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Cinder
@Triquetrea
A more advanced version of this practice: Pick a song with a strong central element. A bass line, for example. Focus on this, exclusively. Clench on to it. Don't let go. During any sort of interlude, say a solo or a break, let go - and now, take in every part of the music.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
There are many ways to meditate with music, but one of my favorites is so simple that basically anyone could do it. At a starter level, pick a song you like - preferably one you really like - and just listen to it. Don't let your attention drift away. Really listen to the song.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
The key is to let the song dictate your timing. Decide when to focus and when to let go, and practice accordingly. If you do this well, and have practiced a bit, you should enter a low-grade flow state. Everything becomes very... smooth, light, effortless.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
You can expand further: introduce a kinetic element - dance, hum, bounce the rhythm on a yoga ball. And/or you can refine it: Instead of just clenching attention, try to exclude all other impressions. Hear just that part. Instead of opening to the song, open to everything.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
If you turn the dial fast enough from a sharp and deep focus to a vast and spacious awareness, you sometimes lose your sense of focus AND awareness altogether. Instead of a narrow or broad projection of awareness to objects (sensations) from a subject ("you"), you disappear.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
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@Triquetrea
I don't mean this in some mystical sense - just that the (sort of) persistent feeling of being a "you", interacting with an environment, is gone. You can't separate anything from anything else. It all becomes one big field of stuff. Your breath. The sky. That chair. Everything
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
This may sound disorienting and maybe not even desirable - and it can cause quite a bit of nausea! But it turns out feeling everything in reference to "you" is actually pretty stifling.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Have you ever spent time around someone who is probably a clinical narcissist? A Donald Trump type? You know that way they suck all the air out of the room, and everything has to gravitate around them ALL THE TIME?
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Seeing everything in reference to a sense of self is kind of like that. "Oh, stomach ache. What does this say about me? Am I stressed? Shit, it's probably about that thing Susan said. I wonder if-" Every fucking thing becomes all "me, me, me!"
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
If this goes, a sensation becomes just a sensation. A call to action or investigation, maybe, but seldom an exercise in self-torturous thought olympics
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Anyway, enough proselytizing. If you do this just for a general sense of well-being and increased awareness/improves concentration, that's fine. But if so, I'd recommend passing on the more hardcore exercises. It can become quite a trip.
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