Enjoying Music is negative?
I have a question about one of the precept vows I found on your website. The eight one: to refrain from “Wearing jewellery, cosmetics or perfume, enjoying music or TV” I do not fully understand why this things have to be refrained from. especially since I have been playing guitar since I was a little boy, the refraining from enjoying music doesn’t seem to me like something I would want to do. It doesn’t seem like something like enjoying music would create negative karma.
Please explain to vow to me -From Mark
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Dear Mark,
All humans have a perception of things. That perception may not be the reality of an object. The object itself has no real reality. the object cannot fulfill or not fulfill our perceptions. It all comes from our side and our side alone. But our perceptions of it and how we react to it may have adverse effects or positive.
Some people may see money as:
1. A way to benefit the sick
2. To buy status
3. To have security
4. To Take care of parents/family
5. To travel
6. To have a good life
7. Etc, etc, etc..
So because of the different views towards money, what money actually is, is empty… But our perception of money and what it can do will make us perhaps:
1. Work hard
2. Be sneaky
3. Steal
4. Start a business
5. Study harder
6. lie
7. Beg
8. Etc, etc, etc.
With the vows, some of the vows apply more to one individual than to another.
Everyone has their own hang ups, perceptions and upbringing. So when we take the vows, it is not playing music is negative, but our attachment to it is. So if the vows says you can’t play music and you get upset, that is the point of the vow…LOL. Why do you get upset? Because you can’t have what you think makes YOU happy? Why is it if you don’t have music you are unhappy? Why does that disturb you? Why is that ‘upsetting’. These questions are for contemplations to understand the workings of the mind better. When you understand your mind better, you can overcome wrong perceptions and all the problems we make arising from it….
So the vows are not suppose to stop you from enjoying what you like or labelling it negative..It is more the perception of what you like. The vows help you to step back and see the reality of your attachments, likes, dislikes, activities and where they bring you….
I hope this helps.
And keep the music playing please…
Tsem Rinpoche
Dear Rinpoche,
I really enjoyed reading your response to such a fantastic question. I was asked the same question by a friend of mine when she asked me about the kind of vows monks take. I couldn’t give an insightful answer as yours (I had no clear understanding myself at the time), but I could understand why people see these things as an endeavour to limit enjoyment and restrict having fun.
In fact, I’ve just this morning read a chapter in the book “god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” where the author suggests that ALL religion relies on encouraging servitude among its followers and they most effectively do this by discouraging everything that is natural to humans and encouraging what is not (e.g. sex is evil, obedience and surrender to the masters is wonderful).
However, as you clearly point out, listening to music isn’t bad within itself, nor (I presume) is sex or even consuming alcohol. Thanks to your explanation, I think I understand it a little better now. We rely on these kinds of things to the point of distraction where our minds constantly focus on the external pleasures and attachments, rather than focusing inwards in order to achieve a better understanding of ourselves.
Even if the author of the book would claim you brainwash your students, or that any teacher aspires to the same aim, it’s easily disproved. If having lots of sex, listening constantly to music and getting drunk brought happiness, then – quite simply – why don’t these things bring happiness? In enjoying material things in abundance is the way to true lasting happiness, the majority of the word would be in blissful states. But it’s not.
The ideal, it would seem, would be to establish a balance, but a lot of people are unable to do this (myself included, needless to say). If one could listen to music but not be so attached to it or rely upon it for one’s happiness, or if one could drink or have sex in a way that these things don’t end up “owning” you, there wouldn’t be so much of a problem, if we could simply take or leave these things as they are.
But desire is insatiable. And all the while, in the futile attempt to satisfy our desires, we seem to be pulled further and further from gaining an understanding of our true selves and perhaps this is why these vows are in place – to allow us to hit the pause button for a time, stop, and reflect on who we really are?
Thank you again for your response to Mark’s great question, Rinpoche – it’s always a pleasure to find new areas of contemplation.
Kind regards,
Sandy
Hi Sandy, I am very much in agreement in what you have just shared here. And perhaps the very reason why many do not want to engage in a spiritual path, or take up a faith is because of all the mis-conception that religions poison everything. Big words like renounciation could very easily scare most people away.
It is great that these questions are raised by Mark and Tsem Rinpoche gave such a clear and thought provoking answer.
I particularly like when you relate this to taking vows or why the vows are in place to help practitioners, like a pause button, allowing us to stop and reflect on ourselves.
We all need many pause buttons….
Rinpoche’s response is very eloquently put and true.
If Mark is reading then I’d like to point out for him that it is typical (for people like us at least) to just take the first five precepts (no killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct, drinking), except on special Buddhist holidays, therefore it is not “required” to refrain from eating after noon, not listening to music, and so forth, so no reason to be worried in the first place.
Also in my own experience I was VERY into music and still am. However in the past few years I found myself refraining from listening to music until around 6 pm, as it made my mind distracted, more prone towards suffering, moving from one object to another, etc. So it was a personal choice not a vow in this instance.
Here is one of my favorite “poems” from The Wheel of Sharp Weapons which Rinpoche told me to read:
“(112) When musicians are playing a beautiful melody,
Should we examine the sound they are making
We would see that it does not exist by itself.
But when we’re not making our formal analysis,
Still there’s a beautiful tune to be heard,
Which is merely a label on notes and on players
That’s why lovely music can lighten sad hearts.
(113) When we closely examine effects and their causes,
We see that they both lack inherent existence:
They can’t stand alone, either whole or apart,
Yet there seem to exist independently rising
And falling events, which, in fact, are conditioned
By various forces, components and parts.
It is this very level on which we experience
Birth and our death and whatever life brings.
So please, in this world of appearances only,
Let’s always be sure what we do is of virtue
And shun all those acts that would cause us great pain.”
Also the rest of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons is here: http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/sutra/level3_lojong_material/specific_texts/wheel_sharp_weapons_dharmarakshita/wheel_sharp_weapons/wheel_sharp_weapons.html
Thank you Rinpoche for the blog post. I like how elaborate and direct the answers are. Rinpoche is always so skillful in answering questions. We are so blessed to be able to ask questions and have them answered by Rinpoche! Thank you Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for the explanation, it really made me think and contemplate on all my attachments.. it’s time to step back and look inward..
Thank you again.
With folded hands
Siong Woan
Yes every human being has perceptions of things, it is the mind that exerts the greatest influence on us. Fromthe core of our being we simply desire contentment. Contentment is the happiness in doing things that we like without limit. Contentment however big or small is always dictated by the mind. Of course it would be wise to establish a limitation of balance to whatever we do, but how many willbe able to achieve such a controllable habit. Hence, we have to devise an effective means to control our innermost mind to obiediently adhere to such a control. As practicioners of Buddhist faith, we believe vows are the most effective means to subdue our minds. Like our Guru said, vows are not to stop us from enjoying what we are doing, but purely to help us to step back to see the reality of our attachments, to overcome our wrong perceptions and impose a “balance of limitation”. Vows, therefore are in place to be used as push-buttons to check, examine and reflect our ourselves. Thank you, Rinpoche, once again for your valuable and wonderful teachings.
I noticed that whenever I am unhappy or down I listen to music. Other times when I am okay I don’t listen to music. Does this mean music is used as a distraction for my mind? The mind is seeking a place of relief from unhappiness? In music certain chords bring the feeling of lightness and high energy, while certain chords bring the feeling of heaviness and low energy. A not so attached mind is a peaceful and happy mind. External circumstances don’t bring the mind down or unhappy. So it doesn’t need that much music for self absorption?