Sleeping in a new place — 14 minute first-night meditation

Hello, you. Wherever you are. For these fifteen minutes, nothing is required of you. We will let the unfamiliar sounds and light arrive without needing to alter them.

Lie as you are, and let the room make its sounds.

Listen without naming anything that arrives.

Let one sound come, and let it go.

Find the farthest sound you can hear.

Leave it unnamed, just for this little while.

Now hear the nearest small sound.

Let it arrive, without leaning toward it.

Hear the sound of your own breath.

You need not catch every word. Let the words pass like rain.

Keep listening, while the room changes by itself.

Thoughts keep arriving, because minds are lively fountains of them.

Do not stop them. When you find you wandered, coming back is the repetition. It happens many times, and none of it is failure.

Come back to the largest place your body meets the bed. Without adjusting, find its outermost edge, where pressure fades.

Trace one side where fabric, air, and pressure meet. Find one sharp boundary, then one you cannot locate.

Wait for the next sound without hunting it. Catch its first instant, then follow it until it is no longer there.

A sound need not explain itself. Hear its whole journey, like music.

When a sound pulls strongly, follow its beginning, middle changes, and ending. When it ends, stay through one out-breath and hear what follows.

Notice the brightest light. Find where it fades into dimness, and see whether that boundary holds still or shifts.

Choose one unexamined sound or light. Wait for its next change. At that instant, find the first place in the body that responds, and remain through one out-breath before moving.

The urge to turn is also an event. Watch its first ripple, without making it captain.

Come back to the breath, moving by itself.

Feel the body where it meets the bed.

Move fingers and toes, slowly and lightly.

Hear the room again, near and far.

Let your eyes open when they wish.

See what your mind made of a sound tonight.

If you wake later, hear the first sound from beginning to end. Then find one point where you meet the bed, and stay for one breath. Let the mind be as it is.