Welcome to this meditation on sounds.
Taking the next few moments to find a posture for you that gives you a sense of comfort yet wakefulness.
At the same time becoming mindful of the various movements that you need to make to come into this posture.
As you're doing this beginning to become aware of how this body is just naturally breathing itself.
Taking a few moments to notice where you're aware of the breath most prominently.
This may be the tip of the nose or the chest or the belly.
Just noticing where the sense of breath seems to be strongest.
As you become aware of this breathing in and breathing out moment to moment.
Noticing this breath on an inhalation and it's going out on an exhalation.
This simple inflow and outflow of the breath.
Letting it be breathing in and breathing out.
Taking this part of the practice one breath at a time.
It's quite natural for the mind to wander off when we're exploring our breath.
It'll be telling us there are far more important things to be thinking about than our breath.
When this happens just taking a moment to notice where the mind has wandered to.
Maybe even labeling it as thinking and then guiding your awareness back to the breath.
You can perhaps say I'll attend to you later.
Just allowing for this natural inflow and outflow without any need to push the breath out or pull the breath in.
We're simply being aware of breathing much like a fallen leaf can sit on the ripples of waves or maybe the inflow and outflow of waves coming onto the beach and off the beach.
So too can our awareness simply ride the natural inhalation and exhalation of the breath.
Now allowing the breath to fade into the background of our awareness as we begin to shift our attention to include this entire body.
The awareness of the sensations in the body.
This body has a field of sensations that are occurring at any given point.
Appearing and disappearing,
Coming and going.
There might be sensations of heat,
Coolness,
Itchiness,
Tingling,
Shakiness,
Heaviness,
Lightness.
There may even be parts of the body that feel pain.
As much as is possible for you holding this body in awareness and simply being aware of the variety of sensations that seem to be coming and going.
Allowing,
Allowing and letting be.
And bringing the mind back that's wandered.
As we're paying attention to sensations in the body we might even adopt an attitude of curiosity or beginner's mind.
Becoming aware of these feelings as if they're here for the very first time.
Being curious and interested in your experience of yourself.
We may even notice emotions arise.
At times a sense of frustration or irritation or boredom,
Anxiousness or maybe there's calm.
So being aware of these experiences that you're noticing in your body in this moment.
Simply being aware of them without striving to change them or make them any different.
Allowing their presence and letting them be.
Now an invitation to begin to gently shift from the field of sensations in the body and allowing them to fall into the background of awareness.
As we bring to the foreground of awareness our ears.
What sensations can you notice here in your body?
Lightness,
Heaviness,
Tingling,
Warmth,
Coolness,
Perhaps nothing at all.
Exploring the felt sensation of your ears just for a moment and then narrowing that awareness to your experience of hearing.
Because of the brain and the ears we have this gift of audibility,
Of hearing sounds.
Some come in the form of pitches or tones,
Sometimes frequency sounds,
Even in my voice right here.
You may notice that sounds come from a sense of silence and then has a picture tone and rises then falls and then goes back into silence.
You may have noticed that even in between the silence there's some sounds there.
Simply being aware of this very fundamental aspect of hearing sounds as they rise and fall.
Not specifically searching for sounds,
Allowing them to arrive.
Not trying to hear sounds,
Being with the sounds.
And if you notice if you're trying to hear sounds,
Allowing the pure sense of being aware of whatever hearing is occurring and being in a receptive place of hearing whatever sounds are there to hear within the body,
Within the spaces around you.
The sounds coming from my space into yours.
Recognizing,
Allowing and letting be.
Perhaps noticing how the mind becomes busy with images or stories connected with the sounds.
As much as possible just noticing.
Just coming back to being aware of the fundamental aspect of hearing.
Sounds appearing and disappearing.
Simply sounds.
Each time your mind wonders,
Which it will,
Congratulating yourself for notice and bringing your awareness back to the felt and direct experience of sounds.
Sounds appearing and disappearing.
And beginning to withdraw awareness from hearing Coming back to the breath.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing in and knowing.
Breathing in.
Breathing out and knowing.
Breathing out.
And in a moment you will hear the sound of a bell that will signify the end of this practice.
Until then just acknowledging the active choice that you've made by taking time out of your busy life to cultivate awareness.
And in doing so you've taken an active step in taking care of your own health and well-being.
Taking a moment to thank yourself for even taking this time at all.
