Hi,
Someone wrote asking about using ear plugs during Zazen in a house with a noisy spouse and teenagers blaring their music.
After some back and forth, I finally advised not to do so ... unless one is sitting in a very extreme or unusual situation (such as a place that actually threatens one's hearing). In this Practice, we learn to sit "as what is," in equanimity and acceptance. On the other hand, it is also good to mix it up, and frequently go away from the noise to the quietest places one can. Then we sit "as what is" in the quiet. Here is why:
If you have never listened to Suzuki Roshi's wonderful talk on the difference between "sound" and "noise," please do. (Spoiler Alert: basically, this difference is our judgment and reaction between one's ears).
Except in extreme situations where excess noise can actually be harmful to the ears, sleep cycle and the like, we just sit in equanimity and acceptance.
On the other hand, Zazen sitting time also is a partial sensory deprivation experience when we can. Master Dogen recommended this in Fukanzazengi ...
For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs.
The reason is that, while there is absolutely no difference between silence and noise/stillness and motion/peace and disturbance apart from the human heart and our human measures, sitting as we can in a quiet and still way helps us better realize so. Ultimately, however, the real "Peace and Stillness" is in our heart, between our ears, and not a matter of the outside environment.
So, in our "always beginners" series of talks, I recommended this ...
On the other hand, if usually sitting in noisy places, sometimes seek out quieter places. Mix it up.Most days, we’d best sit Zazen in a quiet room, with little noise and few distractions. The reason is simply that a peaceful, still, quiet environment helps us allow the mind to become peaceful, still and quiet, with thoughts and emotions drifting away as the mind settles down.
But once in awhile, maybe every couple of weeks or so, I recommend that you sit Zazen in a truly disturbing place.
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...nners-%2821%29
Thus, in our Zen Way, there were times to sit in the city, times to head to the mountains and a quiet hut.
However, in fact, there is no perfectly quiet place. At our Zendo in Tsukuba, for our Saturday morning Zazenkai, birds can usually be heard chirping prettily in the surrounding trees ... but also, a truck or cars will frequently be heard rushing down the nearby road, carpenters banging fixing a neighbors roof, or a military helicopter passing overhead (I do not know why, but our house must be on some route they use to one of the nearby bases). It has become one of the most powerful teaching tools I have for new students. I tell them that it is not to think "Oh, the birds are very lovely and peaceful ... but the trucks and helicopters disturb my nice Zazen". Rather, "the birds are singing as birds ... the trucks are trucks ... the copter just copters. Do not think one pleasant but the other ugly or detracting from the atmosphere. Then, there is a certain quiet and stillness that one can come hear behind and sounding right through all the sounds and noise."
I learned this sitting many a morning at Nishijima Roshi's old Zendo ... located right next to a NOISY child's playground and a highway. At Taisoji temple, it was traffic sounds from the street outside and the train passing every few minutes. There are really no quiet Zendos or monasteries. Oh, sure, there are the moments of bird tweets and breezes, but then there are stomach rumbles, shuffling feet in the hall, kyosaku stick strikes. When I was sitting at Sojiji Head Monastery, the loudspeaker pages during Zazen ... "Yamamoto Roshi, Call on Line 3." Trucks outside, not to mention my tinnitus which is always there.
CONCLUSION: There has never been perfect quiet until the heart is quiet amid any noise. Thus, we sit "as what is," in equanimity and non-resistance even in "noisy" places (absent some extreme, harmful noise that can be avoided, and even with such noise if it cannot be avoided!). At other times, please seek out still and quiet places to sit (although know that, even then, there is not true silence unless the heart is still and silent). Mix it up, sitting in all kinds of places.
Related to this, I just saw this very interesting story on sensory deprivation tanks that I recommend to watch. There is much overlap with Zazen, of course. A couple of things which jumped out are that, obviously, Zazen can be our "tank," and requires a lot less water! A psychiatrist interviewed midway makes the same point. Also, there is interest by the researchers on taking the stillness of the tank "out into the world" after, to see if the mental silence of the tank can be present after we return to the world of stimulation and thoughts. This also overlaps with our "bring it off the cushion" emphasis here, whereby we learn to hear the Stillness in the world's motion. Have a watch.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pay-att...pact-on-brain/
But a couple of points to recall: First, not even such a tank is truly silent, and (I have done it) one hears everything from tinnitus to one's own heartbeat.
Second, we need to find our "inner tank" in our own heart even when out in the busy city, and Zen "Silence" is not only a matter of outside silence. We cannot only live in a tank!
Gassho, J
SatTodayLAH
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