Guided Meditation On Receptive Listening

A 20-minute guided meditation using sound as an anchor to ground one's attention.

Transcript

So first begin by arranging your body in a way that's comfortable for some people that might be lying down in the supine position.

For other people it might be sitting on a cushion or on a bench or on a chair.

Either way,

Let both sides of your pelvis be balanced as best as possible.

Arrange the legs so they're as symmetrical as possible.

And bring your attention to a calm and alert body.

So there's a balance between vitality and tranquility throughout the body.

And also feel how your body is breathing.

With your breath flowing naturally in the background,

Bring your attention to the ears and allow the ears to open to sounds.

Subtle sounds like the sounds you might find in your body,

Sounds in your environment,

Maybe even sounds in the distance.

And also the predominant sound of my voice.

And with the breath in the background,

Let the ears be receptive to sound.

Imagine your ears are like microphones.

They don't chase sounds or follow sounds.

Sounds just come to the diaphragm of the ears.

They arrive at the diaphragm of the microphone and the ears make contact with sound,

Hearing happens without adding anything to it.

So imagine the ears are like microphones and they're receptive to the whole field of sound.

Notice,

When attention creates an image for the sound or starts associating to the sound with language or ideas,

And then come back to a body that's breathing and ears that are receptive to the movements of sound.

With this receptive attitude,

You may begin to notice that sounds are not distractions.

They're just what's happening.

So the ears,

Awareness,

Receptive to the movement of sound.

Sounds come through the field of awareness and they change and pass away.

Every time you get distracted,

Come back to the body that's breathing,

Bring your attention to listening and listen receptively to the environment inside and out.

Reflexible listening,

Receptive listening.

So they're just realinetting of new forces and new things so that they can participate Let sounds come to the ear.

And sometimes when there's some calmness,

You can explore listening to sound below language.

So sometimes when we hear sounds,

We add pictures to the sound via memory,

Or we begin to associate words and ideas to the sounds.

See if it's possible to feel the breath in the background and just notice sounds without language.

Just try that on.

Opening up receptively to the field of sound with an alert body without so much language.

Notice the way that sometimes the organ that we call the ear goes after sound or follows sound or goes toward the sound.

Feeling a relaxed breath.

Just let sounds come towards the ears.

Sometimes I find if the breath is relaxed as I'm sitting,

It almost feels like my breathing is doing the listening.

Sometimes I imagine that there are hundreds or thousands of small ears through the pores of my skin.

So it's like the whole body is listening to the environment receptively.

So there's less language,

The breath is at ease,

And the whole body and breath system in process is experiencing sound.

And those sounds are changing.

And there's no holding on to any particular sounds.

Sounds come and go like everything else.

Nothing stays the same.

And we're experiencing this changing field of sound from a place of stability,

Of stillness,

Of quietude and calm.

And that combination of courtyard and FO schools is happening to me.

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If there is a lot of thinking or storytelling,

Try and merge your awareness back into your body,

Feeling legs,

Spine,

Arms,

And hands.

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Feeling quiet in the mouth and the tongue.

Then bring your attention to your breathing.

A gentle inhale and exhale.

And then once your awareness is back in your body,

Open the ears again and begin receptive listening.

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And even though the attention is on the experience of hearing sounds,

We're simultaneously aware of a quiet breath in the background.

Sounds in the foreground,

Breath in the background.

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See if you can open to sounds with the ears like microphones and investigate if it's possible to notice sound with less commentary.

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Receptive listening,

A body that's receptive to sounds and breathing,

And less commentary.

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Let's second,

See if you can get closer to the experience of listening with an alert body.

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Reviews

Nice gentle meditation with some great insights thank you 🙏

That was just amazing! so dependent on my concepts and running commentary for a false sense of safety and "illusion of control. " was a neat experience...ty for recording this practice

Thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Everything Michael does it great. Unique, insightful

a good experience to sharp your senses. makes u relaxed. thank u

The voice is calm and nice to listed to, thank you

His voice is touching a remote and sweet spot inside of me, I need to cry from exquisite relief

Very grounding meditation. I feel refreshed and clear after that.

Beautiful meditation supportive of embodied listening and experiencing. Thank you Michael.

Great experience, Michael was so wise.

Profoundly moving practice. Enlightenment like drops of light or sound with no reverberation in the mind's chatter. Namaste

Thank you Michael. May your teachings continue even after you have left. Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhisvaha.

looking forward to more uploads of micheal's meditations. i love the silences he allows us. atma namaste

Very hard to listen to a sound without putting a visual image or a name to it. I need to practise this more.

Echt schön, Dankeschön! 🙏🏼

Very well paced, with plenty of gaps to actually listen to the environment. Namaste

Thank you Michael, you are missed.

Excellent environmental receptive listening to soothe & calm enhancing awareness.

This is a great technical practice for learning how to deal with sounds during meditation. Thank you for providing.

Thank you so much for this beautiful, relaxing session. I was able to completely relax the mind and body to stillness. The voice is calming with just the right amount of reminders to keep the mind quiet. 🙏🏻