staying awake

[goodlife]

Friends,

Would like you to know what all you do wrt bringing down mindwandering while sitting .. I was searching through the past forum threads, i found 1) once you come back to wakefulness, calmly return back to your object of meditation(breath, sensations), be grateful for the remembering (& not get irritated about the forgetting) 2) counting your breadth - may be at the beginning of the sitting & when you remember .. are there are any other suggestions/tips on improving stability of attention...

i some how feel my mindwandering has gone up recently than before  .. all the immediate day issues .. mostly work related come in the way & hijack the wakefulness ...

upasaka culadasa advises to actively engage in the meditation object .. by that i understand he means to get into your experience, note more intensely your sensation, breath etc ... i havent found much success in this area of 'staying' awake once you remember ... im not beating myself too much on it .. im being okay with it .. any suggestions on how to reduce forgetting period & extend remembering period .. whatever has worked for you ?

thanks & wish you all a long wknd for those in the US..

Good life

[Vivek]

It is always beneficial to view sila, samadhi and pannya as one integral whole. In this respect, if the mind is too gross or agitated, then it is better to switch from vipassana to anapana for a while until the mind is calm and sharp again. If the mind is still too gross or agitated that even anapana is proving not too useful, then it is better to look into ways to strengthen your sila first. Attending a short retreat almost always helps get the practice back on track.

[goodlife]

thanks vivek

i am trying a combination of setting the intention of the sitting at the beginning, with some counting in the beginning as needed.. in general i have seen it stablize .. but some times the mind stability just changes & its not necessarily linear progress.. overall its a change with time though..