Mindfulness of Sound

A really valuable practice that can reveal a great deal about how our minds work: Labelling, making judgments, creating stories, clinging to pleasant things and turning away from whatever it judges to be unpleasant. This may be why, in some traditions, Mindfulness of Sound is given almost the same prominence as Mindfulness of Breath. Note that the intention here is to be open to whatever sounds are present in the moment, rather than choosing a sound we like, such as music. Sounds of nature, sounds of a busy city, industrial noise, children playing, or even an air conditioning unit, all are perfect backdrops for this practice, none better than the other. Once you have some experience with the practice, perhaps you might choose to deliberately bring it to more challenging sounds, such as a neighbour’s car alarm, this can often be when the greatest transformations occur.