This was my morning meditation- quite different from the last one I wrote about.
Buzzing of electric saw, water flowing into the garden pond, hand and pen moving across the paper. I rub my chin with my hand and am aware of the sound carried through my skin and bones. An occasional car passing by, a small propeller plane off in the distance, the swimming pool pump... the sound of a jet mingles with the sound of the smaller plane, a man's voice shouting- I lean into it with my attention- he is shouting with excitement, not anger- I can tell by the tone although I can't make out the words. Now another engine, this time a motorcycle starting up harshly and then as it leaves the sound quickly fading into the distance.
A bird with an intermittent high short whistle pierces through all the sounds of cars, engines, motors, pumps, changing everything- the quality of a bright star piercing the night sky. Sound can pierce our awareness, breaking the trance. Sound can be used to induce a trance or break a trance.
Whenever I pass through Lynn Carol and George's bedroom the door swings gently shut behind me and the delicate sound of a zither follows me for just a few seconds, a reminder of the present. Usually reminders are of the past... how funny to be reminded of Now.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Saturday, May 23, 2009
At Work in a Sound Environment
Focusing on preparing for next weekend's CEU workshop as well as trying to spread the word far and wide about the upcoming workshops in June. Sitting at the computer for the last 3 days printing out flyers, running out of ink, back and forth to Office Depot celebrating the possibility that soon I will be able to have these flyers printed for me- and PLEASED with the result of the flyers that I have designed myself- a major 3-day learning curve on Microsoft Publisher several weeks back. Now all I have to do is change the dates periodically!
Behind me the printer is now pumping out a 15-page detailed description of the acoustic properties of the "suikinkutsu"- a Japanese water harp which we intend to create for the garden at the Sound Body Center. Check out www.suikinkutsu.com. They are beautiful- the sound is astonishing and entrancing!
Another exciting piece of information came my way today as well- a sound table similar to a monochord table only it was tuned like a tamboura. Very beautiful. I recently read about an Ayurvedic cure for a specific condition (I don't remember what the condition was but the the point is...!) which was the patient receiving an Ayurvedic massage while a tamboura was being played in the same room! How fantastic! I would happily be any one of the three people in that room- giving the massage, receiving the massage or playing the tamboura. I am thinking about how to incorporate this into my sound healing treatments...
Now listening to the beautiful sounds of the suikinkutsu...
Followed by a recording of the sheeps bells of Sardinia...
Time to go deliver flyers.
Breathe and smile.
Namaste
Monday, May 18, 2009
Morning Meditation
Sitting at the dining room table...
Listening...
Computer humming, keys clicking...
As I listen to the birds and wonder how many different ones I can hear, their voices blend together into more than I can count...
A car honking... occasionally one drives down our street, its tires vibrating over the cobblestone...
A sudden flurry of excitement in birdland...
The sound of my breath... very quiet this morning- I am holding it slightly as I listen intently...
I think that there are so many birds- but someone told me once that there are records from early explorers that the skies would look almost black with huge flocks of birds. Maybe there aren't so many after all...
Seven minutes have gone by since I opened up this page. I haven't been writing all that time... mostly just listening... a morning meditation.
My stomach is feeling that it is time to break the overnight fast... I feel it waking up although I can't actually hear it yet...
Ooooh...... thunder in the distant and now I hear that a flock of birds has landed somewhere not too far away. I am sure if I could see them from here that I would see that they have filled a couple of trees and are lined up on the telephone wires as well.
It's a quiet rainy morning with thunder in the distance and a car rumbling down the street.
I love this morning meditation and at the same time I hope I never lose the love of writing by hand- paper and ink.
Now I allow myself a nice deep breath and I hear the both the inhale and the exhale- a smooth steady controlled breath- morning pranayam.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The Frequency of Emotion- 7 a.m. (Day Two)
Woke up thinking about this blog, which I perceive as a writing-in-motion project. And thinking about sound, one of my particular obsessions!
What do my thought-filled meanderings have to do with sound? What doesn't have to do with sound? Everything is frequency. The outward silence of my inner thoughts have powerful frequencies. My emotions (which rarely remain silent!) are all vibrational energy running through my body. For me, they may be the most challenging vibrations to simply allow, be with and listen to. It is a lesson for me, maybe the biggest lesson in my life, and it brings to mind something that struck me in a very powerful way here on the desk where I am working.
"Be patient toward all
that is unsolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves
like locked rooms
or books that are written in a foreign tongue.
The point is
to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually,
without noticing it,
live your way
some distant day
into the answers."
-Rainer Maria Rilke-
This is on my dear friend Sharon's desk. I am house sitting her apartment on the beach. She has inspirational quotes on almost every surface. What is so amazing is that she seems to have integrated so much of what she uses for inspiration. I know her to be someone who is able to sit with the questions- which for me would translate to the frequency of emotion- to be silent with them, to listen... I quality I have come to admire and respect deeply. For me, almost nothing goes unvoiced!
In sound healing classes and meditations I teach people to just be with whatever sound they are hearing. Certain instruments bring up various levels of discomfort in people, sometimes in the form of a memory, sometimes a sensation in the body, and I tell them "If a sound brings up something that you perceive as disturbing or uncomfortable, try breathing into it... breathing it into you, becoming curious about it and following the sound rather than resisting it." Remarkable experiences come from this practice.
So today, this is my lesson for me. Just be with the feelings. Breathe into them, become curious about them. Follow their movement in your body. Breathe them in and allow them. Don't resist them, don't try to change them. Just allow!
Every moment in this life is so precious, such an incredible gift. What if it were the last time you were ever to experience this feeling?
What do my thought-filled meanderings have to do with sound? What doesn't have to do with sound? Everything is frequency. The outward silence of my inner thoughts have powerful frequencies. My emotions (which rarely remain silent!) are all vibrational energy running through my body. For me, they may be the most challenging vibrations to simply allow, be with and listen to. It is a lesson for me, maybe the biggest lesson in my life, and it brings to mind something that struck me in a very powerful way here on the desk where I am working.
"Be patient toward all
that is unsolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves
like locked rooms
or books that are written in a foreign tongue.
The point is
to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually,
without noticing it,
live your way
some distant day
into the answers."
-Rainer Maria Rilke-
This is on my dear friend Sharon's desk. I am house sitting her apartment on the beach. She has inspirational quotes on almost every surface. What is so amazing is that she seems to have integrated so much of what she uses for inspiration. I know her to be someone who is able to sit with the questions- which for me would translate to the frequency of emotion- to be silent with them, to listen... I quality I have come to admire and respect deeply. For me, almost nothing goes unvoiced!
In sound healing classes and meditations I teach people to just be with whatever sound they are hearing. Certain instruments bring up various levels of discomfort in people, sometimes in the form of a memory, sometimes a sensation in the body, and I tell them "If a sound brings up something that you perceive as disturbing or uncomfortable, try breathing into it... breathing it into you, becoming curious about it and following the sound rather than resisting it." Remarkable experiences come from this practice.
So today, this is my lesson for me. Just be with the feelings. Breathe into them, become curious about them. Follow their movement in your body. Breathe them in and allow them. Don't resist them, don't try to change them. Just allow!
Every moment in this life is so precious, such an incredible gift. What if it were the last time you were ever to experience this feeling?
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Day One
Where do I begin. All this note taking and observing and feeling that seems to comprise so much of my life- scattered scraps of paper and post-it notes everywhere- journals begun, left sitting, new ones take their place. Life resounding... gratitude abounding...
This morning I went out on the terrace where I am staying- beautiful polished stone slabs and there in the middle, next to the copper painted patio table, a giant fluff of feathers and half of a seagull in the midst- its lower half... one leg, head, upper body and wings all missing- blood spattered on the stone. Still fresh, the blood barely dried- and yet I heard no sound, no commotion. I don't know why this awaited me when I stepped outside this morning. I sat feeling stunned and wondering, sat in the rocking chair feeling sort of "zenned out". Said some prayers, sat some more and finally got up to clean up the mess. Saved a few feathers, put them in a pot accepting the offering.
Yesterday I walked out on the deck of my sound healing center to check the water in the fountain, which is a wide low terracotta bowl filled with rocks, a small tumbling waterfall- and laying across it was a fairly large black snake, with its head raised in the position of a cobra ready to strike! I've seen these blacks snakes a lot in Florida- "black racers" someone said. I love them and am fascinated by them. I usually try to follow them and see where they go when I see one. But I'd never seen one in this pose. We stared at each other and then I turned around and went inside.
My fascination got the better of me and within a few minutes I went back out- now it had lowered its head and was sort of curled around the fountain, still laying across the rocks apparently enjoying the relative coolness of the water. This time when it heard me move it dashed off into the bushes.
Last night I was on the beach after sunset. The sky was still pink, orange and deep grayish blue. I was walking and stopped to look at the water where I had seen dolphin fins moving through the water. As I turned a dolphin leaped out of the water, immediately followed by another which leapt straight up toward the sky. They were both perfect black silhouettes against the pink and orange sky.
Each of these moments stopped me in my tracks.
Life is breath but sometimes this life takes my breath away!
This morning I went out on the terrace where I am staying- beautiful polished stone slabs and there in the middle, next to the copper painted patio table, a giant fluff of feathers and half of a seagull in the midst- its lower half... one leg, head, upper body and wings all missing- blood spattered on the stone. Still fresh, the blood barely dried- and yet I heard no sound, no commotion. I don't know why this awaited me when I stepped outside this morning. I sat feeling stunned and wondering, sat in the rocking chair feeling sort of "zenned out". Said some prayers, sat some more and finally got up to clean up the mess. Saved a few feathers, put them in a pot accepting the offering.
Yesterday I walked out on the deck of my sound healing center to check the water in the fountain, which is a wide low terracotta bowl filled with rocks, a small tumbling waterfall- and laying across it was a fairly large black snake, with its head raised in the position of a cobra ready to strike! I've seen these blacks snakes a lot in Florida- "black racers" someone said. I love them and am fascinated by them. I usually try to follow them and see where they go when I see one. But I'd never seen one in this pose. We stared at each other and then I turned around and went inside.
My fascination got the better of me and within a few minutes I went back out- now it had lowered its head and was sort of curled around the fountain, still laying across the rocks apparently enjoying the relative coolness of the water. This time when it heard me move it dashed off into the bushes.
Last night I was on the beach after sunset. The sky was still pink, orange and deep grayish blue. I was walking and stopped to look at the water where I had seen dolphin fins moving through the water. As I turned a dolphin leaped out of the water, immediately followed by another which leapt straight up toward the sky. They were both perfect black silhouettes against the pink and orange sky.
Each of these moments stopped me in my tracks.
Life is breath but sometimes this life takes my breath away!
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