Meditation and songs

suenos096

I was attempting to meditate last night and I was concentrating on my breath trying to ignore the ticking of the clock or the rain on the roof, when all of a sudden it happened. It's happened before and when it does I can't make it stop! A song starts playing in my head and I'm done for. I've always known how busy my brain is because I make it that way. I like to think and I try to think of stuff to think about when I'm bored sometimes.

I know you all are probably going to say with practice the songs will go away, but it's SO hard to focus on my breathing once the music starts. I swear I have a radio in my head. Too much music in my life...kinda. Love music. But are there any techinques maybe to turn off that radio? I can change the song on the "radio" at will.

:banghead:

I just wanna meditate!!

comicallyinsane

With practice that will stop.

Jason

I am just like you. I think all the time, I think because I'm bored. I've done it for so long and it's a difficult habit to break the mind of. Last night I had a stupid Japanese song stuck in my head that would not go away. This is one of the reasons they tell you to practice a lot , and quite regularly. It takes time to settle the mind, and to retrain it to not always act like a radio or a talk show host. Just don't gice up and try using a word with the breath. Focus on the inhale with all of your awaerness, nothing else, and repeat Bud in your mind. The syllable should last as long as the breath. When you exhale focus intently on the feeling, and repeat dho in your mind for as long as the breath lasts. This may help your mind focus on the words and breath and block out songs, voices, images, etc. The word can become the object of meditation as well as the breath and it keeps the mind busy. Also you could try to focus on the breath hitting the tip of your nose, and the movement of the point above your belly buttom at the same time. This is a little more difficult to do continuously, but it takes all your concentration to do it. I hope that this advise may help your mediation.

Simonthepilgrim

One of my teachers had been a monk in Burma. He recounted how there had come a period when his meditations were haunted by chocolate bars! Outside the meditation hall, he had no such cravings or obsessions but, the second he sat and centred down, there they were again.

The musician, practising a complex piece, may spend hours masterring a single phrase. That's why it's called practice. The great Christian mystic, Teresa of Avila, found here daily times of meditation so acutely painful that the sand seemed to have stopped flowing in her hourglass.

suenos096

Chocolate bars? Funny the things that pop into your head!

I knew that was going to be the answer! I'll again today, if I the music comes back, I'll give your suggestion a try. And don't worry I'm not about to give up. But I probably should ask can I try as much as I want to in the beginning? I don't know if I would burn myself out or...I don't know something. I definitely need this before school starts again. I was a first year teacher last year with no education experience in an inner city school. Sooo..that was interesting and it wasn't even the students (I actually feel in love with them all but not in a freaky teacher kind of way) I got along with them and they respected me, probably because I treated them live people and they seem to think I'm close to their age. Anyhow it's more of my principal that I'm going to have the problem with. She made me cry a couple of times last year and it was horrible. I'm a sensitive person in the first place and she was really mean. So anyhows I need to be able to meditate at the drop of a hat this year to deal with her again.

Sabine

Simonthepilgrim wrote:

The musician, practising a complex piece, may spend hours masterring a single phrase. That's why it's called practice.[/size]

Oh, goodness, and don't I know it. Once, I had to memorize a ten page recital piece in about a week.
Anyway, I'll have to try all of your suggestions in a bit. I tend to also have random stuff pop in on me--the most recent had to do with cats. Just gotta keep at it.

comicallyinsane

Instead of you keeping at it, maybe you should let it keep at you?

buddhafoot

I haven't really tried meditating.

I mean, when I used to do martial arts - we would meditate at the end of class.

So... there are 15 to 20 people in the class. You have to spar all of them and it's semi-contact - except to the head. So, you're taking some shots and jumping up and down, twisting, kicking, punching. Then the instructor tells you to sit down and we're supposed to

1) Control our breathing
2) Focus on getting better, stronger, more peacful and loving one another.

But dang!, I'm still stuck on number 1 because I'm am pooped and i'm sucking in air like a vacuum cleaner. That is my experience with meditation.

In fact, I'm going to try it seriously today for the first time.

I used to have a brother that was into TM for a while and he used to use a candle in a darkened room to get him going.

On the flip side, regarding this post - I. LOVE. MUSIC. I listen to just about every kind of music except for Country and Western (new school) and opera. I play in a band and I also write lyrics and music. Part of my "thing" for writing music is that I always have music running around in my head. Always. When I'm writing a piece of music - I will sit there is areas where I want something added and these "riffs" or improviations of music will come to me that I immediately sit down with a guitar and figure out so I can add it to my recordings.

Did I mention that I have a lot of music running around in my head? If I didn't, I have a lot of music running around in my head.

So... when it comes to meditation - I think I'm going to need YEARS of practice.

Keep yer fingers crossed for me.

Michael