MOUNA BINDU🔗

This is a 'listening meditation'.

Listening meditations are passive meditations. You don't have to do anything – just listen. But a lot can happen through just listening!

We always live in a storm of sound. Sounds are always moving towards us, crashing upon us, engulfing us. We are lost in the storm. But at the center of the storm, there is a silence we haven't heard. This meditation makes us aware if the silence in the center of the storm of sound.

Sit down somewhere, anywhere. The noisier the place, the better! Look for a place with continuous sound. It could be a natural sound, like the gushing of a river or a waterfall. Or it could be a railway station, a marketplace.

Sit silently. Feel the sounds coming towards you from every direction in waves. With sounds flowing at you from all directions, feel yourself at the center of this storm of sound.

You are at the center, and sounds are flowing towards you.

Feel: at the center, where you are, there is no sound! At the center is total silence. If there was sound at the center, you would not be able to hear the sounds outside. The sounds are entering you, penetrating you, but they stop at the center.

Inside you, there is a point where all sounds stop. It is from that point that every sound is being heard. Try to locate that center.

Suddenly, you will locate it.

Suddenly, your awareness will turn inward.

Your awareness will shift from the outer world of sound. You will be at the center, where there is silence. There is a point where no sound can enter. That point is You.

Once you have heard that silence, you will never again be disturbed by sound, never touched by sound.

We always think that we are hearing sounds with our ears. With this technique, you discover that sounds are not heard in the ears, or even in the head. The sound is always heard at the navel point! That is the center of sound.

Why the emphasis on noise? Because excessive noise has the same effect as plugging your ears! When the sound is unintelligible, continuous, when you can no longer distinguish separate sounds, then the sound itself becomes a barrier. You cannot try this technique with songs – because the language will be intelligible to you, you will focus on the meaning, you will immediately use your head. It has to be plain noise.

In the middle of the noise, just try plugging your ears with your fingers. Suddenly, you will hear a new sound – the soundless sound. This new sound is the absence of sound. There is such a sound, and you can easily hear it!

With sound, we begin to flow towards the source of sound; with soundlessness, we begin to flow inward, into our own center.

Learn to listen to both, the world of sound outside, and the soundless sound at the center. Move from one to the other. Move from the outer to the inner, and back again. Each time, your sharpness of perception will increase. Learn to move easily between the inner and the outer world, and you will see the play that all is!

This technique shuts out the signals that come to you from the outside world. Whatever you perceive of the world is through the information that comes to you from your five senses: through sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.

This meditation negates all the experiences that come through the senses. When you close yourself to the world, you also close yourself to your body. Your energy returns inward.

This meditation can be done anywhere, anytime.

Wherever you are at the moment, note the signals that are coming to you through your senses. You can see the flowers in the garden. You can hear the birds sing. You can feel an ant creep up your leg.

What do you do?

Simply close your senses.

Imagine that you have turned into a statue, that you have frozen. Imagine that you can no longer move.

Go deeply into this feeling.

You can do it!

How?

Just stop breathing for a single moment, and your senses will close on their own.

When breath stops, sensation also stops. Hold your breath and see. Can you feel the irritation on your skin? Even the sounds recede into the distance. Your body actually feels frozen. You cannot lift your arm!

This is an excellent technique for relaxation.

When you can no longer flow outward, when you can no longer receive information through the senses, you become thrown back upon yourself. You become an island of silence. In that silence, you will find your own center.

Now, even when you look out, even when you listen, you will be doing it from that point of silence at your center. And once you discover this point, you will never again get lost in the uproar of the senses. At will, you can shut out your senses, you can become the witness of your senses.

Meditations where you are doing something are the best ones for beginners. It is easier to maintain awareness when you are doing an action, rather than sitting still.

This is a dynamic meditation, a ‘running meditation’. Why running?

When you are running, you are naturally alert, aware. When you are running, you experience a beautiful unity of body, mind and spirit. It is as if everything inside you is functioning as one, with only one goal. When you sit still, only your body is sitting still, your mind is still racing! Your body and mind are divided. Your body is sitting, but your mind is on its own trip!

When your body is running, the opposite happens. When you are running, your mind sits still. Your mind stops talking. And when you continue to run, after a while, the running takes you over. Then neither body or mind is yours. You belong to your running. You become the running!

Choose a time to start your run. Early morning is the best, next is late evening. Sunrise and sunset are the times when your body is most open, most receptive to the energies of nature.

Choose a path which is fairly straight and easy, not too tough, with a fair amount of silence and solitude. A path where you can focus on your running, without worrying about falling off the edge or being run over by traffic!

If you are not used to running, start off with short distances – say half a mile. Then you can gradually increase the distance.

After that, just run!

Breathe deeply, from the stomach. Run with every limb. When you grow tired, don't push yourself. Rest and enjoy the rest period. Take off your shoes and feel the earth beneath your bare feet. One energy source we have lost touch with is earth

energy - because of artificial flooring everywhere, and because we no longer enjoy walking barefoot.

In India, it is considered a sacred exercise to walk barefoot. That's also why you are not allowed to use footwear inside many places of worship. The energy level in these places is high, and it is best to keep all your senses open to receive the energy.

If the path is good, running barefoot can be a tremendous

experience. Try it on grass, or on the beach. Just being in touch with the earth is being connected with the source of life.

It is a beautiful way of staying centered.

Don't get caught up in the extras of running. Don't time yourself, don't try to improve your performance. Don't run to lose weight! Of course, if you also lose weight, that's good – but don't run for a reason. Simply run.

If, after running for many days, you find that the act is becoming monotonous, drop it and switch to another meditation. Try swimming, try dancing. Come back to running when you feel like it.

Apart from the basic instructions you will need to follow, don't make rules for yourself. Rules destroy the joy of the meditation.