Meditation of the week: Listening to the Pulse of the Universe

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Meditation of the week from cybermonks

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Listening to the Pulse of the Universe

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The pink blossomed tree,

The bees,

The hum,

Are One.

_____________________

 

 

What do you hear when it is very, very quiet? It is not nothing. The

universe hums. Sound is vibration, and the world vibrates. We have the

ability to sense vibrations in the air, and we call it hearing. We hear

birds singing, people talking, vehicles moving, wind blowing, fans

humming, water falling. Our minds sort the sounds by importance. You

may hear birds calling as you awaken in the morning, but as you go

about your daily business, you may no longer notice the sound. You may

hear people talking, but not really attend to what they are saying,

until you hear your name spoken. When you drive, you probably don’t

notice the sound of the engine, unless the vibration changes, and then

your awareness focuses on the unfamiliar motor noise, and you tune out

the radio or the person in the passenger seat talking to you.

 

Normally, we are bombarded with all sorts of sounds in the course of

our day and are aware of relatively little of it. Much of the sound is

of no significance to us, so we tune it out. People vary in their

ability to do this, and for many of us the need to tune out noise in

our daily routine creates stress. When you are trying to concentrate

and the radio or TV is playing or people are talking nearby, the task

becomes harder. Tension increases and concentration suffers.

 

Meditation is best done in a quiet place. If quiet is unattainable,

masking sounds, such as calming music, recordings of nature sounds, or

even white noise, like the sound of a fan, can help screen the

distractions. Chanting also helps the meditator to screen out

distracting sound. In addition, it creates a physical vibration in the

body of the chanter that may be calming, yet energizing.

 

Let’s assume though, that you can find a quiet place to sit. Maybe this

is a place far from the hubbub of the world. If there were no

significant sound vibrations in the air, what would you hear? Maybe the

air molecules doing their random dance would cause a quiet hum in your

ears. You might hear the soft sound of your breathing. You might even

hear your heart beating and the blood pulsing in your body. If you are

very still, your whole body may become like your ears, and you will

feel the vibrations in your cells as if they were sounds. You might

feel/hear the electrical pulses of nerve cells passing messages down

the line. You might hear/feel the rustling of protoplasm as cells grow,

divide, and die. If you tune in even more, you might think you can

sense the rattling of atoms as they bump together and electrons bounce

around their paths of probability. When you are very still the universe

hums, and the humming is a chorus that forms an infinite song.

 

Practice:

 

Notice your awareness of sound. Stop what you are doing now and then,

and just listen. What do you hear, when listening attentively, that you

screened out a moment ago. What sounds demand your attention? What

sounds irritate you? What sounds soothe you?

_____________________

 

 

Do a sound inventory of your home or work place. What do you hear

there? Is it too noisy for comfort? Can you turn down the volume, at

least some of the time, to create more peace and quiet? You may need to

negotiate with those who share your space. Talk about it.

_____________________

 

 

In meditation, try just listening. Instead of concentrating on one

thing, open your awareness as wide as it will go. Listen receptively.

Become aware of whatever sounds come to you. Notice how your attention

moves from one sound to another. Notice where attention fades. Notice

where it sharpens.

 

Listen with your whole body. Where are the boundaries between hearing

and feeling? Can you hear your soft breathing? Can you hear your pulse?

What else can you hear?

 

_____________________

 

 

The Thunder of Now

 

Plowing the field of magnificent potential,

We view our lives as if through a microscope.

Addicted to progression, our history making

Folds in the converging lines of events,

So that the highly improbable appears,

In its fixed past, inevitable.

Pulling clear lines out of chaos,

Life becomes ordered, predictable and small.

Instead, listen to the universe squeezing itself into existence.

Pieces of being crackle into nowness,

Moment by moment,

Probabilities freeze into real time.

Like a flock of crows drawn together by mysterious attraction,

This " right now " flies at us

From the vestiges of " a moment ago. "

 

Gather yourself to awe

At the thunder of unfathomable being

Drawing up creation.

 

Tom Barrett

April 1998