Although our response and emotional connection with specific pieces of music is a highly personal, evocative one, there are some universal truths which explain the sheer force of it. If you listen to a lot of dance music, that may be quite easy to imagine! You see, as Dr Williamson explains, one of the reasons we form such a deeply personal connection with music is that every single song is slightly different in everyone's individual memorised version.
Our memory in general, she says, is far from faultless: "It's not a perfect record of what we've been exposed to in the world. It's a creation, it's a composition. It's our own improvisation based on a mixture of what we've actually experienced, blended with our own mental capabilities, understanding and knowledge.
For example, when you think of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, perhaps you hear the iconic bassline more than you actually do on the released version. Maybe you focus more on the snappy keyboard stabs, the gut-busting vocals or that instantly recognisable compressed drum track which was made unique by using strategically placed planks of wood, incidentally.
Whatever you hear in your head, one thing is for certain: you will experience some parts more, less, or differently to the song that was actually recorded. You've personalised it in some way, and so has everyone else who's ever heard the track. Think about that for a second: it means every single song that's ever been released has been effectively re-recorded in our minds millions and millions of times in the case of massive hits like Billie Jean, billions — each version is completely unique to somebody somewhere.
And, she says, "Just like all memories, music memories are rarely single-sense entities. It is known in the scientific literature as the " Darling, they're playing our tune" phenomenon. One person's perfect wedding song could be another person's chosen funeral march. Sometimes one person might want the same song to perform both those functions Whilst we all our have our own personal playlist, some songs are of course more popular than others, and this is certainly true of funeral music.
Dr Williamson explains that this is because "to the best of our knowledge, every society in our history has used music as commemoration," therefore some songs have "reached a level of societal validation and understanding as emblems of remembrance". Popular choices, like My Way, are repeated in certain circumstances which have a strong emotional resonance for many people.
Of course the construction of a song will often lend it to being a popular choice in these situations.
Taking My Way as an example, the defiant lyrics, strong set of minor chords, and traditionally swelling production all make it a logical choice for emotional occasions like funerals. In this way, a lifelong Liverpool fan, having sung the emotionally charged You'll Never Walk Alone every week for decades, might be quite likely to choose that song for their own send-off.
All of this emotional resonance is fascinating but why, you may ask, does it happen from a scientific point of view? Dr Williamson says that the brain's connection to music is an incredibly complicated one. When we hear music, it activates multiple areas of the brain — but crucially, it activates the limbic system, at the heart of our brain.
This system includes the hippocampus, which deals with memory, and the amygdala, "our little emotional button". This is one of the main reasons why music transports you in time and triggers emotions. And, because the activity in the limbic system largely bypasses the complex cerebral outer areas of the brain, music doesn't need conscious reflection or critical analysis in order to trigger feelings.
Photo by Jake Hills. The four steps to magical powers are also called by such names as the four steps to the power of ubiquity, the four steps to unlimited power, and the four kinds of samadhi. This is a mind that is master of itself, free and at ease. It is because we are usually not the masters of our own mind.
Both habits contribute to our not gaining control of our lives. Constantly faced with problems, our life is filled with adversity. Not being able to control our mind, we let small problems become big problems; not being able to reach our goals, we are ill at ease. However, with correct practice we can gradually eliminate these obstacles and more will happen according to our expectations.
The Mahayana path to buddhahood can be likened to a journey of five stages. In the first stage, we gather the provisions we will need for the journey. In terms of the path, this means practicing the four foundations of mindfulness and the four proper exertions. This stage consists of practicing the four steps to magical powers, and it is characterized by the four enhanced phenomena. The third stage is realizing dhyana jhana in Pali ,[2] whereby one directly perceives that the true nature of the self is that of a buddha.
This is the stage of the arhat, or saint. The fourth stage is to actualize the bodhisattva path, in which one practices dhyana to realize samadhi and wisdom. This enables one to use skillful means to deliver sentient beings; that is, to help them enter or follow the path. The fifth stage of the journey is complete liberation in buddhahood. Before talking about the four steps to magical powers, I want to briefly describe the four enhanced phenomena of warmth , summit , forbearance , and supreme in the world.
These phenomena grow out of the practice of the four steps and validate that one has planted them as virtuous roots. Forbearance means that one will not bring harm to oneself or others. Supreme in the world means that one has transcended worldliness and is approaching the stage of an arhat. Another misunderstanding is that having had a glimpse of enlightenment, one no longer has vexations.
The truth is that only when wisdom and dhyana arise together are we at a stage where we will not bring vexation to ourselves or others. Until then, though we may be at ease with a joyous mind, we are not yet liberated because we are still attached to the idea of a self.
To attain the summit level is not really that high, but it is still very good. It speaks of spiritual power, and it is at this level that we begin to practice the riddhipada , steps to magical power. It is possible to generate two kinds of powers through practice. The first is supernatural powers through which one can transcend ordinary physical limitations; for example, the ability to transport oneself to different places and times, to perform alchemy, or to become invisible.
If you were invisible, you could take whatever you wanted and not get caught. I guess you could call it magical stealing. One could become rich without working. But if you had such supernatural powers, would you use them that way? I think not. These are not the kinds of powers one would use on the dhyana path. The second kind of power one can generate is freedom and ease of mind.
To attain that state we practice dhyana, which is the reason these practices are also called the four kinds of samadhi. There are differences between the non-Buddhist and the Buddhist practices of samadhi. However, coming out of samadhi, one will again experience wandering thoughts and vexation. So life is good in samadhi but not so good out of it. The Buddhist approach is different because we first practice the four foundations of mindfulness and the four proper exertions.
Through these contemplations we generate wisdom. Whether or not we enter samadhi, we can still use this wisdom to lessen our vexations and reduce conflicts and contradictions within our mind. This is why we begin with the four foundations and four proper exertions. But this does not mean that someone who perceives buddhanature is no longer subject to vexation. After experiencing buddhanature for the first time, one still has habits and propensities that can lead to impure thoughts and impure conduct; greed and aversion may still arise.
At that point it becomes very important to practice samadhi. To summarize, in the stages of practice toward enlightenment, we cultivate wisdom through contemplation, and when wisdom arises, we practice samadhi to develop freedom and ease of mind. This is the kind of power we want to develop through the four steps to magical powers, not supernatural powers. The first step to magical powers is chanda — riddhipada , concentration of desire; the second is virya — riddhipada , concentration of exertion, or diligence; the third is citta — riddhipada , concentration of mind; and the fourth is mimamsa — riddhipada concentration of inquiry, or investigation.
Chanda is the intense desire to attain the supreme and wondrous dhyana. On the one hand it can mean greed, but as a step to concentrative power chanda also denotes a hope or vow. The will to attain the supreme dhyana is the best antidote to laziness. So when you are practicing and begin to feel lazy, please give rise to the aspiration to attain the supreme dhyana. Do these vexations have enduring existence? If you contemplate them deeply, you will see that vexatious thoughts are all indeed illusory.
Since they are illusory, why be attached to them? You then realize that you suffer because of your attachments to vexations. So the more we observe the mind and the more we realize that our vexations are illusory, the more we can let them go.
In this practice, we remind ourselves that wandering thoughts arise because of our attachments and cause vexations. All of our thoughts, as long as there is attachment, are wandering thoughts. When you see that wandering thoughts are caused by vexation and also cause more vexation, you therefore see that you should not attach to them and will learn to let them go.
Gradually the wandering thoughts will subside and your mind will become clearer and more stable, thus enabling dhyana. Concentration of diligence, or exertion, means one is equipped with a strong vow to attain the supreme dhyana, and, therefore, one diligently applies the method of practice.
Virya is diligence in dealing with the wandering thoughts that arise, whether they are thoughts of the past, present, or future. As for the present, thoughts come and go ceaselessly, and when we attach to them, they become wandering thoughts. However, thoughts of the past and future are also wandering thoughts, since the past is gone and the future is yet to be. All wandering thoughts, whether they relate to the past, the present, or the future, are illusory, so we just let them go.
When we are diligent in letting go of thoughts of the past, not giving rise to thoughts of the future, and stopping thoughts in the present, we eventually enter the single-minded state of nonabiding. Citta is being mindful of your intent to practice.
You need to be on guard against laziness, drowsiness, and scattered mind. You need to be aware that these states cause vexation and that they are the reasons we cannot attain liberation.
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