A new meditator reflects on the “problem” of noise: “I took to my daily meditation to the river today. It was ‘noisy,’ but it gave me an opportunity to practice separating awareness of the noise from the labeling the noise. I didn’t want to come back inside!”

Wonderful!

When listening is very relaxed, then there’s no wedged-in thought (no ego arising in the form of a thought: “I dislike this”) appearing. And then there’s just fresh, open hearing appearing to witnessing awareness. Stay right here.