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Can't Stop the Music
Pardon the Village People reference. And in my first ever post on top of it 
Ok, here's the thing: I can't stop music from playing in my head. I have a song stuck on repeat in my brain a lot of the time and there's nothing i can do to get it to stop. Even when i'm chanting a mantra or counting my breaths i still have the music going as though in the background.
Anyone else plagued by earworms? Any suggestions on how to get my mind to embrace silence?
Ok, here's the thing: I can't stop music from playing in my head. I have a song stuck on repeat in my brain a lot of the time and there's nothing i can do to get it to stop. Even when i'm chanting a mantra or counting my breaths i still have the music going as though in the background.
Anyone else plagued by earworms? Any suggestions on how to get my mind to embrace silence?
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Comments
Just let it be.
There is a song, just like there is a nose on your face, just like you have two arms (are you obsessing about these to?).
Good advice, thanks!
It's so annoying and it's very hard to stop. But once you become more aware of your actions and your thoughts, you can catch yourself doing it, and stop. If it comes again, catch it, then stop again. Until you find some quiet in your head.
I think my mind becomes "anxious" when there's no thoughts to focus on, and this mental static just pops up as a way to keep it busy so it doesn't have to deal with the pain of reality more directly. That's just what happens with ME tho, I can't generalize.
Having a quiet mind is not easy from what I can see.
The engineers laughed and told him it was normal, and that it goes away with a little more experience in a room like that. He hadn't been back so couldn't give first hand experience with the projected noise shutting off with more exposure.
In meditation though, many people have had first hand experience with that going away. It does.
With warmth,
Matt
This is normal for most Buddhist, only through chanting or counting breaths among others, one's would only be able to discover their music. The only reformation is still doing the chanting and counting. In the Avatamsaka or the Flower Adornment textbooks, it stated that there are 52 levels of sages having this form of music but that kind of music, is not as rough. Most of the Buddhist are below this kind of status, therefore, it is very important to practice meditation like Buddhaname recitation, Zen meditation, Buddhism textbook chanting among others
It's hard to give it up on other times tho, cuz depending on the song, it gives me a sense of silly "joy" to mindlessly repeat the songs.
The more you try to look away from it, the more you're drawn in.
My 2 cents? Dance it out. Like no ones watching. If the fun doesn't take your mind off the it, then the embarrassment might
often I might have Junirai going through my head.
In Jodo Shinshu we also have hymns called "Gathas"...basically like Christian hymns but with Buddhist words. For us some of them are simply Namu Amida Butsu set to music. So this way instead of a pop song or something going on in the background, it is the dharma!:D
Otherwise I guess the advice mentioned above about not getting concerned about it anymore or less than any other type of mind wandering.
outside of meditation, I am a music teacher for a living, and often I end up with the last song I taught in the day going through my head the rest of the evening.
I play hockey after work some nights, so there I am playing goal with Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus or similar going through my head...(last student that night is a 16 year old female vocalist)
I don't really get distracted by it...I just think it is an odd image...a hockey goalie in his late 40's humming Hannah Montana songs!
but it's the substratum of the mind that has an intruding record player in it, or rather we're hearing the basement of our mind play music and it's making us angry because "i have to get up at 5 in the morning tomorrow" but actually the song's not that bad and maybe you should just listen to it or know that form is emptiness and there is no ear
but the substratum isn't playing music for no reason
even ear worms have buddha nature
More meditation I think is the cure. After I became more aware and in the present I noticed it was like a soundtrack of my life and I was able to with meditation turn it off.
Very good advice. I find that it doesn't matter how much I try to stop the music in my head from playing sometimes. I just can't get it out. And then when I least expect it, POOF, it's gone.
I clicked on that and it was HELL! :rarr:
Yours in the Dharma,
Todd
P.S. to the OP, music is always in my head, even when I meditate. The longer I have been meditating it has become less pronounced or not even there anymore. Don't pay it any attention just let it be and it will abate on its own.
Solution: get rid of all music
As the buddhists say, get rid of the cause of the suffering.
Everytime I listened to a new song, I kept hearing in my mind whenever I went to bed, meditated and elsewhere.
Music is probably the easiest one of the five? pleasures the get rid off.
Concentration helps too. If you can concentrate well enough you'll be able to "grasp" the music going on inside your head and silence it. This needs training.
music vs. concentration ; good excersise
Keep practising and it will happen naturally.
You'll also probably discover that eventually you are less dependent on listening to music or on needing it as a background noise !
.
heh, maybe for some.
There was a time where it annoyed the hell out of me, but that will just make it worse. I found tht just rolling with it is the best bet. Dance even :P
When I have a song stuck in my head, I stop everything for a second and I tell myself: I don't really want this right now. I should just stop it.
I've had to do this for a few weeks, but I was able to stop that habit.
It was the act of thinking about what I really want at the present moment that helped me. Being honest and direct with myself.
Just thought I'd toss that in.
Where Everything is Music
Would you guys recommend me continuing with this habit or not?
so basically, if it doesn't distract me I don't have to stop?
What sort of music is it?