Settle into where you are
Find a position that allows you to be still. Sitting is fine. Lying down is fine. Whatever allows your body to rest without needing to adjust.
You don't need to close your eyes — though you may if it feels natural. You don't need to adopt a particular posture or hold anything in a certain way. Simply allow yourself to arrive in this moment, in this place, as you are.
Allow a moment here
Notice the weight of your body — wherever it is resting. The contact of the surface beneath you. The temperature of the air. The sounds in and around the space you are in.
There is nothing to do with any of this. Simply let it be noticed. You are already here. That is enough to begin.
You may notice the voice in your head is already running — commenting on this, planning, evaluating. That is fine. You are not here to stop it. You are here to notice something else.
Notice the voice
For a moment, simply pay attention to what the voice in your head is doing right now.
It may be narrating. Planning. Judging. Evaluating whether you are doing this correctly. Wondering what comes next. Thinking about something from earlier today.
Simply look at what's there
Don't try to change it. Don't try to silence it. Don't try to follow it into its content. Simply observe that it is there — that there is a voice, that it is saying things, that it is running.
Let that observation be very simple. Not an analysis. Not a judgment. Just a quiet noticing: there is something happening in the mind — a stream of activity, of words and thoughts — and you can hear it.
Stay with this for a moment. Just watching. Not engaging with what the voice is saying — simply aware that it is saying things.
Rest here for a breath or two
The question
The voice is there. You can hear it.
Now — very gently — turn attention toward the one who is hearing it.
Don't rush to answer this. It is not a riddle. It is not a puzzle to be solved by thinking. It is an invitation to look — quietly, without agenda — at what is here that is hearing the voice.
The voice speaks. Something hears it. What is that something?
Rest in the question — don't rush past it
You may notice that the voice tries to answer the question — producing thoughts like "I am" or "awareness" or "my mind." That is the voice trying to help. Notice that the voice's answer is itself something you can hear. So whoever is listening is still here, behind the answer.
The question is not asking for a verbal answer. It is asking you to look — to turn attention toward the looking itself.
The one who is listening
Stay with this for a moment. Not the voice — the one who hears it.
Notice some things about this listener.
It is quiet. The voice may be noisy — but whatever is hearing the voice is not itself making noise. It is simply present. Simply aware. Without words of its own.
It is already here. You did not have to produce it. It did not arrive when you started this meditation. It was here before the first word — it is here now — and it will be here when this is over. It is not something you found. It is something you are noticing.
Notice these qualities directly
It is not troubled by what the voice is saying. The voice may be anxious or critical or busy. But the one listening is simply listening. It is not panicked. It is not urgent. It is simply here — open, quiet, receiving whatever arises without being disturbed by it.
Rest with this
Allow everything
From this place of listening — from the awareness that hears the voice — allow everything to be exactly as it is.
If the voice is running, let it run. You are not inside it. You are hearing it.
If there are sounds in the room, let them be there. The listening that hears the voice can also hear those sounds — without effort, without choosing to.
If there is sensation in the body — tension, warmth, discomfort, ease — let it be there. The awareness that notices thoughts also notices sensations. Nothing needs to change.
Simply allow — nothing to fix or change
You may notice that this allowing feels different from the usual relationship with your mind. Usually there is effort — managing thoughts, trying to feel a certain way, resisting what is there. Here, from the place of listening, there is simply space. Things appear. Things pass. The awareness remains.
Rest in that space. Not as a technique. Not as an achievement. Simply as what is actually here when attention is not absorbed in the content of the voice.
Stay with what arises
The return
Begin to let ordinary awareness of the room return. The sounds, the light, the physical sense of where you are.
You are not leaving anything behind. The listening that was here throughout this meditation is the same listening that will be here when you get up, when you move through your day, when the voice starts running its commentary on whatever comes next.
It did not arrive at the start of this session. It will not depart at the end.
Allow the return to be gradual
When you are ready, move gently. There is no hurry. The ordinary day is waiting — and it is happening in the same awareness that was present throughout this inquiry. Nothing has changed. Something, perhaps, has been noticed.
If at any point today — in a meeting, in your kitchen, in a difficult conversation — you can remember to ask the question who is listening? and briefly turn attention toward the one who hears the voice, you will have brought this inquiry into ordinary life. That is where it belongs. That is where it matters most.