It is my opinion that many meditators are overly focused on external sources of noise. In some cases, people noise and in others environmental noise or both. None of the meditative traditions that I am familiar with teach that achieving a meditative state is accomplished by attending to external distractions. Focus on external distractions puts one’s focus on the very things that make achieving a meditative state difficult. One’s focus should be internal not external.
Beginning meditators’ primary task is to move from a state of active ego awareness to a state of passive observer awareness. This simply means learning to regulate your attention, so that it is held in abeyance and not focused on a specific stimulus within awareness and thereby making it an object of consciousness. When you no longer give your attention to specific things that arise in your awareness, you are being a passive observer. When you allow your ego to become actively engaged with specific objects of consciousness within awareness, you are moving away from a meditative state. In short, learn to master your attention.
Intermediate meditators’ primary task is to disidentify with the ego and identify with the observer or as some say the witness. That is, to merge with or become the observer during meditation. All that is necessary to accomplish this is to maintain your focus of attention on the sensory field occupying your awareness without placing your attention on any specific stimulus within your field of awareness. If you do this consistently for a period of time, your identification will shift from the perspective of the ego to that of the observer. A perspective from which ego has been put in its proper place; i.e., ego becomes a tool for interacting with the environment when such interaction is required and then put aside when no longer required. In short, become the observer or witness as you go about your daily life.
Advanced meditators’ primary task is to temporarily disidentify with the observer and to become primordial consciousness or simply beingness. Others might say being connected to Source Consciousness or knowing the peace that surpasses all understanding. This state, if permanent, would require a full time caretaker because without the ability to employ ego as a tool, one would be helpless. This is a state that “takes” you whenever it is ripe for appearing. This is what some Indian traditions refer to as Samadhi without an object or the American mathematician, philosopher and mystic Franklin Merrill-Wolff called consciousness without an object. Awareness becomes purified emptiness and free of all stimuli. In short, be patient and just be.