Sounds for Sitting

[Amelia]

If someone's playing music while I'm sitting, I sit with that. When I have am earworm, I sit with that too. Thanks to earworms that get lodged during a workday full of the same music, I rarely have a tune-free session of zazen!

Gassho, sat today, lah

[BillH]

Adding anything to sitting is akin to adding sugar to berries. It messes with the essence of something pure and already whole. Yes?

[Mp]

Adding anything to sitting is akin to adding sugar to berries. It messes with the essence of something pure and already whole. Yes?

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Shinshou]

I think wtylerallen brings up a good point. We have approved crutches to get us "in the zone." Music is not an approved crutch. But long ago when I twisted my ankle and received crutches to use, there was a period when it was better for me to use a cane instead, and I got around just fine...then I stopped using the cane when I didn't need it anymore.

Here's my opinion...

I think if music is the crutch that gets you through, then go for it, but one must discard it when it's no longer prudent. I sometimes use a drone if I'm sleepy and worry that I'll drop off during sitting. I'm still sitting. If we are lighting a candle, burning incense, wearing a kesa/rakusu, sitting on a zafu, ringing bells, bowing to a statue of Buddha, and chanting the heart sutra, then I think the position that "we don't use external aids" should be amended to "we don't use unapproved external aids."

Dan
Sat today

[Sydney]

For shikantaza, nothing. But if I'm engaged in a practice that calls for it, I'm still fond of the album Narada Decade, which my friends and I listened to during our neopagan college days.

Sydney
SatToday

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[Kyotai]

Hey Bill,

Like others have said, I don't listen to music during zazen. But I have a few musical favourites that I really enjoy. I sometimes play on the speakers when the kids are bouncing off the walls. The band "hammock" is wonderful. As is composer Max Richter.

Gassho, Kyotai
ST

[Jundo]

We do not sit intentionally with music or any aid in Shikantaza.

If music happens to be playing from a loud party in our neighbor's apartment, and it cannot be avoided, then we sit with that because we sit with what is, all conditions as is. Hear the noise in the silence, the silence that is noise.

But we do not sit with music as an aid to Zazen, or a mood maker. Zazen is not about that.

After you sit Zazen, you may listen to music.

Gassho, Jundo

SatTodayLAH

[Shokai]

I heard from a Music Therapist recently that we all usually gravitate to the music from our twenties. Trouble is I CAN'T REMEMBER WHEN THAT WAS Never , never use it to meditate; but then again, never say never

gassho, Shokai

stlah

[Jishin]

This is what I listen to:

https://youtu.be/HCi5iiDhgn0

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Hyōhaku-sha]

Have you tried John Cage’s 4-33?

Simon
Just Sat with all of space/time/being.


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I put that one on repeat about 10 times when I sit. Highly recommended.
Gassho
Sat/lah

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[Jundo]

Reminds me of a record album my parents had, "The Best of French Mime, Marcel Marceao." Ya see, it is a sound album of a French Mime ...



As I recall, there was a round of applause at the start and end ... and in between ....

Track listing
A1
Silence 19:00
A2
Applause 1:00
B1
Silence 19:00
B2
Applause 1:00

Gassho, J

SatTodayLAH

[Daiyo]

Hi Bill.

As others have said, when I sit zazen, it's shikantaza, just sitting with what is, nothing added or removed.

But I've tried, and sometimes I still do also other forms of meditation that include music or guidance.

About music, I like very much a track which I first listened to in a guided meditation about "Tilopa and the Mahamudra". I was delighted but didn't know the title of the song.

Several years later, as I wasn't able to get the title from the author of the guided meditation, I used song recognition software to see if it worked and it did.

The song is called "Enchantment" by Chris Spheeris. You can find it in Spotify, and I highly recommend it.

Gassho,
Daiyo

St/Lah

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