Ears always ringing

[B ArnoldMember]

Hello,

I have, for the past month or so, experienced a pronounced ringing in my ears, even off the cushion. It seems to have developed recently after having ramped up my cushion time from 30 minutes to hourly sits for well over a month now. During sits, the ringing changes tones – seems to split into chords even; some low, some high – it actually becomes more pleasant sounding. Off the cushion though it is just a constant high-pitched whine that at times is difficult to deal with. I’m fairly certain this recently developed phenomena is related to my intensified practice. Does anyone have any similar experiences or suggestions for coping, or even possibly somehow “curing” it? I stopped practicing for a couple of weeks and it seemed to lessen, but I don’t consider “stopping practice” a reasonable palliative 🙂

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[charlesanattaMember]

Hi B Arnold,

Some monks like Ajahn Sumedho recommend using that ringing as a meditation object, even throughout the day. This is an ancient technique from Nada Yoga and maybe you could find it helpful in your practice. Since you mentioned the ringing stopped when you didn’t meditate for a while, then I don’t think it’s a medical condition, but I’m no doctor. I’ve also heard from Leigh Brasington that the ringing can be a sign of concentration improving.

With Metta,

Charles

[B ArnoldMember]

Hey Charles,

Thank you – I was able to find some interesting material on Ajahn Sumedho and Nada Yoga.

With Metta,

Bobby

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Bobby,

Ringing in the ears is a fairly well known side effect of meditation. It comes up from time to time in my meditation, and I can tune into it at any time, but luckily I can ignore it when I want to. You might want to read about Pacification of the Auditory Sense on page 245 of TMI.

Culadasa says that pain (or in this case unpleasant sensation) is inevitable and suffering is optional. Try to separate the ringing sound from your mind’s reaction to the sound. I would guess that your mind is resisting the sensation. I recommend having as much equanimity as you can muster around it. This is actually a great opportunity for insight.

Blake – Dharma Treasure Teacher in Training

[Anonymous]

Same here, B Arnold. Right now.

Exactly as I began getting to one hour sits, the ear ringing began and has not desisted. I have tinnitis, but this is something else. Also hearing my pulse at times. I generally felt irritated enough that I backed off on frequency of sits for several days. Meditating provides relief from the ringing, perhaps as concentration to achieve a one hour sit is good enough that I forget to notice the ringing. Also took measures to ease concurrent nasal congestion. And got some wax out of my ears. But still getting the full ringaling as I write this.

[B ArnoldMember]

Thanks Blake and Wiley for your replies!

Blake, I have noticed (frequently) in my sittings that the “volume” on sounds in external awareness varies quite a bit – sometimes sharply diminishing rather quickly, as if receding into the distance or as if the volume knob was suddenly turned down. This sort of thing started happening before the ringing. These volume adjustments continue to happen, but now there is always the ringing as well. Ironically (and similar to you Wiley), the ringing bothers me the least when I am on the cushion, as it tends to change in tone to something more pleasant or even seemingly split into a variety of tones which is strangely enticing. I had considered that the volume stuff was pacification related, and I do recall the bit where Culadasa speaks of outer sounds being replaced by an “inner sound”, but I didn’t think it would be quite like this, or *all the time*!

I take your point regarding equanimity though, Blake. I will use this opportunity for practice!

With Metta,

Bobby

[Anonymous]

Bobby,

I agree with your scepticism that this is not “the inner sound” of Nada Yoga. Hitting the one hour sit I take as the proximate cause, and I am working on doing that twice per day. The strangest thing for me has been different ways of hearing my refrigerator when not meditating, in sound volume, tones and location. I find nothing in TMI that suggests sitting longer than one hour per sit would be beneficial for this course of instruction, but I am open to comments on that. Also the thing about needing less sleep at night now applies, but short heavy naps within a few hours after meditating seem to be inescapable.

[Anonymous]

When my practice moved to the next Stage, the ringing stopped.

[B ArnoldMember]

Good to hear, no pun intended. And also incentive to keep practicing 😉

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