Noise

When there’s noise like that, it’s good to make your mind like the screen on a window. When the breeze comes in, the screen allows the breeze to come in. It doesn’t put up any resistance but it stands firm.

In the same way, when the noise comes, you don’t have to resist it. You don’t have to make comments on it. You don’t have to feel that it’s invading your space. It’s invading perhaps, but why claim it as your space? Just let it be space.

The image they give in the Canon is of people trying to write on space. Of course there’s nothing there to write on. There’s no surface. If you put up resistance to things like this—and just commenting on them will create a resistance—then they can write on it. But if there’s nothing there, there’s nothing they can write on. This is a useful image to keep in mind not only when there’s loud noise when you’re meditating, but also when you’re dealing with people saying nasty things.

The truck just now wasn’t intending to disturb our meditation. It was just doing its job. But there are people out there who really want to hurt your feelings. But you have to have the same attitude there. Make your mind like space. They can write as much as they want, but there’s no place for the writing to stick.

This may be the meaning of that old koan about the sound of one hand. When two hands clap, there’s a sound. When one hand claps, there’s nothing there to resist. There’s no sound. So you don’t have to comment on things. As Ajaan Chah used to say, “You don’t have to disturb the sound.” Just let the sound be. It’ll go through. It’ll go away. You can maintain your sense of your body here, being filled with space. Those noises can go through, but you stay still. You’re not blown around by them.

You need this skill in order to live in the world. As the Buddha points out, there are all kinds of sounds, all kinds of reasons for people to talk to you—well-meaning and ill-meaning, talking about things that are true, things that are not true, things that are useful, things that are useless—all kinds of speech in the world. You have to regard them as all normal. When you keep your mind at normalcy like this, then you can live safely in the world. You don’t get incited to do anything that would be unskillful that you would later regret.