The proposed two-level model of embodied cognition connects core musicology with the data from studies in music perception and cognition as well as studies in affective neuroscience and musicianship-related brain plasticity. The tonal/temporal relationships encode musical content that dictates the motor behavior of music performers. In a music listener, the patterns of perceived tonal tension most likely generate corresponding patterns of physical tension that contribute, along with other musical aspects, to forming a musical emotion, or the experience of psychological time in music. Significantly, perceived tonal tension is related to real physical tension. Melodic intentionality has its foundations in artfully sequenced tonal tension and release from tension. The intuitive navigation in artistic tonal time-space relies on tonal expectations that are at the heart of melodic intentionality and musical motion. Listeners perceive music as a flow of tonal relationships arranged in time the temporal and tonal dimensions are interwoven and constitute the tonal chronotope. Music that we love – for example, a favorite melody – is made of combinations of a small number of basic melodic intervals that differ by their psychophysical characteristics, among which the level of tonal stability and consonant-dissonant dichotomy are the most important for the formation of tonal expectations that guide music perception. The primary (though concealed) “deep” level of embodied cognition relates to the main coding aspects in music: the tonal relationships arranged in time.

The “surface” level relates to the apparent corporeal articulation such as the activated psychomotor program of a music performer, visible gestures in response to music, and rhythmic entrainment. In this paper, I propose that embodied cognition in music has two distinct levels.

That is, through a deeper understanding of ‘music as a manifestation of life’ rediscover their primordial nature as autopoietic and world-making creatures and thus engage more deeply with musicality as a means of forming richer and more compassionate relationships with their peers, their communities and the ‘natural’ and cultural worlds they inhabit. To conclude, I consider how an enactive-contemplative perspective may help students and teachers awaken to the possibilities of music education as ontological education. Following this, I examine related concepts associated with Buddhist psychology in order to develop possibilities for a contemplative music pedagogy. More specifically, I consider how the enactive perspective may aid in developing deeper ecological understandings of the transformative, extended and interpenetrative nature of the embodied musical mind and thus help (re)connect students and teachers to the lived experience of their own learning and teaching. I then explore how this 'life-based' approach to cognition and meaning-making offers a welcome alternative to standard Western academic approaches to music education. I discuss how this embodied point of view affords a relational and bio-cultural perspective on music that decentres the Western focus on language, symbol and representation as the foundations of cognition and meaning. The enactive approach to cognition is developed in the context of music and music education. In turn, this will make our world a better, more harmonious place to live. When a larger consciousness surrounds it, more people will be able to take greater advantage of all the good that music has to offer. To that end, ways in which an individual can more fully extend the musical experience in his or her life are presented. One of the aims of these reflections is to move the reader towards a more conscious use of music. Perspectives from the East, and examples of music from other cultures, will also give insight into music's value. It relies on philosophy, psychology, spirituality and neuroscience to make its points. This article takes a closer look at the world of music in order to better understand how it contributes to the highest good of human beings. And yet, since the beginning of written history, great thinkers around the world have been interested in why music is such a powerful guiding force, both for individuals and whole cultures. So, it might seem odd to be connecting something as serious as the quest for the highest good with music. In the Western world today, music is thought of more as an entertainment than a source of enlightenment.

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