Thought Meditation: Hear In, See In

In this meditation, we practice gently noting auditory and visual thinking. We are invited to also note rest when the mind is quiet. This soft noting allows us to increase awareness of these processes that are commonly experienced as automatic and easily go unnoticed.

The noting practice (sometimes called labeling) comes primarily from Theravāda Buddhist insight (vipassanā) meditation, with its most influential modern form traced to 20th-century Burma (Myanmar).

The foundation of this practice comes from the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (“Foundations of Mindfulness”), one of the earliest Buddhist texts. In it, the Buddha instructs practitioners to:
- Observe bodily sensations, feelings, mind states, and mental objects
- Know them as they are, clearly and directly
- Notice phenomena arising and passing away