--- ai_generation_date: '2026-08-06' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2021-10-25' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/14425/20211025-Nikki_Mirghafori-IMC-happy_hour_the_sound_of_silence.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Nikki Mirghafori speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/229 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Happy Hour: The Sound of Silence' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/14425 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: 3mSwQYLmKl0 imprecise_upload_date: '2022-05-04' title: 'Happy Hour: The Sound of Silence' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mSwQYLmKl0 --- # Happy Hour: The Sound of Silence - [Nikki Mirghafori](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/229) _This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers._ ## Introduction Hello again. Hello, dear sangha[^1]. It makes me happy to see you all and to practice together, and for the sangha to be assembled here on Zoom and YouTube. Actually, if you wanted to put Zoom on gallery view to see each other, to get a sense of the sangha here assembled, it's quite sweet. The sangha is from all over the country and the world, so it's just heartwarming to sit and practice with friends. For the practice today, I'd like to invite us to practice. In the past few sessions, I think maybe last week, one theme that I invited us to work with was listening. Listening with our hearts, and the sense of opening. Some of you shared that it was like an open awareness practice, but with a sense of warmth and care settling into our bodies and awareness. I also remember at the end, during the reflections, some sangha members who have tinnitus shared their experience. For some, it became easier to work with the tinnitus since it was all about listening, but not listening with the ears—listening with the heart. For some, it got better, and for others, it became more prominent. I wanted to lean into that a little more. Whether you have tinnitus—which is a ringing in the ears that can happen for a period of time or for a long time, hearing a sound that is not there—I want to invite us to consider something else that some practitioners work with: the _nada_ sound. The _nada_ sound... I think it's Ajahn Sucitto[^2], who is a well-respected monk in the Ajahn Chah forest tradition. For an object of awareness, we can use the breath—in-breath, out-breath—as a stabilizer, an anchor, or a support. Or we can use sensations in the body. The _Visuddhimagga_[^3], which is a book called the _Path of Purification_—about a thousand-page meditation instruction manual from 1,500 to 2,000 years ago—lists a lot of different ways for our mind to get still, and various objects to bring our awareness to. What is the _nada_ sound? The _nada_ sound is the sound of silence. It's listening to silence. When you listen to the sound of silence, after a while, you can almost hear a buzzing. It's like an echo that is easily available to those who have tinnitus. For those who don't have that stimulus readily available, if you really listen to silence, you start to hear a sound. You start to hear the sound that's always present. That sound can be very comforting, depending on how we see it and how we relate to it. It can seem like a helpful, pervasive sound that can support the mind to get very still, very open, and very quiet. This 360-degree soundscape is the _nada_ sound, the sound of silence. In some ways, it actually is tinnitus, but it happens when you really lower the threshold of hearing and listen very intently. Why am I bringing this in? Both to support those members in the sangha who work with tinnitus, and for those who don't, to open our hearts and minds to this other object of concentration, of the mind settling with appreciation. It can shift one's perspective if one has tinnitus, perhaps opening up to it as a pervasive object of sound that is present and non-threatening, in the same way that the sound of silence is always present. I'll share with you that for a period of my practice, I actually worked with the sound of silence as my object of concentration, and it was lovely. I could just relax into it like surround sound. I could relax into this ambient sound that was always present, and it felt calming and soothing. It felt as if I was tuning into this ever-present sound that I didn't notice before. Again, I invite a shift in perspective that might be helpful for working with tinnitus for those who have it. If there is resistance here, it's okay to notice that. Inviting some exploration for all of us with the _nada_ sound, hearing this reverberation that is ever-present and can help us relax, settle, and open our hearts to all the sounds in the universe. We open our hearts to the sounds in our lives that we don't always hear. It's like listening to the cries of the world. In compassion, we open our hearts to the cries of the world, so listening to the _nada_ sound is a symbolic way to open up to the ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows of the world. To listen with our hearts to the sounds we usually do not hear. To make the hearing of our hearts so attuned and sensitive that we can hear the cries of the world, both internally and externally. That is how I would like to relate the _nada_ sound to our practice of _metta_[^4] and compassion. That is the invitation tonight. You are always welcome to be your own inner dharma coach and change the invitations so that they work for you. ## [Happy Hour: The Sound of Silence](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/14425) All right, I've spoken a lot tonight to set up a bit of a different frame than usual, so let us begin our practice together. Let's land in our bodies, first and foremost. Become embodied. Letting go of all the words, letting go of everything that has come before, and tuning inward to this body. What does this body need in this moment? How can I take care of this body in this moment? Do I need to sit up straighter to give myself more energy to perk up? Do I need to relax and soften the muscles? Landing in the body. Let us start as always with the breath and the body first, to get embodied. Feeling our bottom on the cushion, our feet on the floor. The contact points. Our hands on our lap, touching each other. The whole weight of our body. With the out-breath, relaxing. Letting go of the weight of our forehead, our head, our eyes, our jaw, the chin, the neck, hands, the arms, the torso, our bottom. With the next out-breath, letting go of the weight of the legs, the entire body. Bringing the awareness internally. Letting the awareness be in the belly now, receiving the movement of the breath in the abdomen. If thoughts arise and you notice you're resting in a thought—awareness is no longer with the breath—it's okay. This is what minds do. Smilingly smile at this thought, memory, or plan. Thank you, but not now. Please come back later. Inviting awareness to rest, to receive the breath at the abdomen. Calming, soothing. One breath at a time. So calming and soothing just to be with the breath. Opening the awareness with ease, with receptivity. Just this in-breath, the entirety of the in-breath, and the entirety of the out-breath. Now let yourself receive the breath with the heart center, in the middle of the chest. As if the breath is coming in and coming out from the proverbial heart center, the center of emotions in the chest. Hello breath. Hello dear, life-giving breath. See if there can be a sense of appreciation, an awareness of each breath. And now imagine that the breath is filling your heart. As if your heart is the area that the breath is filling, entering and exiting, growing larger within you and all around you, like a circular orb. Don't try too hard. Don't push it. Let it just be easy. Surrounding air, surrounding me, inside me, outside me, entering the heart. Let it be a light imagination, one that doesn't bring strain but makes your heart relax, your mind relax, soften, and feel supported. Safety all around. The breath comes in on its own and exits on its own. There's not much for us to do but to just bear witness with our hearts. Easeful, peaceful, easy. As you land, relax more fully into your body, into your sit bones. Open up your heart—not your ears in your head, open your heart to all the sounds. Again, it's not effortful listening. If you're listening with your ears straining, let it go. You're landing relaxedly, as if loving all the sounds, the soundscape of being human in this moment. Listening with your heart. Maybe even if you notice you're listening with your ears, put your hand on your heart center in the middle of your chest, listening with your heart. Listening with your body, resonating with your whole body. Sounds internally, externally, it's all okay. Inviting your heart to also open up, to lovingly listen to the _nada_ sound, the sound of silence. Which at some point might present itself as a buzzing or hissing, or not. Each person's experience is different. Don't try too hard. Just be open to all the sounds with your heart. No sound is a problem. No noise is a problem. Just what is in this moment, and this being human. No sound is a problem. Sounds arising, staying for a while, maybe passing. The silence between the sounds, around the sounds. Notice if there is joy arising. Listening to sounds. The mind is settling into ambient sounds. The sound of the breath, the sound of silence, vibrations within and without. Treat each new sound that arises as a mindfulness bell to bring you back to the present, in case you were lost in thought. Every sound, every noise, a mindfulness bell. I'd like to invite you to lean in more to heartful listening, as if you're listening to the most beautiful music, your favorite music. The heart can soar with the amazing, fascinating notes, sounds, silence, reverberations. Delightfully delicious, joyful notes and silence. Leaning more into the heart, listening to all the sounds as if they are the ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows, ours and that of the world. Listening with our heart. One last invitation: what if every sound you hear, every noise which we take for granted, is really an expression of the divine, of beauty and grace? The mysterious music of life. May we all hear with our hearts. Thank you for your practice, everyone. ## Reflections Listening with our hearts is a different way of approaching this practice. Sounds. The sound of silence. Sounds internally and externally, the _nada_ sound. Sounds as an expression of grace, beauty, divinity, of being human. All that we take for granted. I'd love to hear anything you'd like to share about what you noticed, what came up for you, what insights might have arisen. Mark says, "Angels singing." Thank you, Mark. Beautiful. That's a feeling that came up for me also as I was leading this. Fred, I see your hand. **Fred:** Well, I can't say there were angels singing, that's something I'd like to aspire to. But certainly, to the degree to which I understood the direction—and I'm not quite sure I could find the register right where my heart is to open up—whatever was listening certainly neutralized the irritating quality of my tinnitus. As a comparison, outside the door, somebody had their car horn blaring rhythmically, which was actually much more annoying than what was in my head. I really appreciate you bringing our direction to this again. I really feel your generosity in doing that. Thank you. **Nikki:** Thank you, Fred. Thank you so much for sharing your practice. I'm absolutely delighted to hear your practice report. That is my hope, that with a shift in perspective, this tinnitus that's always present didn't seem as annoying. You shared a few weeks ago that it causes a lot of suffering and pain, and it is difficult. Thank you for that gift of sharing your practice with others, because many others, both in this sangha and listening to this audio later, might find your practice inspiring for how they work with their own tinnitus. Thank you. Deborah says, "I noticed it felt very intimate and I felt safe with your guidance." Ah, this feeling of intimacy. Lovely. Marie Christine says, "Felt it deep into my concentration." Beautiful. Yes, this practice does that, doesn't it? A sense of settling. Jerry says, "Calmness and peace arose in the context of lethal fear." Wow. Beautiful. A sense of lethal fear being met with calmness and peace. That's profound, Jerry. Thanks for bringing that in. Violet says, "I like the invitation that there is nothing wrong with what I'm hearing. It helped me notice my aversion to many sounds and showed how my aversion closes my heart over and over again." Thank you, Violet. Beautiful realization and insight. Profound. I'll share something from my own practice tonight. Besides the sound of angels that seemed to be coming up, as Mark said, another thing was the ambient sounds. The sound of a motorcycle speeding outside, horns, a washing machine. The sounds start to sound delightful, as I was inviting you to perhaps see if they could arise as a sound of divinity. I'm alive! Isn't it amazing that there are these sound waves and my ear can hear them and make sense of it? The sense of amazement in the midst of the settling in concentration. Jia says, "When I leaned into my heart in listening, I noticed I had a smile at the corners of my mouth." That is so lovely. It's so happy-making. A sense of joy. Beautiful. So dear ones, with this practice, I'd like to invite us now into small groups. For those of you who have some trepidation with being in small groups, what if tonight you stretched yourself? If you have a meeting or have to go, it's perfectly fine, no judgment. But if it's just that trepidation of other human beings, what if you listened to them with your heart open, as if it's the sound of angels? Listen to yourself as if it's an angel singing. Say as little or as much as you want, or just sit together in silence. That's okay too. We'll start with 15 seconds of silence in the breakout room, and then share as little or as much as you like about your practice. I'm making the rooms now. Take care of yourselves and each other. [Breakout groups] Welcome back everyone. We have a couple of minutes left. Would anybody like to share any reflections that came up from the group or before your practice? Please don't be shy, especially if you haven't shared reflections for a while. Questions, comments, complaints, it's all welcome. Hugh, are you trying to raise your hand? Or was that a thumbs up? **Hugh:** I was trying to raise my hand. Thank you, Nikki. I had a lovely meditation. I was a little bit late getting here and I missed the first three or four minutes, but Jamie told me that you had asked us to imagine ourselves in a place that's perfectly silent, with absolute quiet, and to tune into what sound we could hear there. When Jamie said that, I remembered that years ago, I rented a sensory deprivation chamber to find a space that was perfectly silent to see what I could hear. In there, in the dark, floating in warm water, I could hear two sounds. I could hear the sound of my heart beating, and I could hear a very faint, high humming sound that I imagined to be the sound of my central nervous system working. Since then, I have developed tinnitus like other members of the sangha, and the tinnitus sound is not at all like the sound I'm talking about. It's a different thing. **Nikki:** Right. I appreciate you sharing that. You might find it of interest later, when the recording becomes available, to go back and listen to the first few minutes. The sound of silence could be the one that you hear when there's absolutely no other sound and it's completely quiet, but not necessarily. That wasn't exactly the invitation. Yes, what you hear in the sensory deprivation tank could be one version of that, but the _nada_ sound, after you start to hear it, is kind of a vibration. It's everywhere. It's not just what you hear in the sensory deprivation tank or when there's absolutely no other sound. It's a little different. I just wanted to invite that curiosity into another layer of nuance. Thank you so much, Hugh. And thank you to Jamie for giving you a version of that to tune into. [Laughter] Thank you all so much for your practice, for listening with your heart to yourselves, to each other, to the world. May all beings be well. May all beings be free, including ourselves. Thank you. --- [^1]: **Sangha:** The Buddhist community of monks, nuns, novices, and laity. [^2]: **Ajahn Sucitto:** A prominent Theravada Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. [^3]: **Visuddhimagga:** "The Path of Purification," a highly influential Theravada Buddhist commentary and meditation manual compiled by Buddhaghosa around the 5th century CE. [^4]: **Metta:** A Pali word meaning loving-kindness, friendliness, or goodwill.