This is part of what I posted before from some years ago…
I used a sound machine set for the sound of a babbling brook, which repeated like a tape loop. Both ‘babbling’ and the repetition of the sounds had significance. At first the sounds seemed irregular, but within repetition of the sequence there was a noticeable underlying rhythm, the way drums or baritone voices would anchor smaller patterns of sound. As this rhythm continued, there was a tendency for me to recognize or organize my recognition of the sounds into regular repeating tones, and irregular ones, even though in the context of the larger loop all the sounds repeated. As I noticed this, I seemed to get caught in a kind of groove, almost hypnotic, as the repetitive rhythm reminded me of some kind of tribal chanting. When I joined breath and sound together, focus naturally went to the throat area. Within the patterns of the watery, babbling sounds of the brook there were the sounds of voices, almost guttural, gurgling and preverbal, as if prior to meaning. As one sound pattern became dominant in awareness I would focus on a different pattern, as the one I had been focused on seemed to fade further in the background. There were dozens of such patterns.
I also noticed that while the overall pattern of sounds occupied my attention, the focal setting could be modulated to zero-in on component patterns, intermediate ones, or the overall pattern. It reminded me of previous Time exercises when dominant forms in the moment (like these rhythms) were picked up on, and after a while less dominant patterns were discernible, not only within, but along with the overall display of sound. It was very much a flow of Time’s continuous display of form.
Today I used a 2 ½ minute recording in a repetitive loop of a babbling brook, a much longer loop than the 8 to 10 second one described above. Repetition was not as immediately noticeable, although there were similarities in the repetitiveness of some of the tonal qualities.
Initially the sound was progressing from the point from which I started, to a point I presupposed it was moving toward; the point that I knew it would loop and start over or that I would turn it off, in other words, I knew the sound had ‘direction‘. After a while I gave up this sense of direction, which opened perspective, and seemed to allow more space. More space seemed to permit awareness of more levels of tones. Tones were edgeless objects in that they blended together as intensity waned, then a shifting of perspective revealed patterns of objects, then another shift revealed patterns of patterns, then, sound was felt in the throat, like water touching. And sound was seen like color on a blank or empty canvas. This exercise opened my sense of time and allowed me to demonstrate to myself how to modulate my habitual and limiting focal settings.
TSK Exercise 24 – A Marriage of Sound and Breath
Sit quietly and attend to the presence of sounds. You can use speech, music, or any sounds that happen to appear. Do not get trapped in the labels and significaÂtions that sounds bear, but concentrate on the quality of the sounds themselves. This amounts to learning to see more deeply into all communicated presences, rather than being stopped by their surface partitioning. To help this insight develop, it is necessary to expand ‘time’ more, and this can be implemented by breathing in a slower and more balanced way.
It is important to emphasize that breathing be very free and balanced, not forced or stressed in any way. Nor should attention to breathing be a separate menÂtal act. Let breathing and awareness become the same.
Allow your breathing to become so calm and still that you can experience a deep silence and meditative quality within your throat ‘center’. Let your awareÂness be sensitive to the inner quality and energy of the breath itself. Then you can discover that breath itself has many subtle tones.
Since the throat is a ‘center’ corresponding to ‘timÂing’ and the appreciation of ‘time’, try to integrate an attention to sounds with a keen but gentle attention to your breathing and your throat center. Rather than doing one and then the other, try to ‘marry’ the two ‘attendings’ so that they become a sound-throat-breathÂing unified presence. Through balanced attention and breathing in the throat center, the head and the trunk of the body can be better integrated. TSK pp.187-8
Commentary from the book
If this exercise is practiced in forty-five minute sessions four times a day, it will assist in an appreciation of ‘time’ that will in turn allow a more incisive ‘knowingness’ to appear. This ‘knowingness’ will be able to remain undeÂceived by meanings and referrings, and will perceive a shining, ‘unenfolded’ energy available in all sounds and presentations. The ‘unenfolded’ quality indicates that this energy has never been obscured or folded up into any hidden centers of presentations, but is primordially available, promoting physical vitality and longevity, as well as a new sensitivity to ‘time’ and ‘knowledge’.
Exercise 24: Simultaneous attention to the throat cenÂter and to sounds helps to transmit the ‘timing dimenÂsion with its communicative partitioning aspect. This process leads to a ‘knowingness’ which is undeceived by meanings and partitions. Consequently, it also leads to a much more healthy and fulfilling subject-object interaction.