Once, years ago, when I was practicing walking meditation atop a southern Utah mountain, I became aware of a symphony of interweaving sounds playing around me. Sound travels clearly in the high desert. I felt the vibrations travel through me, each
with its own timbre-the wind whistling through the tops of the trees, chipmunks rustling among the dry leaves, cars passing on the road a half mile away, the buzzing of a distant chainsaw.
I noticed that as my mind identified each sound, it expressed a preference for some sounds over others. My mind liked the sounds that occurred in nature; the mechanical sounds, not so much. As I continued to walk, I realized that the sounds I was hearing were no less a part of me than the thoughts and sensations that pass through my mind all the time. But while I take my thoughts personally and sometimes get lost in them, it was easy to let the sounds come and go in their own time without grasping at them or pushing them away. I realized that I could hear my thoughts, rather
than listen to them, in the same way that I allowed the sounds around me to come into my awareness and then leave. And the result was an experience of internal quiet rather than noise.
I have continued to practice this "hearing meditation" on my daily walks. What invariably follows is a sense of gratitude for all I see, hear, smell, taste, and feel in the moment-simple things that are always present but that I seldom notice, such as a clear sky, the cooling shade of a tree, or my own life-giving breath. In this way, the sights, sounds, and smells become a part of me, and 1, a part of them.
Use the sounds around you to access a quiet mind, whether you're outside in nature or in the heart of the city. Wherever you are, open your sense of hearing. Don't reach out for sounds; let them come to you. Hear with your entire body, letting the sounds around you penetrate all of your cells. As the environmental soundscape comes into the foreground, notice that the world of swirling thought retreats into the background. Through hearing, your other senses open up, your surroundings come alive in your body, and you are awakened to and integrated into the world around you.
CHARLOTTE BELL began practicing yoga in 1982. Her latest book is Yoga for Meditators. She teaches, writes, and plays the oboe in Salt Lake City, Utah.
AUGUST 2012
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