How Do I Stay Present with Constant Tinnitus? — Eckhart Tolle
- Thread starter Atlantis
- Start date
Member- Aug 21, 2014
- 5,049
- Tinnitus Since
- 1999
- Cause of Tinnitus
- karma
What he says does makes sense to me, but, I think that trying to learn how to to think in this way while already in a state of chronic fear/anxiety from tinnitus (or anything else) is very difficult.
That said, I never had the discipline to meditate every day before I got T, so I did have to learn that skill in the midst of the T crisis. The thing is, my life is far from over, so I know that whatever my health problems are now, I will experience worse before I die -- so the T became a wakeup call, "learn how to tolerate this shit and not feel bad, or your life is guaranteed to get worse and worse over time". And, that lesson doesn't really have anything to do with tinnitus per se -- and that's why people have, for thousands of years, clung to meditative practices as a way to tolerate existential suffering.
There is an account in Samyutta Nikaya, of the Buddha saying:
That said, I never had the discipline to meditate every day before I got T, so I did have to learn that skill in the midst of the T crisis. The thing is, my life is far from over, so I know that whatever my health problems are now, I will experience worse before I die -- so the T became a wakeup call, "learn how to tolerate this shit and not feel bad, or your life is guaranteed to get worse and worse over time". And, that lesson doesn't really have anything to do with tinnitus per se -- and that's why people have, for thousands of years, clung to meditative practices as a way to tolerate existential suffering.
There is an account in Samyutta Nikaya, of the Buddha saying:
I read his 'The Power of Now' to a great extent to understand its concepts. Being present and not running away is just something not unique to his teaching. It is all over the place particularly in mindfulness meditation. You can actually see bits and pieces of that concept in IWLM's BTS method. Acknowledge it it there, embrace it, be present with it, and not run away in fear. But of course it is easier said than done when T is new and very loud. MY T is way louder and higher pitch. I would love to only hear it in silence. I can hear it in a busy street, over social conversations, over fan, tv, above the running water or even the raging rapids of the salmon river I fish, and above the jet noise in my last two flights. I thought back then when my T was new that I could never get used to such a shrill. But I can now, even as I am typing hearing it screams loudest. I am at peace with this sound and be present with it. Couldn't do it back then. But no issue now.
