One of the best procedures for clearing confusion is to see plainly what
does _not_ work.
One course that has never worked and never will work is _distraction_. A
distraction is anything that prevents us from looking the problem in the
face with a mind made up to locate the answer.
Take a common form of distraction - noise.
This is the Age of Noise. We live on a battlefield bombarded by ballyhoo
and blab. Silence has become so strange that it frightens. Distraction is
the frantically sought god. Wherever we go we see people filling their ears
and minds with one loud blast after another. Even at a sports event, you
see someone cheering, bending to catch an announcement, lost in the roar of
the crowd - all the while eagerly pressing a transistor radio to the ear!
No wonder we don't hear the truth that sets us free. Trying to solve our
problems by distracting ourselves with noise is like trying to untangle
traffic by honking the horn.
But there is a way out. We can become aware of all the nerve-wracking
noises. We can see how they distract us from finding the True Self. If we
discover that a particular mental noise is of our own making, we have power
to stop. If it comes from the blaring outer world, we can gradually cease
to listen. This restores our natural perception of reality; we begin to see
things as they _are_, not as a clamoring world _claims_ them to be. For
instance, you will discover that the lack of noise, that an inner
quietness, is not, as you first supposed, a state of frightening emptiness.
It is just the opposite. It is new beauty. It is much as if you stand in a
park, halfway between two orchestras, one playing a lovely symphony, while
the other clatters out a jarring racket. As you turn from the racket, as
you deliberately walk away, the atmosphere is more and more filled with the
symphony that you barely heard at first.
This idea of inner silence is not philosophical. It is not sentimental. It
is not idealistic. It is real. It is a fact. It is something you can use
right now."
HOW TO AVOID MISTAKES AND SOLVE PROBLEMS
Chap. 14, p. 260 (Previous version)
Chap. 14, p. 229 (Current version)