Establishing the posture for sitting meditation.
A bright and balanced.
Gently encouraging the body to open and extend.
And relax,
Dropping shoulders.
Relaxing the face.
Finding the breathing.
Especially the breath in the belly.
Feeling the felt sensation of the breath in the body.
Which really establishes our awareness in the present moment.
And letting that breath awareness be large in a way.
Feeling the whole body breathing.
And for the rest of this practice of mindfulness of sound,
Of listening.
The breath is there as a touchstone.
As a support.
And something we can come back to if the mind wanders into discursive thinking.
Thoughts of the past or the future.
Analysis of what we're hearing or something else.
We can just repeat this process of returning to the breath.
Re-establishing our awareness of the feeling of the breathing in the body,
The actual sensations.
And then opening up the ears.
Starting to use our hearing as kind of like an antenna.
As if the ears could reach out into the surrounding environment.
Just start sensing sounds.
With a minimum of judgment or preference.
Even trying to let go of the instantaneous tendency to name sounds,
To bring up stories about sounds and why they're happening or why they shouldn't be happening.
To listen for the timbre,
The volume,
The pitch.
Even the sense of vibration that is sound,
Which of course is only vibration moving through the air.
Just letting awareness move to each sound that is noticed.
Experiencing that sound.
And being ready,
Being open for whatever comes next.
And then this listening practice.
We include everything.
Noticing sounds inside the room,
Outside the room,
Far away.
Sounds from our own bodies or if we're practicing with somebody else,
Sounds originate from their bodies.
Sounds that come and go.
And sounds that seem to be more constant or sustained.
So called background noise or background sounds.
To include every sound the ears can hear.
Creating a very broad sphere of awareness.
This can be a very expansive,
Relaxing practice.
Concentration.
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
And encouraging the mind to just touch lightly on each sound that is recognized.
Just a simple experience of listening.
Sound passing through consciousness and away again.
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
And if the mind is drifty or caught by thinking,
Just to give more attention and awareness to the breathing.
Letting the breathing,
An awareness of that sensation of breathing,
Be more in the foreground.
And attending to the sounds in the background.
So this is more supportive of stability and supports the release from discursive thought.
But sometimes the thought is strong and powerful.
It may seem like all the time.
So a lot of awareness of breathing with a little bit of listening is quite excellent as well.
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
Sometimes we notice a preference for some kinds of sounds over others.
We like birdsong or don't like traffic or garbage truck.
And if we notice we're adding this sense of preference to our experience of listening,
Then that's what's happening.
Just to notice that.
And as best we can return to this practice of just listening to sound with the support of this present moment anchor of breathing.
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
What do you hear right now?
What is being heard now?
What is being heard now?
What is being heard now?
What is being heard now?
What is being heard now?
What is being heard now?
What is being heard now?
What is being heard now?
What is being heard now?
And as our awareness of sounds practice comes to a close,
Just appreciating yourself for taking this time to cultivate awareness,
To cultivate the ability to be rooted in the present moment.
To practice mindfulness.
