Question: Do you apply yourself to meditation?

Answer: We have to be very careful about what we mean by meditation. I avoid using the word meditation because different people have different ideas about it. Our goal should be the development of right understanding of realities that are appearing now. We can begin to notice and consider one reality at a time and then there is no need to name it or to think about it. Understanding can be developed in any situation, one does not have to change one’s life or do anything special. Right understanding can develop naturally, at this very moment, one does not have to sit in a quiet place. Thus, this is different from what people generally mean by meditation. The development of right understanding or insight, vipassana, is a kind of mental development which can be done no matter where you are.

Question: Don’t you need a quiet place in order to concentrate?

Answer: Not at all, because the purpose of the Buddha's teachings is to understand the realities which arise naturally, in daily life. We have to develop understanding of realities such as seeing, visible object, hearing or sound. Sound is a reality, no matter where you are, whether it is quiet or there is a lot of noise. If we are in a noisy place and we have aversion towards that noise, aversion can be realized as just a conditioned reality, not “my aversion”. If we know that understanding can be developed in whatever situation we are, there are conditions for its development.

Question: You were talking about sound. It is so unusual to have sound as a meditation subject. How can you develop understanding of it without retiring to a quiet place and considering it? How do you begin?

Answer: Do you have to try now in order to see, to hear or to touch? These are realities which naturally arise in your life. When there are conditions for their arising, you cannot help seeing, hearing or touching. When there is intellectual understanding of realities there are conditions for direct awareness and direct understanding of them as they appear one at a time. However, we cannot fix the time for their arising; it may be now or later on. There is nobody who can force the arising of right understanding, it is conditioned by many factors.