The Six Senses are:

1. Seeing

2. Hearing

3. Smelling

4. Tasting

5. Touching

6. Thinking

by Kenneth Folk

Lowest on the ladder of abstraction is raw experience. At this level, sensations can be clearly felt, but it would not be possible to assign a name to them. While it is possible to meditate (train in attention) at this level, it is difficult to remain on task as higher order processes have not yet come online.

Moving slightly higher on the ladder, it becomes possible to assign names to experiences. The sensation of itching can be labeled “itching,” and the activity of seeing can be noted as “seeing.” It is at this level that noting meditation becomes possible. Whatever disadvantages may accrue from rising up to this level of abstraction are outweighed by the feedback loop made possible by the labeling. Social meditation becomes possible here; with the advent of labeling comes the ability to communicate one’s experience to another. Language opens a window into the intimate experience of another human being.

Higher still on the ladder of abstraction it becomes possible to combine simple phenomena into compounds. Mind states, for example, are compound phenomena; discomfort, agitation, anxiety, and anger are similar phenomena distinguishable by the constellations of sensations that comprise each state. Fundamentally, mind states are patterns of physical sensations; the name we give to each discreet state is itself an abstraction.

Continuing up the ladder, thoughts can be objectified and labeled. When this is done continuously, simple thoughts don’t spin out into full-blown narratives.

At even higher levels of abstraction, complete narratives become available. Work at this level, while valuable, e.g., psychotherapy, is not meditation, and therefore beyond the scope of this essay. Much of the work of meditation involves learning to work at lower levels of abstraction, countering the natural tendency of modern humans to become lost in narrative while losing touch with the simpler phenomena of body sensations and mind states.

English v1.6

• Added this English Changelog.

• Changed the Facilitation Options, "Cycling Through" to "Looping" for simplicities sake, and also to bring it more in line with standard programming language. Updated that throughout the guide.

• Updated the Zen Noting technique–changed the Frame & added Relay to the facilitation options. Added There is Zen Noting and I Am Zen Noting as sub-practices.

• Added the Classic Metta practice.

• Moved Noting Thoughts from Basic to Intermediate difficulty due to challenge of working with the subtly of thoughts.

• Updated the May it Arise practice–changed name from May Metta Arise (English 1.5) to be more inclusive of inviting other interesting things to arise in the practice that may not fit in the category of "Metta".

• Swapped images on What is Social Meditation? and The Evolution of Social Meditation.

English v1.7

• Updated The Phases of Social Meditation video.

• Updated The Basic Facilitator Protocol, the Safety Release Valve, and The Witness to reflect the universal emphasis on introducing The Witness & Safety Release Valve during a session. Also simplified how the Witness is introduced in a virtual context, by turning off one's video feed, and distinguished between introducing the Witness virtually & in-person.

• Updated Binary Noting to reflect that it's one of the rare practices where a Safety Release Valve doesn't apply.

• Added a teaching video to The Basic Facilitator Protocol page.

• Updated Progressive Release Noting instructions.

By Vince Fakhoury Horn

There are a couple of different options for how one can facilitate the debrief phase. If you're a Beginning Facilitator then you're asked to use the Quick Debrief format below, in the last couple minutes of the session. If you're a Basic Facilitator (or above) then you have the option to extend the half-hour practice session with an optional extended debrief phase.

Quick Debrief

In the quick debrief everyone is invited to share, as they feel moved, what they noticed during the practice phase. This takes the form of "There was..." + a note or two. (Ex. "There was joy & tension." or "There was sleepiness" or "There was unity & love.")

This is the required debrief format for all Beginning Facilitators. Basic, Intermediate, & Advanced Facilitators alike, are all welcome to offer an extended debrief, in addition to the quick debrief.

Extended Debrief

After the quick debrief is over, the facilitator can offer an extended debrief, for all those participants that would like to stay on for another 10-15 minutes after the session is complete, to openly discuss how the practice went. It's important that this is framed as optional, so that if participants want to leave at the end of the half-hour, after doing a quick debrief, they can. For those that want to stay on, the basic question in the extended debreif is, "Is there anything that you'd like to share about how the practice went?"

The Safety Release Valve Note is a mechanism, created by Kenneth Folk, by which one always has a way to pass, if they aren't sure what to say. The way it works is when you don't know what to say you can always note, "Don't Know", "Uncertain", "Pass", "Thank You" (particularly good for Social Metta practices) or any variation on that theme.

The Safety Release Valve was originally designed for Social Noting practices, to help reduce social anxiety that can build up around not being sure what to note (especially for beginners) and to keep the flow of the noting practice unimpeded by excessive deliberation. It can be used with any practice listed on this guide, unless the notes on that practice recommend otherwise (ex. Binary Noting & Just Noting).

The role, or position, of The Witness–given form by Vince Fakhoury Horn–is an option that's always meant to be given by the social meditation facilitator. It is the option to participate as a silent observer, or witness, to the process, rather than participating out loud.

Virtual Witnessing

The easiest way for folks who are connected virtually to identify themselves as a Witness is to invite them to turn off their video feeds if they wish to Witness. This way they can choose to enter and the exit the Witness role as they like, with a clear visual cue for all those participating.

In-Person Witnessing

When you introduce the role of The Witness in-person it's important to have either A) a dedicated place where witnesses can go sit during the session or to have them visually identify themselves to their group–particularly in the case of practices following a sequential order–so that everyone in the group knows who is witnessing.

The 2nd Category: Charge

By Vince Fakhoury Horn

Connected Practice:

The 4th Category: Thoughts

by Vince Fakhoury Horn

Connected Practice:

By Vince Fakhoury Horn

More Detail

Connected Practices

The 3rd Category: Mind States

By Vince Fakhoury Horn

Connected Practices:

The 1st Category: Body Sensations

by Vince Fakhoury Horn

Connected Practices:

by Kenneth Folk

As long as meditation is defined as sitting silent and alone, it’s not going to catch on. We are human primates. We are social in our very bones. Isolation is punishment. Silence is dull.

Here is another definition: meditation is the bringing of attention to experience, and training in meditation is training in attention. By this definition, neither isolation nor silence are required; we can train together, and that is good, because together is what we were born for.

Social meditation brings the benefits of traditional silent meditation while simultaneously cultivating intimacy and strengthening bonds between humans. Social meditation is engaging in a way that only social activities can be. And social meditation provides a built-in feedback loop; when two or more people are taking turns reporting their experience in real time, there is little time for mind wandering. Meditators stay on task, thereby increasing the efficiency of training.

Every silent meditator knows that for every hour of practice some considerable amount of time is lost to mind wandering. It may happen that in one hour of silent practice, only a cumulative five or ten minutes are spent with the attention continuously on the objects of meditation. The bulk of the period is spent ruminating, worrying, planning, reflecting, fantasizing, drifting, or sleeping.

With social meditation, ten minutes of practice equals ten minutes of time on task. The feedback loop of reporting aloud while taking turns ensures efficiency. Accountability to another human being generates motivation.

by Vince Fakhoury Horn

Although the Buddhist tradition contains a vast quantity of examples of interpersonal meditation practice, most don't understand themselves as such. What I mean by that, is that the Buddhist texts I'm familiar with don't have this self-reflexive mental model they employ, whereby they differentiate between individual & social forms of practice. Certainly, there are examples of both kinds of meditation happening in the Buddhist tradition–both of the wandering monk meditating by themselves–the archetypal example is the Buddha himself–and of the communal monastery of monks, gathered together, living closely in a community of practice.

Both poles, from individual-to-social, have always been represented in the Buddhist tradition, but what's new in the wake of the Western Enlightenment is that we have new conceptual & linguistic tools needed to point out this distinction and leverage it further. Many also have the benefit, living in the internet age, of understanding ourselves as being co-constructed by the networks we participate in, rather than being isolated individuals.

One of my earliest exposures to a form of meditation which explicitly understood itself as social, was Gregory Kramer's Insight Dialogue. Here's the original Buddhist Geeks Dialogue I had with Gregory, about Insight Dialogue, recorded in 2007.

A few years later, one of my close teachers, Kenneth Folk, began to go through a creative phase of developing teachings around what he called Social Meditation. He also coined the term Social Noting to describe the techniques that were inspired by the original Mahasi Noting Method, aka "mental noting." The following talk is one of my earliest public takes on the background, structure, benefits, and evolution of Social Meditation, which details the story behind how I learned these techniques from Kenneth, facilitated them, and then eventually began to construct new techniques.

I see much of my work as building on this fundamental idea, put forth by Kenneth Folk, that "we are social in our very bones." Putting it in more provocative terms I'd say that we need to Stop Practicing Anti-Social Meditation and recognize the inherent relationality of life itself!

Social Noting & Social Meditation

When Kenneth Folk began to teach Social Meditation, he did so through teaching the traditional meditation techniques he had learned from the Mahasi Sayadaw lineage of Mynamar, in a new way. In his original article on Social Meditation, Kenneth writes:

"In its simplest form, social meditation is Mahasi Sayadaw-style choiceless vipassana done aloud while taking turns."

In the traditional Mahasi Sayadaw approach to teaching noting meditation the student receives verbal instructions on how to do the technique from the teacher. They are then asked to go off and do the practice on their own for some period of time. At some point, they return to the teacher and share a verbal report of what they've experienced doing the technique. Based on this verbal report, the teacher gives further instructions, to help refine & improve their students technique. This is the basic learning loop that's created in the traditional Mahasi approach.

What Kenneth did, that was pedagogically different, was instead of giving abstract verbal instructions, he invited private students–on Skype–to take turns noting their experience aloud with him. This "ping pong noting," or what I would also refer to as "2 player meditation," enables learning to occur more effectively than in the traditional approach in at least 3 ways:

1. Demonstrating & Modeling - It enables the teacher/facilitator to demonstrate the technique, rather than merely describing the instructions in 3rd person, objective terms. This inter-personal demonstration serves as a direct modeling of the technique, giving students an immediate 1st-hand sense of what doing the practice looks like from someone who is, ideally, much more experienced with the technique.

2. Sharing & Feedback - It gives the student an opportunity to share observations and ask questions related to their 1st hand experience of the practice. This model of teaching also enables the teacher/facilitator to offer instant feedback on the student's technique, highlighting what they did well, and offering suggested changes for next time.

3. Cycling & Iterating - This model enables multiple learning cycles, or iterations, in a single instructional session. I've found that doing a new social meditation practice for as little as 5 minutes is effective in being able to learn. This is due to the peer-pressure function keeping everyone on track with the technique. Enabling multiple learning cycles in a single session speeds up the learning process, by shortening the length of time between each cycle or iteration. It's not just about how much we practice, but about how rapidly we can accelerate the learning process.

Opening Up The Noticing Spectrum

Most modern meditation methods, including the Mahasi Noting Technique, are done silently. This pedagogical shift, to noting aloud, really opened up the spectrum, to 2 new possibilities, both of which Kenneth encouraged people to try. One is noting out loud by yourself, and the other is noting aloud with others–i.e. social noting.

Taking this into account we could say that social noting describes both:

1) The translation of traditional meditation techniques from the Mahasi Sayadaw lineage to an out-loud social practice context–See: Freestyle Noting.

& also

2) The development of new forms of out-loud noting-style practices–ex. Binary Noting, Single Parameter Noting, Essence Noting, There is Noting, Noting is Like This, & Just Noting, Just Sitting.

Part of what has developed in our approach to Social Meditation is the emergence of a few different families of practice. I would propose that Social Noting can best be understood as a family of techniques, or comprehensive approach, to Social Meditation. You could think of all of the techniques that fall into this family of practices, as part of The Noting Family. You can tell that something is part of the Noting family when it has the term "Noting" in the title of the practice.

The Four Immeasurables, also known as the Four Brahmaviharas (Pali), the Four Divine Abodes, the Four Sublime States, or the Four Infinite Minds is a foundational Indic Buddhist model, which describes four Buddhist forms of Love, each of which is immeasurable & boundless in their transcendently inclusive scope. These four, along with their (Pali/Sanskrit), and other common English translations are listed here:

• Loving-Kindness - metta/maitrī - also translated into the english as "Loving Awareness," "Friendliness," "Good Will," "Benevolence," or "Big Heart."

• Compassion - Karuṇā - also translated into the english as "Mercy," "Self-Compassion," or "Great Compassion"

• Emapthetic Joy - Muditā - also translated into the English as "Sympathetic Joy," "Vicarious Joy," or "Great Joy."

• Equanimity - Upekkhā/Upekṣā - also translated into the English as "Resilience," "Balance," "Okness," or "Big Mind"

Two Traditional Orders

The order in which these four immeasurables are taught differ in two of the major schools of Buddhism. In the early Buddhist approach, also known as The 1st Turning, the four immeasurables begin with Loving-Kindness and culminate with Equanimity. In the Mahayana Buddhist approach–which arose several hundred years after the historical Buddha was alive, and known as The 2nd Turning, the four begin with Equanimity, culminating in Empathetic Joy. Both orders are shared below.

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• Binary Noting is one of the few practices where the Safety Release Valve is discouraged. The reason being that having an additional option, in a practice that is defined by just having two options, really breaks the spirit and purpose of it.

Binary Noting Practices:

Core Instructions:

Basic Noting Practices:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

In its simplest form, social noting is Mahasi Sayadaw-style choiceless vipassana done aloud while taking turns. Each meditator calls out a one-word description of the phenomenon that spontaneously arises in experience.

Here is an example:

Jane: Itching

John: Thinking

Jane: Tightness

John: Hearing

(Continuing to alternate)

Seeing

Curiosity

Alertness

Dullness

Happiness

Aversion

Fear

Coolness

Itching

There is no right or wrong answer; whatever arises in experience is called out (noted). This exercise, in which two meditators take turns noting their experience aloud is called ping-pong noting, pop-noting, or social noting. Social noting can also be done round robin style, in a circle, (or virtually online.)

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• If you are noting multiple things at once, as can happen in the one breath variation, it could be noted as such: "Seeing and thinking are like this." The singular, "is like this" becomes the plural, "are like this."

Practice Quote:

"Awareness is your refuge: Awareness of the changingness of feelings, of attitudes, of moods, of material change and emotional change: Stay with that, because it’s a refuge that is indestructible. It’s not something that changes. It’s a refuge you can trust in. This refuge is not something that you create. It’s not a creation. It’s not an ideal. It’s very practical and very simple, but easily overlooked or not noticed. When you’re mindful, you're beginning to notice, it’s like this."

– Ajahn Sumedho

Core Instructions:

Practice Quote:

“Mind is the forerunner of all things.” - The Buddha

Core Instructions:

Instructions by: Vince Fakhoury Horn

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Practice Quote:

"Don't be surprised if sometimes you have a problem and sometimes you don't." – Kenneth Folk

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• This practice is easiest to do in a sequential order, where participants take turns. If you do that, please remind people that it's useful to have a little space between phrases, to receive the aspiration. That said, this practice can also be done spontaneously, by inviting folks to simply say, "May It Arise." This usually works best after doing it sequentially for a while, so that the "It" is clear in awareness. It's also easy to parlay this practice into the Pith Metta practice, if you want to play with a different group size or find another way to introduce a spontaneous order.

Core Instructions:

Practice Quote:

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. – Meister Eckhart

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• In North America, there is a Thanksgiving tradition before the traditional meal to share things we are grateful for. This meditation technique is a twist on that activity.

• Some finds the use of "Pass" a little harsh in this practice, for the safety release valve. You may find the use of "I'm grateful for the opportunity to pass" as a gentler alternative.

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• This practice is very similar to Basic Noting, except instead of "noting" what you're experiencing, in this practice you're either A) Aspiring (wishing for it to be so) or B) Realizing your aspiration. When the pith phrase is shared as a realization, of something you're experiencing in that very moment, it could be said that these two different ways to practice have become one.

Pith Metta Practices:

Core Instructions:

Just Noting Practices:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• It’s useful to point out that “Just” is used in the sense that nothing else is added to the experience, and not as a dismissal of the experience.

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• Losing the Count - If you lose the count, or go past 10, the next person simply returns back to 1 and begins again.

• Taking Turns - In this variation, each person counts one number, when it's their turn. At the bottom of the next out breath, the next person in the sequence, counts the next number in the collective count.

• Counting Each Breath - In this variation, every time you reach the end of your next out breath, say the next number in the collective count, whatever it is. It's ok if your count syncs up with someone elses, just keep going if that happens.

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• With each phase of this practice sequence, something is dropped. Between Phase 1 & 2, the "There is" drops. Between phase 2 & 3, the sequential order of noting drops, and between phase 3 & 4, the noting itself drops, leaving simple silence.

• Some people like to mark the shifts between these phases with a bell, while others like to invite participants to take their cue from the facilitator on when to shift between phases.

• When facilitating this practice virtually, it's recommended that you organize people in small groups of 3-5–at least for the first two phases, while the order is sequential. In order to breakout into multiple small groups online, you'll need to delegate your facilitation of the phase shifts to others in the group. It's recommended that you delegate this to someone who has some social meditation facilitation training experience, or someone who has experience doing this practice, or barring that, a brave volunteer.

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• Zen Noting is an example of a practice that has two different blanks to fill in, the first one is the Subject Blank (As ______) and the 2nd one is the Object Blank (______). The Subject blank is filled in with what we're identifying as, and the Object blank is filled in by what we're noticing.

• This practice is itself an inspirational mash-up of the Voice Dialogue method, especially as its taught by Diane "Musho" Hamilton, and Kenneth Folk's Social Noting approach, specifically with the I Am Noting method. This is a uniquely Zen-Vipassana hybrid practice.

Zen Noting Practices:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• You can use the terms "Blank" or "Blankness" as a Safety Release Valve Note in this practice.

Core Instructions:

Practice Quote:

It doesn't exist, even the victorious ones haven't seen it. It is not nonexistent because it is the basis of all samsara and nirvana. This is not a contradiction because this is the unity of the middle way. May we realize the true nature of mind, which is free from all limitations and extremes.

An aspirational Prayer for Mahamudra Rangjung Dorge, the Third Karmapa

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• One person starts the relay with a simple There is ______ note.

The usual Safety Release Valve (“Pass”) applies in this practice, but there is also an additional option - The Reset Button. This allows a person to choose not to inhabit the previous person’s note, but instead to ‘drop the baton’ and start again using a fresh "There is" note. The person following them in the sequence would then take their fresh note as the basis for Zen Noting, and the Relay would begin again. The reason for adding this additional option is threefold:

1. To prevent harm or trauma triggering if a person is uncomfortable with inhabiting the previous person’s note.

2. To prevent the group from getting locked into one experiential direction of noting.

3. Tech problems: a person has difficulty hearing the previous person’s note due to technical issues.

Using just the normal safety release valve only allows two options: either inhabiting the previous person’s note, and noting as it, or passing. This means that the chain of notes will tend to be steered in one direction (based on the preceding notes). Bringing in a third option of noting a fresh "There is" note allows for an intentional reset of the direction of the noting chain. It also allows for times when tech issues prevent clear hearing of the preceding person’s note.

• This practice arose for Lisa and Ryan in the context of the Integral Dharma Training as a way to work with perspective-taking and increasing flexibility with subject-object boundaries, both of which are core techniques in integral practice.

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• This is an advanced form of social meditation, which mashes up the Zen Noting technique with the movement of the Progressive Release Noting sequence.

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• It's very common, in this practice, for other ways of working with the subject of the meditation to arise. Though the instructions only explicitly state these 4 ways of working, it's important in this practice to follow the facilitation principle, "explain the instructions, don't enforce the rules." This gives space for spontaneous creative emergence.

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• “In the __ just/only the __.” Feel free to use “just” or “only” interchangeably.

Practice Quote:

"Then, Bahiya, you should train yourself thus: In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how your should train yourself. When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Bahiya, there is no you in terms of that. When there is no you in terms of that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress." – The Buddha, in the Bahiya Sutta

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• If you do the "Each Breath" order we suggest having a small groups of 3-4 people each. If you do the Taking Turns option the suggestion is to alternate the out-loud component from person-to-person, "Suffering" > "Love" > "Suffering" > "Love" and so forth.

• You can also add in a visualization, to include the traditional element of Tonglen meditation, where on the in-breath one is inhaling a thick, dark cloud of suffering, and on the out-breath is exhaling a bright, radiating light.

Core Instructions:

What is It?, Practices:

The Core Instructions of any Social Meditation practice, or technique, include the following elements:

If you'd like an easier way to remember each of these components of the Core Instructions, you may want to use the following acronym: FOCOSTA, which stands for Frame, Options, Compression, Order, Size, Time, & Attribution.

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• The first blank that we fill in, in the practice frame above, is a Subject blank. It's "who" we're sending our well wishes too. The other blank is the Object blank–it's "what" we're wishing for them. Both the Subject ("who") & Object ("what") blanks need to be specified by the facilitator in this practice.

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• This practice serves as an excellent doorway to Formless Social Meditation.

Practice Quote:

“In sitting meditation the technique and you are one; in life situations the phenomenal world is also part of you. Therefore you do not have to meditate as such, as though you were a person distinct from the act of meditating and the object of meditation. If you are one with the living situation as it is, your meditation just automatically happens.” – Chogyam Trungpa

Please follow these phases as you facilitate a social meditation practice in the Buddhist Geeks Network...

1. The Setup Phase

2. The Practice Phase

3. The Debrief Phase

1. The Setup Phase

Silence

Please spend the first couple of minutes being in Silence, giving a bit of time for folks to arrive & settle. It's fine to be polite and say hello if you see someone who may be new–or to wave, or bow in welcome–just to know that the general intention is of this opening phase is toward settling and stillness.

Quick Check-In

Next, do a Quick Check-In Round, asking everyone to share their 1) Name, 2) Location, & 3) How they're doing in a word or two (ex. "There is anxiety & curiosity" or "There is calm."). The quick check-in round will also give you a chance to do a Tech Check. If there are any tech problems, particularly with people's microphones, let them know, so they can troubleshoot as you move on. If they can't get it fixed before the practice period begins, please invite them to take the role of The Witness. Don't spend a bunch of time trying to troubleshoot, just highlight the issue and move on.

Share the Session Details

Quickly review the plan is for the session. Ex: "We'll begin with some basic instructions on the practice, and then will spend the remaining time doing the practice, leaving a minute or two at the end for a quick debrief."

Review the Instructions

Next, briefly review the basic instructions that you're practicing in this session. If you aren't sure of what they are, or want a refresher, check out this Social Meditation Guide. Let people know what size the practice groups will be, and if there are multiple rounds to the practice, let folks know what those will be, and how long each round will last.

Introduce The Witness & Safety Release Valve

In every session please introduce the option of participating as a Witness. The easiest way for folks to identify themselves as a Witness is to invite them to turn off their video screens if they wish to witness. This way they can choose to enter and the exit the Witness role as they like.

Also remind folks, if you're doing a practice where it makes sense to have a Safety Release Valve–which includes every practice unless otherwise noted in the instructions–and review what words or phrases work to indicate that one is passing.

See if there are any Questions

Before beginning the practice phase check to see if there are any remaining questions about how to do the practice (i.e. the instructions). Once all remaining questions have been answered you can begin.

NOTE: Our aim is for the whole process, up to this point, to take 5-10 minutes or so, leaving around 20 minutes of time to practice, and a minute or two at the end for a quick debrief.

2. The Practice Phase

Ring the Bell at the End

At the end of the practice period ring the bell to mark the end of the practice period.

3. The Debrief Phase

Quick Debrief

Ask everyone, as they feel moved, to end with a Quick Debrief, in the form of "There was..." + a note or two on what they experienced during the session. (ex. "There was joy & tension." or "There was sleepiness" or "There was unity, awe, & love.")

Goodbye

After debrief phase–either option–feel free to Say Goodbye however you like!

1. Explain, don't enforce.

2. Demonstrate the practice.

3. Don't specify, unless central.

4. Make space for The Witness.

5. Draw out the insights.

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

The facilitation options of a practice, give both facilitations & practitioners a clear sense of the different ways one can fill in the blank of the practice frame. When selecting a practice to facilitate, if the practice's frame includes a blank ("______") there are different ways that blank can be filled in. They include the following potential options:

Pick One

With the Pick One option, the facilitator of the practice picks a single word or short phrase to fill in the blank for everyone doing the practice.

Example: Say you're facilitating the May Metta Arise practice, whose practice frame is "May ______ Arise." With the Pick One option you'd pick what you want to fill in the blank with, such as "May Loving Awareness Arise" or "May Compassion Arise", and then everyone would practice with that single phrase during the entirety of the practice period.

Multiple Choice

With the Multiple Choice option the facilitator selects a set number of options that can be used to fill in the blank, whenever it's someone's turn (sequential order), or they feel moved to go (spontaneous order).

Example: Binary Noting is an example of a practice which is defined by having 2 distinct choices each time it's someone's turn, and they are asked to pick between either one or the other. Six Sense Noting is an example of a practice that also uses a Multiple Choice option, but which has 6 distinct possible options (not including the safety release valve), corresponding with each of The Six Senses.

Succession

With the Succession option we're working through a particular sequence of items, one after another. It's important in the Succession option to specify either A) what fraction of the time you'll be spending with each item, or B) to specify how you'll be switching from one item to the next.

Example: Let's say you want to move through the 8 stages of meditative absorption, one at a time, in succession. Here, you'd specify that the succession is through the 8 jhanas.

Looping

With the Looping option the facilitator selects a succession of words or phrases to cycle through, one after another. This is like the Multiple Choice option, except that instead of picking between a number of options each time, there is a fixed selection that the group loops through in succession.

Example: Let's say you're working with the May Metta Arise practice–"May ______ Arise"–and decide to move in succession through the Four Immeasurables–loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, & equanimity. With each person's turn they would fill in the blank with the next in the series of the four immeasurables: "May Loving-Kindness Arise," "May Compassion Arise," "May Empathetic Joy Arise," "May Equanimity Arise" and so on until the practice is over.

Relay

In some practices, it is possible to take one of the previous person's responses, and fold that into your turn, using their previous turn to fill in one of the blanks for your turn. When this is done, it's called the Relay option, as the previous participant is handing off one their turn, and you're incorporating it into yours.

Example: Zen Relay Noting

Fixed Category

With the Fixed Category option one can fill in the blank of the practice frame with whatever they like, within that fixed category.

Example: Let's take the Basic Noting practice, Noting Body Sensations as an example. Here, we have a fixed category called Body Sensations, but within that fixed category there are an open-ended number of notes that one could use to describe their physical sensations.

Freestyle

With the Freestyle option whenever it's someone's turn (sequential order), or they feel moved to go (spontaneous order), they can fill in the blank with whatever they choose. There are no limits to what they can say, outside of what's defined in the Practice Frame, Data Compression, and Practice Order of that particular technique.

Core Instructions:

Core Instructions:

Additional Notes:

• Some people like to mark the shifts between these phases with a bell, while others like to invite participants to take their cue from the facilitator on when to shift between phases.

• When facilitating this practice virtually, it's recommended that you organize people in small groups of 3-4–at least for the first phase, while the order is sequential.

The order that we go in changes depending on the type of practice we're doing, how many people are participating in the practicing, etc. Here, we'll highlight the different order potentials that exist within the broader Social Meditation framework.

Sequential

With the Sequential Order–also known as Round Robin–there is a fixed order as one person goes after the next. When it's your turn, then you go!

Spontaneous

With the Spontaneous Order–also known as Popcorn Style–there is no fixed order. Whenever you feel moved, you go.

Synced with the Breath

When the order is synced with the breath, this means that you follow the instruction when you get to a particular point in your breathing cycle, including either:

1. Synced with the In Breath–which means that you follow the instructions when you get to the top of your next inhalation.

2. Synced with the Out Breath–which means that you follow the instructions when you get toward the bottom of your exhalation.

3. Synced with the In & Out Breath–which means that you follow the instructions when it reaches both the top of the inhalation and again when it reaches the bottom of the exhalation.

There is another consideration when doing a practice which is Synced with the Breath, and that is when you say something aloud. Much like the Sequential and Spontaneous order's above, there are two variations for when you can say something out-loud, and these include:

• Taking Turns - In this variation each person takes turns, one at a time. When you follow the instruction is still synced with your breath, but you'll need to do it internally, until it's your turn to go.

• Each Breath - In this variation, every time you reach the next phase of your breath, where it's your turn to say something aloud, you go. In this variation it's ok if you sync up with other people who are also going at the same time.