concentration & music
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Has anyone had the experience of sitting down to concentrate (e.g., on Mahasatipatthana or Pranayama) and found themselves unable to get a song out of their head? I have found this a major barrier as I can't seem to banish a song stuck in my head, and since it's the only other thing going on apart from breathing, it's quite distracting. Any idea how to deal with this?
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Don't resist it. In fact, turn your attention to concentrating entirely on the song. Within a very short time, it will insist on disappearing.
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or spend some time doing pratyahara first. it helped me a lot enhancing my ability to concentrate. (because it naturally leads to concentration - dharana)
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@Jim Eshelman said
"Don't resist it. In fact, turn your attention to concentrating entirely on the song. Within a very short time, it will insist on disappearing."
This is probably the only thing I haven't tried doing. You're my hero, Jim.
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I have always found it useful to concentrate on music in order to avoid distraction from random sounds
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I have found that my abilities as a composer increased when "layering" different rhythms and melodies during meditations. It was a fast track to Dharana, however, I think it that such an exercise could easily turn masturbatory and fanciful if you are not careful. Eventually I could "hear" the music in my head as if it was coming through headphones... pretty neat! A better method would be layering mantras using different meters/tempos for example:
AUM AH HUM VA-J-RA GURU PEDME SIDDHI HUM
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 1 and 2 and 3 and 4
AUM MANI PEDME HUM
1 2 1 2 twice as fast as the first mantra
If you do it right you should start both mantras simultaneously with AUM.This exercise if a great way to bring the busy mind under control with a complex task. If it gets to simple try placing the mantras in different chakras.