Carcano
Valued Senior Member
Are you aware that the Shaolin school's emphasis is no longer on Buddhism, but on the martial arts.The word meditation has no set form or use. i have studied under buddhist monks for years and we meditate in a number of ways. meditation does not mean "anything you like" but it does have many different forms to achieve different things. and yes you can meditate while listning to music. many buddhist prayer meditations are done while monks play instruments.
Buddism does not have many diferent objectives. It has only one objective.
In the martial arts there are hundreds of possible objectives.
There are a number of practises in Chan Buddhism which are sometimes called meditation but are not. Chanting and prayer are good examples. There is also the additional confusion between what is meditation and what is enlightenment.
In traditional buddhism they are distinct (although related) principles, but nowadays people are always using them interchangeably, as if they mean exactly the same thing.