Week 23 Day 3

Medi object choiceless awareness

Intention to observe raw sensations and associated vedana

5 mins metta followed by 25 mins noting. I followed the advice about kinaesthetic image for metta and it seemed to work better. More practice required.

Noting for 25 mins. Following on from advice yesterday,  I started with rising and falling of the breath and noted that it was neutral sensation to start off with but after sneezing it was unpleasant and I was irritated. After sneezing if I was drawn to listen to my breathing it felt uncomfortable but not unbearable. 

Lots of hearing sensations today.  I tried to observed the raw sounds first as a whole and identified different types. I noted a short sharp single sound with regular gaps which I identified as birdsong. Then some chirrups. Long lower hollow whistling sounds which I identified as birds too. These were all neutral sensations. 

Then I was drawn to what was in front of my eyes which was just white blobs and I was surprised that I did not see more colour.

Every now and then I was drawn to a sharp harsh noise from outside which was unpleasant. Then when it stopped I felt relief - this was a very pleasant sensation, I noted that as the sound became louder and appeared to be coming closer I became more irritated.

I noted sharp grating noises which were even more unpleasant than the other harsh noise these lasted about 1 or 3 seconds each.

There was a sound outside my room from corridor which was neutral. I deduced it was the corridor door which is automatic. I heard sounds which appeared to be voices and these were irritating to me, 

I felt an ache in my back so I noted my intention to adjust my posture and adjusted it. I did this several times through the meditation.

Nick, listening to raw sounds and not identifying them is ok, but trying to describe them a in post is really difficult! 

Must prep for gala dinner. Look forward to reading all your posts later!

23/3