6 Sense Noting

Learning to distinguish between the 6 senses & observe calmly

Guided Meditation

Distinguishing the 6 Senses - Tour of the 6 Senses

Learn to observe all experience - 6-Sense Noting

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

Instructions

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

1. 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

2. Label

   1. Identify which sense-category the sense-phenomena relates to

   2. Label once 'There is' + 'Seeing', 'Hearing', 'Feeling', 'Tasting', 'Smelling', 'Thinking'

      • e.g., 'There is seeing', 'there is thinking'

3. 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

4. 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

5. Release

   • Letting go of the sense-object

6. Repeat

   • Repeat from step 1 Recognize

Visualization of Steps

Visualization of Attention

Visualization of how Attention moves

• 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)

Understanding

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

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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'

Progress

/	Level 1 - Non-Skilled	Level 2 - Skilled	Level 3 - Maturity
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

Daily Life

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