Deconstruct
Learning to deconstruct sensory experience
Guided Meditation
Distinguishing the 6 Senses - Tour of the 6 Senses
Learn to observe all experience - 6-Sense Noting
Practice Visual
Core Instructions
Objective - Why?
Sensory Clarity
Builds the foundation for the further development of Sensory Clarity
Recognize the present experience
Understanding one-self
Distinguish one's experience into 6 sense categories
Equanimity
Ability to be with whatever experience arises in an accepting way
Essential Instruction
Recognize the experience
Label it
Release any resistance
Be with for a while
Release attention
Repeat
Observation Method
Choiceless
Observe until Gone
Choiceless + observe for x-seconds before release
Observation Range
All experience i.e., 6 senses
Consider
Find & maintain a comfortable and steady rhythm
Important is the recognizing, non-identifying, relaxing, and not the label
All experiences, negative ones included, are equally welcome
Acknowledgement
Mahasi Sayadaw UM Kenneth Folk
Elaboration
Introduction
In this practice we develop clarity about our experience, that can be divided into our 6 senses (see, hear, feel, taste, smell, mind). You do this by recognizing, labeling, relaxing, and being with the sense-phenomena.
Practice
Transition in
Posture
Settling into one's practice posture
attentive and comfortable
Releasing any unnecessary effort & tension in body & mind
Becoming present
Noticing the current experience
e.g., sights, sounds, thoughts, feelings
'Main Practice' Letting go
Recognize
Choiceless observation
Allow your attention to freely attend to whatever experience it chooses
Notice whatever experience arises in the moment
Nothing else to do but simply recognizing or noticing that there is an experience
Label
Identify which sense-category the sense-phenomena relates to
Label once 'There is' + 'Seeing', 'Hearing', 'Feeling', 'Tasting', 'Smelling', 'Thinking'
e.g., 'There is seeing', 'there is thinking'
Relax
Check if there is any interference, that is, resistance or struggle towards the current experience. If so, release the effort underlying that.
There is no need to check every single time whether there is resistance or not. With time you will be able to notice simultaneously and automatically whether you are resisting or not
Be with
Remaining in contact with the current experience
Nothing special to do but keeping the object in your awareness, that is, knowing that the experience is still there, present.
Duration or Time
Everyone finds their rhythm
Release
Letting go of the sense-object
Repeat
Repeat from step 1 Recognize
Visualization of Steps
Visualization of Attention
Butterfly is the attention
The butterfly chooses freely where to go, where to stay
May go from one flower to another, then back to the flower before or to another
May stay at one flower or go to another
Likewise, your attention chooses freely
Flowers are the 6 sense objects (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, thinking)
All you are is hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, thinking.
You are nothing else but your 6 senses. All you have, is your experience.
With that understanding, your objective is now to develop a fulfilling and positive relationship towards your own sensory experiences, rather than to external objects
This practice allows you to understand who you truly are, while learning to remain calm with whatever arises.
Understanding why we practice how we practice
Recognize
To recognize means to become aware of one's current experience
Without recognition, one is not aware, hence one's auto-pilot is active and intended change is not able to happen
Label
Labeling is recommend, but still optional
Experiment observing the 6 senses with and without labeling and review for yourself which is more beneficial
Benefits
Guarantees recognition as it requires you to actively acknowledge it
facilitates non-identification with the object
Observing an itch, one understands I am not the itch
facilitates staying in the present as one is repeatedly needing to take action e.g., label
facilitates understanding of our sensory system as it supports our faculty of distinction
Speed of Labeling
There are many ways to use labeling or 'noting'.
Everyone finds their own style they feel comfortable with.
Experiment with different speeds
every moment, every second, every few second, once per object
Name of Labels
which name you use to label is almost non-significant, hence don't place importance on it
you may use 'feel', 'touch', 'feeling', 'body', or more individualized 'pain, warmth, coolness, breathing, moving'
What is important is that you recognize, non-identify, relax, not how you label
Relax
Interference such as attraction or aversion to our current experience is counterproductive as it disturbs our mind.
This step is to assure to let go of any unnecessary tensions, struggle, effort that is preventing us to become calm and see clearly
This step can be done while observing the object
Be with
This is an optional step
Be with, means to simply remain in contact with the labeled experience in order to become more clear about it
There is no need to put extra effort into investigating, understanding. Simply having being with it, having it in our awareness while remaining relaxed is enough. With time, naturally clarity will arise.
Release
We let the object go via releasing the effort behind our attention
The mind now free from effort to hold unto the object, naturally chooses it's next object
Observation Method
This is up to the individual's current state & liking. Feel free to choose any observation method.
Observation Range
During this practice, there is no experience that is not welcome. All experience originate from our 6 senses, hence all experience is okay. There is no superior or inferior object in this practice.
Negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, worry are equally welcome as good-will, generosity, calm
This practice is to train one's ability to honestly observe one-self, not holding unto positive aspects and pushing away negative ones. Without honest observation, clarity will not develop and one will miss out on deeper levels of clarity.
Optionally, depending on one's objective of practice, one can limit the observation range into e.g.,
Specific Characteristics of our sensory experience
Change, automatic, causal interdependence, mind & matter
Limit the senses
e.g., only hearing, or only mind
Limit experiences within one sense
e.g., emotions within the body and excluding non-emotional sensations
Q&A
The object disappears before I could observe it for a few seconds
This is a characteristic of the nature of our reality, the impermanence.
You may acknowledge the disappearance, observe the arisen stillness or release your attention and recognize the next object
There are more than one sense object at the same time - which one to observe?
Observe the predominant experience
For simplicity's sake, you may choose the predominant experience, because it is predominant, hence more experienced
Still, it is not so important which experience, predominant or not, you experience. What is important, is your awareness of a experience while being relaxed
Optionally, you may choose to observe the experience in it's totality
Acknowledge that there are multiple experience at the same time, labeling 'there is that'
Essence
Unaware of the current experience
Unable to distinguish the current experience into the 6 sense categories
Identifying with the experience
Being overwhelmed by difficult experiences
Understanding oneself as per identity (e.g., parent, community member, teacher)
Mostly aware of current experience
Able to distinguish between the 6 sense categories
Mostly able to remain calm while having difficult experiences
Mostly non-identifying with experience
Understanding one-self psychologically
Aware of current experience
Able to distinguish the 6 sense categories
Ability to remain calm while having difficult experiences
Understanding one-self as a sensory system
Not identifying with the experience
Example of Experiencing anger
Takes a while until one recognizes being angry
Believing that one is the anger
Acting upon the anger
Short while until recognizing anger is present
Understands anger to be a part of one's conditioning
Not acting upon anger
Immediately aware of anger
Perceives anger as a natural expression of one's system
Allows anger to be as it is
Intention
Noticing one's current experience, knowing whether it is hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting or thinking
Allowing any experience to be as it wants to be,, not interfering i.e., pushing it away or holding onto it
Common Scenarios
Being nervous during a presentation
Noticing the nervousness in the body & mind
Relaxing into our resistance to it, allowing the nervousness to be
Being aggressive during a discussion
Noticing the presence of aggression
Allowing it to be while not identifying with it
Allowing one-self to not follow the aggression's intention
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