The Potted Palm Tree
Have you ever been in a large public building lobby with tall ceilings and marble floors and walls and just stood there pondering about the auditory acoustics of the big room? Did you also wonder about the vibrational acoustics?
Okay, let us say that you went to see a theatrical play performed at a grand old theater in some old romantic city. The building is hundreds of years old. The lobby is all marble, with very high ceilings and glittery chandeliers. Both you and the audience loved the play and when it ends everyone empties out of the theater into the giant marble lobby where they mingle and schmooze with the actors who have come out to mingle and schmooze and drink champagne with the patrons. You find a place to stand next to a potted palm tree and you just watch everyone mingling about and you listen. You do not listen to anything in particular but rather to the overall din; the collective buzz of sound. The conversations and laughs and all the other sounds blend to form one sound.
As you focus on that background noise hum, you start feeling the collective vibration of the humans generating that hum. You notice that it is very uplifting and that is not surprising because everyone had just seen a very uplifting play. The people seemed to have brought those uplifting vibrations with them into the lobby. The hum that you are listening to and the corresponding vibrations of the people that you are feeling is comforting. It is full of life.
The after curtain socializing does not last long. Apparently there is a cast party at the director's uptown loft, which no doubt has very different acoustics than the theater lobby. Eventually, the lobby has cleared out and you are the only one left. You are still standing next to the potted palm tree and you are still listening. Just moments before, the lobby was vibrating with the sound and energy of over a hundred people and now you are the only one in the lobby. It is suddenly very quiet but you notice that it is not completely quiet. You can just barely hear residual echoing of that hum that filled the room before. It is still bouncing off the walls. You can feel the residual vibrations of all those people. It is still quite strong and seems to be dissipating very slowly.
You look over at the potted palm tree and you wonder what its life must be like living in that grand lobby. To your surprise, the potted palm answers you, "I am very happy here as long as no one empties their champagne into my pot."
You look around to make sure no one saw you talking to a potted palm tree. You see that you are still the only one left. You then begin to walk towards the front door to go outside. As you walk, your mind slips into analogy. If a human is a theater then surely its noggin would correspond with the lobby. The auditorium part of the theater would be the body and the stage would be the heart. Hmm, you wonder.
So if the noggin was the lobby then there would be noggin acoustics, right? When the noggin is full of thoughts the vibrations are intense and when the thoughts leave then there is silence but not complete silence because the vibrations from the thoughts that had left are still echoing off the marble walls of our noggin. The vibrations dissipate slowly so if you can keep the thoughts out long enough true silence and stillness will occur. Can you imagine being a potted palm tree living in the lobby of your noggin? Would the potted palm tree like the vibrations? How much stillness would it get to experience?
You reach the giant oak doors and go outside. There is a cold wind blowing. You stop after a few steps and look up at the moon in the night sky. You button up your coat and then stand there and listen. No one has better acoustics than Ma Nature. In stillness you smile.
Then a thought comes drifting into the empty lobby of your noggin. You think about the happy potted palm tree. "Yeah right," you think. "Happy it is not out in this freezing cold."
Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.
Okay, let us say that you went to see a theatrical play performed at a grand old theater in some old romantic city. The building is hundreds of years old. The lobby is all marble, with very high ceilings and glittery chandeliers. Both you and the audience loved the play and when it ends everyone empties out of the theater into the giant marble lobby where they mingle and schmooze with the actors who have come out to mingle and schmooze and drink champagne with the patrons. You find a place to stand next to a potted palm tree and you just watch everyone mingling about and you listen. You do not listen to anything in particular but rather to the overall din; the collective buzz of sound. The conversations and laughs and all the other sounds blend to form one sound.
As you focus on that background noise hum, you start feeling the collective vibration of the humans generating that hum. You notice that it is very uplifting and that is not surprising because everyone had just seen a very uplifting play. The people seemed to have brought those uplifting vibrations with them into the lobby. The hum that you are listening to and the corresponding vibrations of the people that you are feeling is comforting. It is full of life.
The after curtain socializing does not last long. Apparently there is a cast party at the director's uptown loft, which no doubt has very different acoustics than the theater lobby. Eventually, the lobby has cleared out and you are the only one left. You are still standing next to the potted palm tree and you are still listening. Just moments before, the lobby was vibrating with the sound and energy of over a hundred people and now you are the only one in the lobby. It is suddenly very quiet but you notice that it is not completely quiet. You can just barely hear residual echoing of that hum that filled the room before. It is still bouncing off the walls. You can feel the residual vibrations of all those people. It is still quite strong and seems to be dissipating very slowly.
You look over at the potted palm tree and you wonder what its life must be like living in that grand lobby. To your surprise, the potted palm answers you, "I am very happy here as long as no one empties their champagne into my pot."
You look around to make sure no one saw you talking to a potted palm tree. You see that you are still the only one left. You then begin to walk towards the front door to go outside. As you walk, your mind slips into analogy. If a human is a theater then surely its noggin would correspond with the lobby. The auditorium part of the theater would be the body and the stage would be the heart. Hmm, you wonder.
So if the noggin was the lobby then there would be noggin acoustics, right? When the noggin is full of thoughts the vibrations are intense and when the thoughts leave then there is silence but not complete silence because the vibrations from the thoughts that had left are still echoing off the marble walls of our noggin. The vibrations dissipate slowly so if you can keep the thoughts out long enough true silence and stillness will occur. Can you imagine being a potted palm tree living in the lobby of your noggin? Would the potted palm tree like the vibrations? How much stillness would it get to experience?
You reach the giant oak doors and go outside. There is a cold wind blowing. You stop after a few steps and look up at the moon in the night sky. You button up your coat and then stand there and listen. No one has better acoustics than Ma Nature. In stillness you smile.
Then a thought comes drifting into the empty lobby of your noggin. You think about the happy potted palm tree. "Yeah right," you think. "Happy it is not out in this freezing cold."
Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.