Earworms

General discussion of issues related to Theravada Meditation, e.g. meditation postures, developing a regular sitting practice, skillfully relating to difficulties and hindrances, etc.
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lostitude
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Earworms

Post by lostitude »

Hello,

I'm sorry if this issue has already been discussed. I tried a search but almost all results led me to the 'which music are you listening to' thread.

I have always been extremely prone to musical 'earworms'. I found this to be an annoyance even before starting meditation. For some time I thought that quitting all music would make things better, but no. Even when I try to wean myself, or especially when I deprive myself of all music, simply walking past a shop and hearing 5-6 seconds of a tune will make it stick in my head, precisely because I hadn't heard any music in a while.

This is my biggest distraction when I try to meditate. I keep playing portions of songs in my head, especially the irritating songs I find stupid.
My first reaction was to try and observe the song as I would a regular thought, but it doesn't work, because when I start observing it, it draws me into this spiral of music which has this hypnotic effect that makes me lose all focus. It's like a fishing net I get entangled in.

Has anyone had serious trouble with this? How did you cope? Do you find it effective to avoid listening to music, or does it really make things worse, as my own experience seems to suggest in my case?

Thanks...
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Goofaholix
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Re: Earworms

Post by Goofaholix »

As long as you consider it a problem, distraction, annoyance you'll continue to feed it. Just notice it's happening and you can't control it, it's just like sounds.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
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Sam Vara
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Re: Earworms

Post by Sam Vara »

Yes, it's a very common problem. This is from Ajahn Sucitto:
Before I went to Thailand I’d been very fond of music, I
listened to it all the time. For the fi rst year or so when I was
living in the monastery every time I’d sit down I’d hear music
in my head — continually — until I hated it. But I couldn’t make
it go away. Eventually after about a year and a half of non-stop
noise in my head and fi ghting with it, and gradually cooling
down about it all, it began to die away. By the time I came to
England, my mind had cleared out, like a squeezed sponge.
But then one day I was walking down a street and there was
some music playing and my ear picked it up. I could feel the
experience of consciousness dancing around the music, so
much that it was difficult not to start physically dancing. The
mind was gyrating, stimulated by this auditory experience
and the consciousness fl uctuating with it. So I explored; I
listened deliberately and tried to go to what the sound really
was — and when I focussed very strongly on the sound, the
music and the listener stopped!
The music was dependent on a particular mode of
attention whereby consciousness wasn’t held clearly, fi rmly
or incisively onto an object, it was allowed to play on it. The
experience of music was this playing: not an external experience
nor an internal experience but the two coming together.
And I really saw that what one could do something about was
the stirring of consciousness, the stirring of the mind and
moods — when that stopped, the music stopped. There was
still the sound but it was empty, it was hollow. That was very
signifi cant for me because then that was it as far as music went.
I could see that the music was just the movement of the mind.
We can allow that movement to happen if we want to, but its
reality, its ability to grip, fades.
http://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-content/upl ... ucitto.pdf

Personally, this phenomenon lessened for me when I stopped listening to music so much. In dealing with the problem directly during meditation, two techniques helped. Most importantly, when I developed a stronger concentration, the meditation object (the breath, in my case) became more interesting than mere memories of sounds. Secondly, I reflected upon the nature of this phenomenon. It is just a memory. It has even decayed from the original hearing quite a bit - the tape playing in my mind would not pass muster for public listening! As such, I asked myself whether this particular hindrance was stronger or more real than my meditation object, and began to conclude that it was not.
Laurens
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Re: Earworms

Post by Laurens »

I used to get this a lot. In essence the song in your head is not a problem. Its just the memory of a song! It can't harm you. The problem is that when you sit down to meditate you think it ought to bring you a still, quiet mind. So when you find that its like a party in there with songs you don't even like playing loud, the tendency is to want to go in and tell everyone to be quiet. They respond by saying "who is that grumpy person?!" and they turn it up louder. Then you get more frustrated and it goes on and on.

Its like trying to stop ripples in water by stomping on them. You just make more. Its way easier said than done, but what you have to do is accept whatever is on your mind and let go. The ripples will calm themselves. I always tell myself that whatever comes up in my mind during meditation is fine and actually interesting. Since having that attitude I can't remember the last time I was troubled by a song in my head.
"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

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binocular
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Re: Earworms

Post by binocular »

I've had this too, but it has lessened over time.

I think this phenomenon of having earworms really is all about moods and one's outlook on life; the music is just incidental to it.

To me, a song represents a particular mood, a particular outlook on life. Sometimes, this has directly to do with the lyrics or the context of a song (like the scene it was used in in a film), but other times, not so much. Hence the whole concept of "a soundtrack for your life." Sometimes, some songs (or commercial jongles!) represent aversion to life for me, and I hear them in my head when I am in an aversive mood.

If I then focus on clarifying to myself what that mood is, the song in my head either goes away or lessens. I can then also check myself to assess whether the mood I was in with the song is a wholesome one or not.
Although I've noticed that I can't always offer to myself a better alternative to that mood (linked in my head to some song), this is why the song sticks.

I think that if I were able to develop a 100% consistent positive outlook on life, the music in my head would stop.
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
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bodom
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Re: Earworms

Post by bodom »

This is my biggest distraction when I try to meditate. I keep playing portions of songs in my head...
Just hit the pause button in your mind. :tongue:

Seriously though I am a music fanatic myself and often find songs playing in my mind when trying to sit. I will usually talk to myself and say something like:

"I am here to mediate. This is the time to focus on the breath and nothing else. I don't get very much time to meditate so I must let go of every other thought not connected to the meditation object. I must use this time wisely and not allow my mind to wander. I must put forth effort to pacify my mind. I can listen to music later but for the time being I am here to meditate."

Talking to myself and rousing right effort in this manner is usually enough to overcome the distracting thoughts and then it is easier to return to the breath.

:namaste:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
User156079
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Re: Earworms

Post by User156079 »

just meditate on it, "hearing, hearing" it is a valid experience
JohnK
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Re: Earworms

Post by JohnK »

Perhaps helpful (to someone).
From Small Boat, Great Mountain, by Ajahn Amaro (PP. 66-68).
https://www.abhayagiri.org/books/small- ... t-mountain
Is the Sound Annoying You?
In this respect, it’s again striking to me how closely the language
of the Dzogchen teachings matches the kind of expressions used
by the Thai forest masters. These are exactly the kinds of teachings
they dwell on and employ a great deal, particularly my own
teacher, Ajahn Chah.
If people were trying to meditate and wanted to shut the world
out, he used to give them a very hard time. If he came across a
nun or a monk who had barricaded the windows of their heart
and was trying to block everything out, he would really put them
through it. One monk of this type he drew in as his attendant for
a while and he would never let him sit still. As soon as he saw
the monk close his eyes to “go into meditation” he would imme-
diately send him off on some errand. Ajahn Chah knew that cutting
yourself off was not the place of true inner peace. This was
because of his own years of trying to make the world shut up and
leave him alone. He failed miserably. Eventually he was able to
see this is not how to find completion and resolution.
Years ago he was a wandering monk, living on his own on
a mountainside above a village and keeping a strict meditation
schedule. In Thailand they love outdoor night-long film shows
because the nights are cool compared to the very hot days.
Whenever there was a party, it tended to go on all night. About
50 years ago, public address systems were just starting to be used
in Thailand and every decent event had to have a PA going. It
blasted as loud as it possibly could all through the night. One
time, Ajahn Chah was quietly meditating up on the mountain
while there was a festival going on down in the village. All the
local folk songs and pop music were amplified throughout the
area. Ajahn Chah was sitting there seething and thinking, “Don’t
they realize all the bad karma involved in disturbing my meditation?
They know I’m up here. After all, I’m their teacher. Haven’t
they learned anything? And what about the five precepts? I bet
they’re boozing and out of control,” and so on and so forth.
But Ajahn Chah was a pretty smart fellow. As he listened to
himself complaining, he quickly realized, “Well, they’re just having
a good time down there. I’m making myself miserable up here.
No matter how upset I get, my anger is just making more noise
internally.” And then he had this insight: “Oh, the sound is just
the sound. It’s me who is going out to annoy it. If I leave the sound
alone, it won’t annoy me. It’s just doing what it has to do. That’s
what sound does. It makes sound. This is its job. So if I don’t go
out and bother the sound, it’s not going to bother me. Aha!”
As it turned out, this insight had such a profound effect that
it became a principle that he espoused from that time on. If any
of the monks displayed an urge to try and get away from people,
stimulation, the world of things and responsibilities, he would
tend to shove them straight into it. He would put that monk in
charge of the cement-mixing crew or take him to do every house
blessing that came up on the calendar. He would make sure that
the monk had to get involved in things because he was trying
to teach him to let go of seeing meditation as needing sterile
conditions—to see, in fact, that most wisdom arises from the
skilful handling of the world’s abrasions.
Ajahn Chah was passing along an important insight. It’s
pointless to try to find peace through nullifying or erasing the
sense world. Peace only comes through not giving that world
more substantiality or more reality than it actually possesses.
Those who grasp at perceptions & views wander the internet creating friction. [based on Sn4:9,v.847]
SarathW
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Re: Earworms

Post by SarathW »

Goofaholix wrote:As long as you consider it a problem, distraction, annoyance you'll continue to feed it. Just notice it's happening and you can't control it, it's just like sounds.
:goodpost:
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
SarathW
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Re: Earworms

Post by SarathW »

Has anyone had serious trouble with this? How did you cope? Do you find it effective to avoid listening to music, or does it really make things worse, as my own experience seems to suggest in my case?
This is just Vitakka and Vicara.
Do not exercise attachment or aversion for it.
Just observe and keep continue to bring your attention to the breath.
Vitakka and Vicara stop at second Jhana.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Shaucha
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Re: Earworms

Post by Shaucha »

Some sounds are good, some are bad, what are you going to do ? :lol:

This is part of what developing concentration allows for, is a way for us to protect our minds from these proliferations.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu has said, 'In meditation, you must be able to say no to every thought that comes up, it's your first line of defense.'

If you are unable to hold your concentration, then go back to watching the breath, and build from there.

Such experiences are normal, and you simply need to work through them.
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