Do you listen to music while you meditate?

I don’t like music with my yoga but It can help me focus in my prayer life.

I don’t personally listen to music while I meditate, but then I have enough internal dialogue going on that I don’t need the extra input. :D

I use guided visualization instead of strict meditation. I sit on a stool with my back erect, close my eyes, relax, breathe, and through a series of thought exercises, go to my happy place. It works for me.

I’m not aware of any type of meditation that incorporates music, but there could be something. It would seem to make meditation more difficult. Meditation != relaxing.

@serenityNOW: “but I really can’t just sit and breathe; at least not for more than 5 minutes!”

That’s completely normal and ok. The simple of instruction of following the breath turns out to be one of the most challenging things a person can do. One way of looking at this could be to think about lifting weights. When you first start out, you will be unable to lift much. You begin with a small amount of weight, and over time you are able to lift more.

Meditation is similar in my experience. You may only be able to follow your breath for 1 or 2 breaths before thoughts arise. But the act of coming back to the breath is similar to lifting that weight. Every time you come back, you are “strength training” your mind in the act of concentration and focus. Eventually you may find that you will be able to pay close attention to a longer series of breaths before the inevitable distraction.

When your mind is able to concentrate and settle, you may find that you will want more than 5 minutes. You could try stretching it out to 10 minutes, then 15 or 20.

Music in the context of a vipassana or insight meditation practice would likely be seen as something that would be difficult as a beginner to deal with because it would be more challenging to bring your full attention to the breath. But who knows. Maybe there is a type of meditation that I have not heard about that makes the focus of attention the music itself.

No.

If what you’re after is relaxation—a perfectly valid goal—then by all means find some nice relaxing music, kick back and enjoy. But that’s not meditation.

We’re always trying to busy the mind in one way or another. We become accustomed to a mental landscape full of activity: daydreaming, planning, remembering, random mental chatter. The attention becomes divided between the actual experience of the moment and all of that mental noise, so that you’re no longer right there fully engaged in the experience of living, but half in, half out. It’s like a guy who’s texting while driving.

Sometimes, we substitute the mental noise of someone else for our own. I know someone whose mother can’t be without the sound of a TV on at all times; she can’t even sleep without having it droning away. Other people are constantly plugged into their music. This is just a more passive way of keeping the mind busy; you’re letting someone else supply the mental noise.

In meditating, you’re learning to wean yourself from the compulsive need for all that mental noise, so that your full attentive resources are free to engage your life right where it’s happening. You learn to just let the moment speak for itself. Random environmental sounds are rarely a problem in meditation. You don’t need absolute quiet. But music and speech are different. They carry the imprint of someone else’s mental activity. Outside of meditation, that can be wonderful, but when meditating, it prevents full absorption in the raw experience of the moment.

No, it distracts me from the inner serenity. It might drown out the still small voice,.

Agree with the above posts. There are lots of things to do while on the meditation seat (among them, thinkitating, sleepitating, etc.), but if one intends to follow the injunctions of the esoteric teachers, one has to avoid the tendency to improvise, take shortcuts, and so on. While I have certainly had some very wonderful experiences listening to music (Tangerine Dream comes to mind) and even some great, relaxing sessions using brainwave entrainment, these experiences are simply not the same as simple sitting meditation, where the background fades, awareness gently rises, and the peace begins to gently rain.

No music at all, may sound a bit weird but I got recordings of natural sounds, like the sea, wind, night sound ext.

Cool -I guess the overwhelming response is no :)
@tom_g – I appreciate the lifting weights comparison. Nice and simple.
@thorninmud – Yeah, I know people like that – always need some sort of background drone. I’m one of them! Except for bed-time; then I need silence, fyi.
I think that’s all I got; thanks gang.
P.S. @marinelife – Did you use serenity in your answer intentionally. Just think it’s cute.