When I started meditating it was often difficult to know when to end. I didn’t want to have to be worrying about the time. When I’d set an alarm of some sort it was often jarring and unpleasant.
So I searched for a nicer way to signal the end of the meditation and found that the sound of a bell worked nicely, and I got one on MP3.
Then I was able to set up a playlist with an appropriate amount of silence for the mediation, and then the gong would ring.
For example, I set up the following if I wanted to meditate for 20 minutes:
- 30 Seconds of silence
- gong sound
- 5 minutes silence
- 5 minutes silence
- 5 minutes silence
- 5 minutes silence
- gong sound
This way I got a little bit of time to get settled, then a gong to start off with. Then 20 minutes of silence, then a gong to end with. I used a file of 5 minutes of silence so that I could set up different playlists for different lengths of time.
This worked very well, and could be adapted for use on a CD, if you wanted to. That is, just burn a CD with the appropriate tracks of gong or silence depending on how long you want your mediation to be.
I have a Palm Pilot that can play MP3s and has a speaker, so I just set up playlists like above and used them to time my meditations. (Nowadays, I found a great alarm program, Palmary Clock, that has a timer that can use an MP3 as the alarm sound, so I use that with my gong sound.)
Since I’ve heard that people are looking for a tool like this, I’m posting the gong sound I use and the tracks of silence in various lengths for you to download and use as you wish. I’ve included two different gong sounds. The first has the little “tap” before the striking of the gong, which I prefer. The second is just a gong sound.
Mindfulness Bell
Meditation Gong
Silence – 1 Minute
Silence – 5 Minutes
Silence-30 Seconds
Technorati Tags: Meditation
You might check out Meditation Timer at http://whenderson.blogspot.com/2006/03/meditation-timer.html
Jonathan:
I went ahead and downloaded your clips and made a c.d. out of them for meditation! THANKS!!! It’s already been a wonderful gift. Thank-you deeply for sharing such a wonderful too. 🙂
Namaste.
Thanks so much for posting these wonderful sound, inviting me back to the present moment. I’m very happy that they are part of my daily meditation.
A lotus for you.
This is fantastic, thank you! I actually saw a CD with a similar idea advertised, and I thought “$15 for a CD with about 5 seconds of actual sound? No thanks.”
Thanks!!!
Thank you so much !! I have a bell that is downloaded on my computer. It sounds every 15 minutes. But I had nothing for my car. Thanks to you, I have a reminder bell that sounds every minute. Not for meditation, but for mindfulness. Talk about mindful driving !! Blessings to you
Thank you!
Thank you very much for your generosity! I have made multiple copies of the files under different names (preceded by numbers so the tracks go in the order that I want) and put my own meditation timer CD together. May all beings be happy and well!
Bless you! Thank you so much! I am so glad I found this! I created a play list that just has the time and order I want the bell/gong and silence in, now I can load it on my iPod Shuffle and I am set to meditate at home, on the beach, or where ever I go.
Just wanted to thank you for this site. It was a great find. We have a medition group of apx 25-30 people and this site is appreciated by all.
Hi, the links to these mp3s are no longer working – i wonder if you could put them up again as it is exactly what i am looking for!
Many thanks for your help – a great idea.
We had a little problem on the site. I’ve restored these files. Thanks for letting me know about the problem. Enjoy!
I am having trouble with the links too. Sounds like you just fixed them a couple of weeks ago.
Ok, now they are really fixed.
Thanks! Very Much! Exactly what i was looking for.
If you have a smartphone (Android or iPhone) you can use these free online meditation timers: http://m.JetCityOrange.com/meditation/timer/
enjoy!
Thank you very much for these mp3s!
I was looking for a simple mp3- file like this.
have a nice day and best regards.
anninka