| I'm on the train and there is an awful squealing noise. Five people in front of me are talking too loud. The speaker on her phone is playing music out loud. This noise is annoying. But I have my trusty noise-canceling headphones and iPod with me. I recently heard a Sam Harris, the world-famous atheist, podcast. He interviewed the author of Buddhism is True. It's an interesting podcast that's worth listening to. The author tells a story of going on a meditation retreat and seeing plant that I think he called a Plantain Weed. He struggled for years to remove the "weed" from his lawn. But now on the retreat while walking in the forest he spots the "weed." This time it loses its weedness and becomes a beautiful plant. So the squealing I'm hearing is just a noise which is a bunch of sounds. It's not necessarily the sound but what I let my mind interpret the sound as annoying. I find the same issue with commercials on the radio. There was a Bethpage Credit Union ad where there are two people one asks annoying questions and the other just keep saying "YES!" There are other ads like Mavis Discount Tires and Cars for Kids. This makes me think of an idea 1-800-Guns4Kids donate your gun today. But what if you don't have your headphones? Become aware of your feeling from the noise but separate yourself from it. The noise can also remind me that I have a job and work in the best city in the world, can afford the train and am not alone. I can also train myself that noise will be a reminder to run my happy program. |