Is music mostly a distraction from truly listening to your own thoughts....

[Engage]

...and calming the turbulent waters of the mind, or even just being fully present in the moment, in your head?

I used to not own a tv or desktop or any of the million gadgets I'm currently surrounded by.
I used to meditate a lot more. I'm not blaming the inanimate objects (they are most merciful, they are most merciful!!)
But, I find I always seem to have the cable news, or the radio, or some *noise* on lately.
Also, just wondering, mainly, after I turn it all off, what's the point of it?

Is it just a distraction from looking within?

 

[webbykevin]

How long can you spend looking within until it gets totally boring ?, what happens on the outside is the same as what happens on the inside, you can't have an inside without an outside.

So in that sense the point of being alive IS being alive, tasting and experiencing everying that is spontaiously happening on front of consciousness. Effortlessly, do you use any effort listening ? or watching ? be it listening and watching your own inner thoughts and feelings as they arise and dissapear from the void or watching and listening to the so called "outside" world, none of it takes any effort.

It's when you start seperating the inside from the ouside in your mind that all the trouble starts.

There is no right or wrong, there just is.

 

[Engage]

How long can you spend looking within until it gets totally boring ?

Less and less... that was kinda my point.
Sorry for not making that clear.

The rest of your post is just:

But, in a good way.

I mean if there's no difference between inside and outside, why can't anyone hear my thoughts?
And if the inside and the outside are the same, why ask me how long I can look inside without getting bored?
Your post suffers from internal inconsistency, seems to me. And, inside/outside is all kinda beside the point.

But, thanks for answering, I'll certainly take your counsel to .

Basically, I just know many people, myself included, that get 'caught up' collecting music and always listening to nonsense.
And their lives (I'm projecting here, but it's okay, don't tell no one, shhh) would be better off focusing their energy on awareness of self, awareness of their bodies, awareness of their immediate surrounding, and calm, lucid, undistracted thought about their lives.

As opposed to constant noise in the background that 1/2 your conscious mind is listening to.
Or that 2/2 of your mind is listening to. If it's shit music. lol. Or really anything that takes
your attention for a ride and doesn't allow for exercise in focused awareness.

You only have so many hours on Earth, choose wisely.
'A man who dares waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.' Charles Darwin
86400 seconds in a day

This is what I'm thinking. Wondering if anyone else feels the same.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Music and language are surprisingly similar phenomena, modern psychology tells us. Some even suggest the line between them is blurry, and the fact is they're processed in adjacent regions of the brain, such that someone good at one tends to be good at the other. Music, like language, has a powerful way of entraining our emotional states. I don't see a huge difference between someone who puts on a book-on-CD or a recording of a captivating speaker, and someone who pops on their favorite Pandora channel. Both are aiming for a certain emotional and mental state. Within living memory (barely), there was no such thing as a recording. Hearing either language or music meant that someone was telling you something in person or playing a tune right in front of you. It was easy to see that music was essentially a form of non verbal (or para-verbal) communication. It's easy to forget that now.

So no, I don't think it can be said that music is mostly a distraction from your own thoughts. It's more correct to say that music is a catalyst for your own thoughts. The music you hear becomes an ingredient in the mix, a stimulus that promotes your thoughts to wander in certain directions more readily than others. Your thoughts are still your thoughts, just the same.

There are certain thoughtful activities that are not enhanced by any of the music I enjoy, I find. I could never study anything requiring a lot of precise rote memorization with music on, unless it's soft ambient soundscapes like darkdrone, or something along those lines. I can comprehend essays or express my thoughts in writing while listening to melodic music, so long as has no lyrics. Music with lyrics is for times when I'm driving or doing something else that requires little intense thought.

If you think your friends waste their lives with shitty music, you might want to ask yourself how they're using that music to guide their inner narrative. Maybe you don't like their music because you really don't relate to the way they like to think and process the world.

 

[Engage]

Perhaps Pandora channels, people talking, etc. also distract from inner thoughts?

Other than that I tend to agree, I think it may have something to do with the type of music as well.
Some music, I think, helps relax me and may even guide me to certain meditative states.

When I'm really, really concentrating on something though,
blitz chess for instance, all music must be silenced
for optimum focus.

Thanks for answering,
Ciao.

 

[capstone]

As always, MDAO, you said better than I ever could.

 

[-=SS=-]

I spent 3 years working a dead end job where I could listen to my iPod all day. By the end of it I had gotten REALLY bored of all my music. I exhausted the magic out of all of my favourite songs.. imagine listening to Echoes by Pink Floyd and not being moved by it, or a piece of great classical music and feeling nothing. Then I took a break from music overload.. the magic came back again

My point is, I think music is supposed to be used like a psychedelic should be used. Sparingly, and at the right time. Our brains are not ment to be bombared with music (or entheogens) all the time. Silence is necessary for our health, much like sleep is. And when you take a break then listen to a piece again it has SO much more impact. I could also make a similar connection between not having an orgasm for a week/month and then releasing.. it feels that much more awesome.

In the modern age we desire constant stimulation from music, tv, computers, because our lives have become so hectic and full of nonsense and we our surrounded by hypocrisy, lies, madness.. we need the noise to drown out the sound of our mind which is constantly reminding us of these facts.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

You make a good point, SS. But I'd say the key phrase is on my iPod. I think there are definitely diminishing returns from listening to the same recording of the same song. But I don't think that's the case with different versions performed at different times. I think of groups of African women singing songs as they grind grain, or field workers in the American South singing lengthy rounds of call-and-response as they toil. These kinds of songs are always familiar and sometimes downright repetitive. But they're never performed exactly the same twice, and there's a social element to singing them that keeps them fresh. You don't really get that with studio-produced recordings.

I think this is part of the appeal of live recordings. I personally don't like live recordings of any kind -- call me shallow, but I'm a sucker for that crisp, polished studio sound, no matter the genre. But if you're a big fan of an artist, and that artist has a limited repertoire, live (and by nature, different) versions of the same songs help keep fans from getting bored before the artist can release new material.

Sometimes if I've gotten in the habit of always doing something with music on (such as driving, or going to the gym), I'll do it in silence every now and then. This helps me appreciate it better when the music returns, and also gives me renewed appreciation for the activity itself, without an extra stimulus.