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Meditation of Sounds For the following meditation,
Can you turn your attention to the sounds around you?
Sounds in the room?
Sounds outside the room?
Sounds near?
Sounds far?
Receive sounds as they come to your ears without seeking out any particular sounds.
Notice the qualities of the sounds that you hear.
The volume.
The pitch.
The pattern.
If sounds are sudden,
They're constant.
If they're familiar or unfamiliar.
Focusing on sounds as sensations as they come to you.
Perhaps you will notice how the mind gets pulled into labeling sounds,
Creating stories or associations.
When this happens,
Can you come back to experiencing sounds as they occur in this very moment?
Sounds arising in awareness,
Lingering for a moment,
And then disappearing.
Sounds coming,
Sounds going.
You may even be aware of the spaces in between the sounds,
The subtle sounds in the room,
The sound of your own breath.
Use the silence to guide your own practice for the next minute,
Staying connected with your experience of sounds as the focus of your awareness.
You may now close your eyes and let yourself co-appear,
And now,
Staying with the sound of the bell as it rings three times.
Detecting when you can no longer hear the sound of the bell and noticing how your body responds to the sound of the bell.
Does it relax?
Does it become more alert?
The sound of the bell rings three times.
As you move out of the meditation,
You may want to consider how you can use familiar sounds around you as a bell of mindfulness.
The ring of your phone.
Voices around you.
The traffic on the street.
The hum of a vacuum cleaner.
Use sounds to remind yourself to come back to experiencing the present moment as it is.
