External noise:
External noises, kids playing outside, next door's dog barking etc can be distracting (if you allow it to be,) earphones can be useful to help shut out any such distractions but it's also handy if you can learn to meditate with
some noises. It's virtually impossible to find total silence.
I'm sure I've mentioned before that in the group I attended we were meditating while there were teens banging on the windows, so how did we deal with that? Well your first reaction is to jump but we went past that, it taught us discipline and we weren't going to allow them to distract us. If you hear a sudden noise just think 'right that's ok but i'm going to continue regardless' tell yourself it doesn't matter then
let it go.
It is even easier to ignore if you're focussing on something mentally or otherwise, ie gazing at something like a candle flame whilst meditating,
You can practice this at a time when you're not meditating too for instance, you know when you're reading something really interesting you can virtually shut off what is around you, kids scrapping or dogs barking etc. practice this see how well you can shut off noise when doing everyday things.
(c) Jay