Hey everyone!
Today I just wanted to sit in silence for a little bit and listen to the sounds.
The sounds of nature,
But also the sounds of cars and trucks.
Potentially my dog barking.
Or maybe a truck coming into the driveway.
And instead of thinking that we need complete silence to meditate or we need complete silence in order to come back to the present moment.
I want to invite you to do it with the sounds of everyday life.
So.
.
.
If you want to join me,
Feel free to get comfortable.
You can close your eyes.
You can keep them open.
You may see my hummingbird friend come to join me back there.
And maybe you can't hear any of these noises because of this microphone,
But I don't really know how it works,
So.
I'm gonna sit back and.
.
.
Just listen to the sounds.
Remembering the quote,
The path to enlightenment is easy,
Just don't have preferences.
What if we dropped labels for sounds?
The sounds of traffic,
The sounds of birds,
Sounds that distract you,
Sounds that bring you back to the present moment as good and bad.
And just live in this wordless space of awareness.
Everything is connected.
Everything is part of the universe.
This hummingbird is coming really close,
I think,
To me.
And I love hummingbirds.
So I invite you to take this practice into your life.
But next time you're sitting,
Whether you live in a city or in the countryside,
There's somewhere in between.
Just greeting all noises,
All sensation,
All stimuli.
The way you would greet an old friend.
When I first moved here,
I had such a resistance.
Against hearing the sounds of traffic.
Especially like large trucks.
And I would say things to myself like.
.
.
Oh,
It would be so much nicer if this.
It would be so much nicer if you couldn't hear the road.
Yeah,
Me,
Me.
Maybe not.
Who knows?
As the Zen koan goes.
Thank you for sharing this space with me.
And I hope you greet the everyday noises of your life a little differently.
