Meditation on Sounds The intention here is to use another anchor,
The anchor of hearing,
Sounds and cultivating an awareness of the coming and going of experiences.
Discriminating between sensation and labelling,
Or thinking about sensation.
Opening to and accepting what is.
This meditation can be done sitting,
Lying,
Standing and to a degree whilst walking.
If sitting and if it is comfortable for you,
The back self supporting,
Moving away from the back of the chair,
Hands resting on your lap or by your side.
Adopting a posture that is comfortable,
Upright and open.
And if it is comfortable and possible for you,
Allowing the eyes to close.
I'll use three sounds of the bell to indicate the start of this meditation.
And again three sounds of the bell at the end.
The bell is ringing.
So taking some time to settle into this moment.
Allowing yourself this time.
Becoming aware of the body as a whole.
Sounds of touch and contact with whatever you may be sitting on,
Lying on or standing on.
And now narrowing the focus of your attention to the breath.
Wherever you notice it more clearly.
Maybe the rise and fall of the abdomen.
Maybe as the air enters or exits your body.
And if this is something you find difficult,
You may choose to place a hand on your stomach.
Help you detect the breath there for a few moments.
We're not trying to change the breath in any way.
Just observing.
Tracing the breath and perhaps noticing how each breath is different.
Now when you're ready,
Turning the focus of your awareness to sounds,
To hearing.
Little Can.
Bowl.
Allowing the sense of awareness of sounds to open and expand.
Not searching for sounds,
Instead as best you can simply opening your mind,
So it is receptive to sounds from all directions.
Sounds close to you,
Perhaps sounds within your own body,
And sounds further away,
Becoming aware of obvious sounds,
And of more subtle sounds.
Whenever you notice that your focus is not with the sounds in this moment,
Or that you find you are thinking about the sounds,
Simply acknowledging where your mind has moved to,
And re-tuning your awareness back to sounds,
As they arise and pass away from one moment to the next,
Reconnecting and re-tuning the awareness back to sounds.
Noticing the tendency to want to name sounds,
To be attracted towards them,
Annoyed by them,
And perhaps pulling away from them,
Simply receiving them,
Wherever they come from,
As they arise and fade away from one moment to the next.
Just being aware of sounds as sounds,
Noticing the tendency we all have to interpret sounds,
To attach stories and meanings to them,
As best you can,
Just becoming aware of the sensory qualities of sounds,
Their change in pitch,
Loudness,
Duration,
Rhythm,
Tuning into the raw quality of sounds,
Rather than beginning to think about what they mean,
And aware too of the gaps between sounds,
Of silence.
And now letting the sounds fade into the background,
Narrowing the focus of your attention to the breath once again,
Just this moment,
Just this breath,
Of course we've used the breath as an anchor before,
But never this breath,
Never in this moment,
Noticing the unique qualities of the breath in this moment,
Debris out of the user's mind,
You
