Hi Fred, yes you are correct. If the sound you are hearing is a high-pitched tone that doesn’t block out normal sounds, then that is a very useful support for developing “mental clarity.” That’s the name I’ve given to accomplishing unwavering attentional focus and absence of thought.

You can use that sound that you are experiencing as a kind of meter, with changes in pitch and amplitude indicating stronger mental clarity. In your case, given your use of meditation for a long enough period of time that this sound has become evident to you, you’ll make great progress because you’re already ahead. You’ve obviously slowed down the rate of thoughts arising enough that the sound has become apparent. So use this sound to gain a greater reduction in the rate of distractions arising. The ultimate goal is to use thinking like your legs: when you want to go somewhere you get up and walk, for most of the rest of the time your legs are just there. So, for greater and greater periods of time, you are not thinking. And then when needed, you are… it’s called stillness. But that’s far off 😊

There are things you can use to multiply the effectiveness of this support for your meditation. The spinal breathing yoga technique, one of the types of pranayama, is very useful. That, in my practice has the effect of “turning up the volume.” There are also Daoist practices that are helpful for getting to the next stage. These are chi gong (various types, I use Ji Ben Chi Gong), and if you find that you have “energy blackages,” use Dao Yin.

The next stage involves NOT focusing any longer on the “resonance of your attentional” focus (the high-pitched ‘metallic’ sound that you first hear), but placing Awareness (that’s a highly technical term and not what normally comes to mind) on various centers in the body and attending to spontaneous sounds with particular characters. However, the natural progression is to keep using the initial sound until you suddenly notice these other sounds. Then, to go further, you use these other more subtle sounds.

The practice with the other sounds, while placing Awareness in different centers within the body is the Four Elements Sound Yoga.

I’m going to be publishing some more of the Tranquillity’s Secret book, and the next one covers what these sounds are and how to recognize them, as well as how they differ from tinnitus.

Let’s keep in touch.

James