Free 15 Minute Guided Meditation Script: Noticing the Sounds [PDF]

Find a comfortable seat.

This could be on a chair, with your feet flat on the ground, or on a cushion, with your hips higher than your knees.

Most importantly, you should feel comfortable, and your spine should be in a neutral position, up tall.

Let your hands rest in your lap or on your thighs, to support a softening of the shoulders.

Close your eyes, or keep a soft gaze forwards and downwards towards the earth.

Close your lips, and breathe gently in and out through your nose.

Your breath should be quiet, long and patient, reflecting all the spacious qualities you’d also like to see in your mind.

To get settled in this stillness and relative quiet, count out 10 patient cycles of breath, beginning with this exhale as number one.

Then inhale number one, exhale number two.

Then inhale number two, and so on.

Remain focused on the breath with approximately 25% of your effort.

Another 25% of your effort, focused on the count, and not losing track of the count.

Rest the remaining 50% of your attention on spaciousness.

Feel open, relaxed, and even a little joyful.

If you’ve become distracted from the count, simply begin again at exhale number one, inhale number one, and so on.

After a few rounds of effort, or if you’ve made it all the way to a perfect ten, drop the effort of counting and rest in the presence of your breath.

In the stillness and quiet here, we’ll set today’s intention, a meditation on sound.

Commit to staying right here, on your seat, working with sound awareness.

Until your timer is up.

The commitment is to the practice, the attempt, the noticing, and we’ll stay with that process, regardless of its perfection, or lack of perfection.

Today, the goal is to notice sound and our mind’s response to sound.

May ourselves and all beings benefit from our efforts here.

So as we rest here with an upright posture, breathing gently in and out through the nose,

We open to the experience of sound.

Without looking for sound, without trying to go and find sound, we notice the sounds that are arising in our awareness.

Some sounds steady. 

Others come and go.

We let sound in, and when it’s gone, we notice that too.

Noticing sound, and perhaps equally noticing the spaces between. 

The moments of quiet.

(Pause/time here in silence to notice)

As we rest here, present with sound, anytime that you notice the mind has wandered off to something other than sound, or wandered off to a story about sound, simply let that go, and return to your intention.

Intention today is resting peacefully in the presence of sound. 

Noticing sound.

Can we notice sound, and be present with sound, without even giving those sounds a label?

The sound of your breath, for example, at what point in your awareness does it shift from sound, to sound of breath.

No right or wrong answer, just explore.

Sounds on the street outside. 

At what point do they shift from sound, to the sound of a car.

Sound, versus the sound of a person walking.

And then beyond the labeling of sound, is there a story that’s applied to sound? 

A visualization?

Which part of the experience of sound is the experience itself, and which part of the experience of sound is in your mind?

Again, no right or wrong answer, but noticing what arises for you.

How does your own mind work?

(Pause/time here for reflection on the above)

Stay with the intention, experiencing sound.

Is there any separation between your experience of sound, and the mind’s story about what the sound is.

In fact, could you experience a sound if you didn’t have a name for it?

Remembering that the name for “unknown noise” is itself a form of labeling.

Notice too, how when we label sound, some sound gets labeled as pleasant, others unpleasant.

As much as possible, let it all be equal. 

Simply sound.

(Pause/time here)

Notice how the sound itself is continuously moving. 

Changing. 

Coming and going.

So too, through this process, is your experience of sound.

The labels we give, the judgement. 

Sound as good, or sound as bad.

It’s all changing, moving, and in flux.

None of it is fixed. 

None of it remains any one way.

Each sound, full of equal potential to be soothing, jarring, frustrating, or gratifying.

Curious for a moment here, on how that could be.

Curious as we sit here, experiencing sound.

Continue being present with sound. 

Continue staying open to what arises.

Continue to return to sound when you notice the mind has wandered.

When you’ve reached the end of your time commitment today,

Slowly open your eyes, and without yet leaving your seat, take in the world around you.

Remember everything that you notice, through sound, sight, smell, taste, and sensation.

All of it is filtered in its unique way through your unique mind.

And that noticing this, has the potential to change you, to change all beings around you, and the potential to change your world.

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This script has been crafted with love and formatted in a clear, organized layout, making it easy to read aloud for individuals or groups. It is suitable for personal and professional use, including YouTube videos and monetization, and for voiceover recordings.

Use this script to lead your own meditation, edit or alter the script to suit your needs, use it in courses you create and sell, or use it privately with your clients.

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