How To Mindfully Practice 'True Hearing'

When sound hits our ears, it is very quickly labelled and interpreted. This is of course natural and adaptive, but it also provides an opportunity to expand our mindfulness practice. It is possible to hear the 'true sound', that is to hear what the ear picks up prior to our mind’s interpretation of it. This is true mindfulness, the observation of the world as it is, for what it is. This talk will guide you through a 'true hearing' meditation and highlight the benefits of the practice.

Transcript

So for today's mindfulness practice,

We're going to be investigating the concept of pure sound.

So mindfulness is the state that arises from paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment.

And the key that we're going to focus on here is the judgmental aspect.

Humans have a way of hearing or seeing something and applying an instantaneous judgment to it.

That is,

A label.

You hear a car go by or a rustling in the trees or someone talking.

And rather than hearing the sound as it comes,

We simply hear the interpretation of the sound.

It's not a loud grumbling,

It's a car.

It's not a high-pitched beep,

It's the microwave.

So what I hope to do with this meditation is to try and detach the sense of hearing from the labeling of the sounds that come in.

Now this is an advanced practice.

So if it doesn't quite work this time,

That's okay.

And it's to be expected.

Rather it's something that you can consider a goal or something to keep trying and returning to.

The idea of hearing or even seeing,

Touching,

Tasting,

Smelling what's actually happening.

Rather than jumping straight to the interpretation and the labeling of what is happening.

So what I want you to do is simply listen.

The audio will go silent for one minute and during that time I just want you to hear what you hear.

Make no attempts to label it.

Make no attempts to move towards a judgement.

To think,

Oh that's nature sounds,

Or that's a car,

That's a bird,

That's someone talking.

Our goal is to simply hear what we hear.

So take a breath,

Close your eyes,

And let's listen.

Good work.

So how did you go?

Now,

Like I said,

This is an advanced practice.

So it's one that you can work on.

Particularly in the area of language.

It's very hard to,

For example,

Listen to the words coming out of my mouth right now.

And hear them for what they are.

The pure sounds.

Because instantly,

The moment you hear them,

You're quickly and professionally putting them into meaning.

You're listening to what's coming out of my mouth.

You've learnt how to speak.

So with spoken word,

This practice is quite challenging.

However,

There's a little bit of a work around that you can do.

If you want to hear what words or speech sounds like,

As a pure speech,

Listen to people talking in a language that you've never heard before.

That you don't understand at all.

You'll be able to hear what spoken words sound like,

Without the interpreting and labelling mind putting any sort of things over the top of it.

You'll be able to hear the sound of spoken word as it is for what it is.

And I've found personally that that's been a bit of a lead in to helping me to become mindful in regards to both speech and all sorts of sounds.

Because remember,

Our goal with mindfulness is to dispel illusion.

To see the world for what it is as it is.

To hear sounds as they are.

And at least to notice when our brain,

When our minds are adding an overlay of interpretation and judgement to it.

So,

Please,

I invite you to come back to this practice at any time and start truly hearing.

Reviews

As honest this may sound, this practice was very easy for me. I’m not sure why especially since you said it’s challenging. Maybe it’s just because it was for only one minute and there wasn’t much going on around me, but I can easily listen without identifying that sounds or hearing words it’s kind of strange. But this was an interesting challenge. Absolutely thank you for sharing this I will be at mindfully. Listen every day now.

Perfect!

Hi Zachary, great meditation!
However, in calming out mind and letting pass all kinds of thoughts, noises, feelings, arising, we try to label them and let them go.
Thus, in this advanced practice I would need to be already at a level where I no longer need the labeling in order to truly listen and I would then practice an open awareness meditation ...
Alternatively, when applying mindfulness not only to meditation but to our whole life, this would change the picture.

I have been waiting a very long time for this type of practice. I am sound sensitive, triggering painful memories. Thank you so much for this teaching. Lots of practice.