Surely no sensation can be experienced as annoying or not without a process of selfing occurring to make it so?
Some perhaps more practical thoughts:
1) I've seen at least one person here complain that he found the quietness of his mind that has settled lately to be unpleasant. The grass is always greener, no? Says a lot about the nature of mind, I think. Worthy of investigation?
2) Shinzen Young has a meditation to deal with 'echo talk' and whatnot
here (pdf download, right click). I never did this, as for me the desire for a quiet mind was part of my problem, it's easier for me to just note, and learning yet another meditation just to start meditating seemed like avoidance.
3) I've found that irregardless of the amount of sensations I am exposed to that I don't want to come back up, e.g. Britney Spears songs, the mind will drag something from yonks ago up to cheerfully echo through my mind
for the whole darn retreat even if I haven't listened to radio for a year.
4) Go and work in a hospital ward in which you are expected to do everyone's blood pressure measurements manually with a not-wonderful stethoscope, despite the bleeps, creaks, occasional shouts and incessant chatter. I was forced to develop patience with such distractions or else explode ;) Similarly happens on retreats to annoyances, sink or swim is dangerous but when it works, it works.
