The Buddha on meditative absorption

Ego (buddhism podcast) The Buddha attained [temporary mental purification and permanent] enlightenment (bodhi) from developing the meditative absorptions (jhana), not in them

• Enlightenment in Buddhism
• Jhana (Sanskrit dhyana) in Buddhism

Eckhart Tolle: suffering, drugs, meditation?

(Eckhart Tolle) How to find peace in life [through an intermediate technique toward samadhi]

Then ego stopped, time stopped, all was clear.

Meditation is NOT the "doing," not the technique that takes us to stillness. Doing assumes time. To realize "being," just being, is instantaneous. There is no need to travel there, no need for time, no need for an action or doing. If we could just "be," that would be NOW. The Power of Now is to realize what is true right now, as Eckhart Tolle tried to explain it. We need to suffer until we realize that it is no longer necessary.

But the mind keeps thinking!

Sacred drugs? How to stop getting lost in thoughts | Eckhart Tolle

How to know if we’re really awakened or just pretending?

Don't Feed the Monkey Mind: How to Stop the Cycle of Anxiety, Fear, and Worry

Psychotherapist Jennifer Shannon LMFT and illustrator Doug Shannon have 4.6 out of 5 stars (with 1,327 reviews) helping readers deal with monkey mind. The very things we do to try to control anxiety can make anxiety worse.

This unique guide offers a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based approach to help

• recognize the constant chatter of anxious “monkey mind,”
• stop feeding anxious thoughts,
• find the personal peace craved.

Ancient sages compared the human mind to a monkey: constantly chattering, hopping [discursively] from one branch to another—endlessly trying to move from fear to safety.

Psychotherapist Jennifer Shannon

For the millions of people's lives affected by anxiety, this process is familiar. Unfortunately, we can’t switch off this “monkey mind.” But we can stop feeding the monkey—stop rewarding it by avoiding the things we fear.

Written by psychotherapist Jennifer Shannon, this book shows how to stop anxious thoughts from taking over using proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness (sati) techniques, as well as fun illustrations.

By following the exercises in this book, learn to identify anxious thoughts, question those thoughts, and uncover the core fears at play.

Once we stop feeding the monkey, there are no limits to how expansive life can feel. This book shows how anxiety can only continue as long as we try to avoid it. Paradoxically, only by seeking out and confronting the things that make us anxious can we reverse the cycle that keeps our fears alive. More

• Mindfulness-based stress reduction
• How to stop fighting your problems
• Eckhart Tolle; Jennifer Shannon; Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Doug's Dharma: What is 'solitude'?

Solitude: Its advantages and drawbacks in Buddhist practice

(Doug's Dharma) June 9, 2025: The Buddha praised solitude [well undertaken as temporary withdrawal, mental seclusion, peaceful isolation, private intensive meditation, accompanied by piti from samma-samadhi] as highly beneficial.

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:48 The benefits of solitude
• 04:26 Dangers of solitude
• 07:06 Finding the balance
• 10:07 Cultivating solitude in lay life
• 11:47 Buddha's wisdom on solitude

He also warned of its dangers [when not well undertaken, done without the jhanas, the meditative absorptions, "right concentration," the stabilizing inner-stillness of samadhi].

How can we best balance solitude and community in our practice? How can we cultivate solitude [mental seclusion, temporary withdrawal] even in our busy everyday lives?

🧡 Find this material useful? Check out the Patreon page and get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: dougsseculardharma.

Do God or gods exist?

🧡 It is also possible to make donations through: paypal.me/dougsdharma. 📙 Check out the book, A Handbook of Early Buddhist Wisdom, with a foreword by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi:  books2read.com/buddhisthandbook.

☸️ Free mini-course at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org. 🎙Check out Doug Smith's podcast with Jon Aaron, "Diggin' the Dharma": digginthedharma.com.

✅ Videos mentioned:

• Superiority of Solitude in Early Buddhism: The Rhinoceros Sutta
• Striking A Balance: Finding The Middle Way in Buddhism
• Is Meditation Dangerous?

✅ Sutras mentioned:

• suttacentral.net/mn122/en/sujato
• suttacentral.net/an10.99/en/s...
• suttacentral.net/sn45.2/en/su...

WEBSITE: dougsdharma.com

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• Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/dougsdharma....
• Thumbnail image courtesy of kalyanayahaluwo at Pixabay.

❤️ Thanks to Patreon Patrons: Anonymous (3) Omar John Oborne Debbie Mattison Ron Peat Michael S. Kearns Anne Matthew Smith Shantha Wengappuli Karma_CAC Jorge Seguel Christopher Apostolof GailJM David Bell T Pham VCR Upayadhi Andi and Erik Michael Scherrer khobe schofield Alex Perdomo Benji Forsyth Sonny Flink Steve Marlor Joy L Lee Andrew Tom Anthony Tucker Karlee R Ethan M Billy in Singapore Olivia Otter Carl Lennartson xiao mao Jeff Harvey Andrew Ingrouille Kenneth Grandchamp Rene Gariepy Russell Needham Smoggyrob Mac Roja Clémence Ortega Douville Kwan Alex Scott Johnston Richard J Beninger Nathanael O. Arnquist SaturnianMandala Trin P Letesa Isler Dorien Izel Robert Paterson Jake Tobiason Louvenia Ortega Steve S. Richard Rappuhn Sarah Kress John Aaron Paul Niklewski Kong Ing Kai Dave Gorman rhys reed Osanda Wijeratne Scarlett Farrow BJ - RetreaTours™ Roland Harris karen Rob John Brady Schickinger Jenn A. Hieu Chi Tran Kenneth Sorensen Will Mosse Sharon E. Ken M Mattias Sjölin Marc Belanger Kyaw Thurein

• Dr. Doug Smith, Doug's Dharma, onlinedharma.org, June 9, 2025; Seth Auberon, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Noble silence on National Quiet Day

Quiet body and mind will follow and vice versa.

Quiet Day is observed in the U.S. every year on February 25th. As the name clearly suggests, Quiet Day is about taking a pause and appreciating the magical sound of silence.

Noise is everywhere — on the road, in the sky, in the office, at the bar, in the classroom, even at home. Turn down the TV, Sport, Mama's gardening in the kitchen window! Modern life is noisy; it seems like there is simply no way to get away from it.

Being in the constant presence of talking and noise can be overwhelming. It is important to take a break every once in a while (preferably every day).

We know that quiet is good for body and mind (and the spirit loves the heck out of it). Peace calms us and helps us re-center ourselves, regaining balance and poise, inner peace and insight. More:

• QUIET DAY - Feb. 25, 2025 (National Today)

It's also:

• LET'S ALL EAT RIGHT DAY
• NAT'L CHOCOLATE COVERED NUT DAY
• NATIONAL BILLY DAY
• DAY OF LIBERATION AND INNOVATION
• PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION DAY
• EDSA REVOLUTION HOLIDAY (Philippines)
• CHOISEUL PROVINCE DAY (Solomon Islands)
• SOVIET OCCUPATION DAY
• WORLD SPAY DAY
• PISTOL PATENT DAY

Noble silence in Buddhism: Kolita Sutta

Ven. Maha Moggallana (aka Kolita)

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was staying near the City of Sāvatthī at Jeta's Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery.

There Ven. Mahā Moggallāna [1] addressed the others, "Friend monks!"

"Yes, friend," the meditators replied.

Ven. Mahā Moggallāna then said, "Friends, once as I was withdrawn in seclusion (deep in peaceful meditation), this train of thought occurred to me:

"'Noble silence, noble silence,' it is said, but what is 'noble silence'" [1]? Then this awareness arose in me: 'There is the case where a meditator, with the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluations [1], enters and abides in the second meditative absorption (jhāna) characterized by rapture and pleasure born of stillness (samadhi, coherence, concentration), unification of mind free of directed thought and evaluation -- internal certainty. This is called noble silence.'

• Buddhism's meditative absorptions, the eight jhānas

With practice, one is still at will

"So with the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluations, I entered and abided in the second absorption that is characterized by rapture and pleasure born of stillness, unification of mind free of directed thought and evaluation -- internal certainty.

"While I remained in that [mental] dwelling, I was assailed by perceptions and [acts of] attention connected with directed thought.

"Then the Blessed One, coming to me through [psychic] power, said: 'Moggallāna, Moggallāna, Brahmin, be not heedless of noble silence. Instead, establish the mind in noble silence. Make the mind unified (single-pointed) in noble silence.

"Still (calmly concentrate) the mind in noble silence.' So at a later time, with the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluations, I entered and abided in the second absorption characterized by rapture and pleasure born of stillness, unification of mind free of directed thought and evaluation -- internal certainty.

"If one, speaking rightly, would say of anyone, '[This is] a disciple attained to greatness in direct knowledge through the assistance of the Teacher,' it is of me that one speaking rightly would say." Source

NOTES

1. [Kolita is Maha Moggallana's name, and Kolita Sutta translates as a "Discourse by Kolita." The Buddha's two great chief male disciples, the counterparts of his two chief female disciples, Ven. Khema and Ven. Uppalavanna, are the monks Sariputta (Upatissa) and Maha Moggallana (Kolita), who along with Ven. Uppalavanna were designated "foremost in psychic powers" just as Ven. Sariputta and Ven. Khema were called "foremost in wisdom."]
2. Noble silence (not responding but keeping silent because answering would be misleading, or because the question is wrongly put and full of assumptions, or because there is no way to improve upon silence) should not be confused with the meaning here. Here "noble silence" clearly refers to the silence of the noble ones, the characteristic of mental peace free of words, concepts, thinking, or reckoning, which is replaced by direct knowing not mediated by words. This is how enlightened disciples prefer to abide, with peaceful minds and heart now no longer disturbed by the defilements that gnaw at ordinary, uninstructed worldlings (those of us not yet attained even to the temporary liberations of the jhanas or the permanent liberation of the paths-and-fruits of noble attainments, referring to the stages of enlightenment.]
3. According to MN 44, directed thought and evaluation constitute verbal fabrication, which is why the second jhāna -- the level of absorption (blissful concentration) in which these fabrications (formations) are stilled -- is called noble silence.

Kolita's sutra on silence

Silence makes our life happy - A Zen story | Buddhist story | Key to Success | Wisdom Woven

Nun silent inside, her rapist falls into Avici

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī at Jeta’s Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery.

There Venerable Mahā Moggallāna addressed the other meditators: “Friends, mendicants!”

“Friend,” they replied. Venerable Mahā Moggallāna then said: “Just now, friends, as I was in private retreat this thought came to mind: ‘They speak of this thing called “noble silence.” What then is this noble silence?’

“It occurred to me: ‘As the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, a meditator enters and remains in the second absorption, which has rapture (piti) and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without [intentionally] placing the mind and keeping it connected. This is called noble silence.’

“And so, as the placing of the mind and keeping it connected were stilled, I was entering and remaining in the second absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without placing the mind and keeping it connected.

“While I was in that meditation, perceptions accompanied by [intentionally] placing the mind beset me due to loss of focus.

“Then the Buddha himself came to me with his psychic power [of projecting himself] and said, ‘Moggallāna, Moggallāna, Brahmin, do not neglect noble silence! Settle the mind in noble silence; unify the mind and bring it to immersion (meditative absorption) in noble silence.’

“So, after some time, as the placing of the mind and keeping it connected were stilled, I entered and remained in the second absorption…

“So if anyone can rightly be called a disciple who attained to great direct knowledge [enlightenment] with help from the Teacher, it is me.” Source

• Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (trans) based on Ven. Sujato ("With Kolita," Linked Discourses, SN 21.1) and Ven. Thanissaro translations of Kolita Sutta: Discourse by Kolita (SN 21.1 PTS: S ii 273 CDB i 713), Wisdom Quarterly

Q Tarantino: Shut the F up, Kamala (8/30)

Kamala and VP Tim get interviewed, airing on CNN this Thursday (New York Times)

Quentin Tarantino begs Kamala to ‘shut up’ and says, ‘Don't F sh*t up!’

(Sky News Australia) Aug. 27, 2024: Sky News Host Liz Storer reacts to Hollywood filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, urging VP Kamala Devi Harris to avoid doing any interviews ahead of the US presidential elections in November. Tarantino appeared on the Club Random podcast with talk show host Bill Maher on Sunday to discuss cinema and politics. “Quentin says he will vote Kamala Harris 2024 no matter what she says and yet there he is [using a lot of expletives], begging her to shut up,” Host Storer says.

• DEBATE PREVIEW: DJ Trump (comedian Shawn Frash) vs. Kamala Harris (comedienne Estee Palti) with host Alec Lace, Aug. 15, 2024

Comedian impersonates Kamala

(Megyn Kelly) The Kamala Impersonator Estee Palti has her figured out

Kamala flip-flops, champions Trump's Mexican border wall after saying she never would

(The Hill) UNITED STATES Robby Soave and Jessica Burbank discuss an Axios report that Top Cop prosecutor and VP Kamala Harris is flip-flopping on border security. It's seems she is the "border czar" after all, trying to build the wall that Trump could not, which she called his "vanity project." #southernborder #borderczar

Beauty queen quits her 'Miss USA' crown

Beauty Queen Ariana Viera dead at 26

Like beautiful Prince Siddhartha doing the unthinkable, renouncing his place of privilege and influence, to strive for something better, Miss USA is rejecting the title, dumping the throne, and tossing off the crown. Why? She says "I am silenced." So we are not likely to hear the real reason. What reason is she giving up what other competitors would kill for? It must not have been all it's cracked up to be.

Who me? I beat everybody else on this stage?

Miss USA Noelia Voigt, 24, has announced she is relinquishing her Miss USA crown and throne to preserve her mental health.

The beauty pageant winner, who was awarded the prestigious title Sept. 29, 2023, in Reno Tahoe, announced her decision to step down today (May 6, 2024) on Instagram, which is encoded with message "I am silenced." (See below).

Noelia Voigt, crowned Miss USA 2023 in 2023, has decided to step down (© Jason Bean/RGJ).

“My journey as Miss USA has been incredibly meaningful, representing Utah with pride, and later the USA at Miss Universe (held in November),”

Voigt said in the lengthy statement posted to her account. “Sadly, I have made the very tough decision to resign from the title of Miss USA 2023.” USA TODAY has reached out to the pageant for comment.

"I AM SILENCED" (Noelia Voight on IG)

“Never could I have imagined the journey that my childhood dream would take me on,” Voigt, 24, continued.

“Constant and consistent hard work and dedication all lead me to where I am today, and I hope that the last seven years of competing in pageantry and sharing my journey with you all is something that inspires you to never give up on your dreams, whatever they may be.

• Miss USA Noelia Voigt makes 'tough decision' to step down. Read her full statement
• Joe Biden and Mike Johnson on funding Ukraine and Israel
• Erin Jensen, USA TODAY, May 6, 2024; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Be Quiet Youth Group: Mindfulness Meetup

Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Thai Forest Tradition monastics, Australia

The "Be Quiet" group are young mindfulness enthusiasts aged 18-35 who meet once a month with a Buddhist monk or nun to practice and have inspiring discussions inspired by Buddhist teachings, while being inclusive of everyone’s spiritual practices. No registration required.

• When: 1st Saturday of the month (except during the Rains Retreat)
• Time: 5:00-6:00 pm
• Where: Dhammaloka City Centre,
• 18 Nanson Way, Nollamara, Australia
• Contact: facebook.com/groups/bequietperth
• Eventbrite.com.au/e/be-quiet-mindfulness-meet-up-tickets-247169449477
• bequiet@bswa.org

Leah Remini: Scientology, rapist Danny Masterson

NN; 60 Minutes Australia; Ashley Well, Sheldon S., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ex-Scientology cult member Leah Remini speaks out after Danny Masterson sentencing

(CNN) Sept. 8, 2023: Actress and former Scientologist Leah Remini speaks with CNN's Jake Tapper about the sentencing of actor and convicted multiple rapist Scientologist Danny Masterson, who was convicted on two counts of rape earlier this year. The Church of Scientology has denied allegations it harassed Masterson's accusers. Remini has filed a lawsuit against the cult, claiming years of harassment, but the group has also denied her allegations. #CNN #News

The alleged role of Scientology in the Danny Masterson rape case | About That

(CBC News) Sept. 12, 2023: Actor Danny Masterson has been sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for rape. Andrew Chang breaks down the argument made in court that Masterson's ties to the Church of Scientology granted him protection (via intimidation of victims) and prevented victims from reporting his assaults to police.

Scientology’s devious tricks to hold its members hostage for life | 60 Minutes Australia

(60 Minutes Australia) Summer 2023: The Church of Scientology, increasingly labelled a secretive cult, is once again proving why it’s such a contentious organization. Two months ago, a court in the United States found one of its members, Hollywood actor Danny Masterson (That 70s Show), guilty of multiple violent rapes. As intolerable as that is, what the case also exposed were the extraordinary tactics the Church used to protect its star recruit, and how it cruelly attempted to silence his victims, who themselves were fellow cult member Scientologists. Since then, there have been even more revelations about life inside the Cult of Scientology, including damning accusations of serious abuses and mob-style operations and attacks. But as 60 Minutes' Tara Brown reports, taking on a litigious financial organization that is as bullying and belligerent as Scientology comes at a cost. #60minutesaustralia

Subscribe. Full episodes: 9now.app.link/uNP4qBkmN6 | Keep Clear (2023). Read more on Yashar Ali's exclusive report on Scientology cult leader's wife Shelly Miscavige's disappearance: thereset.news/p/exclusive...

Neuroscience of Awakening: Buddhist Brain

Asangoham, April 29, 2023; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

The Neuroscience of Awakening: Your Brain on Buddhism

(Asangoham) Our brains have the amazing ability to change themselves. This is called neuroplasticity.

[The brain is not the mind. Mind is near the heart]

Our brains are not fixed structures. Rather, they are dynamic systems that are constantly changing and evolving in response to the environment.

In fact, research done in the last decade has shown that the brain is much more malleable and responsive to change than previously thought.

Neuroplasticity can occur at different levels of the brain, from the level of individual neurons to the level of entire brain regions.

One of the primary features of neuroplasticity is that it is activity-dependent. This means that the changes in the brain are driven by experiences and activities.

For example, if a person engages in a particular activity repeatedly, such as learning to play a musical instrument or practicing a new language, the brain will adapt to these experiences and develop new neural connections that support these activities.

Neuroplasticity also has important implications for understanding the relationship between the mind and the brain. If the brain can change and adapt in response to experiences, this means that our minds also can change and adapt.

But what do we mean when we say “mind”? What is a mind? The mind is nothing but thoughts. There is no mind without thoughts.

• [There is. Mind knows. Thought is the attempt to symbolize conceptualizations. According to the Abhidharma and verifiable personal experience, there were all these things before the brain. They exist independently.]

Therefore, because of the neuroplasticity of brains, we can radically change our thought patterns, or our minds. We can change our thought patterns to have happier or more beneficial minds.

But even more than this. We can also develop the capacity to slow or even stop thought completely by the activity of focusing attention on the emptiness or empty silence between thoughts.

Many religious and mystical traditions, including many schools of Buddhism, teach that it is this capacity to rest in the emptiness between thought that ultimately reveals the very nature of reality, and the reality of who we truly are.

#buddhism #neuroscience #awakening #buddha #spirituality

Script: Matt Mackane. Edit: Medo. Voiceover: Andrea Giordani. Music: Epidemic Music x Original. 

DISCLAIMER 01: All ideas expressed on this channel are for entertainment and general information purposes only. There is no advice on what an individual should or should not do. Any response made by anyone after hearing this communication is their interpretation and is their responsibility. Ideas expressed by this channel should not be treated as a substitute for medical advice or professional help. If expert assistance or counselling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

DISCLAIMER 02: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If one is, or represents, the copyright owner of materials used in this video and has an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to doseofquotes02@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2022 Asangoham. All rights reserved.

How to overcome wandering "monkey mind"

Talk 3: Overcoming Thinking with British Theravada monk Ajahn Brahm

(BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & Media) May 10, 2014. clearmind4me.com. With kind support for practitioners' meditation and personal development, the authors of this channel are offering a free video on "Five Steps on How to be Free from Worry," guided meditation, and workbook: clearmind4me.com.

Thinking is good, just about the best thing but not when meditating. Then it's just about the worst thing. When it gets really bad, it's called "monkey mind," pointless discursive thinking, like a monkey going from branch to branch to branch, grasping and chasing cravings, first here then there -- restlessness at its worst. There are Five Hindrances to progress in meditation (stillness and insight or samatha and vipassana) -- sensual desire, anger, lassitude-and-sleepiness, restlessness, and skeptical doubt. Thinking and thinking, it's fruitless.

Let the mind be. Let it think. Ignore it and, eventually, it will stop. So long as it doesn't stop and can't be ignored, it's torment. Try it. Here Ajahn Brahm talks about how glorious it is when we finally get it to stop. It's peace, it's blissful, it's rest. Think afterward. Think before. Think the whole rest of life, but "meditation" (stillness or insight) won't happen so long as we are disturbed -- pulled in by greed, feeling aversion (including its manifestation as boredom) by wanting it to stop already, or getting confused by ignorance manifesting as wrong view.

Greatest Irish movie ever made: The Quiet Girl

Madman Films, 5/12/22; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Best Int'l Feature Film: Why The Quiet Girl deserves to win the award (movieweb.com)

The Quiet Girl (official trailer)

Best Irish-language film ever (The Biz Post)

(Madman Films) The Quiet Girl (Gaelic An Cailín Ciúin) is a delicate drama that follows Cáit, a shy 9-year-old who has been separated from her immediate family and left in the care of two distant relatives for the summer. After sun-dappled days spent milking cows, peeling potatoes, and fetching water from the well, the initially uncommunicative child opens up to her foster parents. Textured and tender, this award-winning film shows that home is where we feel loved. #TheQuietGirl

"A jewel...deeply moving tale or rural Ireland.
Already feels like a classic" (The Guardian).

• Who plays Cáit? First-time actress and newly minted child star Catherine Clinch! Bravo!
• Based on the short story Foster by Claire Keegan
• Directed by Colm Bairéad and up for an Oscar for best international feature film at the 95th Academy Awards
• (OPINION: It seems it's eerily like James Joyce's short story The Dead in terms of its sensitivity and Irishness if Irishness is a thing.)
• More from Madman Films: madmanfilms.com.au

World's quietest room less than zero decibels

Ryan Trahan (YT); BBC Future; Microsoft; Kelly Ani, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

I survived the world's quietest room (-9 decibels)

(Ryan Trahan) 21,843,300 views. Oct. 18, 2021. What is the world's quietest room? It used to be this one, but they recently made a quieter one. It's time to defeat Dr. Phil to get him to adopt me. Lots of crazy things go through a person's head in a peaceful environment.

• The quietest place in the world (WIRED)
• Earth’s quietest place will drive one crazy in 45 minutes (Smithsonian Magazine)

Inside the quietest place on earth

Richard Gray (BBC Future, May 28, 2017) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Testing headphones inside the chamber (wiki)

Microsoft has built a chamber so quiet that one can hear the grind of one's own bones – and it’s helping to fine-tune the next-generation of electronic goods.

If LeSalle Munroe stands still for a few moments in his “office,” something unsettling can happen: He can hear the blood rushing around his body and his eyes squelch as they move in his skull.

While many people work in places filled with the tip-tap of keyboards, the hubbub of chatter from colleagues, and a constant hum of computers, Munroe is surrounded by almost total silence.

His office is the quietest place on the planet. [There might be quieter places in the planet, deep in caves and caverns, or those isolation chambers in Altered States.]

Isolation chambers alter states

The specially constructed chamber is hidden in the depths of Building 87 at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, where the firm’s hardware laboratories are based.

Products like the Surface computers, Xbox, and Hololens have all been developed here. Microsoft’s engineers built the room – known as an anechoic chamber – to help them test new equipment.

That includes sound muffling equipment that in 2015 set the official world record for silence when the background noise level inside was measured at an ear-straining -20.6 decibels. [Google has gotten it even lower. By comparison, a library is about 40 decibels, more than 60 decibels louder.] More

If only they were meditators, they could last longer

Yes, yes, more silence!

Imagine a Zen monk, a forest dwelling Theravada Buddhist wandering ascetic (an original shaman or shramana), lost in his or her object of meditation, fully absorbed (jhana-fied) in the bliss of stillness. With that as one's goal or abode, hours in an anechoic chamber could be bliss. That would be the place to get tested, the way UCLA has MARC or its Mindful Awareness Research Center to test people in Buddhist meditative states.