Who seeks me by form,
Who seeks me by sound,
Perverted are his footsteps on the way;
For he cannot perceive the Tathagata.
The Diamond Sutra, The Buddha
There are a number of products out there that claim to work on the brain to produce deepened meditation or enlightenment. One came in my mailbox yesterday claiming Discover how to meditate deeper than a zen monk in just five minutes – without years of practice, or hours of boring meditation CDs – by using a secret shortcut you can’t find anywhere else.
How do they promise to achieve this? Through sound.
Binaural beat recordings use specially generated sounds to alter your brainwaves. Using our research skills and the latest computer technology, we have produced the following range of binaural beat CDs, allowing you to quickly and easily enter states of creativity, relaxation, or pure energy! These are the highest quality, most professional Binaural Beats products available anywhere.
Maybe it works. I don’t know. In fact, I don’t know anything much to be completely honest, but it does strike me as strange trying to liberate ourselves from form by using form.
Seems like an oxymoron to me.
This kind of binaural beat meditation tape was the first time I was actually able to get meditation to work. Before that, I never could quiet my racing mind.
I used audio files from Kelly Howell, but there are lots of similar things out there. For some people, including me, this kind of thing is a real lifesaver.
Today I really don’t need these tapes in order to meditate well, but if you have any friends who have tried to meditate but couldn’t do it for some reason, have them try something like this.