noting trains.

Jamal's ten minutes

Jamal sits down to try noting before a big presentation. A few minutes in, this is what is running through his head:

"Rising, falling. Rising... the slides. Did I fix slide twelve? I should have fixed it last night. Why do I always leave things to the last minute? Okay, focus. Rising. Ugh, I can't even meditate properly."

Question 2 of 2

Sources and further reading

Finish the lesson

0 of 2 questions done. Answer the rest to finish.