Strong Determination Sitting

[Michael119]

Two questions...

1) Can I listen to music while doing strong determination sitting?

2) Do I leave my eyes open or closed?

 

[nbolt]

3 hours ago, Michael119 said:

Two questions...

1) Can I listen to music while doing strong determination sitting?

2) Do I leave my eyes open or closed?

 

1. Sure.

2. Either is just fine. Eyes remain slightly open in traditional zazen.

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

Meditating without sounds will be more powerful for sure but in theory you can meditate with music, I've done it a few times.

[Oneness]

12 hours ago, Michael119 said:

Two questions...

1) Can I listen to music while doing strong determination sitting?

2) Do I leave my eyes open or closed?

 

1) Yes you can I used to do it alot, but now I always do it in silence. When you play music you are actually stimulating yourself, which is not the point of meditation.

2) As long as it dosen't make you sleepy, but it is very likely it will make you sleepy

[vizual]

Listening to music while doing a strong determination is pretty stupid. The whole point of the sitting is to transcend all the thoughts that come up during the sitting, to see these thoughts are not 'you'. It's very tempting for the ego to escape into the music to distract itself from the discomfort. Which only defeats the purpose of the exercise. You can also see that in all the gyms, and people exercising, that they use music to push through the pain of the exercise, but they only use the music to escape the pain, they don't want to fully allow the pain into their experience. To make progress you have to fully embrace everything that come into experience, it's only the thoughts that judges experiences as either bad or good.

The purpose is not to push yourself through the time as if you are proving something to someone, the purpose is to realize that these thoughts have zero control in themselves. The thoughts are there, but they don't hold any weight.

Embrace the silence, the void. No music, no distractions.

[CA19]

You can do SDS with open or closed eyes.I personally do it closed as it is more intense this way,but can be more prone to fall asleep for newbies.Until the pain sets in,that's when it get's interesting

Never tried it with music,but I think it defeats the purpose imo.The less stimulation,the better.