My take on basics of the Mahasi approach is that one uses a "primary" or "gounding" object, such as rise/fall of abdomen, breath, touch points, walking, etc to build up mindfulness and calm, but if something else comes up one pays attention to that instead. A sound, for example. This is a "secondary object". It's those secondary objects where things get interesting, as the initial attention on them is unintentional.retrofuturist wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 8:30 am Greetings Mike,
Is that what is called "secondary object" in the normal course of events.mikenz66 wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 8:23 am Probably what some describe as "choiceless awareness" which by which they mean not having any particular intention about what to observe. It's not uncommon, and apparently Shikantaza is similar, as we've discussed here before somewhere.
If you read some of the Mahasi-related teachers, you'll find they see this choiceless wareness as something one naturally progresses to, where the particular objects of attention are dropped after a time and whatever arises is observed. It's something that can come naturally on a retreat when calm and mindfulness have been developed.
Metta,
Paul.
What I'm calling choiceless awareness is when there is no need for a primary object. One is calm enough that one is content to just observe whatever comes up. So in that sense everything is now secondary (unintentional) objects.
Mike