IMS Retreat 2012 Q&A Group E No.1 (1:27:40-1:28:53)
I was meditating in the forest and the cicadas were very loud. At first, I was aware of the sound as an object, but later realized that aside from the sound of the insects, the rest of the forest was deadly quiet.
There were sound and quiet together – and both were objects. At first, I didn’t recognize the silence, I didn’t see that silence was also present because the sound was so obvious and it was blocking the other object.
But after observing it for a while, and awareness was stronger and some wisdom came in, then there was the understanding that silence was also present.