After a day of more painstaking analysis of The Spiritual Exercises, I sit here in the late afternoon, windows wide open to the sultry London summer (it does happen). And suddenly one of the neighbours has put on an incredibly violent and abusive form of music – the content of which I happily cannot understand for the shouting and music overtones the aural carnage contains. This makes the squawking and fighting of the starlings at the bird feeder sound angelic! But in fact, it all is just sound. The ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or ‘violent’ or ‘amusing’ are labels our thinking minds attach to the sound. And from there the emotions flow.

But how many of us can realistically stay as open to sound that emerges out of an emotion of anger or hatred as we do to that arising from kindness, love or just basic mechanics? It’s all part of the journey, learning when our ears (and heart) can be open realistically and when we must protect.

Soon the ear anarchy will cease and the sound of chatting neighbours and mewing pussums will return. All change, all change.