An easy trick to start perceiving it is to stay for some time in a very busy place like a disco, pub or familiar gathering and then promptly go into a silent place. Usually it immediately materializes and also in a strong flavor. I also find it pleasurable to re-hear the sentences I heard; sometimes the mind even gets creative and produces meaningful contents with the voice of other people that last for a a while after the experience.

Yes, that is probably it. Most people report that it has a little high pitched ringy tone to it, but perhaps that varies. If it is there when you quiet the mind, not requiring you to do anything to create it, and it is not coming from the environment, then that’s it. That is how I would define it.

I dont use it as a perpetual object now, but use it to tune in from time to time, and get into a receptive frame of mind.

Also, I have found that people discover the sound easiest at night when they go to bed, if it is quiet. Then usually they can hear it.

best of luck,

Supakamo

Lately i’ve been trying to work with with this “Sound of Silence” that Ajahn Sumedho talks about, but I guess I have some doubts as to whether i’m percieving it or not. When I turn my attention to hearing if I wait I can start to hear a sound not unlike that of putting an empty seashell up to ones ear and hearing a faint “whooshing” sound. Is this what the sound of silence is supposed to be? At any rate, i’ve been focusing on this perception and it takes my mind off of trying to control the breathing so much during sitting meditation and I find it is helpful and relaxing, but just like you guys I have difficulty hearing it in certain situations.

take care,
Justin

Yes, I can see what you mean about the sound of silence. After checking I see that I had confused Ajahn Sumedho’s reference to silence with a reference in his other writings to the emptiness in the mind that immediately proceeds and immediately follows the thinking of a single thought. It is a technique he recommends, ironically, to help stop the mind’s relentless thinking.  From a chapter called Turning Towards Emptiness in The Way It Is;

So instead of trying to stop thinking, if you are averse to it, then go to the other extreme and deliberately think something. And watch yourself deliberately thinking so that it’s not just a wandering thought process in which your mind goes round and round in circles.
Use your wisdom faculty; deliberately think something, some thought that is completely neutral and uninteresting, like ‘I am a human being’. Then deliberately think it, but observe the space before you’re thinking, and then deliberately say ‘I am a human being’. Then you note the end of it the moment when you stop thinking. Pay attention to before and after the thought rather than to the thought itself, just hold that attention to where there is no thought. Investigate the space around the thought, the space where the thought comes and goes, rather than thinking.
Then you’re aware of an empty mind, where there’s just awareness but no thought. That may last just for a second, because you start grasping, so you just have to keep being more aware by again thinking something.

It seems to dovetail with my experience during meditation, which was an exciting insight for me whether it came from the experience of a ringing silence or the awareness of a mind empty of thought. I was especially pleased because the most meaningful authority of all dhamma teaching is the one realized by individual practice. In my excitement I planned to repeat it in future meditations, and no doubt I will. But then I remember the self defeating futility of grasping to even the desire for enlightenment itself, let alone a technique that encourages the presumption of moving towards it. Which leaves me, I guess, to carry on with whatever is working at the moment.

With Metta,
Jaiboon.

Hi,

As in your first post with the Ajahn Sumedho quote, there definitely is doubt present whenever we are unsure what to do. It is not doubt like “maybe this buddhism stuff is whack, and I should become a maseusse instead.” But it is still a doubt. So in my first post I found that when meditating on the sound of silence I felt unsure in noisy and/or busy situations if I was hearing it. I could not distinguish it from the other sounds or it did not seem to be present.

And to note, this is a specific “sound” of silence, in Ajahn Sumedho’s teaching. It is not an abstract concept or idea of empitiness or space but an actual high-pitched ringing or hum, which you can hear when the mind is calm and is easier to hear under favorable circumstances. Usually, people can hear it when they lay down to bed at night. Once you hear it, then you know what Ajahn Sumedho is referring to and you wont have trouble hearing it again.

I have found in the last few years of practice that I have been increasingly searching for the “perfect meditation object” for everyday life. At the same time, my meditations in practice (as opposed to what I have been searching for) have been becoming increasingly formless. Doubt seems to arise for me with the formlessness, due to the years of habit of concentration meditation and also my own grasping. And, I think, because I am on the right track.

I suspect that Ajahn Sumedho offers the sound of silence meditation as a transition to formless meditation. It is an object, but one very similar to formlessness and is a good one for settling the mind and also easing into formlessness.

Your recognition in your meditation that you can go from object to object is the dawning of a recognition of formlessness. That’s my crazy ignorant opinion, at least.

I actually just sit down now, do a little this and that (a few breaths, some awareness of my body, some noting of my thoughts), and then just sit there and wait for meditation to happen by itself. It just does. It’s amazing. It doesnt need an object.

This is basically my sitting practice or “technique,” if it can be called that.

There are two extremes that can result however, one, you can more easily get lost in thought, and two, you can just sort of space out into sinking mind. So you just watch out for those things. Both of these extremes can be directly suppressed with a meditation object such as in classic burmese “vipassana” technique or anapanasati. So, if you are easing into formlessness you might do your formal techniques sometimes and other times just attend to whatever the reality is, without trying to influence it or change it in any way.

best wishes, Supakamo

Yesterday I attended a Vipassana meditation group here in Long Beach and put the idea of meditating on silence into practice. I’m not sure if it was what was originally described, either by Supakamo at the beginning of this topic or Ajahn Sumedho noted in my previous post, but the result was very helpful.

Whenever concentrating on the breath I noticed that my mind usually stayed focused during the actual inhalation or the exhalation, but distraction usually crept in in the space between the actual physical act. (reminds me of a quote from a poem called The Hollow Men--"Between the conception and the act falls the Shadow"--but I digress). Yesterday I used that space in between the breaths to focus on the silence under the noise, the silence before thought or action. I made a conscious decision to avoid silence as an idea or an intellectual concept, but to focus on the mind’s own vast, empty “there” under it all but that goes by unnoticed because of all the other mental mumbo jumbo. The result was that my Monkey Mind settled right down and, for much of the meditation, I believe I approached the state of quiet focus that samatha is “supposed” to be. I wondered if this going from breath to silence amounted to switching focus midstream, but then I remembered hearing that one of the buddhist (not necessarily Buddha’s) definitions of wisdom is that wisdom is awareness of what the mind is doing at any given moment.

All in all a very helpful discovery for me and I hope for others.

Metta
Jaiboon

I read Supakamo’s original post about meditation on the sound of silence some time ago, and it reminded me of something Ajhan Sumedho had talked about, but I didn’t remember where until I came across it recently. It’s from a book called Mindfullness, the Path to Deathlessness in the chapter called Listening to Thought. I’ve included the relevant passage below.

“Then there is the doubting state of mind, never quite sure what to do: there’s fear and doubt, uncertainty and hesitation. Deliberately bring up that state of never being sure, just to be relaxed with that state of where the mind is when you’re not grasping hold of any particular thing. ‘What should I do, should I stay or should I go, should I do this or should I do that, should I do anapanasati or should I do vipassana?’ Look at that. Ask yourself questions that can’t be answered, like ‘Who am l?’ Notice that empty space before you start thinking it — ‘who?’ — just be alert, just close your eyes, and just before you think ‘who’, just look, the mind’s quite empty, isn’t it? Then, ‘Who-am-l?’, and then the space after the question mark. That thought comes and goes out of emptiness, doesn’t it? When you’re just caught in habitual thinking, you can’t see the arising of thought, can you? You can’t see, you can only catch thought after you realise you’ve been thinking; so start deliberately thinking, and catch the beginning of a thought, before you actually think it. You take deliberate thoughts like, ‘Who is the Buddha?’ Deliberately think that, so that you see the beginning, the forming of a thought, and the end of it, and the space around it. You’re looking at thought and concept in a perspective, rather than just reacting to them.”

I haven’t really applied it on any consistent basis yet as a technique, at least not with any results that made me want to stop with the basics, but I think of it as an example of what letting go leads to, a very vivid example.

On a seperate note, I am also very fond of Ajhan Sumedho.  I recently returned from Thailand where I made a pilgrimage to Wat Si Saket in Nong Khai where he ordained, I believe--he at least spent his first period of time as a monk there. It’s an international school where English is spoken, and I’m told a good place to ordain for awhile since they have a lot of experience with western minds. Later, through a lucky (my wife says “good Karma") series of events I met the Abbot of Wat Si Saket at a home in Bangkok. It was quite an honor and a highlight of my trip, especially since he speaks English and we could actually converse.

I hope the quote from Ajhan Sumedho above is a positive contribution to your practice.

Metta
Jaiboon

Supakamo-

I’ve tried the sound of silence meditation at times but don’t really know whether it has worked or not. What I usually do is when i’m practicing mindfulness of breathing and get distracted or irritated I try to focus on sound instead. This really grounds me most of the time but I have a hard time keeping it up. I had a decent experience once with the sound of silence meditation but it was pretty quiet around. I find that as soon as I get excited and think, “this is it” it slips away from me. Best of luck to you.

I have heard of this meditation on the sound of silence for some time and tried it out a few times, but it is only recently that I suddenly took a great interest in it.

I don’t have any trouble hearing it in quiet settings or in sitting meditation, even when it is not so quiet.

But I have trouble hearing it in busy situations, noisy situations, etc. and so it’s greatest appeal is missing. I like it because as they say it is always there and you don’t have to do anything to create it, just simply turn your mind to it. Unfortunately that is not how it is when I try it under certain conditions. Sometimes I think I hear it but I am not sure if I am imagining or remembering it.

So, all I can do is recognize this as doubt, and resume a “listening attitude” or “listening mental posture,” and wait.

Does this sound familiar experience to anyone? Do you have any tricks or advice? I love tricks and advice.

The best trick I ever learned was about practicing mindfulness while eating. I found I could be mindful much of the day but when it came to the daily meal I would take two or three mindful bites and then the next thing I knew I would wake up out of the swirl and was looking at an empty bowl. Then someone, a monk at Bhavana society it was, told me to try, while chewing, to keep your hands still, not reaching for more, scooping food around, etc. Right away it worked! It was so much easier to stay with the experience.

That was a great trick.

metta,

Supakamo