A Quiet Mind Can Hear More

An expansive take on summer sounds

Dear Friends,

Sometimes when I join others meditate in Chestnut Park in Davis, California on Sunday mornings, I count the sounds that I hear. Doing so slows my breathing and helps me focus on embodied acts of perception, that is, taking note of the perception of being alive, rather than just following my recursive thoughts where they might go.

Each sound is noted, heard, understood, and recorded with the objective of excluding it from being counted again. Once, a mother red-tailed hawk, accompanied by her two fledglings, perched in the tree above us. Their sharp, high-pitched cries and intermittent chattering filled the air for the entire hour of our meditation. After that experience, in my counting practice I resolved that if I hear the same bird make two different sounds, I count that once, even though for most birds I’m not yet qualified to differentiate and identify the different avian vocalizations I hear.

On the other hand, if a person in squeaky shoes walks past my meditation spot while talking on the phone, I count that twice. As I gradually awaken to a sonorous world, from my summer spot in the shade or my winter spot in the sun, I hear the rhythmic thwack of tennis balls being hit back and forth, a soccer coach’s enthusiastic shouts after each of his sole player’s attempted goal, children calling out hide and seek instructions from a distant play structure, a fenced dog barking a greeting to every passerby, squirrels scampering through the branches of a nearby black walnut tree (Juglans hindsii), the rumble of a truck driving down Chestnut Lane, and the plaintive wail of an ambulance siren slicing through traffic on Covell Boulevard, six blocks away.

As my ears became more sensitive, I would sometimes imagine using sonar to “map” the nearby east Davis areas where my son Jukie and I would walk on weekend afternoons. Once an especially loud motorcycle seemingly encircled our adopted neighborhood, driving south on what I estimated was L Street until it reached E. 8^th Street, whereupon it made a left, drove east on E. 8^th Street until it reached Pole Line Road, and then drove north until finally around Nugget Fields it escaped my earshot, perhaps on its way to visit the ears of Woodland residents.

With my eyes closed, I felt like Matt Murdock of Daredevil fame, my ears having opened to sounds that for most of us, and for me most of the time, go unnoticed. The psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote that “Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” Breathing calmly, settling my restless mind, and listening to the world’s sounds is a similarly expanding experience.

The counting practice is really an unplugging practice, a means of connecting to my entire self, rather than to be ruled only by my head. Any poet, such as myself, would agree with Voltaire who posited that “The ear is the avenue to the heart.” I hope you get to roll down the windows and drive down that avenue sometime soon. 

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Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live pub quizzes that I host in Davis and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content as subscribers. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the scintillating Mavens who carefully take note of casual adjectives and precise pronunciations, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems). Congratulations to the team with a future Jeopardy! player among them — they have won two in a row! I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of supporters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s pub quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. According to Kamala Harris, what happens when we fight? 

2. Newspaper Headlines. We learned this week that sharks off the coast of Brazil have been testing positive for which of the following: Cholera, Cocaine, Covid? 

3. Festivals. Which Indian festival is known as the Festival of Lights? 

P.S. Tomorrow is Poetry Night in Davis. Join us August 1^st at 7 PM at the Natsoulas Gallery. Find details about this special event here.