The kids are in bed. Wife has joined them. I am alone, sitting at my desk, cool beer in my hand.

It's quiet, except for the occasional snoring of my oldest. Japanese houses have thin walls, and I'm near the bedroom at any rate. The fridge clicks on and off in regular patterns. Once in a while a faucet lets out a drip from somewhere in the house. Every now and again the house makes a groan as it settles.

Outside is dark, but I can hear the midnight dance. A car drives by every now and then, sometimes fast (just passing by) and other times slow (a neighbor coming home). Cats are meowing; occasionally fighting. Once in a while a sniff or cough rings out, probably from an old man who can't sleep, taking a midnight walk. Sometimes the hacking of a smokers cough. That is less pleasant, but it's there.

In the distance there is the near constant low roar of cars on the highway, the rumble of trains every few minutes (last train is shortly after midnight), the intermittent sirens of ambulances and every now and again a police car, the occasional revving of a motorcycle. It's rapidly getting cold at night so any night insect songs end early as they decide shelter is better than singing, but the wind is strong and it plays its own tune.

Most people distract themselves with something. TV, a game, booze and a book. I suppose I do too. It's a human thing. Nothing wrong with it either, as long as we are aware we are doing it and not doing so simply out of habit.

Once in a while, however, it's worth listening to life. Call it what you will: the popular buzz word these days is mindfulness, but I tend to avoid that since the word is too loaded with pop spirituality. I think attention or simply listening might be a better translation of the Buddhist term (sati, for those curious).

When I say listening, I mean real, honest, complete listening. This isn't the "listening" that most of us do when we are talking to our friends, which in truth is more like "waiting for our turn to speak and silently rehearsing what we will say next".

At any rate whatever you call it, listening, actually listening is magic.

The past few years YouTube has been taken over by ASMR videos. Someone whispering, the scratching of writing on paper, the sound of someone ironing clothes, Bob Ross painting his happy trees and rambling on about philosophy of making happy mistakes on happy clouds. These videos claim to give pleasant sensations to watchers and listeners. Many thousands of users agree they do.

Why do they work? Oh many things, including I suspect reminding us of our childhood, but mainly they work by focusing our awareness, making us pay attention—actually listening. And as I said before: There is magic in listening.

One of these days I'll get around to writing the intro to zazen article I keep promising all of you who are kind enough to listening to my Zen ramblings on Discord. Listening is a key part of that practice. But it's not something you need to stare at a wall for hours to do, you can do it here and now. Just sit and listen. Don't think, don't judge, don't count breaths or repeat mantras, don't plan tomorrow or remember yesterday, just... listen.

You can even do it with a can or beer or a mug of hot coffee.

Buddha photo by Alexis, kindly provided freely here

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

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