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The Sound of Silence: The Selected Teachings of Ajahn Sumedho
The sound of silence is like a subtlety behind everything that you awaken to; you don't notice it if you're seeking the extremes. Yet as we start to become more poised, more present, fully receptive of all this moment has to offer, we start to experience it vividly and listening to it can draw us ever--deeper into the mysteries of now.
Always skillful and good humored, Ajahn Sumedho's teachings defy boundaries. Anyone--from laypeople looking to deepen their grasp of the Buddha's message, to lifetime Buddhist monastics--will appreciate the author's sparkling insights into to such key Buddhist themes as awareness, consciousness, identity, relief from suffering, and mindfulness of the body. The Sound of Silence represents the best of Ajahn Sumedho's masterful work to help us all see each life with a new and sustaining clarity.
Always skillful and good humored, Ajahn Sumedho's teachings defy boundaries. Anyone--from laypeople looking to deepen their grasp of the Buddha's message, to lifetime Buddhist monastics--will appreciate the author's sparkling insights into to such key Buddhist themes as awareness, consciousness, identity, relief from suffering, and mindfulness of the body. The Sound of Silence represents the best of Ajahn Sumedho's masterful work to help us all see each life with a new and sustaining clarity.
378 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 26, 2007
60 people are currently reading
336 people want to read
About the author
Ajahn Sumedho
35 books82 followersAjahn Sumedho was born Robert Jackamn in Seattle, Washington in 1934. He was raised as Anglican and from 1951 to 1953 studied Chinese and history at the University of Washington. He served as a medic for the US Navy until returning to the University to ccomplete a BA in Far Eastern Studies in 1959. In 1966 he went to Thailand and was ordained as a novice Buddhist; in 1967 he received a full ordination.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 8, 2015
I first read this book 7 or 8 years ago. It blew my mind then at the very beginning of my practice, now after all those years if anything its impact has been even greater. After years of meditation and reading the teachings of Sumedho penetrate deeply. He expresses himself with such clarity, unmuddied by jargon or woolly thinking. He is for me one of the outstanding western teachers of the Buddhist way anywhere in the world. He speaks to me in ways that others just never quite manage. I picked this book up again after recently finishing another by him in the same format of transcribed Dharma talks, I'm so glad I did. I think if I had to select the five books which have been most important to me on the journey two of them would be his.
July 25, 2016
Other than the daily practice of meditation and the Dhamma, I understand that awareness is to be trusted as well as the here and now of acknowledging your conditioning, experiences and struggle. All that remains is the fictive residue of thought and emotion. (I agree with Wallace Stevens that this is a necessary fiction: it provides meaning in our existence). (But it is a fiction and thus not to be feared).
May 13, 2012
A very profound book for Meditators and those who want to get a deeper understanding of the workings of the mind.
May 17, 2022
Extraordinary insights and advice
This is one of the most informative and clear books on mindfulness and Buddhist teaching that I have ever read. Ajahn Sumedho gives wise and inspired teaching on the suffering that we experience due to our ignorance and clinging and cogently shows how we can find peace and refuge in our awareness of our own minds and bodies.
An outstanding work.
This is one of the most informative and clear books on mindfulness and Buddhist teaching that I have ever read. Ajahn Sumedho gives wise and inspired teaching on the suffering that we experience due to our ignorance and clinging and cogently shows how we can find peace and refuge in our awareness of our own minds and bodies.
An outstanding work.
October 4, 2017
Found these teachings to be practical and super helpful with my mediation practice as well as with everyday experience. Look forward to reading it again.
It's also well laid out, chapters running about 10 pages each. But it's dense reading to really absorb each paragraph and took me a while to finish.
"It's gold Jerry, Gold!"
It's also well laid out, chapters running about 10 pages each. But it's dense reading to really absorb each paragraph and took me a while to finish.
"It's gold Jerry, Gold!"
July 4, 2025
One of the most informative and clear books on mindfulness and Buddhist teaching that I have ever read. Ajahn Sumehdo gives wise and inspired teaching on the suffering that we experience due to our ignorance and clinging and cogently shows how we can find peace and refuge in our awareness of our own minds and bodies.
November 25, 2022
A wisdom publication book. I dont remember much of it except from where I got the book. A very thick book.
February 23, 2024
Luang Por Sumedho is a monk of the Thai Forest Tradition and the most senior western pupil of Ajahn Chah, and he helped set up the Chithurst and Amaravati Monasteries in UK. As of this year, when I read this book, he is 89. I attended an event earlier this year where Luang Por Sumedho was the guest speaker, and I could see that he is already very frail and needs support when he walks.
The reasons I picked up this book was because I head someone talked about Sumedho's experience of a high-pitched internal sound which he calls the pervasive sound of awareness. I also just finished reading a book on the history of the set-up of the Chithurst Monastery (actual name is Cittaviveka Monastery in Chithurst) and was curious about Luang Por Sumedho's teachings. Lastly, I was due to attend a meditation retreat led by 76 year old Luang Por Viradhammo who is a little more junior to Luang Por Sumedho and was part of the same team that helped set up Chithurst. I think they would have similar approaches so I decided to read this book before the retreat.
Here are the main points that resonated with me.
I hear this pervasive high-pitched sound now too. Once you hear it, you cannot un-hear it! When I pay attention, I am immediately aware of it and it helps me step back and bring my awareness to the background while still paying attention to the foreground sensory inputs. It really helps in immediately becoming more aware.
One of the chapters I enjoy is the one on "Simplicity". Sumedho said that we have complex personalities, overthink, are anxious, and are complicated by our memories and perceptions, and that we are always planning (so true - I am aware of these tendencies most acutely when I am meditating). He said that the Dhamma - Vinaya (that is the knowledge/teachings and the training/practise) aim to simplify things for us. And that we can adopt a trusting attitude towards our "intuitive awareness" to see and accept things "as they are". That we can avoid the "I should or shouldn't have" because these notions complicate life - we can just see that "it is as it is".
The chapter "Ending" especially resonated with me. He said that we can learn to observe the ebb and flow of life/events. Just notice it, and no need to be judgmental or critical. Eg this is the end of the meditation retreat, and just a week ago we just started. Things start and end, rise and fall. (I just listened to a talk by Master Sheng Yen today. He was a Taiwanese Chan monk who said exactly the same thing about a flower - when it wilts and dies, do not feel sad, or think too much about it philosophically. Just note that this is "as it is", "just as things are". This sounds so much like Sumedho's words). Sumedho said it is helpful to have s skillful relationship to emotion, reflect, see and receive it as it is (arising/ceasing/anatta), and that this is a very skillful way to resolve kamma. That this "still point of awareness" is the centrepoint of the turning of the world.
He said conditions are always changing, and that we can take refuge in our own ability to pay attention and be aware no matter what the conditions may be. That can experience timelessness because experience is always in the present. Time is the creation of the mind.
While we cannot control what we experience, awareness allows us to discern where wisdom can operate in our lives (vs habitual reactions).
Ultimately, the attitude of relaxed openness, flexibility, responsiveness and awareness is more important than technique in meditation. Because we can apply the same attitude to whichever meditation technique and it would still be very useful. He said mindfulness is actually very ordinary - it is about being aware of our body, postures, breathing, mood and mental state.
He said that there is the danger of us always depending on retreats or such extreme situations for mindfulness and then feeling you can't be mindful in daily life. He said don't believe such thoughts. That we when we are aware of our self criticisms, self judgments not as a critique but as an observer - this awareness becomes our refuge. It is not know-it-ll critique, a jackal, a tyrant. This is very important, otherwise we persecute ourselves endlessly. If jealousy is an emotion you are having at the time, then what does that feel like as a physical experience that is not a judgment?
Luang Por Viradhammo's approach during the meditation retreat I attended is the same. Attitude more important than technique. That what we experience is "not our fault" (don't be so hard on yourself because a lot of your response it is automatic and habitual which happens very fast) - but it is your responsibility to train and let yourself be more aware and investigate these responses, and then let them go. And that the whole purpose of meditation is to be aware of how our mind works - that simple.
Lovely teaching isn't it?
The reasons I picked up this book was because I head someone talked about Sumedho's experience of a high-pitched internal sound which he calls the pervasive sound of awareness. I also just finished reading a book on the history of the set-up of the Chithurst Monastery (actual name is Cittaviveka Monastery in Chithurst) and was curious about Luang Por Sumedho's teachings. Lastly, I was due to attend a meditation retreat led by 76 year old Luang Por Viradhammo who is a little more junior to Luang Por Sumedho and was part of the same team that helped set up Chithurst. I think they would have similar approaches so I decided to read this book before the retreat.
Here are the main points that resonated with me.
I hear this pervasive high-pitched sound now too. Once you hear it, you cannot un-hear it! When I pay attention, I am immediately aware of it and it helps me step back and bring my awareness to the background while still paying attention to the foreground sensory inputs. It really helps in immediately becoming more aware.
One of the chapters I enjoy is the one on "Simplicity". Sumedho said that we have complex personalities, overthink, are anxious, and are complicated by our memories and perceptions, and that we are always planning (so true - I am aware of these tendencies most acutely when I am meditating). He said that the Dhamma - Vinaya (that is the knowledge/teachings and the training/practise) aim to simplify things for us. And that we can adopt a trusting attitude towards our "intuitive awareness" to see and accept things "as they are". That we can avoid the "I should or shouldn't have" because these notions complicate life - we can just see that "it is as it is".
The chapter "Ending" especially resonated with me. He said that we can learn to observe the ebb and flow of life/events. Just notice it, and no need to be judgmental or critical. Eg this is the end of the meditation retreat, and just a week ago we just started. Things start and end, rise and fall. (I just listened to a talk by Master Sheng Yen today. He was a Taiwanese Chan monk who said exactly the same thing about a flower - when it wilts and dies, do not feel sad, or think too much about it philosophically. Just note that this is "as it is", "just as things are". This sounds so much like Sumedho's words). Sumedho said it is helpful to have s skillful relationship to emotion, reflect, see and receive it as it is (arising/ceasing/anatta), and that this is a very skillful way to resolve kamma. That this "still point of awareness" is the centrepoint of the turning of the world.
He said conditions are always changing, and that we can take refuge in our own ability to pay attention and be aware no matter what the conditions may be. That can experience timelessness because experience is always in the present. Time is the creation of the mind.
While we cannot control what we experience, awareness allows us to discern where wisdom can operate in our lives (vs habitual reactions).
Ultimately, the attitude of relaxed openness, flexibility, responsiveness and awareness is more important than technique in meditation. Because we can apply the same attitude to whichever meditation technique and it would still be very useful. He said mindfulness is actually very ordinary - it is about being aware of our body, postures, breathing, mood and mental state.
He said that there is the danger of us always depending on retreats or such extreme situations for mindfulness and then feeling you can't be mindful in daily life. He said don't believe such thoughts. That we when we are aware of our self criticisms, self judgments not as a critique but as an observer - this awareness becomes our refuge. It is not know-it-ll critique, a jackal, a tyrant. This is very important, otherwise we persecute ourselves endlessly. If jealousy is an emotion you are having at the time, then what does that feel like as a physical experience that is not a judgment?
Luang Por Viradhammo's approach during the meditation retreat I attended is the same. Attitude more important than technique. That what we experience is "not our fault" (don't be so hard on yourself because a lot of your response it is automatic and habitual which happens very fast) - but it is your responsibility to train and let yourself be more aware and investigate these responses, and then let them go. And that the whole purpose of meditation is to be aware of how our mind works - that simple.
Lovely teaching isn't it?
November 4, 2021
Sumedho was born in LA and travelled to Thailand where he studied Thai Forest meditation under Ajahn Chah. In 1975, he moved to the UK where he has established monasteries. He retired in 2010 being succeeded by the English monk, Ajahn Amaro.
The Thai Forest tradition is a lineage of Theravada Buddhist monasticism which began around 1900 when two monks from NE Thailand sought to return to traditional/classical Buddhism. The tradition tends to be down-to-earth and have an anti-textual stance.
Sumedho places emphasis on paying attention to the constant tinnitus sound that is the background to consciousness (the "sound of silence"). He also stresses an approach of just paying attention to and accepting the various emotions that arise.
There is considerable, often unnecessary use of Thai and Sanskrit terms in Sumedho's book that can be ignored. Apart from this, it is an easy read with many anecdotes on his background and his monastic training. The penultimate chapter on "Toward the Future" has a valuable message that, even after meditation, life will contain irritations until we die. This is the nature of the human body. Liberation comes with reflecting on this situation, rather than being caught up and a victim of our conditioning.
This approach ties in with Shinzen Young, discussing the teaching of Sasaki Roshi, that you do not need to suppress the arising of the self--it will arise and you learn how to deal with this.
My Zen reviews, ranked
The Thai Forest tradition is a lineage of Theravada Buddhist monasticism which began around 1900 when two monks from NE Thailand sought to return to traditional/classical Buddhism. The tradition tends to be down-to-earth and have an anti-textual stance.
Sumedho places emphasis on paying attention to the constant tinnitus sound that is the background to consciousness (the "sound of silence"). He also stresses an approach of just paying attention to and accepting the various emotions that arise.
There is considerable, often unnecessary use of Thai and Sanskrit terms in Sumedho's book that can be ignored. Apart from this, it is an easy read with many anecdotes on his background and his monastic training. The penultimate chapter on "Toward the Future" has a valuable message that, even after meditation, life will contain irritations until we die. This is the nature of the human body. Liberation comes with reflecting on this situation, rather than being caught up and a victim of our conditioning.
This approach ties in with Shinzen Young, discussing the teaching of Sasaki Roshi, that you do not need to suppress the arising of the self--it will arise and you learn how to deal with this.
My Zen reviews, ranked
October 27, 2022
A fantastic teacher. Looking forward to reading more of his works. Feeling very motivated about Buddhism.
December 28, 2017
I really loved this book. Perhaps this just means that Ajahn Sumedho's teachings resonate with my aspirations in practicing Buddhism. There are many ways of presenting the teachings, and it's definitely not for me to evaluate some as better than others. What I can say is that this book is so coherent, so clear, so helpful, and so insightful for me. I very much look forward to reading more from this author, and, perhaps most importantly, trying to live the teachings on a daily basis.
May 24, 2008
A peace inducing read
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews