“Sound meditation” – almost a bombardment of sound waves onto the body. The water molecules in the body itself actually vibrate or resonate with different frequencies.
This, can be healing. It is a rich experience.
Listening meditation is quite different. It is the receptive form. The passive form.
In a world that is dominated by visual stimulus, noise and inputs, the practice of listening meditation is simple: to listen.
Listen, fully, to the words and the silence in coversation, to the birds, to the traffic.
Often, people half-listen, which requires more effort from the mind as it runs all sorts of programs in parallel.
They scrunch up their eyebrows and are discerning. There is tension as they try to fit the information into their existing belief system. You can see the tension in the face.
In listening meditation, we let that go.
We absorb, we allow the mind to relax while we become present with the speaker or the sounds.
If it is in conversation, we allow the mind to relax as we listen with depth.
Not an unnatural staring contest, but just an intention of a deeper level of presence.
It is surprising often that with less effort, we take in more. We find more empathy and understanding of the messages that we are hearing.
We become more present to the environment.
