The Rubin Museum wasn’t like any other I have ever been to. Based on my previous experience with museums, most of them haven’t been very interactive experiences. In the Rubin, however, we were able to do a lot more listening than we often do talking. Pressing our ears to benches to hear words from the Book of the Dead and sitting in a room of various ohms were just two of the activities we got to do there. Not to mention that a simple video they had playing made me think about how the world, quite literally, is sound. Space, being a realm of complete silence, makes Earth a mass of noise. What I took away from the Rubin, however, is that noise doesn’t necessarily have to be raucous. Noise can have significance, noise can be beautiful chaos. The sound of several ohms being heard at different pitches and lengths may seem chaotic, but altogether sounded almost calming. It was a wonderful experience learning not only about Buddhism, but about what we hear all around us everyday. It made me appreciate everything from the sounds around me, to the sound silence itself can make.
