..续本文上一页ear knowing; while carrying the alms bowl and while wearing the robes he does so with clear knowing; while eating, drinking, chewing, and savouring he does so with clear knowing; while urinating or defecating he does so with clear knowing; while walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking, speaking or when remaining silent, he does so with clear knowing or full attentiveness".

　　You can see here that the Buddha is emphasising the continuity of attentiveness or mindfulness of all daily activities, with clear knowing of all body movements in great detail - including what you do in the bathroom: nothing is too trivial that it is left out. This is the most important set of instructions and the most demanding to follow in the practice of intensive Vipassana meditation. Yet a lot of meditators often find resistance in the mind to being purposefully attentive to daily activities and movements. One has to overcome this disinclination to be mindful by persistently training oneself until you experience some positive feedback – as one does with the fluency of the practice, which will give you the confidence to keep going with the practice.

　　From the Buddha”s time down to the present there have been teachers who have suggested practices and strategies that support the attentiveness practice. One of the most prominent of these was the late Mahasi Sayadaw of Myanmar, who recommended and taught a very effective mental naming or noting technique in his book “Practical Exercises in Vipassana Meditation”.

　　"When making bodily movements, the meditator should do so slowly, gently moving the arms and legs, bending or stretching them, lowering the head and raising it up. When rising from the sitting posture, one should do so gradually, noting as ”rising, rising”. When straightening up and standing, note as ”standing, standing”. When looking here and there, note as ”looking, seeing”. When walking, note the steps, whether they are taken with the right or the left foot. You must be aware of all the successive movements involved, from the raising of the foot to the dropping of it.

　　When one wakes up, one should immediately resume noting. The meditator who is really intent on attaining the path and its fruition (magga phala) should rest from meditation only when asleep. At other times, in all waking moments, one should be noting continually the successive body/mind phenomena without let up. That is why, as soon as one awakens, one should note the awakening state of mind as ”awakening, awakening”. If one cannot yet be aware of this, one should begin with noting the rising and falling of the abdomen.

　　As one goes on noting in this way, one will be able to note more and more of these events. In the beginning, as the mind wanders here and there, one may miss many things, but one should not be disheartened. Every beginner encounters the same difficulty, but as one becomes more skilled, one becomes aware of every act of mind wandering until eventually the mind does not wander any more. The mind is then riveted onto the object of its attention, the act of mindfulness becoming almost simultaneous with the object of its attention. In other words, the rising of the abdomen becomes concurrent with the act of noting it and similarly with the falling of the abdomen and all other activities”.

　　It is important not to give the mind any chance to slip into its old habitual ways. We are creatures of habit operating on "autopilot" a lot of the time, making many unconscious movements and actions. In a retreat situation, there is no need to hurry and in fact one is encouraged to slow down. Hurrying is an indicator that you have slipped into automatic pilot. So turn off the autopilot and use the manual controls by consciously and deliberately noting all your actions throu…

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