Meditation For Deep Listening

Reclaim the power of deep, compassionate listening. Recorded live in my Monday Meditation Group, this meditation helps us to cultivate our capacity for listening within and throughout. Find a comfortable seat and enjoy.

Transcript

And please take a moment and just land.

If you need to kind of stretch out in your body a little bit so that you can feel a little bit more present in your body and in the moment,

Feel free.

And as you land in your body,

Allow your body to settle and nestle into a seat,

Whether that's on a cushion on the floor or on the chair or on the couch,

And really allow yourself to take care of yourself with the seat.

So if your body needs a little bit more space,

Give it some space.

And once you've found a seat that's going to work for you here,

Allow yourself to nestle in.

Perhaps you allow the eyes to close or soften your gaze downwards.

Allow the weight of your hips and your legs to drop so that you can receive that hug of gravity.

With a steady base,

Start at your tailbone and just slowly in your mind's eye,

Trace upwards through your spine,

Bone by bone,

Each vertebrae beginning to surrender to levity growing tall and light,

All the way up to the very top of the neck,

Snuggle the back of your head just a little bit back as you snuggle your shoulders back as if you were kind of resting back on someone's chest,

Head snuggles back,

Shoulders snuggle back.

Lengthen the back of the skull upwards just a little bit so there's a tiny little opening in the back of the base of the skull on the top of your neck.

Just take your fingers and start to pull on your ear lobes,

Maybe just give your ears a little massage and use your fingers and massage in through the jaw.

Maybe rub along the jaw line,

Along the jaw muscles,

Just notice any tension you've been holding in your jaw,

Maybe even just a little bit of massage through the face.

And then all the way around to the back of the neck and just see if you can feel that rim of the back of the skull right there where the skull drops away into just flesh and just ease up any tension there.

Just a little self-massage,

Maybe draw down both sides of the neck a little bit.

Say thank you to the muscles that have been carrying all that they've been carrying.

Good,

And then relax your hands back down,

Allow your shoulders to soften.

From the inside out,

Really relax your jaw.

We'll use our time here in meditation this morning to cultivate a sense of deep listening to call that forward for ourselves.

Relax the hinge of your jaw,

The base of your tongue,

Maybe even soften your lips,

The roof of your mouth be soft.

As you relax the jaw,

Allow the inner ears to grow wide and soft,

The inner ears to get big,

Like the ears of a Buddha.

If you've ever seen the ears of a Buddha,

They're huge.

These are the ears of compassion.

So jaw soft,

Inner ears wide,

Open,

Receptive.

Begin to listen here in your inner ears for the sound of your breath.

Very gently add a little bit of texture to your breath as you brush the breath along the back of the throat until the breath has the voice of that very soft whisper,

Exactly like the sound of the ocean in a seashell.

Allow your inner ears to fill with the sound of your breathing,

Jaw soft,

Shoulders soft.

Listen to the sound of your breath as it pours and flows along the back of your throat,

A wave of inhale flows in,

The wave of exhale flows out,

Just listen.

See if you can listen to the whisper of your breath with your whole body now,

Your whole body a vessel of deep listening.

Keep the inner ears soft and receptive.

Change the focal point of the listening now from the breath to the soundscape inside the room that you're in.

Allow yourself to just listen to the sounds of life just around your body,

Just here in this space.

Receive those sounds with the same receptive openness as you received the sounds of your breath,

Jaw soft,

Inner ears vast.

To reach your capacity for listening out even further to the soundscape outside the room that you're in,

To the sounds that are further and furthest away.

Without having to effort so much,

Just allow your field of listening,

Receptivity to grow wider and let those far away sounds just land in this receptive place.

Maybe these soundscapes are really full and dynamic,

Or maybe they tend a little bit more towards silence right now.

Listen all the same.

Keep this same receptive capacity for listening vast,

Jaw soft,

Inner ears wide.

And now listen for the beat of your physical heart in your chest,

Receptive to its rhythm and pulse.

Just listen for the beat of your physical heart in your chest.

And with this same receptive listening,

Here with the ears of a Buddha,

Listen for the whispers of any other sensations in your body right now.

Just listen for the whispers of any other sensations in your body right now.

Jaw soft,

Inner ears vast and listening.

Come back to the whisper of your breath as it pours along the back of your throat and allow your inner ears to fill up with the sound of your breathing.

Just listen as each wave of breath rolls in and each wave of breath rolls out.

Jaw soft,

Inner ears vast and receptive.

And now simply listen to any whisper or chatter of thought,

Thought,

Ideas,

Emotion.

Just listen without having to fix or change any of the things.

Just notice any conversations going on in your mind.

Listen to the voices of your inner conversation with the ears of a Buddha,

Vast and loving.

Jaw soft,

Ears spacious.

Once again,

Come back to that whisper of the waves of your breath as your breath pours along the back of your throat.

Allow your inner ears to fill up with the sound of your breathing.

Listen as the wave of breath rolls in and as the wave of breath rolls out.

And linger for a moment at the top of the inhale.

Listen there in the silence.

And then the same at the bottom of the exhale.

Beyond the sound and the whisper of the breath,

Linger the end of the exhale in the silence and listen well there for a moment or two.

The sound of the breath giving way to silence.

The silence giving way to the sound of the wave of the breath.

As if you could gather up this quality of deep listening,

This quality of presence between the palms of your hands.

Hold your hands like a prayer at the center of your heart.

Let the inhale float the heart right up into your thumbs and let the exhale relax your head down low.

Continuing to inhabit this space of deep listening,

Allow your eyes to flutter open,

Beginning to weave the inner and outer landscape together.

Thank you so much for sharing your practice with me.