Awareness Of Sound

To accommodate beginners, teachers optimize conditions for meditation by providing a quiet space. Until a practitioner can stabilize the mind, minimizing noise is desirable. For intermediate practitioners, unpleasant noises can be an obstacle, negative affect such as irritation, anger or aversion may also arise. What began as a temporary modification to improve concentration can become an impediment. This practice is designed to train equanimity regardless of the external stimuli.

Transcript

In this unedited audio production,

We will use sound to enter the meditative state.

This guided practice is for the intermediate practitioner who has one or more years of practice and a degree of attentional control.

To accommodate beginners,

Teachers often try to optimize conditions for meditation by providing a quiet space.

Until a practitioner can stabilize the mind,

Regardless of external stimuli,

Minimizing noise is highly beneficial and desirable.

The teacher is seeking to strengthen the brain networks of alerting,

Orienting and executive control by improving the efficiency of neural connections which can be influenced with repetitive training in such optimal and quiet settings.

Because concentration is not yet strong enough in beginners,

Any distraction can pull attention away from the object of focus and interrupt development of attention at that level.

What began as a modification to support beginners,

However,

Often becomes a dependence.

For intermediate practitioners,

Disruptive noises can be a nuisance and distraction.

When unpleasant noises arise,

Negative affect such as irritation,

Anger or aversion may also arise.

What began as a temporary modification to improve concentration can become an impediment or attachment which reinforces conditioning.

Intermediate practitioners often crave silence and may become quite agitated when noises arise that the mind rejects.

A skilled meditator,

However,

Can maintain equanimity in the midst of noises and busyness.

There are no expectations.

Conditions no longer need to be just so to realize the mind's own perfection.

Concentration is stable.

Practice is achieved after thousands of hours of practice and observation coupled with gradual exposure to so-called unpleasant stimuli.

This practice uses learning extinction to gradually train the mind to remain equanimous and relaxed regardless of the external stimuli.

We'll introduce various sounds which the mind may interpret as pleasant or unpleasant.

With repeated exposure,

We gradually decrease our reactivity.

As this is an exercise,

Let's begin with a stretch to relax the body and mind.

Exhaling the breath and exhaling slowly.

Let the exhalation be twice as long as the inhalation,

Expelling all the air in the left hand side.

Letting the exhalation be twice as long as the inhalation,

Expelling all the air in the lungs.

Holding before taking yet another deep breath.

Letting the exhalation be twice as long as the inhalation.

And continue breathing like this,

Breaths that are slightly deeper than usual,

Longer holds than usual to the degree that you feel comfortable.

Here we're evoking the relaxation response,

Slowing down the breathing to a frequency of about six or less per minute.

As you exhale,

Continue releasing any bodily tensions you may notice in awareness.

With each exhalation releasing the obvious tensions and more subtle blockages of which we may be aware.

Breathe naturally now,

Allowing the breath to fall into a natural rhythm.

And rest your mind in this present moment,

Aware of the body in space,

Sensations of the body sitting.

Noticing the aliveness in the body.

You don't have to make an effort to notice the sense of presence or aliveness here.

It's very natural.

Just sitting with this felt sense of aliveness.

There's nothing to create,

Nothing to imagine,

Nothing to realize.

Things are open,

Just sitting,

Doing nothing,

Encouraging nothing,

Expecting nothing,

Resisting nothing,

Analyzing nothing.

Settling into this present moment.

Put your attention in the ears themselves and be aware there,

Listening and feeling,

Simply allowing sounds in,

Letting them go.

Whatever they want to hear.

Aware of sounds,

Some close,

Some distant.

Even the sound of this voice,

Its timbre and pitch,

Speed and inflection,

The pauses between sounds.

Listening to sounds as sounds,

Aware of the three dimensionality of sounds,

Sounds to the left,

Sounds to the right,

Above and below.

Notice the way sounds reverberate in the space you're in.

Be aware of the distance between you and the sources of sounds.

Aware of the channels of sound.

One channel may be a faint humming in the space you're in.

Clock ticking may be a second channel.

A car passing,

A bird chirping,

The sound of this voice.

Creaking sound.

Faint and distinct sound.

Whatever you hear,

Allow it to be.

Open and aware,

Curious,

Observing.

See if you can let go of the labels and words and just listen as an infant might listen.

Without references,

Without evaluation.

Even if you cannot resist naming or labeling sounds,

Allow and accept the thoughts to come to you.

Notice when the mind juzzes sounds as pleasant or unpleasant,

Welcome or unwelcome.

Delightful or annoying.

Maybe there's a truck rumbling past,

A dog barking,

Music blaring.

Use these sounds to go deeper into the meditative state.

Practice letting go.

You can use the noise to shine a light on our relationship to reality as it is.

In this practice,

There are no proper or improper sounds.

It's all just sound.

Including the sound of my voice.

Listen as if it were noise.

No need to make sense out of what I'm saying.

Your brain will take care of that automatically.

Just listen to the sounds.

You may find you can't help naming sounds or identifying them and will go on thinking or talking inside your head.

That's natural.

Don't try to repress it.

Try to cast anything out of your mind.

You'll only disturb the mind.

For being generous,

Open,

Compassionate,

Curious.

As you hear thoughts arise in the mind,

Simply listen to the chatter as part of the general noise going on.

Even as you would listen to cars passing by or birds chirping outside.

The thought arises,

Gets louder and passes away.

From whence do they arise?

Where did they go?

Another thought comes.

Seems to linger for some time.

Passing,

Passing.

Until it finally passes away.

Sometimes the traffic of thoughts can be very loud.

Cacophonous.

Sometimes the mind is quiet with thoughts passing occasionally.

No preference,

Whether busy or quiet,

Simply be and just observe.

The outside world and the inside world come together as a happening and all we are doing is simply listening.

Maybe you hear very pleasant sounds.

Notice the emotions and sensations arising.

Observe your relationship to the sounds you're experiencing.

A sudden loud sound for example may trigger the startle response.

There may be an involuntary jump,

A sudden change in your breathing or heart rate.

You might notice tension,

Maybe a tingling here,

A throbbing there,

A perturbation lined.

Just notice,

Don't try to change anything.

See how long these physiological changes last.

Another stimulus.

If the mind interprets this as unpleasant,

The mind may resist.

See if you can sit with it.

Explore what it feels like to relax into discomfort.

Experiment with letting go when things don't go the way the mind wants conditions to be.

When circumstances are not optimal,

When there is noise,

When there are distractions,

Use this as an opportunity to practice allowing and letting go.

Sitting in awareness.

Awareness becomes expansive.

Allowing the sounds,

The thoughts,

The emotions,

The sensations to be.

Taking refuge in an open field of awareness that encompasses it all.

Embracing even the unpleasant sensations,

Even if there's resistance,

Restlessness or frustration remain open.

Like this the mind will find its equilibrium.

Just keep relaxing,

Letting go.

Just listening.

So simple,

Yet paradoxically,

How complex.

The air not only contains the gases I need to breathe,

But serves as a medium through which sound can travel.

As I'm breathing out,

The tongue,

The teeth,

The lips work together to produce sound which is transmitted through the medium of air as sound waves.

Moving at the speed of sound.

As you listen your outer ear catches the waves.

These waves travel into the ear canal.

Three tiny bones amplify these vibrations and send them to the cochlea.

A pea sized,

Snail shaped organ filled with fluid.

The vibrations make these fluids ripple which create waves.

Tiny bundles of hair follicles called cochlea move like trees swaying in the wind.

This movement is converted into electrical signals which travel along auditory nerves to the brain.

This miracle occurs with each word you're hearing now.

You cannot feel any of this.

You cannot feel the tiny bones moving.

Or the cochlea swaying.

It's also effortless.

Simply listening.

Unaware of the miracle unfolding moment by moment.

And with no effort,

The brain interprets this symbolic noise we call speech into sound.

Your brain is adding meaning to the sound,

Pulling from memory,

Creating associations,

Labels,

Adding emotion and valence.

These words may seem pleasant or unpleasant.

Based on your interpretation,

These sounds will be filtered through different regions of the brain.

Whatever happens,

See if you can let go and just observe.

Be curious.

Some who are listening to this recording may crave more silence.

Some may crave more instruction.

If you find these words pleasant,

The reward centers of the brain may be activated.

You may feel calm,

Relaxed.

If there's too much talking in this recording,

As judged by the mind,

And it interprets it as an annoyance,

The sound will be gated through the emotional and self-referential centers of the brain.

If you really don't like it,

The sympathetic nervous system may be triggered and you'll begin to experience tension in the body.

Maybe a tingling,

Maybe tightness,

Maybe mild discomfort.

Which may increase the more the mind rejects and resists.

If you'd love for me to shut up,

For example,

Just notice this tendency without judging it or trying to change it.

Notice how the mind reacts when it hears something it does not like.

Notice how thoughts may add to the noise.

See if you can open up to this.

Don't interfere.

Remaining in our seat regardless of what unfolds.

This is the practice.

Remaining open to the experience.

Relaxing into it.

No need to resist anything.

It's an opportunity to recognize the tendency of the mind to judge,

To label some sounds as pleasant or unpleasant.

To notice how it reacts with craving to the pleasant sounds and aversion to the unpleasant sounds.

If you can hear the talking,

If you can notice the frustration or the calm or the quiet or whatever it is arising,

That is not you.

All of this is arising within this vast open field of awareness.

As this practice comes to a close,

You may wish to revisit it.

Or continue training.

Trying to habituate the mind to remain relaxed in unpleasantness.

Just observing it,

Relaxing into it.