music or chanting during meditation?

[isabel]

I just started doing sitting meditations again, my goal is to become as much like an enlightened person as possible, even if it's just a little bit but I want to go as far as I can

the book I'm following says to choose a divine being as an object of meditation but I'd like to choose sounds instead

what do you think of using sounds, mostly deep chanting sounds as the object of meditation instead of a visual object?

can you focus on more than one thing at once, like breathing and a visual or sounds and a visual?

thanks!

 

[PsiloPutty]

Nothing wrong with it; some people use sounds as their meditation object. And no, it's not possible to focus on more than one thing at a time, but that doesn't mean that you can't be aware of two things at once. One object will be your focus, and the other is in your awareness, like sounds and breath in this instance. 

If you'd like to focus on sounds, chanting is good because it's extremely repetitious and consistent, like the breath. I like the breath more, because I can tap into it at any time of the day or night. No equipment required.

[isabel]

@PsiloPutty nice, okay thank you

[RabbitHole]

I meditate mostly with music. Why?

Music is extremely powerful tool for changing your mindstate. Listen to certain music (genre/style), watch your thoughts, how you feel, the vibe you get.

Switch It to different genre/style, do the same.

This way I have found hundreds of songs which can trigger certain mental states and just after few songs I'm in that vibe, that state I wanted to be in.

Music one of the most impactful things on your mindset there can be, be aware of that and you will get why I'm saying this. Now I am able to trigger thinking patterns, feelings, whole belief systems/attitudes, get energy boost, instant focus, whatever I wan't with just listening to certain music and I mostly do that while meditating. I meditate with certain music before training, before school/work, before working on my business, meeting people. 

Yes, this kinda makes me addicted to music and in some way dependant, but It works so great that I will keep doing this.

How I found this out? I just somewhat started paying attention to what I listened, understood that it's toxic and deleted every song I had and built new playlist until I got here. What I do now is I ask people what they listen to. They think that It's just casual small talk question, but actual reason is:

"I mostly listen to rap music/ don't care whatever (pop on the radio)/ indie music/ classical music/ metal music.".

All those genres have specific vibe and you notice a pattern in mindsets within people listening to certain style. 

 

[Forestluv]

@isabel There are lots of different forms of meditation. You can just sit in awareness of everything, you could meditate on a concept like "love", you could stare at a candle, have music in the background etc.

Beginners often have difficulty with just sitting aware in emptiness. Lots of thoughts and feelings pop up. It gets uncomfortable sitting on the couch. If your engage in mental chatter, meditation can be counter-productive. For beginners, having something to ground the mind-body can be helpful. The most common grounding is the breath. You can count your breaths or think "rising" on the inhale and "falling" on the exhale. Or you could tap your thumb tip to each finger tip on one hand, then the next hand. Or you can chant to keep you grounded.