Meditating On Sounds, And Then Thoughts

Having thoughts as the focus of our meditation is a powerful practice. By turning the light of our awareness directly onto our thoughts, we become ever more able to observe our thoughts, rather than being carried away by them; to see thoughts as ‘mental events’ arising in awareness. We develop the capacity to be less identified with our thoughts.

This helps us recognise patterns in our thinking, and how we can be carried away by a ‘train’ of thought, which tends to be when a thought is emotionally charged.

With practice, we begin to see the beginnings and ends of thoughts, and the space between thoughts.

This practice leads us to two profound conclusions: 1) that thoughts are not facts; and 2) that “I am not my thoughts.” (which leads on to the question - if not my thoughts, then who am I? This is the subject of a course I am currently creating).

This meditation draws on the helpful similarities between sounds and thoughts.

Transcript

Welcome to this meditation on sounds and then thoughts. So to begin with, The invitation to bring the awareness to the lower half of the body. A sense of the places in your body where your weight is supported by the floor, The chair or cushions. And inviting a sense of sinking, Settling into that support. A sense of letting go. And being aware of the sensations in those points of contact. Your feet on the floor, And your weight is supported by the chair or cushions. With this sense of letting go. If you'd like to, Taking three deeper breaths, Just to help that feeling of settling and arriving. And a feeling of settling into the stillness of the body. The firm base of your posture rising up through the spine to the head. So the posture embodying our intention to be relaxed and at the same time alert. And maybe bringing your awareness to your face. Just noticing the sensations in the face with a sense of allowing any unnecessary tension to let go sense of the face coming into neutral, Letting go of the persona, The masks that we wear in everyday life. And just reminding ourselves as we begin the practice that there's nothing that we have to achieve, That we're just going to engage in this practice, Being with our experience as it unfolds moment to moment, And that we can't get the practice wrong. A sense of relaxing, Inviting a sense of ease, Because there's nowhere in particular that we have to get to. Just an invitation to be with our experience, Moment to moment. And then maybe having a sense of the whole body with the breath coming and going. So the sensations as the belly expands with the in-breath. And then the belly contracting with the out-breath. And the pause before the next in-breath. Having a sense of this body breathing. And as we start the practice, Bringing to mind our foundational attitudes, The sense of kindness towards ourselves, And the sense of beginner's mind, This open curiosity towards our experience. And as much as possible bringing an attitude of non-judgment. A sense of allowing our experience to be just as it is not trying to change anything and a sense of trusting ourselves and trusting the process this sense of ease, Non-striving, Bringing these attitudes in as we are aware of the body breathing. And so now the invitation is to bring your awareness to focus on sound. There'll be sounds on this recording and you may hear other sounds nearby or far away. Just opening your awareness to focus on sounds, Including the sound of my voice, Sounds like this bell And just noticing that you don't need any effort to be aware of sounds. They just arise in your awareness. You don't have to go searching for them. And the sounds arise in your awareness. They stay a while and then they pass away. So opening to the whole soundscape on this recording and around you. As best you can, Being aware of sounds simply as sounds, As raw sensation. You may notice the tendency to label sounds as soon as you hear them. Just see if it's possible to notice this labeling and then refocus on the raw sensation of the sound you may find that you're thinking about the sounds and again just see if it's possible to reconnect with the direct awareness of the sensory qualities of the sound rather than their meanings or implications or any stories about the sounds. And you may notice the space between sounds. The sounds begin and stay a while, Maybe a short while, Maybe a long while, And then they pass away, And then there may be a space before the next sound. Whenever you notice that your awareness is no longer focused on sounds, Just gently acknowledging where the mind has moved to. And then retuning the attention back to sounds as they arise and pass away from moment to moment. Being aware of the raw sensation of sounds. So not labels or thinking about sounds, But just the raw sensation. And now the invitation is to shift your focus of attention so that your thoughts are center stage in awareness. And the invitation to see your thoughts as best you can as events in the mind. Just as with sounds. So you can attend to thoughts arising in the mind and then they linger for a while in the space of awareness and then pass away like clouds moving through the sky of awareness. And just as with sounds, There's no need to try and make thoughts come or go. They will just naturally arise. And just as with the sounds, Letting the thoughts come and go. And seeing if we can notice the beginning and end of a thought. And it may be as you focus your awareness on thoughts, That it seems that there are no thoughts, At least for a short period. And that's fine, And just noticing that absence of thoughts. But after some time, Thoughts will appear. And we just observe them. And just as clouds moving across the spacious sky can sometimes be dark and stormy or sometimes light and fluffy, So thoughts can take different forms. Sometimes clouds fill the entire sky. And sometimes they clear completely, Leaving the sky without clouds. And just so with thoughts. It can seem that the thoughts are constant, Endless. Or it might be more like the fluffy clouds, That they have a beginning and an end, And that there's some space between thoughts. Just noticing how it is with your thoughts. And as much as possible, We're aiming not to get drawn into the thoughts. So one thought easily leads on to another until we're into a whole story. So we're aiming as much as possible not to get drawn in but to stay in a position of observing our thoughts. As if we're sitting on the bank of a river, And there's this stream of thoughts flowing past, And we're just observing the stream. And then a point may come when it's as if we are in the stream. We are completely absorbed in the stream of thoughts. And while we're in the stream of thoughts, We're not aware of being aware. But then a moment will come when it's as if we pop up suddenly back onto the bank and we're aware of the thoughts again flowing past rather than being carried away with them. So we're just observing our thoughts, Watching them arise and stay a while, And pass away, Like mental events, Like sounds arising and passing, Or like clouds in the sky. And some thoughts may have strong emotions with them and just noticing if that's the case and see if it's possible not to get drawn into the emotion and the thoughts but to come back to this place of observing a sense of thoughts arising in our awareness and we can observe them And it can be helpful if you do find yourself repeatedly getting drawn into the thoughts, Perhaps with the emotional charge, That you can come back to the body and the sensations of the breath coming and going. And that can help us to anchor ourselves, To stabilize our awareness back in the present moment. And we can also notice how our thoughts take us into the past, Potentially, Or into the future. So there may be feelings of regret or guilt about the past, Or anger about an event. Or there may be feelings of anxiety or anticipation of the future. Just being aware of that and noticing that these thoughts about the past or about the future are occurring now in this present moment and that we can be aware of them arising in this present moment. Arising, Staying a while and then passing away. So observing thoughts and as much as possible not getting carried away, Not getting drawn into the thoughts. Just observing them arising, Staying a while and passing away. Like clouds arising in the spacious sky of awareness, Just observing thoughts. Arising in our awareness, Staying a while. And then passing away. And perhaps we can be aware of the beginning of a thought. And maybe the thought begins to form in our awareness. And because we're aware of it, The thought stops halfway. A bit like a bubble that forms and then bursts. Or maybe your thoughts seem more continuous. Without breaks in them. And that's fine. Just however your thoughts are, Observing them arising, Staying a while, And passing away. And as the practice comes to a close. Just being aware that as we go through our day, We are naturally aware of our thoughts. That little voice in our head that carries on and maybe sings us tunes or songs. And that we can be aware of our thoughts as we go through the rest of our day.