Sound, Silence, Presence: A 10-Minute Break

Keep yourself still in a posture that is comfortably relaxed,

Sitting or lying down,

And when you are ready,

You may close your eyes.

Begin to connect with the body by moving your awareness to the breath.

Take a few deep breaths,

Feel the air coming in and out of your body as you inhale,

And exhale.

Keep mindfully breathing in and out,

Observing the expansion and contraction of your chest as you inhale,

And exhale.

Belly rises and falls.

Release any tension,

Relax,

And gently rest your awareness with the breath as you inhale,

And exhale naturally without forcing the breath in any way.

What you are going to do now is simply to observe the length of a sound that has caught our attention.

As you hear a sound,

Follow it from the very beginning until it disappears.

It may be a car passing,

Voices of people,

Dogs barking,

Birds tweeting,

Like thoughts and bodily sensations,

Sounds also come and go.

You stay with that sound for its entire lifetime,

Observing its qualities as you hear it.

How loud is it?

Is it far or distant?

Long or short?

Rough or gentle?

Your mind may wander off the exercise and that's normal.

Just bring it back to sounds you can hear as you notice it.

Let's now observe the silence between one sound and the next.

Let's drop our attention right in that space between one sound and another.

Just follow a sound from beginning to end and then notice if there is a break,

A silent pause in between this and the next sound.

Keep your attention on this silent space,

Staying with it until another sound breaks in.

Then,

Again,

Follow this new sound until it fades away completely,

Noticing this silent space before another sound appears.

Rest your awareness in that short silent space between one sound and another.

Feel yourself inside this silent space between the end of one sound and the beginning of the next one.

You