This is my debut 'starting post' so first of all hello & metta to everyone.

I would like to start a debate about comparisons regarding
- practise
- experiences with
- outcomes
from long-term use of the two most commonly taught and practised Burmese Vipassana techniques i.e.
- U Ba Khin/Goenka anapana + body scan
- Mahasi abdomen observation + noting
It's probably worth saying in advance that I am not asking to hear about isolated scary retreat experiences unless they have something to say about the technique itself, whether or not you consider Goenka and/or his organisation to be an evil cult or any other venting of spleens. I would like us to focus on positive or at least useable aspects of the techniques only and their particular flavours, pros & cons.
My reason for doing this is I want to decide one or other technique and stick with it, as this seems to be the overwhelming recommendation from teachers from all traditions and makes sense to me also. I hope that this will be useful to other practitioners who I am sure also make such decisions at some point.
To start the ball rolling then, my experience of U Ba Khin/Goenka has been very positive so far. I had many years of Yoga meditation behind be, as well as some quite strong mystical experiences in my late teens so I had access to 'other internal realms' to a certain extent. I was however quite shocked when on the very first afternoon of being exposed to Vipassana (day 4) I spent the last 20 minutes of the long session in a very intense, Kundalini-like, (some call it A&P peak I think) experience that left me shivering, exhausted, surprised, with a big grin on my face and yet slightly nervous regarding the intensity.

The Asst Teacher was of no help in 'decoding' this or the following experiences (my only complaint about the retreat really, everything else very professional if a little strict & dogmatic). The next day and from them onwards I experienced my body clearly dissolving and was both concerned & amused as I had nothing left to scan!

The next few days were spent experimenting with and refining the scanning & 'equanimous awareness' experience, and by the end of the retreat I was pretty drained both emotionally & physically from the effort and minimal sleep, but also:
- my eyes had been opened about a number of pending personal issues that had been troubling me, some of which literally evaporated
- I was experiencing a profound calmness
- I had an extra awareness of the 'aliveness' of nature
- my understanding of anicca as the vibratory energy underlying the mind/matter interface was very clear
- I had experienced (and continue to) either pain relief or actual healing of a long-term shoulder injury which required full reconstruction 10 years ago and has been a constant source of stiffness and tension ever since - simply by observing the 'congestion' in the flow of subtle vibrations in that area
Though I had my own misgivings about attitude & a little too much dogma/chanting at the retreat centre itself, I certainly had a determination to continue and have been since. There have been further intense experiences since of a slightly different flavour but usually involving complete body dissolution. I realise that 'intensity' is not the relevant measure here but it seems to be one marker on the road, especially if you take the
Progress of Insight map seriously. Also my perspective continues to stay positive and calm despite some problems which are currently in my life.
However, I am not someone to take things as gospel without finding out for myself (as Gautama himself advised) and so when I was made aware of the Mahasi style I decided to investigate. The received wisdom that I have gathered about this is that:
- because you are free to experience all the sense doors it is 'more complete' and closer to the suttas description of satipatthana than Goenka and therefore more effective; though see Appendix A of the Hart book 'Art of Living' and here http://eng.buddhapia.com/_Service/_ContentView/ETC_CONTENT_2.ASP?PK=0001450668&danrak_no=&clss_cd=0002201062&top_menu_cd=0000000808 for Goenkas rationale about the vedana approach. (I wonder if some of the critics have considered these?)
- perhaps because of the above, experienced practitioners are said to prefer it and there are quotes somewhere which go along the lines of "XYZ centre changed from body scanning to Mahasi noting and got an increase in the number of stream-enterers" - though I have never seen concrete evidence of this
- it might be my imagination but it appears that long-term Mahasi people are more vocal about their technique and perhaps more focused on their attainments than Goenka people?
So my experience (less than Goenka, perhaps 2-3 weeks) has been the following. It puts me in a different internal state than Goenka in general, though with some similarities in the sense that one senses vibratory qualities, energy flows and shifts in perception. I have not felt the same physical pain relief that body scanning provides. I found, and continue to find, that the noting 'clutters' the mind even when carried out gently. I have realised that I can focus much better on the abdomen movement by
not noting 'rising' and 'falling' and this helps the deeper states emerge - though it is possible to lose focus more easily. It is easier to observe 'intellectually' when emotional or mental states occur, but the body awareness is not as clear or at least more 'scattered'. I have experimented with very short simple notes, standard ones (e.g. 'hearing', 'feeling', touching') and longer more descriptive ones that Kenneth Folk suggests somewhere. For me, the standard ones work best but I am probably happier without any noting at all! I feel less anxious, but perhaps also a little less observant, when I just use awareness of distractions rather than noting. I'm also a little unclear about the actuality of noting - Mahasi himself seems to suggest a quick note and move back to primary without getting involved at all in the distraction but others appear to suggest some investigation, particularly with respect to emotional states or thoughts that arise. In general, it is a more jerky and unsettling experience, sometimes a little irritating, but one thing that it does appear to highlight is anatta or non-self. You can enter states where this is very clear. It seems somehow more 'detached' than body scanning which always retains a connected quality somehow, even when the physical body itself has dissolved.
So that's probably enough for the moment. Interested to see if the experience of people here indicate that one is superior to the other, if they are just different (perhaps suiting different characters and/or at different times), whether they should be mixed/hybridised or one should be chosen and focused on, whether one or other is more suitable for lay/everyday use and any other relevant issues in terms of long-term usage.
Metta
Michael