“If you sit in one place and sounds get you all upset, you go away from that place and find another place that’s quiet. But if there are sounds there, you get upset again. That’s because your knowledge comes from perceptions. You don’t know in line with the truth. The truth is that you live with sounds, and sounds live with you, and there are no issues, because you’re two different things. I’ll give you an example. If you lift up this object, it’s heavy. If you put it down, it’s not heavy.
Why is it heavy? Because you lift it up. Why is it light when you put it down? Because you’re not lifting it. “Lifting it” is simply a matter of clinging to the idea that the sound is disturbing you. If you think in that way, you get upset. Suppose that this object weighs one kilogram. If you leave it there, it weighs just a kilogram. It’s the same with sounds. If you leave the sounds alone, they won’t disturb you—because you don’t grab onto them.”