Attentive Listening

Attentively Listening

   Listening, listening, listening attentively to the slice of your knife cutting crisply, cleanly through fresh carrots; you are deeply in tune with the crunching sound...when suddenly, your attention shifts and you realize your awareness is about to be carried off by a thought. A thought! What can you do? First, calm down, take a conscious breath and relax into the silence that surrounds you.  It is filled with countless possibilities.  Lean into this vast spaciousness, and from this place, notice the thought process.  Note how a thought comes and goes, but don't get caught up in any of its content. Ignore the intrigue of chasing after it, no matter how seemingly inspired or unique. Don't think along with the thought; stay solidly grounded in listening to it as ambient sound, playing like a musical hook in your mind. Listen to your thought's sustained cadence and rhythmic arising and falling. Feel the texture of the voice chanting plainsong in the mind to smoothly steal your attention away from Now. Touch the energy alive within the sound, and become the openness that's listening. Feel awareness interpenetrate the heart of the present moment. And if you listen mindfully, you can hear the stillness between the sounds.