Thread: HanZartaC's Yoga Book

Okay I'm doing Basic Skills #1, Version 1, Level 1:
Consciously perceiving:
Birds, cars, and airplane, drums in the distance.

As I explored the birds sound, I noticed something. While I was consciously perceiving the birds, I only heard one bird, as I moved my awareness to the birds, I heard more and more birds, and I heard the wind in the trees. I started hearing the river in the forest ever so slightly. I heard small squeaks from the birds. A car came by, I heard the same thing, the engine, the water splashing, but as I moved my awareness to the car driving over the hole in the ground, I heard the car bumping sort of. I hear cars from further away too and airplanes from further away. I hear nature better.

I also noticed that as I really payed attention to the sounds, they were amplified. I could hear them louder and stronger. When I am not paying attention, which seems a little harder to do now, the sounds aren't as loud and as strong, and my brain is filtering the smaller sounds out. However, it is harder to let go of the sounds now that I am consciously aware of them. I hope I did the exercise right. I will now try level #2 and let you know what I observed.

EDIT:

Okay I just did level #2:

It was difficult, I tried to stay aware of the children talking and skateboarding, and the many birds, and the river and the cars. I started with the birds, I tried to stay aware of them, but as I introduced more sounds, I lost track of the birds and it started fading. I could no longer hear the river, and I only heard the one obvious bird. When the car came again I could only hear the car. When the car and the children left, I focused on the river and on the wind and the birds. After a while I managed to get it. The river was the most difficult to hear, but after a while, strangely, I could hear it just as well as I could hear the birds. Then I car was coming, and I thought I would lose track of the river, but I didn't! I know it's not 8 sounds, but I will further practice these exercises daily. Also, I am a musician and I play several instruments, so I guess I sort of have a head start with hearing several sounds together.

Okay so I wanted to practice even more, because I felt like I could get better results. So I will attempt Listening to a Noisy World, level 1. I will not move on to level 2 until I can hear 8 sounds. So here goes. I am sitting in my kitchen, I can only hear the fridge, som occasional cars and birds and airplanes. Now I will try to be aware of the sounds.

As I payed attention to the fridge, its sound could be seperated into 2 different ones. It was sort of a mechanical whirring, and a higher vibrating sound. I also started hearing a vibrating whirring thing from the water cooler which I didnt notice before. I guess this is 3 sounds alltogether now. Afterwards I moved my awareness outside to the birds. I started hearing more birds. I would guess I heard maybe 3-4 birds alltogether. 3 more birds than I did at least.

6 sounds I didnt hear, I cant get up to 8. Do you think there just arent any noises? Or do I just need more practice?
Anyway, I started feeling it in my head, and I felt more aware of my surroundings. I think I can already see how this is related to lucid dreaming. When you are more aware you are likelier to lucid dream because, well, you are more aware of your surroundings. Is this right? Anyway Im gonna keep practicing until I get 8 new sounds.