In our current series of drop in meditation classes we've
been practicing a simple variation of the mindfulness of breathing. During the term I was going to be taking this one
practice and developing various 'ways in'. The form was going to stay more or less the same but I'd emphasise various aspects of it each week.
In the event what has happened is that we have struck on a way in which seems
particularly helpful. It looks like we will stick with this for the rest of the
term. What we are doing is working with the language and metaphor of listening.
I have effectively divided the practice into three stages.
In stage one we actually listen. You could call this a period of the mindfulness
of sounds. In the second stage we change direction and 'listen' to the body. In
the third stage we change again and 'listen' to our hearts and minds, our inner
landscape.
What is great about
this approach is the nature of listening. To listen is very
different from looking (which is the dominant sense faculty for most of us and
also supplies a dominant metaphor in meditation - 'observation'). Listening,
although it is in a sense active, involves a greater quality of receptivity, of
sensitivity, than looking normally does. We don't go looking for sensations of
sound, as it were the sounds come to us. All we have to do is open up to the
sounds, receive the sounds.
I think it is this receptivity of actual listening
that sets the scene beautifully for the following stages. As we turn our ear
then to the body we notice more sensations than perhaps otherwise we would
have. There is a virtual symphony of bodily sensations going on all the time.
Having taken up a more receptive posture in the first stage towards sounds, the
body now seems more alive and vital. And then in the third stage the same
occurs - our feelings, thoughts and emotions seem all the more approachable,
vivid and recognisable for having adopted this 'posture' of listening.
There is also something about listening that reflects, and is reflected in, the
actual posture that we try to adopt while sitting in mediation. Our physical posture
can enhance or distract from this metaphorical listening posture. The body both
reflects, or shows up, our inner psychological posture, and it can have an
influence on that inner posture. The physical posture of listening is soft, yet
poised. There is an alertness that is also open. There is no defensiveness - our soft animal bodies are vulnerable and
our meditation posture is one that embraces that vulnerability rather than
hardening against it. Working at the level of the physical body through our
posture we can then encourage this inner listening. Through adopting a good
meditation posture we encourage the conditions whereby the inner ear can hear better.
That's a short ramble over the work in progress that is
this term's drop in classes. If you're in Edinburgh and are curious to try it
then come along - Wednesday evenings 6.15pm
at the Healthy Life Centre on Bread Street. See the website for more details.
