Practice 9 · Noting the Chain

Step 1: Settling

Locate a stable but relaxed posture. Allow your body to be grounded, supported.

Shut your eyes gradually, and pause a moment to welcome your mind, not to solve a problem, but to be your companion in this journey.

Be aware of its present weather: is it in a bustle, fussy, quiet, foggy? There is no necessity to modify anything, just accept it.

Step 2: Concentrate on the Breath

Greet your breathing like an old friend. Touch the in and out air. Notice its characteristics today: long or short, light or heavy, smooth or rough?

Breathe in three long, conscious breaths, letting each breath help you settle deeper. Then permit your breathing to take its natural time.

Wait a few minutes, and come back to the breath every time your mind goes away.

Step 3: Noticing the Drift

When you forget, and you will, just observe this movement. Notice that you did not select the distraction. It appeared spontaneously, like a cloud floating in the air.

Gently bring your mind back to the breath. Every turn back is not a loss, but a little triumph in consciousness.

Step 4: Expanding Awareness

At this point, with the breath as your anchor, expand your awareness.

Be aware of the sounds in the surroundings, far or close, sweet or sour. See how your mind is quick to classify every sound:

• Pleasant → expansion, bending towards it.
• Unpleasant → contraction, leaning away.

Follow this sequence like a movie scene.

Allow awareness to include sensations in your body: warmth, coolness, areas of ease or discomfort.

Take note of thoughts and feelings as they come: a chance thought, a thought of the future, a flash of irritation or calmness. Name them: thinking, remembering, planning, feeling. Should you lose your way in them, only note “lost,” and come back.

Step 5: Seeing the Chain of Events

Begin to watch the natural chain of experience:

• Sensory contact: a sound, sight, sensation or thought comes into view.
• Automatic classification: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
• Emotional response: happiness, irritation, depression, desire.
• Physical sensation: expansion, contraction, tension, relaxation.

You see how one thing leads to another, and you may not even be aware of it. Observe the body-mind in constant motion, which forms your experience of living, one moment at a time.

Step 6: Letting Go of Labels

Now, just label it and just watch. Ask yourself, in a low tone: What now is going on? Stay curious.

Notice the interconnectedness:

• How pain causes the idea of shifting.
• How the change is soothing.
• How relief alters your mood.

Everything is a stream: causes becoming effects, which in turn become new causes.

Step 7: Closing

Breathe in three times. Feel the body, sitting here, the breath passing, the mind conscious. And when you are prepared, open your eyes.