Sound And Silence, Time And Timelessness

Using the simple and effective techniques of mindfulness we will go from sound to silence, explore the spaciousness of awareness, and go beyond time to experience the eternal. A deeply relaxing and effortless meditation.

Transcript

So before we turn our attention particularly to sounds,

Let's just get a general overview of where we are and how we're feeling.

So connecting to the present moment,

Through the senses of the body,

And through a bit of introspection.

So maybe spending a few moments just scanning through your body,

Seeing what sensations you can become aware of throughout the body.

I particularly like to become aware of the sensation of contact and connection,

So all the parts of the body that are in contact with something.

I find this helps me to really feel literally connected to the present moment.

A good way to feel grounded.

And similarly for the same reasons,

Feeling the weight of the body,

And noticing how that weight is being supported and held.

And checking in with the breath.

Not changing the breath in any way,

But just noticing the rhythm of your breath.

And that feeling of allowing the breath to breathe the body in its own time,

Its own speed and its own depth.

So just allowing that to happen.

And then being aware of how you feel internally.

Just noticing the types of thoughts and feelings and emotions that are with you at the moment.

So really just checking in with all aspects of the present moment.

Your environment,

Your body and your mind.

And accepting everything as it is.

So no effort to change anything.

Just allowing everything to happen and continue moment by moment.

Allowing yourself to be part of this present moment.

Okay,

So now we're perhaps beginning to feel a little more settled into the present.

The first main part of the meditation will be paying attention to sounds.

So allowing your awareness to be nice and broad,

Wide and open.

Actively listening to all the different sounds you can hear in the environment around you right now.

So try not to get into a mindset of focusing or concentrating,

But keeping the awareness open.

So you'll still be aware of thoughts and feelings,

Breath and the body.

And don't try and exclude anything from your awareness.

You're just taking more interest in the sounds.

So inviting them to be in the spotlight of your awareness in the foreground or the center of your awareness.

Allowing everything else to continue in the background.

What are all the different sounds that you can hear?

Quieter and louder sounds.

Continuous and occasional sounds.

And near and distant sounds.

Perhaps noticing that in each moment there's a unique blend of sounds.

No two moments will be exactly the same.

So being attentive and alert.

Noting all the different sounds as they come and go within your open awareness.

Maybe after a while you may begin to get a sense that you can also listen to quietness and a sense of silence.

Especially if I spend time listening out to quiet and distant sounds.

The quietness that is not the absence of sound but is always there between and behind all sounds.

And then getting a sense that there's this silent space that's always there and all sounds come and go within that silent space.

And then becoming more interested in the silence and perhaps allowing the sounds to move slightly into the background.

And invite this silent space more into the foreground of your awareness.

And after a while I get a sense that this silent space is the space of my awareness.

The silence is one quality of the space of my awareness.

And sounds are one thing that I can be aware of within that space.

Allowing the sounds to continue within the silent space of my awareness.

But beginning to really relax into the experience of the silent space.

Allowing the sounds just to be in the background.

Allowing myself to be more absorbed into the experience of my own awareness and the space,

Open space of that awareness and the quality of silence.

So the sounds are happening within my awareness but where I am is in the silent space of awareness.

So the silence is my natural relaxed state and the sounds come and go within that.

If you are not feeling or experiencing the sense of silence,

Don't try and experience it,

Don't try and create it.

Just be alert to the continuous flow of sounds and just allow all the sounds to come and go.

If you do hold all these sounds lightly within an open awareness,

Then a sense of quietness and silence may gradually come upon you.

Try not to have that expectation or make effort for that to happen.

The silence is where you are experiencing the sound from,

It's not another experience to try and get to.

So this space of awareness can have many qualities and I think they become apparent to us in contrast to what's happening within awareness.

So the silence becomes apparent when we pay attention to sound.

But if for example we pay attention to change,

So noticing that everything that we experience within our awareness is changing quickly or slowly,

Subtly or more obviously,

Getting a sense of each moment coming and going,

The passing of time,

And any and all changes,

Sounds are changing,

My thoughts are changing,

The breath is changing,

The sensations in the body may be more slowly but they also will be changing.

So getting a feeling for the dynamic flowing nature of the present moment,

Nothing is staying exactly the same,

Internally and externally,

Always some movement,

Some change somewhere.

Again not trying to experience anything beyond this,

Just allowing these changes to flow through our awareness.

In contrast to this change we may notice over time that where we are observing this change from is a place of changelessness.

The one that experiences all change is itself not changing,

The space for awareness compared to sound is silent and compared to change is changeless.

The passing of time happens within our awareness,

Our awareness itself,

Where we are right now,

Is timeless.

So being open to the possibility of an experience of silence and timelessness of the space of our awareness,

As that is where we already are,

Not making any effort to get there,

Just noticing sounds,

Noticing change,

Noticing they are both happening within the open space of our awareness.

I will leave 4 or 5 minutes without further commentary just to give ourselves the opportunity to really relax into this experience without expectation,

Without effort,

Just simply noticing any changes,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Body,

Breath,

Sounds and just allowing them to pass through our open awareness.

And maybe a quietness,

A silence,

A timelessness will creep up upon us.

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OK,

So let's begin to bring meditation to a close.

Maybe taking a few slightly deeper breaths in.

Movement back into the body and just opening your eyes whenever you feel ready.

Reviews

What a liberation practising this meditation✨👌🏻.

I zenned in a self-awareness state and continued to enjoy the timeliness moment by moment. Lovely and soothing feelings were felt as it was so Beautifully guided. I feel so calm and relaxed, that I did not realise this stunning meditation was finished✨🙏🏻😊❤️💫💚

One of my favourites. Thanks. I aways feel so peaceful afterwards.

Back again.. Really felt this experience. Excellent.