As the sound of the bowl starts to fade,
Remaining with your sense of hearing.
Opening up to sounds within the room that you're in,
Perhaps sounds within your own body,
And sounds outside of the room also.
Perhaps feeling that sense of spaciousness that sound exists in.
Aware of the fact that not one sound stays the same.
Constantly arising and passing through.
These sounds existing in a kind of soundscape all around us.
And letting go of the need to search out any sounds.
Simply being receptive,
Open to your sense of hearing,
Allowing sounds to come to you.
Receiving sounds.
And in amongst this soundscape all around,
Aware of your physical body.
Feeling into the contact points,
The weight of you firmly connected downwards.
So whilst opening to sounds,
Truly feeling your body present in this moment.
Grounded and steady.
Part of the landscape.
Feeling the changing weather conditions of the soundscape all around.
The fleeting nature of sounds all around.
Perhaps noticing how the mind likes to label sounds.
Have a comment about them.
Liking some sounds,
Not liking other sounds.
Just noticing this.
And as best you can,
Letting it be and opening up to receiving sounds purely as vibrations.
Vibrations coming to your sense of hearing.
Each sound that catches your attention is bringing you into the present moment.
Each sound no matter what it is.
Whether it's the sound of a bird or a car,
The wind.
Each sound is acting like a bell to mindfulness,
To the present.
Each new sound is a window to presence,
A window to stillness.
So feeling into your body quite grounded and steady.
And giving yourself permission to simply be in this moment.
Focusing in the steadiness of your own body.
And allowing yourself to be bathed in sound.
Bringing in the quality of beginner's mind.
Such a gift.
Beginner's mind allows us to be curious,
Genuinely interested regarding all of these sounds all around.
Seated here,
Grounded in the present moment.
Fully alive.
And joyfully open to the sense of hearing.
Open to receiving sounds.
And this Sufi prayer speaks to this.
When I listen,
When I listen to the voices of animals,
The sounds of the trees,
The wind,
The murmuring of water,
The singing of birds,
The boom of thunder.
I feel the evidence of unity.
May I understand this unity with equanimity,
Calmness and doubtlessness.
And continuing to open to your sense of hearing.
And in this practice,
Using the body as a touchstone.
The mind wanders off to a thought or something else.
Coming back to the physical body,
Always present.
Feeling into the weight of you that is always connected downwards to the good earth,
Thanks to gravity.
So we come back to this touchstone.
Open our awareness up to our sense of hearing once again and rest here.
Practicing beginner's mind.
Practicing that quality of non-judgment regarding our mind.
Sounds arising.
Sounds passing through.
Sounds are linked to that universal law of all things arising and passing through.
Just like the breath,
Like our thoughts and all our sensations.
Resting and passing through.
When resting here in stillness with the sense of hearing,
We're noticing how some sounds may be annoying,
Distracting,
Even bringing in unwanted memories and we may wish some sounds to stop.
Some are lulling,
Interesting,
Beautiful.
And some may be easy to ignore.
This is interesting in that it shows us our tendencies of mind.
As humans we all have these tendencies.
It shows what we're able to override or control and what we can't.
Is there a choice?
And where does our interest lie?
Can we change our relationship with the sound rather than wanting the sounds to change?
Can we just be with annoying qualities without adding to them with aversions and more stories?
What do we usually do with such annoying qualities?
And what are our habits around this?
There are many questions that arise,
All of which are useful in our practice.
Because when we're no longer averse or attracted to such occurrences,
There's less suffering.
Our questioning brings that softness of curiosity.
Now relationship to difficulties will eventually change with this attitude of curiosity.
So mindfully resting and opening up to our sense of hearing is a powerful equanimity practice.
Strengthening our sense of okayness,
This sense of no big deal.
Sounds purely as vibrations and practicing being okay with this.
Whatever sound comes to our awareness.
So enjoying the last part of this practice,
Feeling into your physical body grounded and steady and opening up into your warm awareness,
Opening up to your sense of hearing.
