So I’ve been diving a bit more in to music for Yoga as well as Mantra set to music and most of the powerful music I’m coming up with is from Kundalini yoga. I was wondering which songs the teachers and students on here are using.
Also - Are there musicians related to AYP Yoga as there are for Kundalini Yoga? If not, I wonder if anyone here has recorded their own music or is using AI to make music that would be wonderful for our classes and personal practice.
In AYP, most techniques involve the introversion of senses, so that deliberately adding music or sounds during sitting practices might reduce their effectiveness:
Along my path to discovering meditation and yoga, I was drawn to certain types of sounds produced by gongs and singing bowls. Listening to such sounds can induce deep relaxation and a meditative state, without doing anything special besides listening. Those sounds are very difficult to record and to play back, and a lot is lost during recording and playback. So they are best experienced live. But here is one excellent recording of singing bowls:
So outside your normal sitting practice, if you want to try it out, I would recommend listening to it (preferably with some good headphones) following the Deep Meditation procedure, but replacing the mantra with these external sounds. So, you easily favor the sounds with your awareness, and whenever you realize you’re not gently favoring them, you gently return to easily favoring the sounds with your awareness.
Unlike the mantra, physical external sound lacks the ability to naturally refine in the mind to stillness. Yet, somehow these sounds (through their intrinsic characteristics and also through the special way the bowls are played) still make me feel “at home”, a feeling I know otherwise only from Deep Meditation.
I mostly use the tracks on insight timer to go to sleep to. I find the singing bowls, rain and waves sounds can help to induce deep states as I fall to sleep.
I don’t use any music during meditation, but outside of meditation I experiment with bajans and with drumming. I’ve recently discovered that drumming can alter your state of consciousness, in fact drumming is and has been used all over the world in just about every culture in order to induce deep states whereby one can commune with the unconscious.
I am careful not to overdo these practices as they can interfere with my regular AYP practice.
I’ve found music to be extremely powerful for Asana sets as well as in regular life. Parts of our awakening require them. What I love about kundalini yoga is how many musicians have made wonderful music from the inspiration of the practice. I also include Japji as an option as it’s practically sung.
Meditation is different, it depends on the type.
What I wanted to know was who here, who is teaching maybe, has found a good music set that really pulls in the prana and kundalini deeper into the practice? I find that when I meet with teachers and help them grow and heal that often we swap tips and other tools, and wanted us to have more of an open discussion around this and maybe uncover where we could go deeper. I know with AI music we could make many things and include the traditional mantra here for pure enlightenment but also include those that fall under the full yoga umbrella as it relates.
I’ve found the chanting & Gandarva veda available on the Maharishi app to be effective. Not for use during practices; but as a refresh at other times during the day.
Dear J,
AYP techniques offered here are all for turning inwards with no external aid (or distractions). So AYP does not recommend music or chanting for the daily sitting practices. The mantra “I AM” chosen for deep meditation is used for its vibrational effect. Thus, we do appreciate the value of sound and impact music can have in our neurobiological system.
I love such a wide range of music that either uplifts you into ecstasies or drops you into deep Silence, it is hard to start listing.
Allow me to pull the conversation into a slightly different direction. Has anyone noticed how some sounds deepen Silence and others disturb Silence? The roar of the ocean, the sound of crickets deepen Silence, the gliding wings of a blird, yet the cawing of a mynah bird disturbs Silence.
