| What we call sound is the brain’s interpretation of vibration that reaches it primarily through the ear. You have probably contemplated the famous question about the tree falling in the forest when no one is there. Does it make a sound? I suppose sound needs both the vibration and the perceiver. That is someone or something has to be there to respond and be a receiver of the sound; otherwise it is just vibration.
In any case we are continually surrounded by vibration much of which we simply ignore. We are usually too busy or concerned with thinking or doing something and we allow the sound to be just be a part of the background “noise.” Sometimes this noise is helpful as we listen to music, to give that portion of our mind something to occupy itself with, while we do what we think is more important. And sometimes the noise is disruptive as in music we do not like or all of the noise made by others in a restaurant or club trying to talk loud enough to be heard; until the entire room seems as though everyone is just yelling at everyone else.
What happens is that we become so distracted by what we are attending to we miss a large portion of what is really happening around us. We shift our attention to our thinking mind rather than our senses. We become more interested in the score of the game than we are in the playing of the game itself. Even in our expressions when we observe someone who seems to be lost or not with it we say they seem to have lost their senses. We are referring to their actions or lack of them from a mind’s point of view but we are actually using a word that describes our “sense” contacts. In speaking about something making sense we have lost the bodily part of the actual sensations of sight, sound, touch etc that make up our world and substituted the word sense as a function of the mind’s thinking in a logical rational manner.
After a while the mind starts to go around in circles when it loses its foundation and forgets that it is based on our sense contacts. This is where repetitive circular thinking sets in which we may call worry, anxiety, restlessness, boredom or doubt at worst or just a loss of happiness at best.
One way to return to a more peaceful happy state is to actually go through our senses. A primary one is sound. Rather than ignore the sounds around us because we feel they are unimportant and just background what would happen if we paid
attention to them? Right now in my office I can hear the sound of the ultrasonic cleaner, footsteps, the hum of the air conditioner, suction and music.. The compressor just went on also there is the sound of instruments being bagged for sterilization. The compressor is humming and just let out a hiss as it turned off.
These were all just vibrations which had a particular meaning as I understood the sounds. But what if I listened deeper to just focus on the vibration with no interpretation.: just the sound itself. The different tones, pitch, volume, frequency and duration., sharp or dull thud or ringing etc just sound. |
