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I have never actualy listened to one, but I was curious. Are they helpful or a distraction?
If you are suposed to have complete silence I thought maybe it would be a distraction but I want to know some other peoples opinions. Plus I think it might be a way that europeans are using eastern culture to make money but that is another issue.

I had a feeling that they might be made for the sake of fads as well. I looked up Buddhism at my local libary and there wernt many books on teachings. Most was just meditation tapes.. which where on hold by about 10 people at the time.
I dont know as much as I would like to about Buddhism yet but the tapes seemed very superfical to me and im pretty sure that Buddhism does not support that.
I wanted to take out a book first but the ones that looked interesting had already been taken out. Ill go back again when I have time. However im learning quite a bit from reading posts in this guild right now.

Most of the time they're used for guided meditations, and astral journeying, stuff like that, which, to my knowledge, isn't part of Buddhist meditation, at least not Zazen, so I'm tempted to say they're simply a way for people to make money, although the timed gong tapes, at least for people like me who have to look at a watch to keep track of time during meditation, seem really helpful.