Be Still...

Yesterday morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep so I picked up the journal next to my bed and began skimming through it.  It is the journal I took notes in for many of the sound healing workshops I have taken in the last 7 years.  I opened to 14 pages of notes I had taken during a workshop with the western authority on mantras and Vedic priest, Thomas Ashley-Farrand (Namadeva) and his wife, also a Vedic priest and very wise woman, Margalo/Satyabhama.
Puja with Satyabhama (Margalo Ashley-Farrand) at Sound Body Wholistic Health Center- 2011

Kirtan Camp- San Anselmo, CA- Summer 2011

Rosie and Jai Uttal, the supreme ultimate purveyor of kirtan and bliss!

Nada Yogi, Shri Shyam Bhatnagar

Puja with picture of Sant Keshavadas and the late Namadeva (Thomas Ashley-Farrand)

Satyabhama leading puja at Sound Body Wholistic Health Center- 2011

From there, as I continued reading, I found copious notes taken during various workshops with Shri Shyamji Bhatnagar, at Kirtan Camp with Jai Uttal two years ago, Nada Tantra with Yogi Amrit Desai and Bhagavan Daas and a workshop with John Beaulieu that I attended last summer.

There were so many interesting and enlightening statements from all of these wonderful teachers that I thought I would share some of what I came across.

"Mantra is used to invoke the presence of the deity within you." ~Shyamji~
Two ways to pay back your karmic debts- suffering, or doing your spiritual work. The more you do your spiritual work, the less you suffer. Doing your spiritual work you develop compassion for your ego.  Our cells are constantly in a state of renewal- after 12 years we don't even have the same bones. Tell the painful memories "Wrong address"!

"Memories of the past are a curse on my mind.
Oh God, snatch it away." [Iqbal?]

At night press all the pressure points on your feet and thank them for carrying you through the day.

[Bhagavan Das- as you step from one foot to the other feeling the Mother Earth, say "Thank you, I love you, Thank you, I love you."]

Miracles- we seek them- or "signs"- outside of ourselves and do not recognize that WE are the miracle. The greatest miracle is I AM.

You can't "experience " the Divine. You can only "experience" in duality.

Morning mantra:
       Isha vasya
       Idam sarvam
       Jagatayam jagata

(Above are excerpts of notes taken during Purification Retreat with Shri Shyam Bhatnagar in 2006)

Sanskrit is an energy-based language, which explains the divergent translations. The frequencies are "hard-wired into your chakras." (Thomas Ashley-Farrand/Namadeva) Everything in the universe is constructed of those vibrations.
"God SAID 'Let there be...'" The petals of the chakras vibrate when you chant. You bring in tiny discreet amounts of spiritual energy.
Density provides impetus for spiritual advancement.
(Notes from workshop with Namadeva)

Question: What are the moments you place on the altar of your life?

"How can our voice connect with the deepest core of our being?" 
"We should love ourselves to deep cuddliness."
"Don't pimp your purpose."
(Quotes from Jai Uttal during kirtan camp)

"The instinct to preserve one's self-image is as strong as the instinct to preserve the body."
~Yogi Amrit Desai~
Human beings entire life is in fight or flight/survival mode, on body level and ego/mind level.  Animals do not have I AM so they don't go against their subconscious- ie falsely perceived threats. Unfulfilled goals create an energy field/unconscious pattterns. "Get rid of the alien that is having false perceptions." Bring consciousness to "the wall". Bring prana to the place of fight or flight. BREATHE. In the place of discomfort, BREATHE.
(Above excerpted from discourse during workshop with Yogi Amrit Desai, February 2012)

"Happy thoughts create happy molecules in the brain." ~Shyamji~
Memories form when we are not permitted to be who we are.  Blockages in upper chakras (6th and 7th) form in third trimester in part due to the "commercialization" of the birthing process. Laying down to give birth, induction of labor, etc..."No wonder the only person not laughing and happy is the baby." Working with sounds can take us to the place when we were one with our mothers. 

The 50 sounds of the chakras create all the languages on earth. 

"Each chakra has its own mind." ~Shyamji~ 

There are 330,000,000 mantras!
Chanting in lower octave affects 1st three chakras.  Middle octave affects 4th and 5th chakras and higher (3rd octave) will affect 6th and 7th chakras.
One way to deal with "saboteurs"- TOTALLY DISEMPOWER THEM. If you believe they are controlling you it is very hard to disempower them. Turn it around. Say "I am Divine. Saboteurs cannot touch my divinity." Focus on the solution and avoid the problem. Disempower the saboteurs by establishing our own autonomy.

The tamboura is the external manifestation of the 5th chakra.

Breathing through the mouth activates the animal brain.  Breathing through the nose acts as a filter for prana.
(Excerpts of notes from workhsop with Shyamji, Schoorl, Nederlands, 2012)

Whoever comes into your healing space/office- you have to be able to adapt to them- find their "normal"- as a healer.
Eastern music fills the spaces between the notes with overtones- the spaces of the angels adn the devas. 
Sound- as a healer- is more neutral. Music is based on individual taste.
Dependencies- what do you get from them? Ex. What is the "feeling tone" of chocolate? Sound can create the essence of specific drugs (chemicals) in your body. 
"Sound is a superconscious modality." ~John Beaulieu~
Marijuana- a weed.  Energetic quality of a weed is to take over... take root.  Marijuana takes root in the consciousness (energetic feeling tone). Numbs the somatic consciousness...
(Above snippets from John Beaulieu's workshop on Trance and Tuning Forks, June 2012)
Journal excerpt- "Sita Ram, Sita Ram, Sita Ram"

Journal excerpt- "Hari om tat sat jai guru datta"

Be still
Be still and listen
Be still and know the Truth
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I AM
GOD
Be still and know God
I AM
Be still and know I AM
Be still and know
Be still
Be

(Journal excerpt 7.5.12)



























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