Magic, Mystery and the Removal of Obstacles

Ganesha, Remover of Obstacles

Yesterday my car broke down outside a repair shop. It looked like I needed a new transmission. The long shot was that they would change the transmission fluid and the filter and hope that would do the trick. Today the mechanic called and confirmed that yes, I did need a transmission and he was trying to find a used one for me. Eventually he found one but it would take 5-7 days to get it. It would also cost me around $1300 plus another $400 or so for labor. Definitely changed my plans.

Soooo.... I called my friend on The Farm and discussed my situation with her. She was able to change the two scheduled Sound Journeys and postpone them til the weekend so I decided I would rent a car and go there a few days later than I had planned. (I use the word "plan" loosely- this whole opportunity only came up a little over a week ago!) I figured the money I made there would at least offset some of the cost of the repairs.

My car was dead, for all intents and purposes, and would hang out at the repair shop until the transmission came in, which was being shipped from who knows where.

Then, at 6 pm tonight, Preston the mechanic called and said my car seemed to be running fine and I should come down there and pick it up and drive it around for a bit and make sure it was okay. He said he was trying to move it from inside the garage to the parking lot where it would sit until next week. He got in the car to start it up and had a couple of guys in front of the car pushing it while he put it in reverse. At first the car didn't want to move and so he hit the accelerator hard and suddenly it sputtered or something and went into reverse! He ended up driving it into town to check it out and whatever the problem was seemed to have cleared up. The only thing he could think of was that there must have been some kind of gunk that had gotten caught up in the transmission. The filter had a big hole in it, so maybe it was actually the missing piece of the filter. Whatever it was, it's now gone. Maybe Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles, was having a little fun with me!

I got two extra days of R&R with Mahesh and Mukta and Thursday I leave for The Farm! Mahesh and Mukta are both longtime yogis and Mukta is an incredible painter so I get great inspiration while I am here.

Here are some of Mukta's beautiful paintings...

Sustainable Healing

Great day today! Gave a talk and a sound journey to a group of high school students at The Greene School in West Greenwich, RI today. What a cool place- I wish I could have gone to a school like that. The class was a group of seventeen 9-12 graders who are taking a week-long intensive on Sustainable Healing Modalities- and a few other students and faculty who stopped and listened on their way through the room to wherever they were going. They started the day off with yoga and then got me! Which basically meant they got to zone out on some really cool sounds for an hour- not a bad way to start the day.

Eating My Humble Pie

I love being able to use musical analogies whenever possible- so here's one for you.

Today I had to face the music and accept responsibility for offending some very lovely ladies.  My bad, for sure... I said something in a previous post in reference to Woonsocket, RI that came across as disparaging so I really must apologize for that. It was all said in jest but who would know that unless they knew me? The truth is I know absolutely nothing about Woonsocket other than having had a very wonderful experience there last Friday night! I went there once about 30 years ago and sat in the car while my best friend ran into her dad's office on some kind of errand and we left. Seriously, that was the extent of my experience there. We left and probably got something to eat in Providence because there was nowhere to eat.

Probably the worst part of it is that I had an awareness that my reference to Woonsocket in aforementioned post (I'm not going to quote because now I am really quite embarrassed- one blunder was enough) might have sounded a little snarky but in some pitiful way I thought I was being cute and funny. Not.

Dear ladies from the dojo- please forgive me. Seriously. I had such a wonderful time doing the sound journey and meeting you all. It was my pleasure as much as yours and then to have caused displeasure afterwards because some of you were nice enough and interested enough to check out my blog? Ugh. I am truly sorry.

That was the longest time I have spent in Woonsocket- I arrived at about 3:30, spent 2 hours setting up my instruments, an hour doing the sound journey, a good while afterward chatting with some of you and hearing of some of your experiences and another hour packing up... And every minute of it was a pleasure!!! That is the truth. I loved the space. I loved you all. Lisa Votta is awesome! Christina Rondeau is clearly awesome because she has this incredibly cool space in which she allows fabulous things to happen and I do hope you will invite me back. Because seriously? I would come back any day of the week! And if this kind of cool stuff is happening in Woonsocket- well, it must be a pretty cool place.

Okay, so that's done. But there is more for the rest of you who are reading this by way of some other avenue- maybe you are one of my Your Turn Challenge friends, a personal friend or someone who came across this because you are interested in sound healing. Well, I'm going to do a little rave here.

As soon as Lisa Votta, owner of Ananta Jyoti Yoga, contacted me I knew this was going to be a great connection and a really fun event. I love what I do but Lisa's energy, her interest, her openness, her curiosity and her enthusiasm got me even more excited than I already am when I have an event coming up. That feeling continued and expanded when we actually met on the day of the Sound Journey. I know that she worked hard to pull a good group together and make it worth my time and effort and that means a lot. I could see how devoted she is to her group of ladies there and I have no doubt that she is also a really great teacher because all of those qualities that I mentioned are what it takes to connect with a group of students and keep them coming back.

She also did a lot to make the space so beautiful!!! I couldn't get over it. All four walls are mirrored in the martial arts studio which was really cool, but then Lisa brought in a ton of flameless candles and the space just seemed infinite- it really was magical. Yes, there was still some equipment in the room but it did not matter at all or detract from the overall feeling in any way.

So- it was a beautiful night. Maybe tonight while I'm going to sleep I'll listen to the recording and see how it sounded on the receiving end.

Moving Forward

I am very happy and grateful to be feeling relatively settled in my house so that every day now I get to spend a fair amount of time either playing music or doing something related to sound healing- instead of just unpacking and organizing! One or two days a week I am off to South County to give massage and sound healing treatments to oncology patients, which is really an incredible gift for both them and for me.

Today I spent several hours practicing my harmonium, combining a couple of different chants to Shiva, the transformer, for the yoga and chant class tonight. The icicles are melting, spring is around the corner and with that transformation is in the air! I am starting to figure out the chords with relative ease now which is really a big step. Also, for some reason that I don't really understand, my guitar playing seems to have improved dramatically recently even though it seems like I don't play that much. I feel like it has something to do with the pretty constant immersion in some form of sound that, even though my actual technique isn't nearly as good as it was when I was younger (since I took about a 15 year break from it), my sensitivity to sound has greatly increased and by virtue of that, so has my creativity. Whatever it is- I'm liking it!

Preparing to Practice

We can jump into anything and wing it if we are feeling so moved and have enough information, knowledge, experience or background at our disposal... but when we prepare for the task, the event, the talk- what a difference that can make to the outcome. Spontaneity is a wonderful thing. We shouldn't leave it out of the equation. Being open and having the ability to making a change in the moment as the circumstances, situation or mood guide us, is important and may also lead to results beyond what we might have hoped for or imagined.

A few years ago I heard somewhere that Sting always has his band do an hour of yoga before a concert. Last week a friend of mine and I started teaching a class on Mindful Yoga & Sacred Chant. The effect of chanting after doing an hour of yoga is profound! An hour of yoga is plenty enough to balance the mind and body, open up the lungs and prepare one for a luscious round of chanting or singing.

Tonight we taught our second class in a series of five. I had been practicing a particular chant all week. It was new to me and I am not very good on the harmonium so I needed a lot of practice to feel comfortable. Every day this week I sat down with it and practiced, but I didn't always spend a lot of time actually preparing myself to chant. I would do a little breathing and a bit of warm up vocals but I tend to be impatient so I would often jump right into singing or chanting without being fully warmed up.

Both last week and this week in our class I was amazed at the difference when I opened my mouth to sing after doing a full hour of yoga first. My body was relaxed. I had more lung capacity and my whole being felt really open, allowing my voice to expand with an unusual fullness and strength. Very exciting.

And can't we apply this to any endeavor? Preparation must become part of the practice.

 

Hanuman Leading Kirtan

Successes and Synchronicity

Today's successes...
Completed on new flyer for Wholistic Sound
Spent hours fixing my harmonium so that I could play it at class tonight
            *Thank you Daniel Tucker for the How To Fix Your Harmonium 101 at Kirtan Camp 2011!
Taught the first class on Mindful Yoga and Sacred Chant at Sandywoods with my friend Morgan Ford Brunketurner
            *Starting with an hour of yoga and then going on to chanting is definitely a recipe for success! And the acoustics in the room are wonderful!
Set up two kirtans in Newport (March 5 and March 15)
Spread paperwork all over the floor as the first step to pulling out stuff for tax person and organizing!
            *Definitely a job for brain tuners- results will be posted!
Through random synchronicity suddenly came across my book on The Tibetan Yoga of Dreams and Sleep
            *Very exciting since I am delving into that arena right now- taking a workshop on Sound and Dreams in June with John Beaulieu and Silvia Nakkach and going to sleep each night listening to Jeff Bridges' Sleeping Tapes, which is an amazing experience. If you haven't downloaded it yet I am urging you to GET ON IT!

Speaking of synchronicity here's a little throwback to 1983 for you! Love the backup singers- those girls are great!

"Synchronicity I"

With one breath, with one flow
You will know
Synchronicity

A sleep trance, a dream dance,
A shared romance,
Synchronicity

A connecting principle,
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible.
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Yet nothing is invincible.

If we share this nightmare
Then we can dream
Spiritus mundi.

If you act, as you think,
The missing link,
Synchronicity.

We know you, they know me
Extrasensory
Synchronicity.

A star fall, a phone call,
It joins all,
Synchronicity.

It's so deep, it's so wide
Your inside
Synchronicity.

Effect without a cause
Sub-atomic laws, scientific pause
Synchronicity

And on that note- if you like Sting, read his autobiography. He is a good writer and it's very engaging- pretty much about his life pre-Police and leading up to that point. Really good, at least I thought so. Very thoughtful.

Yoga, Chant and Vibration

Major piece of work done today! Met with my friend Morgan and we hashed out the details for our upcoming class on Yoga and Chanting. The name is actually much jazzier- Mindful Yoga & Sacred Chant. The format- about an hour of yoga followed by a half hour or so of chanting- very exciting. The idea is that opening with yoga clears and balances the nadis, or energy channels in the body,  allowing for sound then to flow forth with ease, and taking the work that has alre ady been done to another level.

The discussion led me to looking for a picture for our flyer. I found two gems in my files. The above is where the different seeds sound in the Gayatri Mantra emanate from the subtle body. If you don't know the Gayatri then this may not make a lot of sense. They are just a bunch of different syllables floating around. However, if you know the chant then you can look at the picture and follow the path of sound.

Aum

Bhuh bhuvah svah

Tat savitur varenyam

Bhargo devasya dhimahi

Dhiyoyonah prachodayat

Aum

Then I found this gorgeous drawing by my Sanskrit teacher's teacher and guru, Dr. Ramamurti Mishra, known to many as Sri Brahmananda Sarasvati, which I believe is inspired by a drawing from an ancient text. It is a drawing of the subtle body with the major chakras and nadis. In the drawing, the nadis seem to flow outside of and around the body but they are actually all contained within the body.  The different nadis and chakras respond and correspond to different frequencies which are designated by the Sanskrit writing on the chart. The writing in larger Sanskrit letters on the top right says "Pranayama" and underneath the drawing (not shown) it says, "The cosmic state of meditation of I-AM." Thus, we can infer from this that control of the breath, pranayama, will lead us to the perfected state- or to the awareness of our own perfection. Even in a simple black and white drawing we can see how the subtle body is illuminated and vibrating at a very high frequency. 

Every Sanskrit syllable (seed sound) has a very specific vibrational quality and by chanting we experience the effect of those sounds. The vibrations charge the brain and travel through the nervous system and the subtle energy system. In the Vedic tradition, all of the different deities in the Hindu pantheon carry the vibrational qualities of the seed sounds contained within their names.For example, the vibrational quality of the sound "Ga" or "Gam" (the "a" is pronounced like a short "u" in English, ie "gum") is that it removes obstacles. Hence, Ganesha, the Hindi deity with the head of an elephant, is the Remover of Obstacles. If we want to remove obstacles in our life we can chant, "Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha". "Gam" is the seed sound for Ganesha- so we chant that sound first which is packed with potency and potential. "Ganapataye" is another form of Ganesha's name- the vocative. We are calling on Ganesha... and "Namaha", we bow down to him.