The five minute sound awareness practice.
Sitting in a posture that is comfortable,
Upright and relaxed.
Closing your eyes or lowering your gaze.
I'd like for us to begin by taking three deep breaths.
Allowing our deep breathing to settle us,
Help the body to relax.
And doing the best that you can,
Knowing that sometimes deep breathing is difficult for some.
But breathing a little bit more deeply than you normally would.
Then allowing your breathing to resume its natural rhythm.
And allowing your awareness to be focused on listening to the sounds inside the room and outside the room.
You may notice that some sounds have a constant quality,
Perhaps heat or a fan.
While other sounds come and go,
Cars outside,
Voices outside the room,
Perhaps even an internal sound.
I'd like you to bring an attitude of curiosity and openness to this observing of the sounds inside the room and outside the room.
And as best you can,
Suspending any judgments about a certain sound being pleasing or displeasing.
And instead thinking of them just as sound waves reaching your eardrums and that there are no good sounds or bad sounds,
Just sounds.
You also don't necessarily have to really make an effort to listen.
Instead you can just receive the sounds as they come to you.
There's no need to strain to hear.
And at moments when there is true silence,
Noticing what that sounds like.
You may even have a slight ringing in your ears,
Which is very common.
Just noticing whatever it is that you're noticing with what you can hear in this moment.
And trying not to get caught up in the story of what's making that noise or why is it there.
And to just from moment to moment,
Listen.
As with all of our meditations,
You may find that your mind will wander and knowing that this is expected and entirely okay.
You're not trying to stop your thoughts.
You're just trying to be as aware as possible of them.
And when you notice that your mind has wandered,
You can even if you choose to label it as thinking or even more specifically worrying or planning.
And you're not pushing the thoughts away.
If anything,
You're seeing them for what they are.
Just images and sound in your mind that are either recollections or perhaps imaginings.
See them for what they are as not necessarily what's happening right now.
And then with gentleness and kindness,
Return your attention to the sounds.
Letting go of any expectation of how this is going or how you'd prefer it to be.
And instead,
As completely as possible,
Just accepting things as they are.
Sitting and listening for the final few moments before the bell.
And if you care to,
Feel free to continue to sit beyond the bell.
