user1075: I have a few questions:

How far do i need to be mindful? In the Satipatthana Vipassana by Mahasi, he said: "On meeting with a person in the imagination, it should be noted as "meeting, meeting", can i just say "imagine, imagine"?
If i taste something, i always want to "deconstruct" the aliment (it's sweet, salty, sour ...), it is a good thing to do (for Vipassana meditation)? Or I need just to say "tasting, tasting"

Do I need to be mindful of details? (I'm a thinking of my mother, cat...)
Sorry for my English. o/

user2265: Yuttadhammo is correct. It is better to bias yourself towards noticing the ultimate same-ness (anicca, anatta, dukkha) of the particular experience rather than to get involved in being attracted or repelled by the content (specific taste, specific type of imagination) by investigating it and analyzing it.
Treat all experiences as ultimately the same and detach yourself from feeding them energy.
I highly reccommend the instructions on page 14 of this meditation manual.
It is the best, most amazing, integrative gem of a manual on vipassana and one should read the whole thing.
Here's the excerpt relevant to the fine, content-free nature of vipassana practice:

1 First, sit comfortably to relax your body and your breathing. We
  call this first step of meditation the "preparatory practices", or
  physiological adjustments, for tuning the physical nature. Basically,
  you want to situate yourself so as to lessen any physical disturbances
  or distractions. Then after your body is calmed, you start quietly
  observing your inner thoughts and emotions. In other words, you simply
  watch your internal psychological functions like a third person
  observer. This third person doesn't interfere with what's going on, or
  participate in the activities they're observing. He just stays there
  watching, neither rejecting or clinging to anything; he simply sits
  there silently observing.
[2] You continue watching your internal process of mentation until you
  reach the point where you can clearly observe every thought and idea
  which appears in the mind without any vagueness or ambiguity.
  Naturally, you are not tightening your body nor mentally straining
  during this practice. Rather, you always remain relaxed while clearly
  observing your internal mental processes. After a while, you will
  eventually be able to distinguish that the process of mentation has
  three parts: a preceding thought which has gone, a thought which has
  not yet arisen, and the immediate clear radiance, or mental state of
  present mind. With continued watching, the separation of these three
  states becomes quite clear.
[3] With continued observation, you progress a bit further and next
  realize that the past, present and future thoughts never stay. Since
  they don't stay they can never be grasped, hence we say that
  "fundamentally, they have no base to rely upon". Observing the
  appearance and disappearance of thoughts is called "observing birth
  and death", for the coming and going of thoughts is a ceaseless,
  never-ending process of arising and then disappearance, or decay. This
  is the realm of birth and death. By observing this stream of birth and
  death, you will gradually learn how to detach from the mental
  processes, and you will become more familiar with the false mind of
  consciousness. In other words, you will be able to drop the illusion
  that our mental process is a fundamental reality. Rather, you will
  gradually see that all mental states are ungraspable, transient
  phenomena which come and go without end, and they're more like
  insubstantial bubbles of foam or particles of dust which have no
  fixity of nature. Because of their ceaseless birth and death and the
  gap in-between, what we normally imagine as a continuous continuity of
  thoughts is actually an illusion, like the unbroken wheel of light we
  see when a stick of fire is spun in the air. Thus through this process
  of inner watching, you will begin to realize that our mental state is
  an ongoing process separate from our true self. The true self is
  what's watching this play scene, so it's like an internal knower who
  never moves. If you go from here to the North Pole and back, the
  scenery always changes, but that inner knower never changes--it never
  moves. In fact, it never leaves, and has never come either. It just
  is. That's what we're seeking, though on a more profound level than we
  can explain here. Now in watching thoughts without adding any energy
  to the process, you'll begin to understand how dreamlike our
  consciousness actually is because the reality it gives birth to seems
  to be there and yet the concreteness of this reality is absent. It
  isn't real. Phenomena are empty and yet they are conventionally real,
  but this conventional reality is also empty. So eventually, through
  observation with detachment, you'll reach the stage where you can
  mentally relax while "giving birth to the mind without abiding
  anywhere". Through continued observation you will notice that thoughts
  or phenomena ("existence") are born from emptiness (mental silence),
  and the existence of emptiness relies on phenomena. Existence and
  emptiness are both manifestations of one nature--its single source,
  our true self--so on the road of cultivation you don't cling to either
  side. Both sides are phenomenal constructions, or false relativities,
  so both sides are not real. Hence in shamathavipashyana practice, you
  start to contemplate the mean between stillness and activity. In
  practicing this inner watching, you'll get progressively better at
  becoming mentally free because you'll stop clinging to or rejecting
  your thoughts, emotions and sensations. Thus your mental awareness
  will increasingly "open" and your ability to function in the world
  will increase as well, so you'll actually be expanding your awareness
  while saving a lot of energy that you'd normally waste in useless
  clinging. Furthermore, your internal state of peace and calm will
  progressively develop with every increase in clarity. Thus if you keep
  observing the origin and destruction of thoughts while paying
  particular attention to where they come from and go to, you'll
  eventually obstruct the stream of consciousness.
[4] With the stream of consciousness disrupted, you will then notice a
  momentary gap of stillness, or silence, between all your thoughts. In
  other words, if you practice this method of inner observation for a
  long time--by wordlessly watching thoughts without injecting energy
  into the thought stream--the process of silent observation will itself
  disrupt the stream of mentation. The state of mind in the immediate
  present will gradually open up to reveal a tiny gap of mental quiet,
  or emptiness; when a previous thought has disappeared and a subsequent
  thought has not yet arisen, the mind will seem quiet. This mental
  silence is not a gap of dullness nor stupor, nor should it be a forced
  silence or blankness you create through suppressing thoughts. Rather,
  it will be a lucid, clear and open awareness, and these
  characteristics will gradually unfold as more time is spent in this
  state. In other words, after quietly observing our mental processes
  for quite some while, one will notice a tiny gap of silent pausation
  between thoughts which we refer to as "cessation". If we continue
  observing this state without effort and shine awareness on it, it will
  gradually expand further and further. Looking into this gap of silence
  is the process of "contemplation" or vipashyana. It's a quiet realm
  similar to emptiness, but it still isn't the genuine emptiness of Tao.
  Nevertheless, this is what we're initially after because we can use
  this state to begin cultivating prajna wisdom.
[5] If you continue to carry over this state of watching the mind (the
  process of silent detachment and immediate awareness) during all your
  normal activities--whether walking, talking, sitting or sleeping--
  you'll be able to reach the point where thoughts no longer bind you.
  Gradually their volume will die down, your radiant awareness will
  expand and you will be able to seamlessly enter into the real
  emptiness of samadhi. In other words, if you keep observing the state
  of cessation by shining awareness on this state, you will eventually
  arrive at dhyana. Thus the practice of shining awareness on the
  silence within is commonly referred to as "contemplating mind". If you
  continue progressing in this manner by reaching further levels of
  emptiness and shining wisdom awareness on any state of cessation you
  reach, you will eventually acquire prajna wisdom, or transcendental
  wisdom. Then you'll climb the various ranks of samadhi and enter into
  the Tao. (Twenty-five Doors to Meditation: A Handbook for Entering
  Samadhi, William Bodri and Lee Shu-Mei (Samuel Weiser, York Beach:
  Maine, 1998), pp. 14-17)

Also, I would refer to the chapter on vipassana practice in Daniel Ingram's book. It says the same thing yuttadhammo and I said with some vivid analogies.

user18: I'm guessing it sounded better in the original Burmese. "Imagining" seems more reasonable than "meeting", since the latter is not real. On the other hand, it is not so important whether the experience is "real", but that the experience is occurring, so it could potentially be beneficial to remind yourself of what is going on in your head as "meeting".  Still, I wouldn't encourage it.
My teacher recommends against "sweet", etc., though I don't imagine it would be particularly harmful, since it seems fairly "real".
Acknowledging "mother" or "cat" is not appropriate, since they are concepts and can't lead to insight into reality.  "Thinking about my mother" wouldn't be terrible, as long as the focus was on the thinking and not the mother. Focussing the mind on the concept would likely lead to either samatha jhana in the case of simple objects or distraction in the case of complex ones.

1075: <p>I have a few questions:</p>

<ul>
<li>How far do i need to be mindful? In the Satipatthana Vipassana by Mahasi, he said: "On meeting with a person in the imagination, it should be noted as "meeting, meeting", can i just say "imagine, imagine"?</li>
<li>If i taste something, i always want to "deconstruct" the aliment (it's sweet, salty, sour ...), it is a good thing to do (for Vipassana meditation)? Or I need just to say "tasting, tasting"</li>
</ul>

<p>Do I need to be mindful of details? (I'm a thinking of my mother, cat...)</p>

<p>Sorry for my English. o/</p>
 2265: <p>Yuttadhammo is correct. It is better to <strong>bias yourself towards noticing the ultimate same-ness (anicca, anatta, dukkha) of the particular experience</strong> rather than to get involved in being attracted or repelled by the content (specific taste, specific type of imagination) by investigating it and analyzing it.
<em>Treat all experiences as ultimately the same</em> and <strong>detach yourself from feeding them energy</strong>.</p>

<p>I highly reccommend the instructions on page 14 of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=6&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CD8QFjAF&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meditationexpert.com%2Febok%2Fhowtomeditate.pdf&amp;ei=GyPZVLbZI83dsAS1i4GQDg&amp;usg=AFQjCNFdLpz9eRAAFAgiWprIr1FkGjZ3Aw&amp;sig2=3DLiOi2T4TvHbLPeOJXLLg" rel="nofollow">this</a> meditation manual.
It is the best, most amazing, integrative gem of a manual on vipassana and one should read the whole thing.</p>

<p>Here's the excerpt relevant to the fine, content-free nature of vipassana practice:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=6&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CD8QFjAF&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meditationexpert.com%2Febok%2Fhowtomeditate.pdf&amp;ei=GyPZVLbZI83dsAS1i4GQDg&amp;usg=AFQjCNFdLpz9eRAAFAgiWprIr1FkGjZ3Aw&amp;sig2=3DLiOi2T4TvHbLPeOJXLLg" rel="nofollow">1</a> First, sit comfortably to relax your body and your breathing. We
  call this first step of meditation the "preparatory practices", or
  physiological adjustments, for tuning the physical nature. Basically,
  you want to situate yourself so as to lessen any physical disturbances
  or distractions. Then after your body is calmed, you start quietly
  observing your inner thoughts and emotions. In other words, you simply
  watch your internal psychological functions like a third person
  observer. This third person doesn't interfere with what's going on, or
  participate in the activities they're observing. He just stays there
  watching, neither rejecting or clinging to anything; he simply sits
  there silently observing.</p>
  
  <p>[2] You continue watching your internal process of mentation until you
  reach the point where you can clearly observe every thought and idea
  which appears in the mind without any vagueness or ambiguity.
  Naturally, you are not tightening your body nor mentally straining
  during this practice. Rather, you always remain relaxed while clearly
  observing your internal mental processes. After a while, you will
  eventually be able to distinguish that the process of mentation has
  three parts: a preceding thought which has gone, a thought which has
  not yet arisen, and the immediate clear radiance, or mental state of
  present mind. With continued watching, the separation of these three
  states becomes quite clear.</p>
  
  <p>[3] With continued observation, you progress a bit further and next
  realize that the past, present and future thoughts never stay. Since
  they don't stay they can never be grasped, hence we say that
  "fundamentally, they have no base to rely upon". Observing the
  appearance and disappearance of thoughts is called "observing birth
  and death", for the coming and going of thoughts is a ceaseless,
  never-ending process of arising and then disappearance, or decay. This
  is the realm of birth and death. By observing this stream of birth and
  death, you will gradually learn how to detach from the mental
  processes, and you will become more familiar with the false mind of
  consciousness. In other words, you will be able to drop the illusion
  that our mental process is a fundamental reality. Rather, you will
  gradually see that all mental states are ungraspable, transient
  phenomena which come and go without end, and they're more like
  insubstantial bubbles of foam or particles of dust which have no
  fixity of nature. Because of their ceaseless birth and death and the
  gap in-between, what we normally imagine as a continuous continuity of
  thoughts is actually an illusion, like the unbroken wheel of light we
  see when a stick of fire is spun in the air. Thus through this process
  of inner watching, you will begin to realize that our mental state is
  an ongoing process separate from our true self. The true self is
  what's watching this play scene, so it's like an internal knower who
  never moves. If you go from here to the North Pole and back, the
  scenery always changes, but that inner knower never changes--it never
  moves. In fact, it never leaves, and has never come either. It just
  is. That's what we're seeking, though on a more profound level than we
  can explain here. Now in watching thoughts without adding any energy
  to the process, you'll begin to understand how dreamlike our
  consciousness actually is because the reality it gives birth to seems
  to be there and yet the concreteness of this reality is absent. It
  isn't real. Phenomena are empty and yet they are conventionally real,
  but this conventional reality is also empty. So eventually, through
  observation with detachment, you'll reach the stage where you can
  mentally relax while "giving birth to the mind without abiding
  anywhere". Through continued observation you will notice that thoughts
  or phenomena ("existence") are born from emptiness (mental silence),
  and the existence of emptiness relies on phenomena. Existence and
  emptiness are both manifestations of one nature--its single source,
  our true self--so on the road of cultivation you don't cling to either
  side. Both sides are phenomenal constructions, or false relativities,
  so both sides are not real. Hence in shamathavipashyana practice, you
  start to contemplate the mean between stillness and activity. In
  practicing this inner watching, you'll get progressively better at
  becoming mentally free because you'll stop clinging to or rejecting
  your thoughts, emotions and sensations. Thus your mental awareness
  will increasingly "open" and your ability to function in the world
  will increase as well, so you'll actually be expanding your awareness
  while saving a lot of energy that you'd normally waste in useless
  clinging. Furthermore, your internal state of peace and calm will
  progressively develop with every increase in clarity. Thus if you keep
  observing the origin and destruction of thoughts while paying
  particular attention to where they come from and go to, you'll
  eventually obstruct the stream of consciousness.</p>
  
  <p>[4] With the stream of consciousness disrupted, you will then notice a
  momentary gap of stillness, or silence, between all your thoughts. In
  other words, if you practice this method of inner observation for a
  long time--by wordlessly watching thoughts without injecting energy
  into the thought stream--the process of silent observation will itself
  disrupt the stream of mentation. The state of mind in the immediate
  present will gradually open up to reveal a tiny gap of mental quiet,
  or emptiness; when a previous thought has disappeared and a subsequent
  thought has not yet arisen, the mind will seem quiet. This mental
  silence is not a gap of dullness nor stupor, nor should it be a forced
  silence or blankness you create through suppressing thoughts. Rather,
  it will be a lucid, clear and open awareness, and these
  characteristics will gradually unfold as more time is spent in this
  state. In other words, after quietly observing our mental processes
  for quite some while, one will notice a tiny gap of silent pausation
  between thoughts which we refer to as "cessation". If we continue
  observing this state without effort and shine awareness on it, it will
  gradually expand further and further. Looking into this gap of silence
  is the process of "contemplation" or vipashyana. It's a quiet realm
  similar to emptiness, but it still isn't the genuine emptiness of Tao.
  Nevertheless, this is what we're initially after because we can use
  this state to begin cultivating prajna wisdom.</p>
  
  <p>[5] If you continue to carry over this state of watching the mind (the
  process of silent detachment and immediate awareness) during all your
  normal activities--whether walking, talking, sitting or sleeping--
  you'll be able to reach the point where thoughts no longer bind you.
  Gradually their volume will die down, your radiant awareness will
  expand and you will be able to seamlessly enter into the real
  emptiness of samadhi. In other words, if you keep observing the state
  of cessation by shining awareness on this state, you will eventually
  arrive at dhyana. Thus the practice of shining awareness on the
  silence within is commonly referred to as "contemplating mind". If you
  continue progressing in this manner by reaching further levels of
  emptiness and shining wisdom awareness on any state of cessation you
  reach, you will eventually acquire prajna wisdom, or transcendental
  wisdom. Then you'll climb the various ranks of samadhi and enter into
  the Tao. (Twenty-five Doors to Meditation: A Handbook for Entering
  Samadhi, William Bodri and Lee Shu-Mei (Samuel Weiser, York Beach:
  Maine, 1998), pp. 14-17)</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Also, I would refer to the chapter on vipassana practice in Daniel Ingram's book. It says the same thing yuttadhammo and I said with some vivid analogies.</p>
 18: <p>I'm guessing it sounded better in the original Burmese. "Imagining" seems more reasonable than "meeting", since the latter is not real. On the other hand, it is not so important whether the experience is "real", but that the experience is occurring, so it could potentially be beneficial to remind yourself of what is going on in your head as "meeting".  Still, I wouldn't encourage it.</p>

<p>My teacher recommends against "sweet", etc., though I don't imagine it would be particularly harmful, since it seems fairly "real".</p>

<p>Acknowledging "mother" or "cat" is not appropriate, since they are concepts and can't lead to insight into reality.  "Thinking about my mother" wouldn't be terrible, as long as the focus was on the thinking and not the mother. Focussing the mind on the concept would likely lead to either samatha jhana in the case of simple objects or distraction in the case of complex ones.</p>
