Welcome.
Engaging all the senses.
We can filter everything we perceive in the world around us.
Usually we use vision and hearing,
They tend to dominate our lives.
We can use other three senses too,
Touch,
Smell and taste.
Nevertheless,
Today it will be hearing.
Meditation on sound.
Meditating on sound is very similar to meditating on form,
Except that now you are engaging the faculty of hearing.
Start by just allowing your mind to rest for a few moments in a relaxed state,
And then gradually allow yourself to become aware of the things you hear close to your ear,
Such as your heartbeat or your breath,
Or sounds that occur naturally in your immediate surrounding.
There is no need to try to identify these sounds,
Nor is it necessary to focus on a specific sound.
Just let yourself be aware of everything you hear.
The point is to cultivate a simple,
Bare awareness of sound as it strikes your ear.
Just listen,
And then if your mind wanders off,
Because it will,
You can bring it back to the same sound,
Different sound,
To the sound in general,
Even better to the bare awareness.
There is still some presence of mind that may be loosely described as a center of awareness.
You may not be fixating on anything in particular,
But you're still aware,
Still present to what's happening in the here and now.
We might or we might not have a glimpse of that natural clarity at this moment,
But it's good to leave space open for it to appear and reappear,
To show itself,
Because it is present all the time,
24 hours a day.
In order for us not to get frustrated,
Discouraged,
We come back to the object.
The sense of hearing is a good way to ground ourselves when we feel ourselves drifting.
Maybe some unproductive thoughts are taking over,
Some memories,
Or moods,
Or emotions.
So let us just listen,
And this time close your eyes,
Listen with your eyes closed,
And hear,
Hear sounds near and far.
Extend a whole range of possible pitches and volumes,
All of them to the sounds of your body as well as those of the external world,
And notice the ways in which some sounds change and fade.
One of the great benefits of meditation on sound is that it's gradually,
Like a teacher,
It teaches you to detach from assigning meaning to the various sounds you hear.
You learn to listen to what you hear without necessarily responding emotionally to the content.
As you grow accustomed to giving bare attention to sound,
Simply as sound,
You'll find yourself able to listen to criticism without becoming angry or defensive,
And able to listen to praise without becoming overly proud or excited.
You can simply listen to what other people say with a much more relaxed and balanced attitude without being carried away by an emotional response.
Just listen to the sound,
Bare awareness,
And practice simply observing the sensations of traffic,
Rather than just frustratingly focusing on the goal of getting through congestion quicker,
You can use it as meditation practice,
And hear the cars,
Just rest your attention on the sensations around you,
You can always use the breath as an object of meditation too.
And then again,
You just leave the object,
You leave the sense,
Where it is,
And we simply rest and look naturally at the essence of whatever occurs.
There are no two people who are exactly alike,
Everybody is born with a unique combination of abilities,
Qualities and impairments.
You will find your way in alternating resting,
Non-analytical method of resting and calming the mind in its own nature,
And in using the object,
Simply allowing the mind to rest as it is,
In a relaxed awareness,
In order to allow the nature of mind to reveal itself.
And when we are too busy,
Too restless,
Too bored,
And we use the object,
When we are in a cafe,
In a garden,
In multitudes,
You use your senses to ground you,
And take a leaf between your index finger and thumb,
And hear,
Listen,
As the wind make it move and create.
Everything can serve as an object of meditation,
As a starter,
And always at the end.
Just let go and relax.
