Another sit. I notice that what often takes me away is a piece of music. An earworm. These are more persistent for me than any sort of story-based thought. Yet they quickly become the soundtrack for mental images - music-video style. And once the images come, the stories begin, and I'm off to Japan in my mind.
In fact, my earworms are SO persistent that the effort of re-focusing away from them towards breath can become a once-every-three-seconds activity. Which can often seem similar to pushing away, choking off etc. Which is not helpful to the intention of peacefully abiding with the breath.
I wonder if this phenomenon is more pronounced in musicians?
Sometimes I deliberately use tunes or songs as a mind-focus aid. Like when I'm out running - in my head I sing a particular thing over and over, in time with my running, and it keeps me going. Once I spent most of a three week camping holiday in Wales trying to juggle singing 'I want to be in America' from West Side Story in my head. It's repeated so often that rather than being a distraction it's the focus through which the rest of my brain empties. Does that make sense? So I think songs/tunes can be a useful tool in that way to keep your brain on one repetitive thing. I don't know as much as you about meditation, but I think for me using songs/tunes in that way means they're not something to fight, but something to work with and I wonder if that could apply to meditation too??
ReplyDeleteAlso,not exactly relevant, but related: I think I do my best 'meditation' when I'm playing the fiddle. If it's the right tune (something rolling and repetitive, something that I know really well and can play without thinking about) I can play it for ages, round and round, and I find my brain has switched off entirely, but doesn't fill up with crap. Just rides along with the music. That's about the closest I think I get to achieving what meditation aims to achieve. Wrong method, cool result!
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