Insight Meditation - Mahasi Labelling Method

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During this talk Stephen Procter discusses the Mindfulness Meditation method made popular by Mahasi Sayadaw in Myanmar (Burma), this method is very suitable for people meditating in the midst of everyday life.
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[@tulyanond]

So grateful for your teaching, may you and everyone reading this be well.

[@midlinsightmeditation]

I am well, thank you for your kind words

[@MrNthprime]

Thank you so much for posting this!!! I"m going to play this at my sangha tonight. When I first came across this about 2 years ago I realized that I could meditate all the time. It blew my mind away and I started telling my mediation friends. They thought I was a bit off. I've also noticed that meditation sometimes happens in dreams.

[@renaldo5925]

This is the most insightful technique much more than only breathing.

[@clifftrewin1505]

this guy is great

[@ravindraturwankar1040]

🙏🙏🙏

[@anandaraj9562]

Thank you very much for uploading this video. It's really good & very clearly explained the technique. Your endeavor in explaing this technique is highly appreciatable & you have cleared my doubts. please accept my humble pranams sir.

[@theinngu5560]

Excellent. I realised that away from meditation (I follow Theingu32 Cittanupassana), I am not very mindful in ‘everyday life’ and this inevitably impacts the ‘continuity of awareness in sitting meditation). My roommate on a recent meditation retreat told me that since a child in Burma, she has been practicing Mahasi and she said she was mindful all the time. It was very inspiring to see her, as even though her health is not perfect, she ‘glows’ and nothing really bothers her. So I have been inspired to uptake Mahasi in ‘non sitting hours’ to really try and develop mindfulness. I see that the path is the only thing worth cultivating and yet the defilements stop me, when ‘conditions are more challenging’. Thank you so much 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@midlinsightmeditation]

Hello theinngu, For learning the skill of mindfulness in daily life I recommend visiting my online classroom on the MIDL (mindfulness in daily life) Meditation System. midlmeditation.com/midl-meditation-system It contains detailed instructions, recordings and videos organised in a systematic way. MIDL also is focusses on cittanupassana but also includes the other three satipatthanas: kaya, vedana and dhamma. Take care, Stephen

[@theinngu5560]

@@midlinsightmeditation many thanks, I certainly will look at it.🙏🏼

[@mathieuavisse4623]

it takes time relax ^^

[@jellewever1225]

This is very help full, thanks Stephen

[@RajeevYadavVoyager]

Thanks.

[@dowayigu1277]

Thank You

[@ambarnathmajumdar8725]

😊

[@veggvegg2]

I appreciate the clarity of your explanations, thank you! Maybe in another video you could outline the way this practice develops, i.e. the progress of insight. I‘d be very interested in your explanation/interpretation of the stages, especially the dukkha nanas and how they relate to your system with its emphasis on softening.

[@midlinsightmeditation]

The experiential world and how it presents itself follows very specific laws based on present conditions. These are as reliable as chemistry in regard to when you combine, this, this and this, you will always get that. Slightly change this formula and you will get something else. The structure of meditative attention, where it is applied to, and the way it is applied creates specific conditions that cause very specific experiences to arise. This above formula is what are known as meditation techniques and when followed allow teachers within a meditation system to guide a meditator practicing that system in their meditative path based on what they are experiencing at this time. This can be done because if they are following the instruction offered by the meditation system the set of experiences that arise are completely predictable. Therefore, the teacher can offer advice on what to do next which when followed will give rise to the next set of predictable experiences and so on. When following instructions for forest tradition or TMI in pure samatha and jhana, where intimacy with the primary object of following breath sensation at the tip of the nose is most important, and all distraction is ignored, a specific path of experience will unfold. Following pure vipassana such as Mahasi, with the primary object of rising and falling being just as important as the secondary object: distraction, while clarifying anicca (impermanence), a completely different path of experience will unfold. These set of readable experience that arise, due to the conditions created by Mahasi's technique, are the basis for the book the Progress of Insight by Mahasi Sayadaw and also the original insight knowledges first mentioned in the Visuddhimagga. If following the MIDL formula, where distraction is considered important for insight into anatta (not-self), and the deconditioning of attraction, aversion, indifference through softening effort, then a completely different path of experience unfolds. And this path has its own set of clear, readable experiences and insights. Since MIDL takes anatta as 'the autonomous nature of things' a different set of insight knowledges arise as the perception of anatta does not elicit the same dukkha response as the perception of anicca as 'no solid ground'.

[@veggvegg2]

@@midlinsightmeditation thank you for the detailed response! I've been following the pure insight path for a few years and now and as I gain some experience with MIDL it seems clear that they are different paths. The MAhasi technique is powerful but MIDL seems to be more suitable for me in my current circumstances. Thank you for all you are offering here, it's very valuable!

[@midlinsightmeditation]

@@veggvegg2 I traditionally trained in Mahasi and as you say it is a powerful practice in a retreat setting. What I found however was that it didn't smoothly transfer into daily life when attention is also on work and family. This led me to taking anatta rather than anicca as the primary characteristic to be observed. Because when attention is structured properly from a grounding point, anatta can be perceived very clearly in daily life. This of course gave rise to dukkha. To buffer the dukkha that arises due to observing anicca and anatta, I integrated a samatha-vipassana mindfulness of breathing practice and refined my skill in softening attraction, aversion and indifference when they arise. I found with these changes, while keeping Mahasi's formula of investigating distraction rather than suppressing it, that deep insight meditation was possible while living day-to-day life. This was the beginning of MIDL Meditation System. midlmeditation.com/main-meditation-menu

[@lionsskyblue442]

I really like the detailed explanations you've written in the comments section. Its clarified the whole concept of mindfulness for me, thank you. I think you should write a book, I would buy it. Is there a particular Buddhist text that you recommend we read? Thanks

[@midlinsightmeditation]

Hello Lionssky, The books I suggest are not flowery but rather practical meditation guides. If you are interested in reading the original text for the Mahasi Labeling Method the book is called 'Practical Insight Meditation: Basic and Progressive Stages' by The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw. I also recommend having a good understanding of the Satipatthana Sutta, the original discourse / meditation manual given by the Buddha on how to do Mindfulness meditation (Satipatthana Vipassana) practice. The Sutta can be found on my website www.meditationintheshire.com.au/mindfulness/mindfulness1g.html .Also there are two books that are worth reding on this 'The Four Foundations of Mindfulness' by Venerable U Silananda and 'Satipattana: The Direct Path to Realization' by Analayo. Also I do have a meditation guide on Mindfulness meditation 'How to Practice Mindfulness Meditation in Your Daily Life', my guide is not sold but the printing is supported by donations from my students. If you would like a copy you can contact me through my website www.meditationintheshire.com.au/contact.html Take care, Stephen

[@lionsskyblue442]

Thank You

[@MrNthprime]

a really good book www.amazon.com/Manual-Insight-Mahasi-Sayadaw/dp/1614292779/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1529594702&sr=1-1&refinements=p_27%3AMahasi+Sayadaw&dpID=41yoqyRGG0L&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

[@halhane3686]

Sadhu...Sadhu...Sadhu...,

[@DreamWizard9]

That's a very interesting technique. Thanks for sharing, Sir! So now I wonder: when to come back to the primary meditation object (rising/falling) ? I mean, If we go "thinking thinking", or "dreaming dreaming", we could stay dreaming, no? So there must be some desire to return to the primary object of attention? Or it doesn't matter if we keep 'getting distrated', as long as we follow them like this with labeling? Very interesting method. I will try this tonight, thank you! Also: what is the exact name of this method?

[@midlinsightmeditation]

DreamWizard9 Hi Dream, very good questions The primary object of meditation, the rising and falling movement of the abdomen is your 'home base', this has a few purposes 1. To build up concentration 2. To sharpen our mindfulness through tuning into the changing sensations 3. To allow us to 'know' when our attention has moved 4. To give us an object to cultivate our attention on when we have no secondary object. "When to come back to the primary meditation object (rising/falling) ?" - When the secondary object no longer attracts your attention. "If we go "thinking thinking", or "dreaming dreaming", we could stay dreaming, no?" - No, we cannot be lost in the dream and label it at the same time. The very act of noticing that you were lost in the dream is mindfulness and in that moment you are free from its grip. “Or it doesn't matter if we keep 'getting distracted', as long as we follow them like this with labelling?” - If you turn your attention towards the distraction and label it using the experience of it as your object of meditation it then ceases to be a distraction. “Also: what is the exact name of this method?” - Mahasi Sayadaw Satipatthana Vipassana -www.meditationintheshire.com.au/meditation/meditation%2016%202015.html Answers in detail. When our attention moves from the primary object of meditation it is being drawn away by the relationship we have with the secondary object (distraction). In this case the secondary object my be that your mind has wandered off thinking. At first you will not know that your attention has wandered off and will be totally lost within the content of the thought, it will become your reality..At some stage, depending on the strength of your Mindfulness that has been cultivated, you will realise that you have been lost in thought. This realising is Mindfulness. The moment you realise that you have been lost you label "thinking, thinking". This will separate you from the experience so that you can observe it. Do not place any interest in the 'content' of the thought, instead focus on your relationship to it, what does the thinking 'feel' like. Every thought is powered by an emotional charge, what is driving your thinking, your dreaming? If you notice that your were judging then label it "judging, judging", wanting label it "wanting, wanting", planning label it "planning, planning, angry label it "angry, angry". When you focus on experience of thinking or dreaming itself, rather then the never ending story of what the thought / dream was about, then the thinking will usually dissolve because it no longer is being fed by the energy of your participation. When it dissolves then notice what it 'feels' like to be free from thought. It is at this point, when the relationship to the secondary object, or the object itself has dissolved, and nothing else is drawing your attention, that you return to the primary object of meditation. With practice the mind will automatically return to the primary object when the secondary object is no longer drawing your attention. thankyou for watching the video,take care Stephen Procter Meditation in The Shire www.meditationintheshire.com.au

[@DreamWizard9]

Tai Chi Health for Life Thank you very much for this wonderful and in-depth answer to my questions! I'm starting to understand it a bit better. I tried a session. It was good :) What I noticed is: many times I am in the "rising, falling, rising, falling", just focussing on the breath. (am trained in this, been meditating for years like this, counting and stuff) So I'm at "rising, falling" and then I hear in the distance a car drive by, BUT I'm not distracted by it. I keep very focused on the rising falling. The car, I hear in the background but it doesn't grab my attention at all. Is this OK? Or should i be "hearing hearing" in any case? I just kept 'rising and falling' and stayed focused on the breath. Is not being distracted by the 'distractions' fine too in Vipassana? Thanks for all your wonderful work, Maestro! You are a true Sensei!!

[@midlinsightmeditation]

DreamWizard9 Hi Dream - In the beginning if the distraction does not pull your attention away from the primary object then it is just enough to ‘know’ it with bare awareness. You do not need to label every experience; just the ones that you wish to clarify. It is only necessary to label when your attention moves. - Once your practice deepens then you will start to notice that for you to hear the sound, your mind had to move, it was just so fast that you didn’t notice. Your attention was jumping between the ‘rising and falling’ movements and the sound. This will only become clear once the concentration and mindfulness have developed to a deeper level. - Something else to consider. How did you know it was a car? Didn’t you have your eyes closed? There is a whole process of contact and perception plus proliferation to be explored in just the hearing of the sound. Vispassana is a wisdom practice; the wisdom arises through observing and understanding what is really going on. In your hearing of the sound there was a process of the sound striking your ear drum - contact between the two - pleasant or unpleasant feeling tone -liking or disliking of that feeling - desire to move towards or away from that - interpretation of the sound being a car - the story about the sound being a car not dragging your attention away etc. There is a full process going on. In reality you cannot know the car - just the sound and your interpretation of it, the car itself cannot be experienced.thankyou for your intelligent questions, take care Stephen Procter

[@JonnyValente]

Stephen Procter Thank you so much for putting the mahasi technique so beautifully explained, I learned this technique in a Vipassana Retreat with a great teacher that you will find he is very curiously similar to you in many ways, thank you again for your wisdom and sharing friend , may you keep opening up people's hearts brother :) PS : His name is Anthony from Australia, you can find a video on him in vimeo named : "From dope to Dalai Lama" Love and Light Namaste J

[@midlinsightmeditation]

Hello Joao, It is nice to hear from you, I appreciate your gratitude. Thankyou for sharing the video I had not seen it before, it was interesting - another Australian. take care, have a wonderful day, Stephen.

[@kch3019]

Thank you for this video. one thing I would always get is that I tend to feel frustrated after catching or knowing that I am thinking. the whole practice then goes all about the frustration and restlessness that thoughts keep coming up. It's like I go rising, falling, - thought comes up, then I'd go thinking, thinking, then I would get all frustrated about the thought that came up. What do I do with this feeling then? Do I label this as feeling, feeling, or angry, angry? I noticed if I just brush it off and go back to the rising and falling I'd just get even more frustrated, is like something bring suppressed.

[@midlinsightmeditation]

Hello, it sounds like during meditation you are using labels in the wrong way. Labelling should not be used to stop you from being distracted during Mindfulness meditation. Instead it should be used to clarify where your attention has moved to, so that you can develop understanding of the movement. The feeling of frustration and irritation arises because you think that your attention is not meant to move, so you fight against it moving by using labels to try to hold your attention still. Fighting against your attention moving creates a gap between what you think should be happening and what is actually happening. It is your relationship to this gap that creates your suffering (Dukkha). I think your confusion has come about by the misunderstanding the difference between Mindfulness based and concentration based meditation. The difference is that when developing concentration based meditation you fix you attention on one object and ignore all distractions so that your attention becomes absorbed into your meditation object. So in the case of meditating for deep concentration, being distracted is bad because it causes the concentration to collapse. Mindfulness meditation on the other hand is concerned with observing how attention moves and the characteristic of impermanence (Anicca). During Mindfulness meditation there is no such thing as a distraction, just movements of attention that need to be observed and understood. A distraction is something that you think should not be there, that draws your attention away; this type of thinking is based on aversion. By making the movement of your attention the object of your meditation, distraction no longer exists. Instead of fighting your thinking you should make the thinking itself the object of your Mindfulness when your attention is drawn towards it. Only use the label to clarify the experience, if it gets in the way then drop it. Think of it as being the difference between tying a horse to a post and locking it in a coral (concentration meditation) and untying the horse, letting it out of the coral, hoping on its back and allowing the horse to go where it wants while you observe its habits (Mindfulness meditation). Stop trying to control your attention and the frustration and restlessness will dissolve, take care, Stephen

[@kch3019]

+Stephen Procter Thank you very much for clearing that up Stephen, you are right. I got it all confused and misunderstood. Especially on the concentration and mindfulness. Thank you very much for the clear explanation, very much appreciated. One more question I have when I notice I have drifted into a thought, is that I tend to ask myself, how long have I been drifting in this thought, could I then note this experience as "thinking" as well? it's like I'm thinking about thinking. Most of the time, the drama in my mind starts off with this kinda thought and spirals down to the anger and frustration I mentioned earlier. I guess it doesn't really matter how long I have been drifting in a thought, what matters is that I am aware of it now and I am letting the thought be, just what it is, just a thought?

[@midlinsightmeditation]

Hello. I think the misunderstanding of what to do when your attention wanders to a thought comes from not fully understanding what Mindfulness is. Mindfulness is a translation of the Pali word Sati. Sati literally means 'to remember', so Mindfulness is the quality of mind that remembers the meditation object, Mindfulness remembers "this is what I am experiencing right now", and knows "this is how I am relating to it". During mindfulness meditation you will often ‘forget’ that you are meditating and your attention will wander off from the breath and become lost in the contents of a thought. This forgetting occurred because the strength of your Mindfulness faded and you slipped into delusion - literally ‘not knowing’. The moment that you realise “I have been lost within a thought”, that is a moment when the Mindfulness has come back again and a break in delusion. The very act of noticing everytime your attention wanders is how Mindfulness is strengthened. Each time this occurs, and you know that you had wandered, your Mindfulness will get stronger and you will notice faster when your attention has wandered. When your attention wanders to a thought and you get upset about it, you are just strengthening the delusion and weakening the Mindfulness. You are given a meditation object such as the breath and your bodily sensations as a grounding object so that you have a reference point to be able to notice when your attention has moved so that you can observe it. You were given these objects so that you ‘Would forget them’. Mindfulness meditation is about breaking through the delusion, not through force but through wisdom, understanding. Do not try to stop you attention moving, instead notice when it has moved away from your primary object. That is why you use labels, watching the breathing “in”, “out”, wander to a sound “hearing, hearing”, to a thought “thinking, thinking” etc, this clarifys the movement of attention and strengthens your Mindfulness. If a certain thinking pattern is dominant you can identify the emotional charge as “arguing”, “judging”, “fearing”, “planning”. The thought will then dissolve because you are no longer feeding it then turn your attention back to the breathing “in”, “out”. Be gentle in this dance of observing attention move, do not add any extra pain. If your mind slips into delusion and irritation arises, notice where you feel it in your body. Break it into sensations such as “tight”, “tense” “unpleasant” and soften into the feeling using slow gentle breaths, sighing on the out-breath. Then return to the breathing - ‘in”, ‘out”. My advise to to be more gentle in your practice, understand that obsessive thinking is natural, it is not you, it is not under your control and that it does not need to be stopped, just understood. In this way your Mindfulness will grow and the thinking will settle by itself. In the next couple of weeks I will have a book I have written on Mindfulness in Daily Life with practical instructions on how to develop your meditation practice. The book cost is by donation, a link to it will appear on my website www.meditationintheshire.com.au when it is available Take care Stephen

[@kch3019]

Thank you so much for the in-depth explanation Stephen, I look forward to the book. You have helped me break and clear a lot of confusion on my practice. Thank you heaps! Metta Kie

[@nibbanadhatu]

Can any shorter words be used instead of "rising & falling" in this method? For example, "up & down" or "in & out"?

[@midlinsightmeditation]

Hello Dharma, the words that Mahasi Sayadaw and the teachers within his lineage use in this Mahasi Satipatthana Vipassana technique is 'rising' and 'falling' in regards to the movement of the abdomen. That being said mental labels are just pointers used to direct attention and clarify the perception of an experience, in this way it is more important that the words used have meaning for you, as long as the are helping to direct attention and clarify perception. Personally I use in and out and teach this to my students, but whatever fulfills the purpose is ok.

[@nibbanadhatu]

Thanks. When "rising & falling" is translated to some other languages (Russian, for eample), there are too many syllables in the words and uneasy to repeat during meditation. That's why I am looking for shorter versions.

[@stevenkok1926]

Shadu Shadu Shadu