Oakville Zen Meditation
Mindfulness 24/7 Practical exercise #3 Listening
Mindfulness is to pay attention, to focus on the present moment and any of its components.
To be mindful is two fold:
1)To be like a mirror: reflecting things as they are in the present moment using a thoughtless mind that is without a pre-conceived mindset in a non-analytic, non-discriminating and non-decisional way. By doing so the mind is anchored on the focusing object and cannot wander in its virtual, immaterial world.
2)To control the mind rather than been under its control as we are most of the time since a focused mind is a mind under control.
The practice of mindfulness should not be limited to formal sitting /walking meditation. It should be extended during the day as often as possible because its positive effects are cumulative.
Here is a simple mindfulness exercises that anyone can practice on the go.
Exercise #3 : Listening
Several times a day, stop what you are doing for a short moment and just listen without discrimination.
While focusing 200% on surrounding sounds, our mind is stuck to new stuff. It cannot anymore wander. Since the mind / brain cannot deal with 2 thoughts at the same time, it cannot anymore wander around. No choice but to obey.
This is a wonderful exercise to experience the present moment good or bad and its surrounding realities and to pause your mind from its crazy, relentless run around in its virtual and immaterial worlds.
Open your ears 360 degrees likes giant radar dishes. Listen to the obvious sounds as well the subtle ones, to those you like and dislike. Listen to them with a non-judgmental, non-analytic non-discriminative open mind as if they were new.
Listening practice is a very powerful way to quiet the mind and it is one of my favorite mindfulness practice on the go.
When we listen intensively but without discrimination, we are asking the voices of the mind to shut-up for a while that is without labeling or expressing judgment as if you were hearing each sound for the first time.
When we listen mindfully, we realize that silence is also a sound and to appreciate this unique soundless sound, the mind must be very quiet
Conclusion:
Mindfulness enables us to experience the realities of the present moment and what it is composed such as its surrounding sounds among others.
Being mindful to the present moment and its various components such as your body, your actions, your surroundings using you 5 senses liberate us from our relentless thinking mind in which we are totally trapped.
Being mindful is to press the “pause” button of your restless mind running around non-stop like a rabbit in a virtual world.
When you mind is stuck with this exercise, that is listening, it cannot do anything else klkkld! This is pure mindfulness in action. Your focused mind rather than your wandering one is under your control.
You can do this exercise anytime during the day, during any occasion and for a short period of time.
You will discover and experience the concrete reality of life of the present moment and its components, the only ones that exist and are real since what is in the mind is just immaterial and virtual until proven otherwise.
