“Music offers colour to the air of the second.” ~Karl Lagerfeld
I used to assume I used to be a very good listener. I might maintain eye contact, nod on the proper moments, ask considerate follow-up questions. However one afternoon, sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat in a small studio in Rishikesh, I noticed I had by no means actually listened to something, not even myself.
The instructor requested us to shut our eyes and easily discover the sounds round us. A ceiling fan turning slowly overhead. A canine barking someplace down the road. My very own breath, uneven and shallow. After which, beneath all of it, one thing I can solely describe as stillness with a texture—a dwelling, vibrating quiet I had been too busy to note earlier than.
That was my first deep encounter with Nada Yoga, the traditional Indian follow of yoga via sound. And it quietly dismantled all the things I believed I knew about being current.
When We Fill Each Silence
For many of my grownup life, I moved via the world with background noise as a relentless companion. Music whereas cooking. A podcast throughout my morning stroll. The tv murmuring as I fell asleep. I advised myself I merely appreciated sound. But when I’m trustworthy, I used to be afraid of what would possibly floor within the quiet.
There’s a sort of noise we manufacture not for pleasure, however for defense. It retains us from sitting with the tough questions: Am I dwelling the life I really need? Why does this relationship really feel so hole? What am I actually feeling beneath all this busyness?
I had been utilizing sound as an escape from sound, from the deeper sound of my very own inside life. And I had no thought.
The emotions I used to be most afraid to face within the quiet had been a way of purposelessness and a deep uncertainty about whether or not the trail I had chosen, dedicating my life to music, was actually mine or just what I had all the time identified. Rising up steeped in classical Indian music, it was arduous to inform the distinction between a calling and conditioning.
Within the silence, these questions bought louder. Am I educating as a result of I find it irresistible, or as a result of it’s all I understand how to do? Am I related to this follow, or have I merely constructed an identification round it? There was additionally grief in there for relationships I had let drift as a result of I used to be all the time touring, all the time educating, all the time immersed in sound whereas one way or the other lacking the folks proper in entrance of me.
The noise saved all of that at a snug distance. It was solely after I actually sat with the silence that I finished operating from these questions and began letting them form me into somebody extra trustworthy.
The Observe That Modified All the things
Nada Yoga is rooted within the understanding that each one of existence is vibration. From the hum of the universe to the rhythm of the human heartbeat, sound shouldn’t be merely one thing we hear. It’s one thing we’re.
The follow begins merely. You sit. You pay attention. You resist the urge to fill the silence with thought, judgment, or anticipation. You let sound transfer via you reasonably than bounce off the floor of a distracted thoughts.
Within the early days, I used to be horrible at it. My ideas would dash forward to the grocery record, the unanswered electronic mail, the dialog I ought to have dealt with otherwise. My instructor would say, gently however firmly: “Come again to the sound.” And slowly, I started to.
Then got here the music. We might take heed to a single drone, a tambura, a singing bowl, generally only a held word on a harmonium. And inside that word, the thoughts would discover one thing extraordinary: a spot to relaxation.
It was not silence in the best way we often consider it, as an absence of noise. It was silence as a presence, large, unhurried, and fully actual.
What Sound Teaches Us About Being Right here
There’s something uniquely highly effective about utilizing sound as a path to presence, as a result of sound calls for nowness. You can’t hear yesterday. You can’t hear tomorrow. Sound exists solely within the dwelling second, and to actually pay attention is to reach there with it.
I started to note how this modified the feel of bizarre life. I’d wash dishes and listen to the water otherwise, not as background noise however as one thing price consideration. I’d sit with a buddy and truly hear the standard of their voice, the hesitation between their phrases, what they weren’t fairly saying.
The follow had given me new ears. And with new ears got here a brand new sort of presence, not the carried out presence of eye contact and nodding, however a real settling into the right here and now.
I additionally started to grasp one thing about my relationship with music. I had all the time cherished it deeply, however I had used it the best way many people do, to handle my emotional state, to push emotions up or push them down. Nada Yoga invited me to cease managing and begin assembly.
To let music meet you the place you’re, with no need it to take you someplace else, is a profound act of self-acceptance. It’s the distinction between utilizing sound as a instrument and experiencing sound as a fact.
Three Practices to Start
You don’t want years of devoted examine to start exploring sound as a doorway to presence. Listed here are three easy practices which have reworked my relationship with each sound and stillness:
1. The Two-Minute Deep Hear.
As soon as a day, cease no matter you’re doing and shut your eyes. For 2 minutes, merely discover the sounds round you with out labeling them nearly as good or dangerous, welcome or unwelcome. The fridge hum, the distant visitors, your personal breath. Let all the things be precisely as it’s. That is the muse of Nada Yoga: non-judgmental listening.
2. Aware Music Listening.
Select one tune and take heed to it together with your full, undivided consideration. No telephone. No multitasking. Discover the silence between the notes as a lot because the notes themselves. Discover what the music brings up in your physique. Discover the second your thoughts wanders, and gently return. What you’re working towards is similar as seated meditation, however the sound turns into your anchor as a substitute of the breath.
3. Sit with a Single Tone.
Discover a singing bowl, a tuning fork, or a single sustained word on a piano or guitar. Let it ring out and observe it together with your full consideration till it fully fades. The place does the sound finish? The place does the silence start? Sitting with that query, to not reply it however to inhabit it, can open one thing very deep.
Coming Dwelling to the Current
I nonetheless love background music. I nonetheless take pleasure in a podcast on an extended stroll. However one thing elementary has shifted. I now not want sound to fill a void. I’ve realized, slowly and imperfectly, that the quiet shouldn’t be empty. It is filled with all the things I used to be too distracted to obtain.
Presence shouldn’t be a persona trait. It’s a follow. And sound, in all its richness, in all its subtlety, in its capability to reach and dissolve in the identical breath, is likely one of the most accessible lecturers we’ve got.
All you must do is pay attention.
About Bhuwan Chandra
Bhuwan Chandra is the founding father of Nada Yoga College, a classical Indian musician, sound healer, music therapist, and skilled in Sanskrit and mantra chanting. He has devoted his life to creating the traditional knowledge of Nada Yoga accessible to college students world wide. Discover his teachings at nadyoga.org.
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