In this talk, Ajahn Sumedho describes listening to the sound of silence. In meditation, we establish awareness. This awareness contemplates the sound of silence, not to be heard by the ear but by the mind, without any judgment.
Ajahn Sumedho is an American-born Buddhist monk who trained nine years under Ajahn Chah in Thailand and founded Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in 1984.
For more on silence and the intuitive awareness present in all of us, see The Sound of Silence ebook.
An excerpt:
It is important to keep reminding ourselves that we are recognizing a natural state of timelessness, because experience is always now, here and now. Whether you think you experience things in the past or anticipate possibilities in the future, all that – memories of the past or anticipation of the future – is happening now. And so this is the illusion of time because, in the ordinary world, time is our reality. We believe totally in, are committed to, time as reality. The aim of meditation is to keep reminding ourselves of the present. Experience is always in the present; it’s here and now, what is called paccuppanna-dhamma (the reality of now).
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