You Don't Have To Go Far To Find Peace Where You Are
You Don't Have To Go Far To Find Peace Where You Are
How to practice to sounds, noise, and chaos in an urban environment
A few months ago, while I was taking a short hike at the new Rifle Range Park in the West end of Singapore, I commented to my walking partner that I was really enjoying the soundscape of the nature park.
He then pointed out that there was an interesting coexistence between nature sounds and urban sounds where we were.
I paused in my tracks and tuned in.
Indeed, all around me was a curious symphony of birds singing, crickets chirping, leaves rustling, layered with sounds of all kinds of vehicles humming and droning as they sped along the main roads that flanked the park.
What was fascinating to me was the absence of aversion towards this complex auditory experience. I felt completely calm and peaceful in the presence of urban noise.
Would I have preferred a more pristine forest-like ambience during my morning hike?
Sure, but we don’t really get much of such quietness in urban Singapore, so a weave of city and nature is as serene as it will get here.
Here is a 30-second clip of what nature in the city sounds like (recorded at Rifle Range Nature Park on May 14th, 2024:
Sitting Together in the City
When we first incubated the idea of The Big Sit during the pandemic in 2020, we wished to make mindfulness and meditation more openly accessible.
We envisioned people gathering and “socialising” by simply sitting together and being at ease in their environment and in the company of one another. We were going to encourage stillness and silence as a different approach to connecting with others.
Although we first explored the idea of hosting The Big Sit at a quiet space in a park - of which Singapore offers an abundance of options, we serendipitously ended up settling our first (and subsequent) community meditations at Guoco Tower, a mixed-use development in Tanjong Pagar situated right in the middle of the city’s Central Business District.
It was a large open-air space connected to an office building, residences, a mall, and a busy metro station. Hip restaurants and posh bars with alfresco seating, along with public benches and aesthetic greenery lined all sides of the space.
The place was aptly named “Urban Park”.
Sitting at Urban Park and practicing stillness and silence proves to be an interesting meditation experience that invokes curiosity towards how we are inhabiting our city, and the relationship we have with our physical environment.
And it is definitely not a quiet and peaceful environment.
As we sit and practice meditation, our senses are continuously tempted to engage with the stimulants readily arising all around us.
Even with our eyes closed, the mind is invited to pursue the aromas of delicious food wafting from the restaurants, as well as the persistently distracting soundscape - people walking or running, the giggling laughter of children, rumbling and honking from passing vehicles, the chatter of diners, that catchy song playing at the bar five metres away reminding us of what our evening could be like if we weren’t meditating.
And each time a group of us shows up to sit together, we practice “non-doing”, which involves dwelling in our urban experience and cultivating a sense of rest and ease amidst the noise and chaos that are present.
At the end of their first sit, people are often pleasantly surprised at how calm and still they can be even when their external setting is far from “ideal” for meditation - in the conventional sense.
This observation almost completely changes the way we approach our practice.
We don’t have to go far to find peace where we are.
We don’t have to leave everything behind and escape to somewhere remote and secluded to find peace.
We can practice calm and ease right here in our city.
Upon paying attention, we realise that in each moment of our urban experience, there is plenty to meditate to.
And one phenomenon to which we can easily and readily practice in an urbanised environment, is sound.
How to Meditate to Sounds
The objects of meditation we typically focus on are the breath and the body. But sounds can also serve to train us to be mindful and present.
When we talk about meditating to sounds, we don’t mean listening to pleasant sounds as a way of relaxing and calming ourselves. We don’t need to prepare any specific kind of ethereal music or heavenly, healing melodies.
Instead, we learn to make use of our natural soundscape, wherever we are, to simply pay attention.
We could be meditating to our soundscape as we walk from one place to another, as we wait for our ride by the road, as we sit and rest in the ambience of a busy cafe, as we navigate heavy human traffic at a crowded mall, or as we air our laundry on the balcony of our home.
This way of practice encourages us to rest in a more open, spacious kind of awareness, where we invite our ears to simply receive sounds that are present or arising from moment to moment.
Instead of calling it a sound meditation, we often refer to this practice as just “Awareness of Sounds”, because we are not attempting to achieve a certain state of bliss using sounds, nor are we trying to do anything to sounds.
We simply tune in and observe that sounds are here in our environment, and sounds are just a part of our present experience.
Very importantly, we bring awareness to these tendencies within ourselves:
Preference for pleasant, soothing sounds to be here or stay in our experience
Preference for unpleasant, disturbing sounds to change or go away
As we practice working with these inclinations of the mind, we are also learning to see the gap between desire and reality.
Only with acceptance of our urban experience as it is, do we begin to find peace in the places we inhabit.
Awareness of Sounds Practice
If you have a few minutes right now, please join me in a short and simple practice of Awareness of Sounds:
Wherever you are, find a comfortable and alert sitting or standing posture. Allow your eyes to gently close, or soften and lower your gaze.
Take a deep breath in, and as you breathe out, open your awareness to the presence of sounds in your environment.
Notice sounds as they arise in your experience.
Notice sounds coming from different directions - in front of you, from the sides, behind, above, or below.
Notice sounds of different volumes, intensities, durations, and other qualities.
Invite curiosity to moments when a sound changes, lingers, or fades away.
Let go of any need to push sounds away, especially when they are perceived by the mind to be unpleasant or distracting. Simply take note that “sound is here”.
Observe moments when a sound triggers a memory or fantasy, drawing your attention into thinking mode and away from the present experience.
Over and over again, return your attention to your natural soundscape.
When you’re ready to end this practice, take a deep breath, and open or widen your eyes.
Additional Resources
Tune in to these guided meditations on Erin’s Insight Timer:
Explore these writings of wisdom: