Welcome to session 11,
Focusing on sound.
In this session,
We'll spend a little bit longer focusing on the sounds at the beginning of the session.
And we'll also try and maintain an awareness of sound as we follow the breath throughout the remainder of the session.
Focusing on sound is a very useful skill.
Some people enjoy it so much that they make sound the main object of their meditation in normal sessions.
And also sound is something that's always present.
You keep an awareness on sounds.
It's a fantastic anchor to keep you in the present moment and to maintain a semblance of mindfulness in your day.
So beginning with your eyes open,
Take a moment to get comfortable.
Sit with a relaxed but alert posture.
Your back straight.
Then just check in with yourself.
See how your mind and your body both feel before taking three deep in breaths through the nose and out through the mouth.
In and out.
In and out.
In and then just gently closing your eyes on the out breath.
Notice the heaviness of your body.
The gentle tug of gravity pulling you down towards the earth.
And then gently start to become aware of any sounds that might be present right now.
It's important to not strain when you're listening out for sounds.
You should really approach this with an attitude of allowing the sounds to come to you.
Hearing does not involve any efforts at all.
You can try now to stop hearing altogether and I can promise you that you will find it impossible to do.
Sounds will continue to appear and disappear all by themselves.
I'm now going to ask you to start to focus your attention on your breath.
Counting the breaths or using the calm mantra if it helps.
But see if you can maintain an awareness of sound whilst you focus your attention on the breath.
As if the sound is still ever present and you feel a feature of the meditation running around.
If the room you're in is quiet enough,
One of the main sounds actually might be the noise associated with the air coming in and going out of the nostrils and actually focusing on this noise can again help you to increase your concentration on the meditation object.
If you're in a noisy room or there is a distracting noise coming from somewhere,
It might be an alarm in a car going off outside or a plane going overhead.
You might be tempted to abandon the practice and to say that,
Oh well it's too noisy today for me to meditate.
If ever such a situation arises,
The best thing you can do is actually make that distracting sound the object of your meditation.
So if it is a car alarm,
You would start to focus intensely on the noises that are arising related to the car alarm.
And then when the noise subsides,
You would then return your attention back to the breath.
And this means you can never really use noisy distractions as an excuse for not meditating.
Again,
Trying not to get frustrated if your mind has wandered.
Put a smile on your lips and a smile in your mind.
And then just gently return your attention back to the breath.
Again,
Trying to maintain an awareness of any sounds that might be present in the moment.
And then just letting go of all effort entirely,
Allowing your mind to be free to do whatever it wants.
Notice any smells or the sensations related to sitting.
Gently check in with yourself,
See how your mind and your body both feel.
And then when you're ready,
Gently opening your eyes.
And before rushing off today,
Just taking note of how you found this practice.
Did you find it useful?
Did you find it enjoyable or maybe you didn't?
In either case,
It's important to get a handle on how you find listening to sounds useful as an objective meditation because for many people they find that listening to sounds is actually the best meditation object out there.
Have a great day.
