Listening Abiding Meditation

Hi everybody,

This is Shambhavi.

Today we're going to practice listening abiding meditation.

Listening abiding meditation includes a special kind of instruction called pointing out instructions.

This class of instruction is to point you toward doing something that I can't actually tell you how to do.

So pointing out instructions are like bringing you to the edge of a lake and telling you to go in and swim and you have to figure out how to do it.

If you have trouble following the pointing out instructions,

Just think of diving into water and figuring out how to swim.

See if you can just dive into the instructions and noodle around and figure it out.

Get into a comfortable meditation posture where your knees are supported or sit in a chair.

You're going to be sitting still for approximately 20 minutes,

So make sure you're comfortable.

Let your eyes close and just relax,

Breathing naturally for a few moments.

Begin to listen with your ears.

Listen with your ears to the sounds around you.

Don't focus on any one sound,

Just let your ears hear all of the sounds around you.

They might be sounds from your room,

They might be sounds from outside,

They might be sounds from other people in the building where you are practicing.

Let your ears experience the space around you and all the sounds that might be in it.

As you're listening to the sounds around you,

Start to notice how it feels to listen.

Bring your awareness inside of your ears and see if you can notice the sensation of listening.

As you're listening to the sounds all around you,

Notice the sensation of listening.

Also notice the attitude of listening.

What are you doing when you're listening?

What attitude are you adopting?

When we listen there is a feeling that something is coming toward us,

But there's also a feeling that our hearing is reaching out to meet them.

This attitude of being both receptive and going to meet is the attitude of listening.

See if you can discover that sensation of listening and the feeling of the attitude of listening.

Let your awareness to your left arm.

Adopt an attitude and a feeling of listening in your left arm.

Have a real experience that your left arm is listening to the sounds around you.

Evoke the sensation of listening in your left arm and bring on an attitude of listening in your left arm.

From the tips of your fingers to your shoulder,

Your left arm is listening.

If you forget what it feels like to listen or you forget the attitude of listening,

Go back to your ears and listen with your ears and then evoke listening in your left arm.

Now begin to listen with your whole right arm from your shoulder to the tips of your right fingers from inside to outside.

Feel that you are listening with your right arm.

If you forget what it feels like to listen,

Go back to listening with your ears and immerse yourself in the feeling and the attitude of listening.

Then adopt that same feeling and attitude in your whole right arm.

Have a real feeling of listening in your right arm.

Listen to the sounds in the room with your right arm.

Now listen with both arms at the same time.

In both your arms,

Adopt a real feeling,

A real attitude of listening.

Now listen with your whole left leg.

Go into your left leg and bring on a real feeling of listening.

Listen to all the sounds around you with your left leg.

Now listen with your whole right leg.

Have a real feeling of listening in your right leg.

If you forget what it feels like to listen,

Just go back to listening with your ears and then create that same feeling in your whole right leg.

Now listen with both legs at the same time.

Both legs are having an experience of listening to the sounds in the room.

Now listen with both arms and both legs at the same time.

All your limbs are listening.

Remember the feeling of listening and the attitude of listening,

The real sensation of listening.

And adopt them in both your arms and both your legs.

Now listen with your whole torso.

Your whole torso all at once.

Feel a real sensation of listening in your whole torso.

Your whole torso is receptive to and going to meet all the sounds in the room.

And you have a real sensation of listening in your torso.

Feel that your whole head is listening.

Your head and your neck are listening.

Try to bring on or adopt a real feeling of listening in your neck and your head.

Now feel that your whole body is listening from the bottoms of your feet to the top of your head to the tips of your fingers,

From the front of your body to the sides and the back.

Have a real feeling of listening in your whole body.

If you forget what it feels like to listen,

Go back to listening with your ears and put your awareness deep inside your ears and feel again the sensation and the attitude of listening.

And then adopt that feeling in your whole body.

Now listen with your whole skin.

Listen with your skin everywhere.

The whole surface of your body is listening.

Now listen with the muscles under your skin.

All the long big muscles in your body.

Your arms and legs and torso and the muscles of your neck and shoulders and all the little muscles.

Listen with your muscles everywhere just underneath your skin.

Have a real feeling of listening in your muscles.

Now be aware of your bones.

Be aware of your skull,

Your spine,

The bones in your arms and shoulders,

Your ribs,

Your big hip bones,

Your big leg bones,

All the bones of your knees and ankles and feet and hands.

Let your bones listen.

Evoke a real feeling of listening in your bones.

Deep from within your bones you are listening.

Feel the dynamic energy of listening in your bones.

A real sensation of listening.

And now listen with your brain,

The organ of your brain.

Your brain is listening to all the sounds around you.

Listen with your eyeballs,

Your physical eyeballs.

Listen with your tongue.

Listen with your lungs.

All the little cells in your lungs are listening.

Listen with your liver.

Listen with your stomach and your large and small intestines.

Listen with your kidneys.

Listen with your bladder.

Listen with all the organs of your sex and reproductive system.

Now make contact with your blood,

The blood everywhere in your body.

And listen with your blood.

Have a real feeling that your blood is listening.

The blood coursing through your veins is listening.

Now feel everything is listening from the deepest part of you,

Your deepest organs in your blood and your bones.

All your muscles in your skin,

All the different parts of your body,

Feel them all listening.

Keep open listening.

Now slowly without moving your face,

Open your eyes until your gaze falls gently and naturally on a place in front of you on the floor,

Maybe four or five feet in front of you on the floor.

Let your eyes be relaxed and open,

Falling in front of you on the floor.

And now begin to listen with your eyes,

With your sight.

Have a real feeling of listening in your eyes with your sight,

With your gaze.

Everything is listening.

Your ears are listening.

Your body is listening.

Your eyes are listening.

Now drop all effort of listening and simply abide with your eyes in a relaxed open gaze.

Let yourself relax even more deeply and just enjoy whatever condition you may be in.

Your awareness is fresh and open and you're feeling relaxed,

Enjoying being immersed in life.

Continue abiding in this way until you feel like getting up and try to remember the feeling of open listening as you go about your day.