I love music. In fact the powerful surges of pleasurable energy that I used to experience in my body when listening to music as a teenager was one of the things that made me curious to learn meditation. These experiences of rapture (the Buddhist technical term is “priti”) opened my eyes to the fact that there were ranges of experience outside of our normal expectations.
“Meditation Music” Is Not a Traditional Concept
The idea that you should listen to music while meditating is very common. But this probably goes back to seeing meditation as little more than a means of relaxation.
Traditionally, the idea of listening to music while meditating would be completely out of the question. In no Buddhist lineage that I know of is there any kind of musical accompaniment to sitting meditation.
The notion of listening to music while meditating is a very modern one, and probably comes from the fact that many alternative health practitioners play relaxing music in the background while performing their healing arts. This music became known as “meditation music” and the assumption grew up that we should listen to music while meditating.
Traditionally there would simply be silence or ambient background noise to accompany meditation.
“Meditation Music” Stops Us From Going Deeply Into Meditation
So-called meditation music is meant to be relaxing, and of course meditation does help you to relax too. But meditation goes beyond relaxation and helps us to be more alert and focused. It also helps us to do things like cultivate kindly or to deeply question the nature of our experience. Music is likely to get in the way of those activities.
If you’re trying to pay attention one-pointedly to your breathing, then you can’t also listen to music. And if you’re trying to listen to music then you can’t fully concentrate on your breathing.
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Music produces pleasant feelings, which is why we listen to it and why music is now almost ubiquitous, being thrust at us in stores, elevators, and even on the streets. If those pleasant feelings are being supplied by “meditation music” then we won’t reach deeper into ourselves to find our own sources of happiness. So-called meditation music therefore is a kind of crutch that hinders our practice rather than helping it.
If you find silence disquieting or unpleasant, then you’re not able to be at peace with yourself. The way to get comfortable with silence is to practice being with it. In this way we learn to be at peace with ourselves. Listening to music while meditation makes that process impossible. You’ll never learn to be deeply at peace with yourself if you’re dependent on music.
In fact, as we get deeper into meditation, we stop registering sounds altogether. Our ears are still functioning, of course. And the signals they’re generating are still being sent to the brain. But when we’re fully engaged with being mindful of our inner experience, we simply stop hearing sounds.
Listening to music while meditating stops that depth of mindfulness from happening.
Music As Meditation
However, focusing on music is fine, and I wholeheartedly suggest that you try doing that, but I also suggest that you try doing it at a time when you’re not meditating.
I’d go further and suggest that listening to music, if done properly, can be a meditation in itself, just as walking or washing the dishes can be. You can take many activities and make them richer and more satisfying by taking more awareness into them. Music, as we’ve seen, is just one example. We’ve included links to some excellent Buddhist music that makes a perfect focus for a “listening meditation.”
Listening to music as a meditation practice can be a very powerful practice. As I became more familiar with the experience of the dhyanas (Pali, jhanas), which are very concentrated, calm, and blissful states of meditation, I realized that I’d been experiencing these states for years while listening to western classical music. And I’ve found that I can experience all of the dhyanas while treating music as a meditation object.
If you’re going to listen to music as meditation then you have to take it seriously as a practice. Try not to do anything else at the same time. Don’t work, or read, or balance your checkbook while you’re listening. Switch off your phone. Darken the room. Just listen to the music. Make sure you’re in a comfortable position that supports alert attention. Sit or lie down comfortably, and just pay attention to the music. You’ll probably find that you enjoy it like never before.
Nature Sounds As an Accompaniment to Meditation
One auditory accompaniment to meditation that I do think is reasonable is recordings of natural sounds, such as water, birdsong, etc. In the Buddha’s day the vast majority of meditation would have taken place outdoors. Even when meditation took place indoors, the buildings would have lacked glass windows and silence would have been extremely rare. So you could argue that meditating in the presence of natural sounds (or recordings thereof) is closer to the original practice of meditation. On the other hand, just because silence was rare in the Buddha’s day doesn’t mean that people then wouldn’t have found silence useful as a background for their practice.
Additionally, though, many of us live in very urban environments where hearing natural sounds is rare. I believe that contact with the sounds of nature fulfills a deep need for a sense of connectedness to the natural world, and that recordings of those sounds can help fill that need.
Also, natural sounds are more random and less “catchy” than music, and the mind is less likely to become attached to and distracted by them. In fact, it’s easier to tune out random natural sounds as we get more absorbed in our experience. We’re more likely to get “stuck” listening to music.
So at worst I’d say that natural recordings do no harm, while at best they may help us to fill a need for the experience of natural sound. Music on the other hand is likely to be a distraction, or to artificially produce pleasant feelings, thus preventing us from finding those pleasant feelings from within.
Ultimately It’s Up to You
I’ll just add that you’re completely free to choose to listen to music while you meditate. You’re free to listen to the news while you meditate, even. But in making those choices you’re also choosing the consequences that follow on from them — that you’re taking away an opportunity to be deeply at peace with yourself. I’d suggest that choosing silence is a more spiritually helpful option. Even if you initially find silence intimidating, you’ll get used to it. Millions of meditators have. And in time you’ll find that silence is more conducive to peace and tranquillity than music ever could be.
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Personally, my experience with meditation accompanied by relaxing or “nature music” has been quite helpful. My guess is, it works for some and maybe not so well for others. When I meditate with music, it helps me focus on my visualizations and block annoying thoughts that hinder me. My goal is merely to reach a peaceful state of mind and bliss as well. I personally believe that if things are chaotic externally, there must be something going on within ourselves as well. Meditation helps me with this factor and it helps me out in life, basically. I love hearing other people’s accounts on mediatation and I just wanted to share this part of my experience. Happy day to you all!
Can I listen anything (e.g. soothing music, mantra, chanting, bhajan, kirtan etc.) with headphone while doing meditation?
I don’t recommend it. Pay attention to your direct experience of the body, your feelings, and your mind, without trying to add anything to the situation. However if you’re listening to music, then treat that as a meditation too.
I think you could be more accepting of the real positive benefits of music as a basis for meditation. The western tradition has vast amounts of music that was written specifically for the purpose if focussing the mind on what is beautiful and spiritually profound. Those who are attuned to music UN this way may find meditation with music takes them even closer to the heart of things than silebce
I thought I gave a fairly clear indication that listening to music could be a form of meditation in its own right, as well as some instructions for doing so. I wonder if you actually read the article? Or are you suggesting that I don’t go far enough in some way?
I can’t speak for what was on Bat-Orin’s mind, but I do agree with her sentiment that a little less dogmatism and a bit more acceptance of people’s diverse objectives for using music could be beneficial/ more inclusive. For eg., I like music together with a meditation talk not simply because it’s pleasant but because it’s a particular *kind* of pleasant that helps get me into a spiritual frame of mind, just the same way as turning off the main lights and sitting with just soft fairy lights also helps to create an atmosphere conducive to reflection. When you suggest things like “darken the room” and “sit in a comfortable position”, are these not equivalent ways of better attuning oneself to one’s spirituality? For some people, the visual effects enable contemplation the most and they find silence more beneficial; for others, sound is a more effective conduit for connecting to their inner spiritual channel. Either way,p still offers a means to train the mind, which one can then carry out into situations where things like dimming the lights is not feasible. Ancient traditions may well have dictated only one way of doing things, but just as “the sabbath was made for Man, Man was not made for the sabbath”, I don’t see any harm in accommodating options that will allow people to better connect inward. May you soften on this. Namaste.
I’m sorry it makes you so uncomfortable that I disagree with you. Why does this matter to you? Is me having an opinion that you don’t agree with in any way preventing you from doing whatever you want to do?
Hi Bodhipaksa,
a good read! I used to always meditate without any background music. But nowadays I sometimes use classical music. If it’s relatively quiet music it doesn’t distract me.
What also worked great for me is focusing on the silence in-between the noise. This is easy if your listening to music with a bass or a guitar. But noticing all the silence in one violin bow stroke for example is really difficult. It requires absolute concentration. That’s why I sometimes use this practice to sharpen my focus.
Hopefully this is helpful to some readers :)
In my experience i use music to close out the loud uneaven noices of trafic/construction/trams etc that i have since i live in the city, but i dont listen to the musik if i do a deep meditation session rather use it as a buffer.
What i listen to is the silence that lies beneath the sounds and concentrate on that. All sound is born in silance, live in silance and die in silance, to hear the silance for me is to connect to a deeper and more true form of energy and state of being.
And as of the uneaven sounds of nature like birds and water in my experience has a higher energy flow and helps you cinnect to the natrual higher frequenzy of the universe
I think in my opinion certain types of very calming music ie buddhist type music can be used in a great way to meditate. Its whatever works for yourself and not upon forced pre set ideas and rituals. Otherwise it becomes a swear word called religion.
Agreed. May we learn from the exclusionary mistakes of other spiritual / contemplative traditions and not recreate them.
People are free to do whatever they want, Sharon; I’m not forcing anyone to follow my advice. I’m simply expressing my opinion that it’s better to meditate with silence. It seems more “exclusionary” when people think I shouldn’t express my opinion.
This article is linked from the Ten Percent Happier app FAQ’s and while I appreciate the content of the article I find the replies from Bodhipaksa very off putting. They seem to me to be judgmental, unkind, defensive. Truthfully, I don’t see in them all the things I have been learning about through meditation.
As with everyone, I’m a work in progress, Jeff. I try to be patient and kind, but don’t always manage it. I did see one comment of mine that struck me as sounding harsh, so I’ve deleted it.
I’m curious about a rhythmic beating that started while I was meditating … It was cleat & present enough that I opened my eyes and looked around, and it continued… It’s stopped once I blew out my candles.
I have no way of knowing, unfortunately. Sometimes in meditation the mind does sometimes create sensations that are very convincing, though, so it might have been that. (And it’s nothing to worry about.)
Well said. I have been searching to hear someone, anyone, say what you said about music. It is possibly the world’s #1 addiction, distraction, and is nothing but more noise to anyone who seriously yearns for that meditative state of awareness. The unpopularity alone of a statement like this is a red flag to how powerful a distraction, and what a hold music has on any mind yearning for silence.
One of the most common reasons people give for rating my meditations poorly on the Insight Timer app is that there’s no background music. I usually respond that I prefer to give people the gift of silence. I also sometimes point out that when the Buddha meditated under a tree he didn’t have a band accompanying him.