Re-reading this sutta after all your admonishments against breath/walking meditation and so forth, repeatedly and constantly reflecting during and around all actions from all forms seems a lot more helpful than as you call “robotically” naming all one’s little movements, emotions, whatever’s external and noticeable… — what I’m gonna call “Mango-Reflecting” or “Mangoing” (because goofy names helps me remember =P ) accomplishes the same job of keeping calm by bringing and keeping oneself to the present moment in alert awareness (no room in your head to let past/future depression/anxiety creep in), WHILE letting one constantly guard not only the sense-doors for its own sake* but to do a guard’s job of letting proceed only the good and useful, slaying the hidden evils that have snuck past…
- Thinking about it, isn’t it useless for a guard to play the name-game with whatever’s going on around him?
“Standing, watching, bored, standing…”
“Here comes a robber. He is walking past me. He is entering the castle. He has entered the castle.”
“Watching, standing…”
“Robber is leaving the castle. He is carrying a large, filled bag. He is walking past me. He is leaving. He is gone.”
“Standing, watching…”
“It is windy yet lukewarm…”
Instructions like the following (which I’ve seen/read myriad variants myriad times) now seem incredibly laughable, a complete WASTE OF TIME!!