Awareness of Sounds and Thoughts (MBSR)

Cultivating spacious awareness through being with the vastness of the sound scape and the mind. Periods of silence allow for rest in these places.

Transcript

The following is a 30-minute meditation on sounds and thoughts.

Before we begin,

Let's get into a seated position,

Either on our cushion or in a chair,

And coming into an upright and dignified posture.

And we'll use the sound of three bells to begin and end this meditation.

It's often helpful to begin any meditation by first bringing awareness to the body.

So let's take a moment and just bring our awareness fully into our bodies,

Into this seated position that we're in.

And you might like to narrow your awareness right down into your feet.

And just take a moment to notice the sensations as your feet make contact with the floor.

And how the ground and the chair or the cushion support your body,

Neither allowing them to float away or to sink into the ground,

But just the sensation of being held in this upright and dignified posture.

Allowing our bodies to settle in,

Which can give rise to the experience of stillness.

Bringing awareness to the sensations with stillness,

Which then allows us to begin to notice our breath and the breath cycle.

So let's just spend a moment here,

Fully aware of our bodies sitting in the chair,

And breathing,

Grounding us in this present moment.

And breathing,

Grounding us in this present moment.

And even as we become present in our bodies,

It's not uncommon for our mind to continue to chatter away.

And so if you're noticing your own mind being very busy,

One,

To know that's very normal,

Very common human experience.

And that when you become aware of your mind chattering,

That it is simply an opportunity to notice it and come back to the breath.

Come back to the breath,

Come back to the awareness of the body.

And at the beginning of a meditation,

You may need to do this over and over.

This is just the process of aligning the mind and the body and bringing them both here.

There's no need for judgment or harshness.

There's no need for judgment or harshness.

When you're ready,

Begin by expanding your awareness out,

Out from the breath,

Out from the body,

And allowing awareness to become as spacious as it can be,

Resting in the soundscape.

It's not uncommon to quickly become aware of how vast this soundscape is.

We can be aware of the sounds very intimately associated with our bodies.

The sound of the breath,

The sounds digestion make,

Various other sounds that can emanate from the body.

We can be aware of the sounds that are very close to us but not part of us.

And the soundscape expands as far out as our hearing can detect,

Outside of the room,

Wherever you are.

Resting in this vastness of the soundscape with a very spacious awareness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And as we center our awareness in this soundscape,

We become aware of the impermanence of sounds.

We notice a sound arising and passing,

Such as the sound of a bird or the sound of a car passing,

Or even the sound of the breath.

That through the soundscape we begin to experience the impermanence of phenomena.

Something arises,

Stays for a moment,

A second,

A minute,

And it passes.

And in between these sounds it's also possible to experience silence.

So just bringing our awareness to the fullness of the soundscape with all of the impermanence,

The silence,

And the sounds.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sounds come and they go.

And this provides for us the opportunity to notice how human it is to attach the label pleasant or unpleasant to whatever arises.

And as we meditate on the soundscape,

We're provided this opportunity to notice how the mind attaches,

Labels,

And not uncommonly when the mind labels pleasant.

We want more of it.

We want it to stay.

And if the mind labels unpleasant,

We often want to move away from it,

Want it to go away.

And this can create enormous reactivity for us humans.

So as you rest in the soundscape now,

You're given this opportunity to notice the mind labeling and then just to let that go and allow the sounds to be as impersonal as they are.

Allow them to come and go without becoming overly attached to their presence or disappearance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's fine to continue to hold your awareness in the soundscape for the rest of this meditation.

But if you'd like to,

We can now shift our awareness from the soundscape into the mindscape.

So bringing our awareness right into our minds and beginning to notice the arising and passing of thought.

So sitting in this receptive awareness,

Just beginning to notice the production of thought.

Much like clouds in the sky or sounds in the soundscape,

Thoughts actually just arise and pass on their own without a whole lot of effort or intention on our part.

So let's just take a moment to begin to notice what thoughts are arising and passing in this moment.

So let's just take a moment to notice what thoughts are arising and passing in this moment.

So let's just take a moment to notice what thoughts are arising and passing in this moment.

Just as we can become quite reactive to sounds that we like or don't like,

We also can become quite reactive to thoughts that we like or don't like.

And again,

This meditation provides us with the opportunity to notice the thoughts as they arise and they pass and more arise and different ones arise and let go of the reactivity.

Sitting in this receptive awareness,

It really is possible to begin to notice the impermanence of thought.

And that often when we can drop out of reactivity,

Thoughts pass on their own and they're quickly replaced with another thought that will also pass.

So let's just take a moment to notice what thoughts are arising and passing on our own.

And if you find yourself lost in thought,

Having drifted off and gotten caught up in a particular thought pattern or daydream,

It's always skillful to return your awareness to the breath.

The breath can be very grounding when we get lost.

So this is always available and always skillful.

And once you reground,

Come back to the present moment,

You can then open up awareness to the spaciousness again and move back into observing the mind.

Maybe a moment.

Ah.

As we continue to bring awareness to the mind and to the thoughts and feelings that arise,

It's very important to notice if any judgment is arising.

This is an opportunity to let go of judgment and to recognize the humanness in having difficult thoughts and getting carried away by thoughts.

This is very much a part of the human experience and we really don't need to judge it.

We can observe it and let it go.

Same with whatever is arising in this moment.

In these last few moments of this meditation,

Let's bring our awareness back into the breath,

Just shifting,

Leaving the mindscape,

Leaving the soundscape and bringing our awareness right into the breath cycle,

Paying attention as each breath arises and passes.

Now we can expand out our awareness one more time to include the entire body so that the body and the breath are at the forefront of our awareness.

Investing in this awareness of presence,

Of stillness,

Of quietness.

And embody right here.

In a very pleasant way.

This concludes the 30 minutes sounds and thoughts meditation.

Reviews

Her voice is very soothing and sweet.

I’ve just had a beautiful 30 minutes bringing myself back to what is vital in my life. Thank you

I’ve kept a meditation practice for 30 years, and this is one of the best guided meditations I’ve come across. A very powerful experience. Can’t recommend highly enough!

Very nice simple guidance with plenty of space. Likes the transition from soundscape to mindscape. Need more work on cultivating or appreciating spaciousness.

A wonderful, gentle mindfulness meditation. Thank you 🙏

Great rhythm and pace, with plenty of pauses and silence, and not too much intervention/guidance. Handles transience and attachment very deftly, encouraging and facilitating awareness and stillness. Thank you very much, Stephanie.

Perfect.
Namaste.

Just what I was looking for. Simple and affective.

Powerful shift in perception after this meditation.

The more I listen to this one the more I appreciate it

One of my favorite meditations thus far. Very well paced and I loved the amount of time spent in silence and her guiding. Soothing voice and insightful words.

Please load more meditations like this one. The longer periods of silence are wonderful, helpful for those transitioning from guided to silent meditation, and are rare to come upon.

Excellent spacious awareness meditation

Beautifully guided meditation. Thank you.

This meditation moved me from high anxiety the calm & joy. It's the most effective meditation I've ever done. Thank you so much💕

Thank you for an amazing meditation. Awareness of sounds that I always want to run away from. Thank you for teaching me, I will now experience sounds in a better way. Namaste

Like how we are constantly reminded about our thoughts and letting them go

Another very good, very basic Vipassana guided meditation practice. Mahalo, Stephanie. Bookmarked.

Thank you Stephanie. You have a real talent.