music and the spiritual

ISFP · 04-11-2004, 08:20 PM

personally, what connections do you draw between music and spirituality?

do you incorporate music into worship or meditation? does music inspire you or help to connect you with your religious roots?

I, Brian · 04-11-2004, 09:21 PM

Musical is a more profound language - it is the expression of pattern and meaning in the universe.

When we are immersed in silence we can forget ourselves, but when music breaks upon us we are reminded that we are alive.

ISFP · 04-12-2004, 03:43 AM

i'm always surprised and delighted by the ability of music to pull people together and dissolve self-consciousness (both in a social and spiritual way). i feel the same way, i think. that music expresses many deep, resonant things that words alone can not.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine · 04-13-2004, 09:44 PM

Zdrastvuitsye, hola, shalom, salaam, Dia dhuit, namastar ji, hej, konnichiwa, squeak, meow, :wave: ISFP.

Quote:

Originally posted by ISFP
personally, what connections do you draw between music and spirituality?

do you incorporate music into worship or meditation? does music inspire you or help to connect you with your religious roots?

I have a couple of answers to your queries, both metaphysical and non-metaphysical.

The metaphysical answer deals with the Kaballah (and NOT the one "taught" by the Kaballah Learning Center and its affiliates.) It is said that the music used in each prayer "resonates" the Tree of Life in a particular way, but I may be wrong about that since I'm not a student of Jewish mysticism (*cups hands over mouth to form a megaphone* Oh, bb!) The hassidic sects are well known for using music and dance in their prayers as well as the Sefardic people.

I find that some shamanistic practices use music to contact the spirits, too, to "alter" the shaman's state of mind (think "drumming circles" and the like.)

I personally use dance as my form of worship (nothing like a good "boogie down" to alter one's state of mind and make one more open to the spiritual world.)

I'll get more into this later since I'm running late for class and I have much more to add to my response.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

Vajradhara · 04-13-2004, 10:24 PM

Namaste all,

i've got two methods to approach this topic and i'm not sure which would be more appropos.

i incorporate music into my praxis. hmm... music tends to connote an arrangment of notes or something whereas mine isn't that. a invitation to the bell to sound that sort of thing is what we do. we use instruments to signal different phases of the practice such as beginning or ending of the meditation session, a bell invited to sound to announce the start of meal time, that sort of thing.

mantra recitation is also a form of musical praxis that is found in the Buddhist tradition. this can be, depending on ones' skill level, either an internal or external verbalising of the mantra. there are many theories about mantra practice and i won't really get into them here.. what i will say is this... the mantras of certain Buddhas are said to be primordial sounds that emmanate from the vastness of space, thus, mantras are considered to be representations of reality that compound into a verbal vibration.

04-11-2004, 08:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
ISFP Established member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Indiana, United States Posts: 242	music and the spiritual personally, what connections do you draw between music and spirituality? do you incorporate music into worship or meditation? does music inspire you or help to connect you with your religious roots?

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04-11-2004, 09:21 PM	#2 (permalink)
I, Brian Soul Rebel Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Highlands of Scotland Posts: 4,604	Musical is a more profound language - it is the expression of pattern and meaning in the universe. When we are immersed in silence we can forget ourselves, but when music breaks upon us we are reminded that we are alive.

04-12-2004, 03:43 AM	#3 (permalink)
ISFP Established member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Indiana, United States Posts: 242	i'm always surprised and delighted by the ability of music to pull people together and dissolve self-consciousness (both in a social and spiritual way). i feel the same way, i think. that music expresses many deep, resonant things that words alone can not.

04-13-2004, 10:24 PM	#5 (permalink)
Vajradhara Mod ~ Eastern Thought Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Dharmadhatu Posts: 2,667	Namaste all, i've got two methods to approach this topic and i'm not sure which would be more appropos. i incorporate music into my praxis. hmm... music tends to connote an arrangment of notes or something whereas mine isn't that. a invitation to the bell to sound that sort of thing is what we do. we use instruments to signal different phases of the practice such as beginning or ending of the meditation session, a bell invited to sound to announce the start of meal time, that sort of thing. mantra recitation is also a form of musical praxis that is found in the Buddhist tradition. this can be, depending on ones' skill level, either an internal or external verbalising of the mantra. there are many theories about mantra practice and i won't really get into them here.. what i will say is this... the mantras of certain Buddhas are said to be primordial sounds that emmanate from the vastness of space, thus, mantras are considered to be representations of reality that compound into a verbal vibration.