Okay, go ahead.
Hi Manthe, when noting various thoughts such as rising and falling, is it better to simply draw awareness to the thought or to state the word in one's mind?
Draw awareness to the thought.
I don't know what the meaning is of either of those really.
I don't know how you would draw your awareness to the thought.
Oh, wait.
Yeah, no, I don't know how you would do that.
I wouldn't worry about such things.
I would, you know, the problems that you have with the noting and with the practice simply come from inexperience.
Eventually you figure it out.
You get it.
You realize what the benefit is, what the purpose is.
You see what leads you to clarity of mind and what leads to suffering.
And so your acknowledgement naturally becomes beneficial and you just get better.
It's kind of like playing tennis.
You'll know when the ball goes over the net.
I always bring up tennis because I had a horrible time.
Tennis was like a nightmare for me, learning how to play, and all these rules about how to move your racket, how to lift the ball, and I could never hit it.
You'll know when it goes over the net.
So you'll know when it works.
And in the beginning it's just a lot of practice and testing and figuring it out.
With any training it's like that.
Well, not with any training.
With trainings like this, any intricate, refined training, and this is like the most refined training, it's really something, a skill that you have to work at maybe for years.
I mean, the point is, when you're truly mindful, the moment when you're truly mindful is the moment when you attain the Eightfold Noble Path, and that moment is the door to cessation.
That's the moment where you realize nirvana.
So up until that point you're really just practicing, refining, honing your skill.
You're still not doing it right until you get to that moment where you're actually doing it right and you actually see clearly.
So up until that point we're practicing.