Are there "sounds"?
Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound even if no one is there and no one can hear it?
Are there any sounds at all if no one can hear them?
No, probably not!
A sound is something that originates in our brain, caused by a physical continuum of vibrations.
It comes to the noise by the perception of the human being who hears it, as a receiver of the sound waves. These waves spread in the air to the ears, are converted into electrical impulses, which are then processed by the brain as sounds.
So without a receiver there is no sound, only waves!
The extraordinary physicist Richard Feynman paraphrased the answer to the above question as "a sensation of noise". According to the brilliant John Locke "things would be able to exist independently of our experience". In the history of philosophy an everlasting dispute broke out around the topic, which seems to be unresolved until today.
If we explain a sound as a pure sense sensation, then contradictions to our "sound by a falling tree in the forest" inevitably arise.
And how does it further behave with "recorded noises", for example the music from a headphone, or if the sound of the falling tree is played back from the tape, that would correspond then to a perception illusion, after all the tree does not fall down "now", it has fallen down much earlier.
In our modern world "sounds" are mostly recorded, manipulated and by means of sound sources (loudspeakers etc.) transmitted "preserves", thus not authentic, we do not "know" what is "real" and what is "false".
In our multimedia new world we have lost the overview, what is reality?
This is also what happens to us when we look at pictures or films! Also these represent only a "beautiful appearance", what we see happens also in these cases not "in reality".
Fluid sounds, shimmering pictures, everything only "sound and smoke".
The "sounds" and "pictures" kidnap us from time and space, lead us into an illusory world, full of false sounds, distorted representation, everything just not real!
If we hear the falling tree, but do not see it, has the tree fallen at all?
What if we explain the "sound" of a falling tree to a blind man who has never heard it fall?
So, dear readers, now we are back to Buddha, because this is a Buddhist blog.
Buddha said that life is only a dream from which to "awaken". Just like the "sounds" and the "images" are just that.
And I am trying to explain "enlightenment" to those who have not yet "awakened".
Do you "hear" the sound, do you see the "image"?
Buddha found "enlightenment" just as Newton found gravity. Neither can be seen, and very difficult to explain.
Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt
- Richard Feynman - US physicist - 1918 to 1988
Happiness and unhappiness are two states of which we do not know the extreme limits
- John Locke - English philosopher - 1632 to 1704
What we know is a drop, what we do not know is an ocean
- Isaac Newton - English physicist - 1643 to 1727
How big small sounds become in silence
- Cornelia Funke - German children's author - born 1958
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