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Ringing in my ears
questZENer
Veteran
This is a very personal issue--while I sit (in meditation) I hear ringing. It's continuous. The frequency changes from day to day. Sometimes the ringing is louder, sometimes it's softer. Does anyone have insight to what this is or what it might be? Do others have this experience?
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It varies in loudness, but not in pitch. I can hear it when I meditate, but it doesn;t usually disturb me
I believe that it is literally ringing of the auditory sense (mind not the ear organ). Like a bell, it can be stilled if undistriburbed for a time (meditation), but is always there.
I have also experienced a disconnect of my "hearing" sense (as opposed to my ears not working). While snoozing on airplanes, my awareness drifts in and out. At the threshold barely noticible, I can hear the relatively loud and constant drone of the airplane "cut in" sharply when I regain awareness of it. But not the awareness of losing it, since that is when my thoiughts are focused elsewhere).
Weird, but strangely in keeping with the idea of conditioned arising when applied to the five aggregates.
Anyone else experience this? Does it have a name?
Adam.
It's kind of like swirling eddys of points within my visual view. It's not dust or blindspots or anything "physical. Its more like my "seeing" sense when there is nothing there but limited eye organ input.
When my eyes are closed or when its dark, I can see it when I relax my eyeballs and also the act of "seeing". The more relaxed I am, the slower it moves. But is has never "stopped" except when I turn my attention away from it.
Have not had the visual cut-off effect I described in my previous post, but that's not to say it isn't there but hard to "catch".
Some would say drop it, its not helpful to analyze this, but I think my experience has been helpful - it's been a great insight for me into my own senses.
The more I examine the senses, the more I realize how much we are influenced by them, and that they are not "I" in any abiding way.
::
But you may not want me to....
You might rather delight in the apparent Mystery of it all....
OK.......
.........If you don't want to know what the score is, look away now....
I am only assuming this, but chances are you meditate in complete silence, QZener....
if this is so, what your inner ear is doing is resonating, because there is no sound stimulus.... it's stretching itself to try to hear something, because it thinks it's not functioning properly....
"No sound? What am I - going deaf?? Turn up the auditory sensory capacity - surely there must be something!!"....
Your hearing is actually vibrating slightly, in an effort to hear something....
However, if you're NOT meditating in complete silence - an auditory test may be a good idea.
As for the swirls behind the eyelids.... Do they take on different colours....? are the swirlings repetitive....? Do they follow a sequential pattern....? (They do.... don't they?)
These are the cones and rods responding to limited light vision.... It doesn't happen when your eyes are open, because the light is getting in - it doesn't happen when you are going to sleep, because it's dark, and your eyes accept 'blackness'....But in ordinary light, or daylight, your eyes are trying to see something... and the rods and cones are actively trying to see something....
If I have all this wrong, then talk amongst yourselves, shake your heads in pity, and I'll just sit back in my little corner.....:crazy:
Sas :buck:
this is just a possability,lets assume you dont meditate in complete silence ?
(If you do then federica maybe right)
a)when you cover your ears do you still heat this sound ?
b)if there were other sounds present,can you still hear this ?
if a and b are the case, then you maybe hearing the "sound of silence."
Venerable Ajahn Sumedho from the Thai forest tradition gives a talk on this at this link which can be downloaded.
http://www.dhammatalks.org.uk/sumed.htm
scroll down to "Listening to the sound of silence"
then again,could be just a bit of wax ! :-/
well wishes
Another thought is that people with tinnitus go through "tinnitus retraining therapy" which results in making the tinnitus no longer perceptible while conscious (habituation of perception). If the latter happened automatically for you, you may be experiencing a breakdown of this mental "filter" at a different state of consciousness.
Or maybe it's neither...
-bf
Sorry...
Palzang
My hearing is not perfect in my left ear, and that of my right is now beginning to come out in sympathy... The loss of hearing seems to be genetic, because my father has the same problem, only worse - but it's exacerbated by having suffered an inner ear infection when much younger...
If I hear an alarm clock in the morning:
'biddly-bip, biddly-bip, biddly-bip.....'
Even if I turn it off immediately - and know it's off - I still continue hearing it seconds later - same volume, same pitch and tone..... all day.
All bloody day.
And I can't turn it off.....
"I'm up, fer goodness' sake!!" (that's me, at three in the afternoon....)
Sounds like a new hell realm!