Week 24 Day 5

Medi object choiceless awareness
Intention to observe raw sensations and test quality of awareness

Morning all! A better effort today as I've managed to get up earlier and have a 30 min meditation. Today's meditation started with sneezing for 3 minutes at least. It is the hay fever season and it was very difficult to focus on anything other than the sneezing!

After about 6 or 7 minutes the itching in the nose calmed down. I attempted 5 minutes metta but it was mixed with sneezing. Very hard, and felt I hadn't done much when the bell went.

The noting began with couple of deep breaths and as I'm in a hotel room there are different sensations. For a while I could hear the ringing in my ears predominantly and then there were many external noises outside the hotel window. I identified these as utility trucks picking up rubbish. So there were rumbling noises and beeping noises relating to this activity. There was also some activity outside the hotel room door - footsteps, doors shutting.

I felt coolness around my body and yet heat from the shower. This combination provided a mild chilling effect.

I tried to observe the quality of my attention and this actually helped after a little drifting at around 15 minutes in. After the sneezing calmed down I watched a few thought trains, whilst keeping the ringing in my ears, the feeling of my hands on my knees, and sounds of the rubbish trucks in the periphery.

I  felt very calm (bored?) and noted that if I straightened my back attention would move forward and became stronger. Slouching is definitely not good for high alertness!

Sniffing has now replaced the sneezing, so armed with a wodge of tissues I will attempt breakfast.

Hope you all have a great day and practice!

24/5