I was recently asked if meditating with music playing was helpful in deepening the meditation. Many people find meditating to music a satisfying and pleasant experience. But is this a good idea if your goal is to attain the fruits of meditation.

The underlying notion of most contemplative practices and meditation in particular is to quiet the mind and bring awareness to the present moment. By quieting the mind is meant to reduce or stop the internal conversation, the mental chatter. If not stop it at least not become enmeshed in it, rather watching it as observing a bird fly past.

Obviously music that has lyrics will almost automatically engage listening and thinking about the content. It is possible to allow the words to just pass through awareness without thought or analysis. Advanced meditators can do this, but, this is very difficult. For most people lyrics in music will interfere with meditation. I would recommend avoiding it.

Music that does not contain lyrics is a more complex case. There is neuropsychological evidence that music engages the same neural systems involved in speech processing. So, music may be likened to a form of non-symbolic speech. When envisioned in this way it suggests that even music without lyrics may be detrimental to meditation.

Music also may be highly engaging. Awareness becomes totally occupied with the music itself, a completely external stimulus. This interferes with observing the present moment in regards to internal and other external stimuli. So, it would be detrimental to any open monitoring form of meditation.

Meditation with music appears to heighten the enjoyment of the music and is very pleasant. As such, it can be viewed as a distractor which allows one to escape ones present moment experience. So, it would seem reasonable to conclude that listening to music while meditating would enhance the appreciation of the music, but interfere with meditation.

This conclusion is probably true for the vast majority of meditators. But, like everything, it probably isn’t for some, particularly highly practiced meditators who can remain unattached to the music. This is quite difficult.

So, the recommendation is to enjoy music and enjoy meditation, but not at the same time.

CMCS