Sitting with sounds.
By sitting with sounds,
Allowing them to come and go or persist without getting caught up in their stories,
We develop our ability to sit in the same way with thoughts,
Emotions,
Physical sensations,
Images,
Memories or intentions.
Let's begin by settling ourselves.
Feeling the feet grounded flat on the floor.
Sitting upright but not to attention.
Being purposeful.
Resting the hands somewhere neutral and still.
Whatever you are comfortable with,
Lowering your gaze or closing your eyes.
Beginning by focusing on your breathing.
Paying attention to the sensations that tell you about each breath coming in and going out.
Not trying to change anything.
Just observing the breath and allowing the body to settle into its own natural rhythm.
And noticing when distractions arise.
Thoughts or sensations.
And allowing each to pass,
To take its own course.
Gently bringing your attention back to the sensations of the breath.
Wherever these are in the body.
And then turning your attention now from the breath to any sounds that you can hear.
Sounds that may be close at hand or far away in the distance.
Some that may be barely heard.
Not working hard to seek out sounds to work with in this way.
Simply placing close attention on those sounds that come to you.
Some sounds are even inside the body.
Your own breathing or other tiny sounds as the body shifts and settles.
And sometimes what you can hear is simply silence.
So just observing these sounds as and when they arise.
Almost like a recording device.
Moving blips and lines on a screen.
Without getting caught up in the stories about what makes them.
About why the sounds are happening.
Whether you like them or not.
Or when and how those sounds might come to an end.
Sounds may be pleasant or unpleasant or just boring.
In daily life we might try to control sounds.
To find ways to turn the unpleasant ones off or turn down the volume.
Or we grasp hold of pleasant sounds,
Wanting them to continue.
Rewind,
Replay,
Add to favourites.
Persistent boring sounds make us impatient.
Mysterious sounds make us want to find the cause.
Some sounds we can control,
Others we can't.
Like what other people may be saying.
When we sit with sounds,
For the duration of the practice,
We allow all of them to be and to take their course.
We treat the pleasant,
The unpleasant,
The mysterious and the boring all the same.
Doing that now,
Just noticing their quality but not getting caught up in plans to change them.
If sounds annoy us,
Observing that annoyance and letting that be too.
Iny silence call Anytime you notice you've become wrapped up in a story about the sounds or just drifted away,
You can bring your attention back to your breathing.
Back to the sensations of the breath coming in and going out.
Just for a few breaths before returning attention to the sounds around you,
Observing whatever arises.
Just as with sounds we can allow thoughts,
Sensations,
Emotions and intentions to come and go.
Observing their quality,
Letting their stories go,
Accepting pleasant,
Unpleasant and boring all alike.
And now shifting awareness back to the body,
Back to that sense of your weight in the chair,
Your feet on the floor.
Awareness of the temperature of the room around you,
The air on your skin.
In your own time,
Raising your gaze or opening your eyes and completing the practice.
