Auster - SOUND BATH: transform your world through listening

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Copyright 2019 by Sara Auster

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First Tiller Press hardcover edition November 2019

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Jacket and Interior design by Ellen Johnston

Photography by John David Becker, Kirsten Chilstrom, and Deneka Peniston

Illustrations by Kat Bigelow

Cover photograph by John David Becker

Cover design by Ellen Johnston

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019947490

ISBN 978-1-9821-3294-1

ISBN 978-1-9821-3295-8 (ebook)

To all of my past, present, and future teachers.

And to Alex, my greatest teacher of all.

Jessica Orkin

In your hands is an invitation into a world hidden in plain sightthe world of sound.

This world offers unexpected information, insight, and creativity that is easily available if you close your eyes, quiet your mind, and listen deeply. It holds the possibility of experiencing your life in new ways as you learn to listen to yourself, to others, and to everything around you differently. And in Sara, you have an expert guide who will reveal this hidden worldits science, history, culture, and practicesand who can teach you how to shift from merely hearing the world to truly listening to it.

I know this because three years ago I entered this world by accident, unaware of how profoundly it would change my life.

It was 8:00 a.m. on a December morning in Brooklyn. I was cold, wet, and late for a Creative Mornings event hosted by a longtime friend, Tina Roth Eisenberg. Wheeling my suitcase around icy puddles, my face slick with rain, I was second-guessing the wisdom of saying yes to Tina when she invited me to a Sound Bath given by Sara Auster.

I had a plane to catch, meetings to attend, and what in the world is a Sound Bath?

But when Tina says go to something, I go. So there I was, finding a seat among hundreds of other people in a warehouse in Brooklyn, with no idea of what to expect. Onstage were glass bowls of different sizes and subtle colors. A soft rose. Turquoise. Amber. Something that looked like a standing accordion. What was all of this?

The air was thick with whispers and curiosity as we waited. I dont remember what Sara said when she took the stage, just that my skepticism evaporated. She was what I have come to love about New Yorkersconfident in her craft, observant, funny, and delightfully direct. It was clear we were in the hands of a master.

Sara guided us into listening. To our own breath. To the room. To the sounds of New York noise out in the street. With eyes closed, our ears awakened, I began to notice tiny details, such as the sigh of the person sitting next to me, a cough across the room, the scrape of metal chair legs on the concrete floor. And rather than hearing this as noise, I experienced it as a shimmer of human sound.

Into this space came the singing sound of the bowls. Quiet at first. What began as a hint of tones, built into an ethereal soundscape of longing, of seeking, of resonance.

Twenty minutes in, my face was covered with tears. I didnt feel sad. Just release. As if my chest had opened and a history of feelings unexpressed was pouring out. I didnt experience this in my mindmy always-on, pattern-seeking, dot-connecting mind was entirely quiet. No, it was a physical sensation. One of profound peace. Of spaciousness and beauty that registered deep in my body.

I have to understand what just happened to me. How can I learn more? was how I introduced myself to Sara after the Sound Bath. She sized me up, wet face and all, and invited me to join an intensive course on the art of listening that she was teaching. I said yes, no questions asked.

So began my journey into sound. For months of nights and weekends, I met with Sara, twenty other students, and a rotating cast of sound meditation teachers and practitioners. I learned the science of sound and how it affects our nervous system. That our ability to hear begins before we take our first breath. I learned the difference between hearing and listening, and how often we do the former, not the latter.

And I relearned the art of deep listening.

This came as a surprise, as I had considered myself somewhat of a professional listener. As president of SYPartners, a consultancy that uses creativity as a powerful catalyst for change, I partner with leaders to envision futures that dont yet exist and then do the work to bring these futures into being. I begin by listening.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to listen to the dreams and ambitions of leaders changing our world, such as the Dalai Lama and President Obama. To the CEOs bringing more purpose to business, like Mindy Grossman of WW, Howard Schultz and Kevin Johnson of Starbucks, and Jo Ann Jenkins of AARP. And the soulful leaders who are working to reinvent commerce and culture, such as Eileen Fisher and Oprah Winfrey.

Working with Sara taught me how to listen to these changemakers in a new way. She helped me to cultivate a practice of quieting my ego and resisting the desire to apply past patterns or jump to solutions to tune into what lies beneath. It has opened me to an even richer, less obvious world of informationthe energy of a room, the connections between people, the things that are unsaid, the voices that are missing in a conversation, ideas that jolt and jar rather than fit in. I find myself now a quieter yet bolder leader as I listen to the whispers of the world more deeply.

But perhaps even more important than how my outer listening has changed is how becoming a student of sound has changed how I listen to myself. I have learned to tune into my inner voice and my intuition. To trust that they flow through me, always available if I pay attention.

And so I imagine you, holding this book in your hands, perhaps taking your first step into the world of sound, or perhaps already a seasoned practitioner. Wherever you are on the journey, I am excited for what lies ahead. As you listen with curiosity, creativity, and compassion, what might you hear that you havent before?