Of Noise, Ear Plugs and Sensory Deprivation Tanks

[Sekiyuu]

During the week I find it most comfortable to sit in the afternoon in a specially designated "quiet room" at work (I'm a pampered tech worker). Normally there's not much sound at all, it's about as quiet as an office could get... the HVAC is running, people are typing on keyboards, there's a few unintelligible words said, there's a streetcar passing by outside.

It was not so when I sat today. Someone was repeatedly tearing some paper right outside the quiet room. It might sound kind of silly but it was loud and unexpected, and bothering me a lot. "This is ruining my zazen" I thought. Then I thought not only "there's no such thing as bad zazen" but I also imagined how ridiculous it would be if I got up and angrily hunted down whoever was doing something so harmless and mundane. After while I just sat with the tearing noise, and then, eventually, I felt like the paper being torn and me sitting there were the same action, the same event, and by extension everything else was the same event; the HVAC, the typing, the streetcar, and so on, just a big jumble of "happening". The idea of being bothered by the noise seemed ridiculous, because it would be like being bothered by sitting.

I'm still very early in my regular sitting practice but I couldn't help but feel a sense of progress. I know I should probably not put any worth in that feeling, but I felt like I had to share to get another opinion. Maybe I'm putting way too much weight on me simply getting used to a sound nearby and not letting it bother me, simply because it all happened while I was sitting.

Sometime I should find a deadly quiet place, it might actually end up being harder to sit there!

Gassho, Kenny
Sat Today

[Myoku]

What Kirk said, when you get into it, a less distracting environment is of great help. As it is important to allow all that noise and understand its not the noise that disturbs you later on. Gassho Myoku

sat today

[Ryumon]

I used earplugs back in the early days of meditation, about thirty years ago, for a while. I lived in a building where there was a lot of noise. I think it was a good idea, because this was as I was learning to meditate; it allowed me to focus on my breath - which was what I was doing pre-shikantaza - without getting frustrated by too much aural distraction. I stopped using them when I moved to a quieter place, and now, only the most annoying noise would prevent me from sitting. So if one is a beginner, it might not be such a bad thing; it's not like there aren't enough distractions (aside from thoughts, I have tinnitus, and earplugs don't do anything about that).

I also have experience in an isolation tank; I did that fairly frequently back in the early 80s when I lived in New York. I used earplugs to keep the water out of my ears.

[Shokai]

Our Bluejays don't sound like that. They have a much harsher call.

gassho, Shokai

[Jundo]

[emoji848]Maybe if there is resistance to “noise“ while sitting—then the self is not being dropped. When the self is dropped, it’s all a joyous symphony.

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH


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Lovely! Yes.

By the way, here is the kind of blue jay call that Suzuki Roshi probably means ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T--LnlE1nE8

Gassho, J

SatTodayLAH

[lorax]

When I first started to practice some twenty years ago in Hawaii, I would go up the mountain and sit on a large rock in the forest seeking solitude and silence. I was amazed to hear buzzing sound and on opening my eyes I saw a large insect on the tree limb in front of me. As I would sit I would hear not just the wind, birds and insects but also the motor cycles and helicopters miles away. Zazen is not a window into silence and solitude but a window into the world around us.

SAT TODAY

[treebeard]

So we cut out the plane noise, then we hear the car noise, we cut out the car noise, then there is the neighbors dog noise, we cut out the dog noise, there is our heart, don't cut out your heart.

But even if you did, the universe would still be out their making noise and smashing things together because that's just what it is. For me sitting is learning to be ok with just being a part of it all, crazy as it seemingly is at times.


Gassho,
Paul
Sat today.

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I really non-like that concept

gassho, Shokai

stlah

Oh boy ... I sure do like your non-like concept. =)

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Shokai]

When the self is dropped, it’s all a joyous symphony.

I really non-like that concept

gassho, Shokai

stlah

[Jakuden]

[emoji848]Maybe if there is resistance to “noise“ while sitting—then the self is not being dropped. When the self is dropped, it’s all a joyous symphony.

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Shinshou]

Twelve years ago, my wife and I wanted to have a child, but it just wasn't the right time - not enough money, not enough space, I was in a low-paying full-time job and in nursing school full time, and we had no family in-state. So instead, we investigated becoming foster parents. The system was so cumbersome and stressful just to apply and be accepted, we decided to go ahead and have our own child even though nothing had changed. Well, it wasn't long before we were pregnant. With twins! But despite the challenges, those kids were born, raised, and are wonderful young men today. I think sitting is a lot like that. The time is never perfect (whether due to external or internal factors), but you just throw throw your hands up and do it anyway, and most times something wonderful is born. And if not, well, you deal with that too.

Shinshou
Sat today

[Nengei]

I am reminded of a trip to a monastery in NY for a 3-day sesshin, in my first months of practice. I thought, "Finally! I will be in a place of absolute peace with no distractions. I will really see what this Zen-thing is all about." It was winter, and in the large sitting room, the old-fashioned electric baseboard heaters were firing up every few minutes. The metal vanes in them would begin to tick......tick.....clink...tick..clink..ticktickti ck... The wind would blow outside, or someone would cough or sniff. I could hear the people around me breathing.

That first day was harder than sitting at home, because of all these new sounds and the new environment. But later I began to notice things differently. I would start to feel a chill on my arms, then I knew that the heaters would begin to kick in, with their welcome warmth. I learned to hear-not hear a little bit. By the end of the sesshin, the sounds were a part of the experience.

So the next time that I visited, for a longer sesshin, it was late spring. Traveling to the monastery, I was looking forward to the peaceful place with the little sounds that made me smile. How good it would be to greet the day with the monastics, and let the rest of the world fall away. We began that first day of sesshin in the same ways as before, and sat on our zafus as the bell chimed. In a few minutes I began to feel the chill, and in my mind's eye (ear?) the little tick....tick... began. But it never came; the heat was off. And as the day got warmer, we opened the windows of the abbey to let the breeze through. Argh! Now there were the sounds of cars passing, or even popping the gravel in the parking lot. Visitors had the nerve to stand outside and talk! And the birds! I have to say, the Catskills have a lot of birds. Loud ones.

For me these were moments of learning, to begin to discover where the still point is. Where the quiet place is. Of course this is still a struggle. Intrusive sounds are always intrusive. Most of them are not as disturbing, though. They give me a chance to practice having no control.

Gassho
Joseph

Yes, I have sat today. And later I am going running.

[Ryushi]

How timely.

Last night while I was sitting, my wife and son began arguing in another room. It was catching my attention. I wanted to get up an intervene. But I sat. I let the situation resolve on its own. And I just returned to my breathing.

I did think it would be better to have a place of silence to sit. But better to sit with some noise than to wait for the perfect moment to sit in silence.

Sat today. Gassho.

[Doshin]

This topic has been dealt with in classical music:

On August 29, 1952, David Tudor walked onto the stage of the Maverick Concert Hall, near Woodstock, New York, sat down at the piano, and, for four and a half minutes, made no sound. He was performing “4'33",’’ a conceptual work by John Cage. It has been called the “silent piece,” but its purpose is to make people listen. “There’s no such thing as silence,” Cage said, recalling the première. “You could hear the wind stirring outside during the first movement. During the second, raindrops began pattering the roof, and during the third people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out.”

gassho

Sat Today

The first time I recall what I thought was silence was when I was 17 or 18 and camping in Death Valley, California (USA). Laying amongst the sand dunes one night embacing the stars I noticed there was few soounds and I could only hear (probably it was blocking out other sounds) the ticking of my wrist watch (don't think many watches tick anymore) so I took it off and stuck it in my pocket and the ticking still sounded like a drum beat. That occurence remains with me a half century later.

Doshin
st

[Mitka]

The sound of your pulse is easier to sit with than noise from a tv I find. Talking and conversation is the most difficult and distracting thing to sit with in my practice. It draws you in, even when you don't want to be drawn in.