Hi and welcome.
Listening inward and tapping into the internal experience is really at the core intention of many meditative modalities and yogic practices and this particular meditation is valuable in softening the muscular attachments around the jaw in order to release the delicate structures of your inner ear and connect you to this interior space of stillness and quietude.
It has this soothing effect on the entire brain and brings with it a profound sense of ease and serenity throughout the field of your experience.
This meditation will serve you to bring stillness and space within the felt sensation of your skull by imagining a third ear like a mystical third eye with which you listen or see within the center of your skull.
So begin by finding a comfortable position sitting upright and aligning your skull on top of your spine in such a way that the back of your skull is gently lifting upward and that the bones at the side of your temples,
The temporal bones,
Widen away from each other as if you're widening and softening within the space between both temples.
Listening to the movement and the sound of your breath as it brushes against your nostrils and your throat down into the lungs.
Relaxing the weight of your jaw downward in order to release tension and decompress the temporal mandibular joint,
Which is the joint of your jaw that connects up into the area of your skull at your temples.
Softening the skin around your ears.
Softening the skin that leads into the ear canal,
Into your eardrums.
And see if you can imagine or sense a fluid nature,
A fluid equilibrium within your ears.
Paying attention to the sensation and feeling inside your skull.
Sensing a harmony between right and left brain,
Between the right and left ear.
And within this feeling between your ears,
Draw your attention to the inside of your skull to a point midway between your left and right ear.
Visualizing a third ear at the top of your brainstem at the back of your skull.
Absorbing sound,
Sensation.
And as you listen with this third mystical ear,
See if you can avoid trying to identify any sounds that you hear externally.
And keeping your attention deeply focused in the inner space of your skull,
The inner space of your experience.
Do not grasp onto any sounds or attempt to make sense of any sounds.
Rather practice an unfiltered and pure listening into the interior space.
Notice a connection to sound and observe your connection to silence.
Pay attention to your relationship with sound and observing your relationship to silence.
Continue to soften your ears and become completely absorbed in this inner listening.
Softening the back of your throat.
Widening your plate at the top of your mouth.
Softening the entry of breath in your throat.
And listening deeper into this sense of spaciousness,
Internal observation,
Internal listening.
Listening with curiosity and presence.
With no need to attach or identify or label anything that you hear.
And allowing yourself to be completely absorbed into the experience.
And after a few more soft and slow breaths,
Take a moment to come back to your physical senses.
Notice your body.
Notice the sensation of breath.
Closing your practice.
Moving out into the rest of your day with this internalized sense of listening.
Namaste.
