Teachings From Ancient Vietnamese Zen Masters – 142
After practicing breathing meditation for a while, you can feel the
breath smoothly coming and going, feel some parts of your body
moving accordingly to the spreading breath, see the thought emptying
itself when you watch it; now try this approach: listen to the silence.
You know that we always hear something, even in city or in forest, the
lovely sound or the unpleasant noise. Sometimes we hear from the past
we love to recall, the songs we wrote decades ago or the sweet voices
of our childhood friends.
Now listen to the silence, to the state of mind before any sound arising.
If you hear some weird sound in the head, just ignore it; only listen to
the silence before the sound arising. Feel the breath spreading in and
out you body, and listen to the silence. Any sound coming and going is
just a state of mind; the silence before the sound is also a state of
mind.
You are listening to the mind, and you are listening to the nature of
listening. The Shurangama Sutra taught this way of meditation. Just
listen to the state of mind before the sound arising. This is not different
from the Thoai Dau Meditation, or Huatou Meditation, when you
observe the mind before any thought arising. Now listen to the silence
all day and night. Try that.)
