Could noting and labelling (or mindfulness practices) be used within Nisargadatta's "I am" approach?

 

I really liked this response to the following question, thanks to AI reasoning:

Q: Could noting and labeling (as per Buddhist meditation practice such as Mahasi noting) work with noting and labeling the "I am" (as Nisargatdatta taught with his teachings on the "I am")?

A: Yes, noting and labeling could be applied to the "I am" in a way that aligns with Mahasi-style insight meditation and Nisargadatta’s teachings.

How This Would Work

1. Noting the "I am" as an Object of Awareness

   • In Mahasi noting, you label experiences as they arise (e.g., "thinking," "hearing," "pain").
   • You could note "I am" as a phenomenon when it naturally appears in awareness.
   • If identification arises, note "identifying" or "selfing."

2. Seeing the "I am" as Impermanent and Not-Self

   • Traditional Buddhist noting is designed to reveal impermanence, suffering, and not-self (anicca, dukkha, anatta).
   • By noting the "I am" in real-time, you might see that it is an arising and passing event—not a fixed reality.

3. Going Deeper into Nisargadatta’s Approach

   • Nisargadatta suggests staying with the "I am" without conceptualizing it.
   • Noting might initially create distance, making you aware that the sense of "I am" is an experience, not the ultimate truth.
   • Eventually, the goal would be to drop even the label and abide in pure being.

Potential Challenge

• Over-Conceptualization: Noting could reinforce a dualistic observer, keeping "I am" at the level of mind instead of allowing direct abidance in it.
• Solution: Use noting only to dissolve identification, then let awareness rest naturally in the "I am."

Conclusion

Yes, noting and labeling could help deconstruct the habitual identification with "I am" and reveal its transient nature. However, at some point, Nisargadatta’s approach invites you to go beyond noting and simply be the "I am" in its purest form.

Mahasi Noting Technique (Mahasi Sayadaw Vipassana) revisited 2018.

Here are a few notes on my experience of revisiting the Mahasi Sayadaw Noting technique (aka Mahasi Sayadaw style vipassana).

For some reason, I felt like carrying out an all day experiment, using considerable effort to keep noting all day long. The noting or labelling was to take place every second or so, and during all activities. I also did it during a few 20 minute sittings in silence.

Although I was fond of this technique before, it seems to have worn out its usefulness for now. In fact, I found it rather tiresome and effortful, versus the simple self-awareness, nondual type contemplation I'm used to these days.

Good:

- Gives some instant focus and withdrawal from discursive thought, analysis etc
- Tunes one into one's environment and the 6 sense doors rapidly
- Makes one ultra sensitive to the senses
- Brings experience back to basic sensations and perceptions, instead of conceptual stories

Issues:

- Becomes tiresome after long extended periods, especially due to the effort in keeping up the noting after each event
- Becomes mechanical and forced after a while, even when done lightly
- Too clunky to be used on subtle levels of experience
- The noting or labelling can get in the way of direct experience at times
- Focuses and habituates the mind to constantly 'go out' into phenomena, and completely ignores consciousness or awareness itself (subject).
- The mind becomes too tense after long periods
- Can strengthen the ego, false self, by engaging it in this whole project of 'doing' and 'getting somewhere' over time.

The technique has some ardent followers and proponents who say that it can lead to "stream-entry". It seems MS created it a century ago to help 'busy people' get into mindfulness and vipassana easier. It seems to be used in monastic and retreat situations these days mostly. I have read/spoken to/heard both success stories from people using the technique (ie attained to what they think is stream-entry), to dissatisfied students having used it for years (30 years in one case) without delivering 'the goods'.

I have my doubts now about how far the technique can actually take a practitioner. I highly doubt it would lead to the destruction of the false self/ego, and seems never to really lead to a thorough investigation of one's identity and underlying beliefs about experience.. but instead lead one to get into the minutiae of one's environment and senses.

Summary IME- it has it's place and is great for certain situations, and as an auxiliary practice, but is unlikely to deliver hard results in terms of self-realisation and transcending the false "I".

Apple juice mindfulness

A few days ago I was boarding a plane from Singapore to Penang island, and noticed that my seat was next to a Theravada (Buddhist) monk in his 40's. He was wearing the traditional brown robe and was already seated.

Although interested in making a connection, I withheld conversation for most of the trip. At the end of the trip I discovered he was a Burmese monk (in the Mahasi tradition) headed for a meditation centre in Penang.

During the trip we were served a snack/drink, and we both chose apple juice as a beverage. Theravada monks due to their vows, do not eat solid food after midday, hence he only took a cup of apple juice. Myself not being particularly fond of airplane food also took the same.

I took about five minutes or so to finish the drink with some minor noting of its taste and color. However, I received a direct, silent teaching in mindfulness from the monk in becoming aware that he took around 20 minutes to finish the small cup. Each sip was savoured completely, mindfully, and slowly, no doubt attending to the sense perceptions such as taste etc., while drinking.

The event left a lasting impression on my consciousness and memory. No big deal, but it does show that mindfulness in action (when done with a high degree of awareness and intent) can and does impact those around us and in ways not always recognized.