“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

The universe is silent.

The 5 sense realities are separate.
There are three requirements to experience reality:

An object of perception
An organ of perception
Consciousness

Although a tree falls and its physicality causes energy vibrations to be thrown into the air as sound waves, if there is no ear to hear, there is no sound perception. Our ears are also limited to a spectrum of frequencies and amplitudes.

The other sense organs; eye, nose, tongue and body perceive sight, smell, taste, and feel. There is no color, sound, flavor, or texture. It is the individual organs and unifying consciousness of mind that produces it.

In Buddhism, the mind is an organ (brain) of perception too. It recognizes the thoughts that it produces. When it quiets, ceases to think and dialogue, it illuminates the world’s silence.

Practice is not about getting; it is about letting go.
What is the answer to the question?

Image: Ram Bahadur Bomjon (Buddha Boy)