Written by Desmond Olubunmi · Founder of Sunya
A meditation on sound and silence. By listening fully without grasping, awareness dissolves into the silence that holds all sound.
In ordinary listening, there is a listener and a sound — subject and object, separated by a thin membrane of self-consciousness. In deep listening, this division begins to dissolve. As awareness relaxes into sound without grasping or analysing, the distinction between the one who listens and what is heard quietly fades.
What remains is spacious awareness — alive, present, at rest. This practice can also be carried into daily life and relationships: listening to another person without reaction or agenda, holding presence during conversation or conflict, transforms how you receive and what you offer.
Sit quietly — preferably in nature or a calm environment. Close the eyes. Begin by listening openly to the sounds around you — birds, water, wind, the hum of the environment. Do not try to identify or label them; simply receive them. Watch how each sound arises out of silence and fades back into it. It just appears and disappears. Follow this rhythm closely — each sound emerging from the background and dissolving back into it. As you follow this rhythm, you will begin to notice that the silence is always already here. It never appears and never disappears. It is the unchanging background in which all sounds arise and pass away. Shift your attention from the sounds themselves to this silence. You are no longer watching the sounds appearing and dissolving — you are watching and listening to the silence itself. Allow yourself to move deeper into the silence. The listening becomes effortless — there is nothing to grasp, nowhere to go. You simply merge and dissolve into it.
This is non- dual listening: there is no longer a listener and a silence, only the silence aware of itself. Rest in the recognition that this silence is the underlying, unchanging ground of being — and that you are not different from it. It was here before the first sound, and it will remain after the last.
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