Hello and welcome.
For this practice,
You can be in any comfortable position and take the next few moments to settle in by taking a few deeper breaths.
And then feel into sensations in the body.
And close your eyes while I keep talking,
Just relaxing more.
Today we're going to explore listening.
I'll be playing two audio tracks and you're going to practice listening with your entire being.
True listening is multidimensional in that all your senses come into play.
In true listening,
Life streams to us moment to moment,
Always in the present.
True listening is a welcoming of everything just as it is,
Complete receptivity.
In true listening,
We don't label or visualize what we're hearing.
So don't focus on any particular sound or jump from sound to sound.
Just open your awareness like the lens of a camera and listen to the play of the sound with your whole body,
Not just your ears.
When you're in this global listening mode,
You'll feel yourself in a vastness where there's no listener,
Only hearing itself.
This type of listening is welcoming without interpretation.
This is direct perception.
As a meditation aid,
The sounds in your environment become reminders to drop whatever thinking has started and return to just listening.
Let me repeat that.
Allow the various sounds to interrupt the thinking mind and bring you back to the present,
Which is pure awareness.
Eventually,
The sense of a separate experiencer may drop away and only experiencing remains,
Which arises in limitless silence and stillness.
Our first audio track is a Mockingbird song I recorded.
The reason I selected this track is because I find it very entertaining and because we have no idea where this bird is going.
The apparent randomness of its song invites the perfect mix of intense interest and anticipation,
Both of which are keys to true listening.
Also,
There are silent moments between his calls,
Which makes this a great place to start.
Listen intently to the silence,
Waiting for what comes next.
Sometimes,
I go back to the very top.
.
.
.
I hope you enjoyed that.
Now I'll play several minutes of more generalized nature sounds.
This will give you an idea of what it would be like meditating in a busier,
Natural environment.
You'll be listening without a goal or purpose.
No doing.
Only hearing.
And once again,
Hear with your entire being.
Allow sounds to continually bring you back to the present moment.
This is the direct path of meditation.
This is your meditation.
And I'll be back after this recording.
So,
With practice,
You'll be able to meditate listening in even noisy,
Busy places.
Listen to whatever your environment brings,
Even if it's traffic noise or barking dogs.
It just doesn't matter.
This type of meditative listening can be a challenge at first,
Because we rarely use this skill in modern life.
More and more,
Our attention is pulled in several directions and we're losing our ability to maintain one-pointed focus.
So,
Just like a muscle,
We need to exercise our listening skills.
And close your eyes and be listening.
Thank you.
