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Music and meditation

Tue, 09/25/2007 - 22:50 — Shane Magee

Next to meditation, music is the best way for a seeker of truth to be transported to a high meditative state. When listening to soulful music, one can feel onself carried deep within their being as if they are being carried on the soaring wings of a bird. "Music is the universal language of God", spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy writes, "I do not know French or German or Italian, but if music is played, immediately the heart of the music enters into my heart, or my heart enters into the music. At that time, we don't need outer communication; the inner communion of the heart is enough."

How can we enter into meditation using music? First of all you have to ensure it is the right kind of music. To be frank, the majority of music produced especially in the West is not at all suitable for meditation, and can instead bring you further away from a peaceful meditative state by appealing to the emotional desiring part of our being. You have to use your own inner sincerity to judge - is the music truly carrying your very soul upwards towards a higher Reality, or is it only giving you a kind of inner thrill which disappears very quickly? If you are not sure, there are plenty of recordings of music available by realised meditation teachers or great musicians who also aspire for the highest.

This does not necessarily mean that all meditative music has to be meek and mild - far from it. Many of the legendary songs of the 16th century saint Mirabai, for example, or the songs sung by Sri Ramakrishna and his disciples, are pretty robust expressions of the yearning for God. During the many meditative concerts Sri Chinmoy plays around the world, he frequently performs dynamic piano and synthesizer improvisations which infuse the concert hall with a tremendous meditative power. What matters is not the outer sound of the product, but the intensity of the meditative feeling expressed therein - "Music is meditation if it is sung soulfully by good singers, or even sung badly by singers with soulful hearts..."

As regards listening to soulful music, Sri Chinmoy offers this very simple piece of advice:

"Let us not try to understand music with our mind.
Let us not even try to feel it with our heart.
Let us simply and spontaneously allow the music-bird to fly in our heart-sky.
While flying, it will unconditionally reveal to us what it has and what it is.
What it has is Immortality's message
And what it is is Eternity's passage."

Photo: Concert of meditative music given by Sri Chinmoy's students in Auckland, New Zealand.

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