Meditation on Sound

I remember my first personal meditation retreat.  I had just arrived in Burma and was under a new Sayadaw, the official name for a Burmese spiritual master.  After unpacking my things and settling into my Spartan courters, I headed down to the woman’s meditation hall and sat on my cushion under a mosquito net.  My mind was agitated and could not settle, the heat was intense.  Still my resolve was strong and I decided to meditate amidst the mental commotion.  Suddenly, and I want to emphasis suddenly, a booming, shrieking sound thundered across the forest into the meditation center and sent me reeling.  The sound was followed by a host of other sounds creating something analogous to an extremely high-pitched and bombastic Bollywood song.  Later I would discover this auditory display was a local village opera.

For a few minutes I held steadfast attempting to focus on my breath, and then I surrendered.  I packed up my things and just as I was exiting the hall, the Sayadaw approached me, like-clock-work.  He asked me where I was going and I explained meditation was impossible.  Wearing a half-mocking compassionate grin he motioned for me to return to the hall.  His first teaching would come now. 

“Noise”, he declared “is just noise you are not here to turn off your ears.  Your issue is not the noise it is the response to the noise.”  I protested that this was not just noise, it was cacophony.   The Sayadaw laughed.  He asked me to reflect on all the times, I had managed to study in busy cafes or fall asleep with thunder outside.  He was right.  There was a discrepancy, but knowing this was not making concentration manifest.  Further, I insisted, isn’t part of meditation Pratyhara, the removal of sensory awareness, and if so how could I do this with a racket that rivaled a rolling stones concert?  Again he smiled, sometimes meditation is about drawing the mind away from the sense doors, but meditation is not about escape. You will develop the capacity to focus by being with, not by resisting that what naturally arises” His insight reminds of a line from a famous Chinese Buddhist poem the Hsin Hsin Min, ‘do not run from the senses, to accept them fully concomitant with true enlightenment’. 

The Sayadaw continued.  “Even if you were to have total quiet somewhere, there would be noise, the noise in your mind; your thoughts are properly louder than this opera.  The opera is actually a break from your internal chatter, and I am willing to bet your thoughts plague you more than this opera does” He asked me to sit and really listen to the opera, to notice that even when I thought I was glued to every note that actually my own thoughts, judgments and memories would intervene. 

With these words of wisdom I went back to my cushion and I listened to the noise, I listened deeply and something amazing happened.  I could see hear the sound, feel it vibrate in my ear, watch as my mind turned the sound into some kind of perception of music, and then notice my reaction, which initially was very unpleasant.   I began to have insight into the difference between an event and my perception and relationship to the event.  For someone who was deeply depressed and imagined the world was against her, it was transforming to watch how this innocuous sensory input could trigger such a wide host of painful thoughts.  Through the noise I started to hear myself!

As the opera was a week-long event, it became an integral part of my meditation practice.  My former nemesis became my ally.   If I got lost in rumination, a change in chord and a vocal shrill would catapult me back into the present moment.  At other times, I would become completely absorbed in the sound, so absorbed that the so-called concentration I was seeking arrived naturally and all sensory awareness floated away as my whole world just became vibration.  Apparently, we can transcend sensory experience through sensory experience, that a nice little koan.  Moreover, as sound tends to be erratic even when it is harmonious it both mirrors our mind and keeps us alert.  We can learn so much by being mindful of sound.

Although I will never know the theme of this opera it has struck a deep chord, as it taught me that every circumstance has the potential to wake us up, if we have the time to actually listen.     

Sound is often perceived as a hindrance to meditation as it instantly attracts the mind and disrupts focus. Ironically, this ability to capture our attention also makes sound a powerful meditation object. Sound immediately captivates the mind and inspires concentration.  Consequently, spiritual traditions capitalize on the allure of sound through various means such as mantra chanting, prayer, or chimes and bells. For example, within the yogic tradition, it is common to recite OM over and over again.  The repetition streamlines the mind while the vibration is meant to purify the body and cleanse the heart.

We can also meditate on the nature of sound and our relationship to it.  Sound reminds us to really listen to our environment and reconnect with the wider world.  Mother Teresa was once asked what she said to God when she prayed, her response was, that she just listened. When asked what God said to her, she said God just listened.  There is something cathartic about simply hearing and not creating verbal or mental proliferations.  Usually we spend our life uniting with our impressions rather than our surroundings. When we sit quietly and just listen to the sounds around us we transcend the echoes of our mind.  We also learn to distinguish between the nature of hearing and cognition.

In the Buddhist tradition it is common to sit and watch the interaction between the sound, the hearing of sound through the sense door, and the arising perceptions that we create.  This type of practice reveals the divergence between the outside world and our perceptions of it; an invaluable insight as we are predisposed to believe everything we think, limiting our ability to experience reality based on anything but the habit patterns of our mind.  

To meditate on the reality of sound find a comfortable seated position, and begin to tune into the sounds around you be they loud or soft near or far away.  If there is no noise try to hear the subtle sound of your own breathing or even the audible ringing of silence.  As your awareness becomes more acute notice the moment a sound penetrates your ears.  Notice the mind deciphering the sound and the narrative that follows.  Continue to practice in this way for about 20 minutes as the mind becomes sharp and concentration builds.  Your sense of hearing will improve as will your ability to more keenly understand the workings of your mind