My Meditation Tracklist

Meditation is one of the toughest jobs out there. Although from the outside, it looks so simple. Just sit silently and do nothing, I mean, how tough can that be? However, anyone who has some practice of meditation will tell you how hard the whole process is. Even if it just laying down on the bed, sitting in the chair, or a full lotus position.

The ones with great expertise also never fail to congratulate themselves, when they sit calmly. They know the difficulties of sitting still, taking a deep breath, and relaxing is a great job on its own. Furthermore, this itself needs some kind of appreciation. The teachers, preachers call the human mind’s intervention popularly “the monkey mind” where it only knows to waver all around. All you can think of is play, spin, run, finish chores, but not concentrate on the meditation. Here are a bunch of Zen songs that will keep your mind relaxed and way less chaotic.

Music has the capacity to calm the monkey mind and allows the mind to relax. The rise of appreciation for Eastern philosophy and Western Meditation in the 1960s led to the use of music in yoga. Music helps to transport the audience into heightened states of awareness. Many Jazz musicians, such as John and Alice Coltrane tried infusing Eastern Sensibilities into the Western World. There made a universal sound set up by including sitar and tambura in a jazz environment.

Tony Scott, Music for Yoga Meditation (1972)

Tony Scott offered his cool style of clarinet for some of the finest ladies of jazz-like Sarah Vaughn, Chris Connor, and Billie Holiday. He did this in the 1950s. However, after a decade bebop took over and it was the end of the jazz career for Tony Scott. He separated from America and moved to Japan where he worked in a temple. In the mid-1960s, he released the Music for Zen Meditation and other joys upon his return to the states. His clarinet moved slowly like a mountain stream.

Tony Scott is an important precursor to the New Age Music. However, you cannot miss Music for Yoga Meditation. Here, Scott’s clarinet moves easily with the sitar for ten tracks across, as he traces the Kundalini energy through the chakras.

Craig Kupka, Clouds (1981)

We know very little about Craig Kupka, although he now works as a faculty member at California State University. In the late 1970s, Kupka released a series of records to serve as the “modern dance technique environment.” There were two ethereal albums on the Folkways label before the turn of the decade. These two albums put his music in libraries all across the country.

“Clouds was designed for classes in relaxation, meditation, quiet times in elementary schools, homes or office, as a non-eastern musical alternative for Yoga,” the liner notes attest the spirit of his music. “[It] … can be used in Dance Therapy & Modern Dance Classes; anywhere that quiet non-rhythmic music is desired.”

Kupka created a slow-moving, beatific suit just perfect for the subject matter to fly across the sky. His works easily help you to let go of all the temporal concerns.

Henry Wolf and Nancy Hennings, Tibetan Bells III (1988)

Henry Wolf and Nancy Hennings decided to hole up in the Island Records studio while the rest of the world was in the middle of classic rock music. However, they made a record with nothing but Tibetan Bells and singing bowls. The duo placed themselves on the brink of New Age Music. Today they have presented more than a bunch of sequels to their original. Additionally, Tibetan Bells III features some greats and long excursions like “Crossing the line” and “The Empty Mirror”. Instead of trying to sound your singing bowls, you can listen to these two to get the job perfectly done.

They help you on an inward journey.

Gas, Pop (2000)

The Japanese notion of “Shinrin-yoku” or the concept of forest bathing is slowly catching up on in the West. The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries coined the word in the 1980s. They aimed at bringing the people on their trails. However, people today perceive a method to get one with nature. With the project, Gas, Voigt pays his tribute to the sounds of the forest. It is a brilliant run of an ambient technology that hits off with Pop, 2000.

It sails off with gurgling rivers, different bird trills, and the sound of sunshine peeking through the branches before moving to darker places. If you looking to take a walk in the nature trail while meditating, then this should be your go-to music.

So, there are some of the albums to cue up and enliven your next meditation try. Some of these are serene; others hushed, while a bunch of them have washes of noise and drone at their root. There is a good mixture of albums from 40 years ago to the ones in this century as well. Have a great meditation and yoga session with these lovely and unique albums.