--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "P G Dave" <pgd2507@...> wrote:

>
> Hi DaveK,
>
> I tried the tool on that page. works well as long as that string

of 1st

> letters is in front of you. After using the string to recall the

original

> passage successfully 3-4 times, I tried remembering the passage

without the

> string in front of me. my performance dropped to a poor 20% or so.

so, the

> real problem and challange is to memorise the abstract and

meaningless

> string that acts as a peg / trigger to the memory. How wud u do

that...and

> preferably...is there a way to recall independent of the string

once it's

> been used 2-3 times bcos that shud be the ultimate aim anyway?

If you've used classic mnemonics before, you might be expecting the
same kind of instant satisfaction they often to provide. But I
would set my expectation for this technique a little lower. It's
better than rote memorization - but not TOO much better.

I would take what the article says about the preparatory work as
gospel. Reading the text allowed, copying it by hand, outlining,
hearing it read aloud by someone else, etc.

That being said, I suppose you COULD use other memory devices for
this part of it, such as picking out key words and stringing them
together using typical mnemonics. This is what Harry Loryanne and
Jerry Lucas teach in their classic "The Memory Book."

I've never found this technique ultimately useful becuase it doesn't
get the "in between" words that are to abstract for mnemonization.
("if," "too," "than.") But perhaps it would help for this
preparatory stage?

One of the comments I saw there proposed the idea of lumping the
letters together, creating a word out of those and using mnemonics
for that. I don't know how well that would work, because you'd be
adding more letters in to form your actual word.

Did you try this with a text that you were already pretty familiar
with? My first attempt was with the middle part of the Kalama
sutta, which is already fairly close to my heart in many ways. I
have to admit I haven't worked at it that much yet so I can't really
report on the results, but it seemed to be working. I know I
couldn't say the same for a less familiar text.

-DaveK