Listening to the breath is my mantra | The story of the voice

One sleepy afternoon in a meditation camp, I tried to count the breaths (that is, counting the breaths, counting from one to ten, over and over again). After a lot of frustration, I gave up controlling my mind and switched to the yogic "listening" method, imagining opening my ears and listening from the depths of my head (about the pituitary gland).

How do you open your ears? Can't close your ears? But the amazing thing is that when you open your ears consciously, your sense of space will become wider, and your consciousness will expand with your hearing .

At this time, I heard the sound of my own breathing, and all the sounds outside, the sound of cars, garbage truck music, and human voices. My consciousness suddenly became sharp and clear, the sounds near and far were there, like a balanced and harmonious piece of music, I and these sounds vibrated at the same frequency, one, I was them and they were me. Paradoxically, at the same time, a clear and profound sense of self emerges— I am here, exist in this moment .

This indescribable sense of expansion of consciousness was only felt during that meditation session, and I never felt such a miraculous feeling after that.

the sound of waves

Diane Aikman's Journey of the Senses, in the chapter on hearing:

What we call a "sound" is actually a wave of air molecules advancing, peaking, and receding […]. It starts with the movement of objects—the tractor, the wings of a cricket—that shake the air molecules around them, causing those next to them to vibrate, and so on.

Wave after wave of sound like waves surging forward like our ears, making our eardrums tremble

Few of us realize that we are actually swimming in air molecules. The "space" that we think is empty is not empty, but is filled with various things that the five senses cannot perceive, such as air molecules and the neutrino flow in the universe.

This brings me to David Folster's famous graduate speech "This is Water." An old fish met two young fish and said hello and asked, "Hey, how is the water today?"

They passed by, and the two young fish swam for a while, and one couldn't help but ask the other, "What the hell is water?" (This story is quite Zen)

We might chuckle and think this fish is so stupid, doesn't he know that if he leaves the water, he will die? Water is such an important existence to him. We come and go every day with various "whats" that we cannot perceive , without knowing their existence and importance.

animal communication sounds

In personal experience, animal communication is also the feeling of opening the ears to listen, as if the ears are antennas that can receive messages. However, what you "hear" is not necessarily just speech sounds, but also images, feelings, and even an experience.

I once communicated with a cat who was very unloving and tense, and the message he conveyed was: he was born in a dark alley, surrounded by wet and sticky floors and complicated smells that made him feel very scared, and he has always been fascinated by the world. with such insecurity. In a matter of seconds , I heard the entire cat's complex experience.

A few days after the communication, the cat's human partner told me in surprise that the cat would occasionally act coquettish and was no longer so afraid of people. When I saw the cat before, he always avoided me for fear of it, and he would come out of his claws.

Maybe he was in a particularly good mood that day, maybe being heard gave him a channel to express his stress, maybe it was why I'll never know.

The Sound of the Ocean Waves Yoga Pranayama

Yoga practice also often uses ocean-like breathing—Ujjayi Breathing. Through the contraction of the muscles in the throat, the air flow in and out becomes fine and uniform, which sounds like the sound of waves . Breathing affects our psychology and physiology. Breathing in this stable and audible sound will make the body and mind feel safe and stable, and therefore, the mind will also stabilize.

In the breathless yoga practice, there is often a short break in the curled baby pose, and the teacher often says at this time: " Open your ears and hear the sound of your own breathing. " Busy mind, disordered breathing, all after starting to listen Immediately changed the quality. The magic of hearing is cast, the mind turns to focus, and the breath turns soft and deep .

The Dalai Lama said that in his daily life, whether he is doing anything, or even talking with others, he is always reciting the mantra in his heart and never stops. Holding the mantra like this will allow him to maintain a quality of "contemplation" , that is, as if he is watching himself interacting with others from a distance.

In the past, I was really not a breathing person, and I often held my breath because of tension and anxiety. After practicing yoga, I constantly observe the quality of my breathing. Remind yourself to take a deep breath when you are tense, and as you breathe deeply, the tense dissolves.

Listening to the breath is my mantra.

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