Experiencing silence

[Thinker]

At first the silence was uncomfortable, I just was so used to media distraction or in becoming, but now I find it my refuge.

Still is peace

[philg]

I don't think it's silence as such but having nothing to latch on to that the brain initially rebels against in our modern society. We are bombarded with stimuli so we find silence uncomfortable. When we refuse to be distracted by noise or by silence or by thoughts or by not thinking we can start to make progress. I remember going to the Buddhist centre after meditating by myself for a number of years. It was by a busy road and people complained about the noise. The best advice they gave me was that noise isn't the problem. You can meditate in the midst of chaos as long as you do so in the right way.

There's precious little silence where I live- cars revving, dogs barking, work being done on houses and so on- so silence is not an option for me unless I got some of those headphones that are supposed to cut out external noise. Unless the noise is something I'm supposed to pay attention to such as an alarm or the doorbell, I can live with meditating in noisy situations, especially when I am back in the 'groove' of meditation. I can even control the tinnitus so it doesn't bother me.