Hearing the Waves Again: The Beach, The Busyness, and the Moment I Remembered to Listen by The Path Meditation Teacher Training student Rick Harper

Rick Harper- enjoying the sound of the waves

It happened on the beach, but not while sitting cross-legged in the sand in deep contemplation, not even while relaxing and soaking up the sun, but in an unexpected moment while working. I have a beach cabana business where I provide cabanas for beach goers who want to skip the hassle of hauling and setting up their own equipment. I was setting up one of these cabanas when it struck me.

Drawn to the Water

I believe it's been about 8 years now since I've moved to this little island we call "Galveston, Near Texas." I've always been drawn to the water as long as I can remember! I'm sure this is somewhat due to my grandmother bringing me on the weekends as a small child to the Louisiana coast to walk up and down the beach looking for shark teeth for hours. It's one of those sweetest of memories that never fades. Being drawn as I am to the water, I made the move to what was our closest vacation spot growing up, a place where I could enjoy surfing, walking on the beach looking for shark teeth, and the beautiful, colorful, and laid-back culture that coastal towns seem to somehow always create.

The sound of the waves... ahh... it's something I've cherished deep in my heart, especially living so close to the beach as I do now. I can sit for hours just listening to the ceaseless, timeless crashing that goes on and on, reminding me that time is but an illusion. Time means nothing to the waves; it's meaningful only to us humans that always seem to have somewhere else to be other than here, now.

But it's this cherished sound that I somewhere along the way have sadly forgotten. Tuned out. Stopped hearing. Perhaps the sound has faded into the background noise of everyday life, lost in the busyness and chaos of a monkey mind (an eastern Buddhist/Hindu phrase referring to the untrained mind constantly jumping from thought to thought like a monkey from branch to branch).

How has this happened? Have the waves suddenly stopped crashing? Of course that's not the case! I've quite simply...

...stopped... 

...listening.

Discovering Noting Meditation

Over the last few months I've been taking a deep dive into all kinds of meditation practices as a student in The Path's Meditation Teacher Training course. One of the practices is something called "noting," where one becomes aware of whatever is happening right in this moment. Whatever it may be, just as it is, without judgement, without grasping or avoiding. Life as it is, here and now. For example, you become aware that you are looking at something, so you gently "note" "seeing". Perhaps you become aware that you are thinking, so gently you say to yourself "thinking". You realize a bird chirping a few feet away: "hearing". Noticing the bird chirping makes you feel a sense of joy, so you note "joy". You go on applying these very general terms to every experience happening in your awareness (emotions being a bit more specific: happy, calm, sad, anger, etc.).

What happens when you do this? Well, you find yourself entering into the deepest, most direct experience of life! The more your awareness expands, the deeper you experience the blissful, beautiful, brilliance of existence itself! In the midst of the noise of life, you discover an all-encompassing, silent peace; what some traditions have called "the peace that surpasses understanding." Indeed!

The Return of the Waves

So, here I am on the beach, working, rushing, busy as usual. This time, however, I begin noting. Seagulls and pelicans flying overhead..."seeing". My business partner helping me put the siding on the cabana..."seeing". I realize I'm thinking about the wind..."thinking". I feel the wind on my arms..."feeling". Suddenly, there it is. A sound I haven't been hearing for quite some time. A sound that's been there this whole time but screened out amongst the noise of busyness, responsibilities, and timelines.

What's this? I hear it! Once again I hear it! A sound I've cherished, a sound I've genuinely loved, that has brought me peace and calm at times I thought I was going to lose all sanity. The sound of the waves..."HEARING". This time, I hear it more beautifully, more brilliantly than I've ever heard it before. I begin to see everything, hear everything, feel everything in the deepest way. I notice myself slightly smiling, and I note...

"Happy..."

What Are You Tuning Out?

What have you forgotten? What have you stopped hearing? What is it that you've screened out, lost amongst the noise of the busyness of life? Are you hearing, really hearing, the waves? Or the most beautiful sound of your child's voice, laughing, telling a silly story? The wind rustling through the leaves of trees? The birds singing nearby? But what else are you tuning out that is also life itself, existence right here, right now? Even the sound of cars going by has a beauty to it that seems impossible to grasp by a monkey mind!

So, I encourage you to listen, to see, to taste, to feel, to smell, in the deepest possible way, as if for the first time ever, this present moment of life. Here, now, bliss. Tune in, and tell me what you've discovered!