“There is a voice that doesn’t use words, listen.”
There’s always Rumi to fall back on …
“In silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.”
Here’s Crystal Bowls & Piano artist, Ms. Amano immersed in sound checking her own crystal bowl she lugged over from Japan, relative to this particular tone of a bowl found here.So happy to get to accompany an artist so PASSIONATE about her craft … wish I could encapsulate that kind of energy she exudes into a little bottle and save it as a little elixir for those days when one feels dull and listless – don’t we all have those moments? How do YOU overcome that kind of a slump?
One of the reasons so many people are suffering from stress is not that they are doing stressful things but that they allow so little time for silence.
― John O’Donohue,
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Reading the above, it’s not about setting yourself up in a sound-proofed hideaway – have you really sat still and really listened – there is no such thing as silence – there are sounds, noise all around us – In urban setting the city may never sleep and there may always be that buzz, that drone, that white and all colors of noise … Then, in nature, there are sounds of birds, critters, leaves and trees rustling, winds … Antarctica ? Never been there but have heard that it’s quite noisy with sounds of ice melting … is it a cracking sounds or sinking sounds … I wonder … there’s always sounds of your own breath, sounds of your own heart beating … sounds of your own rivers within that flows and streams of babbling brook water that’s all within our own landscape … there is faint … sounds … everywhere … if you seek silence. It’s not that we are looking for the vacuum vortex of nothingness … but a pause … a moment of – respite. If the “silence” is filled with sounds – vibrations – that sound sealed as a mantra is clearing, cleansing, relaxing and … energizing.
There’s a school founded by late Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama whose study of human consciousness, sub-consciousness & super-consciousness inspired certain Californian yogis like Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley, master teachers, to find the practice of Yin yoga. It’s amazing that this school now has a certificate program in sound healing. Here if interested. Dr. Motoyama’s books on Chakra theory is mind-opening – there’s that Ahhh-HAHH moment – an epiphany when you read them. We talk about inanimate objects vs live objects … what is the difference? It’s all about … the energy that the image, object … a thing is filled with. If there’s energy rippling throughout you, there’s a spark … expressed through a sparkle in your eyes, crisp fresh voice, face that is animated and expressive … there’s … an aura we each emit expressing our level of energy. And some of us, attuned, may feel that as a “vibe” or “resonance” or just plain … premonitions, intuitions and … feelings.
The sound of chimes, drums, crystal and Tibetan bowls … beautiful strumming on strings … beautiful voices, chorus …lullaby, simply humming and sweet whispering … all carry that vibrations and echos that calms our nervous system. When you surround yourself with that kind of sounds, then you will finally hear the silence – there’s that intermittent silence, there’s that pause between the sounds that is quiet and eternal … that silence …we can tune into when we are patient with ourselves.
I am aware of some people who have issues with hearing from too much noise – if fact,
- It is estimated that by 2050 over 900 million people will have disabling hearing loss.
- 60% of childhood hearing loss is due to preventable causes.
- 1.1 billion young people (aged between 12–35 years) are at risk of hearing loss due to exposure to noise in recreational settings.
(excerpt from World Health Organization)
Not referring here to hearing loss due to aging – referring more to hearing loss among the young due to excessive use of headphones, earphones, blaring music for extensive duration of time. Same goes for some gyms, movie theaters, concerts … with the more the better mentality to wipe out distractions – louder the better; more intense the better; heavier and deeper the better; edgier the better … really? Does the volume really have to be set at the highest and the loudest? Same goes for people – is the loudest, the one who makes the splash and hit the highest tone, the wisest? We have the full range of tonality within … sometimes we are drawn to the quiet one who exudes noble sense of calm – that all-knowing seer that one is able to evoke … is within each of us if we only peer within to uncover the power we have within.
We work hard each day – I don’t really know anyone who is not working hard each day in his or her own way … sometimes, we deserve the quiet peace to regain; reunite; renew with the best version of ourselves which we all have within waiting to find expression outward in a meaningful way. That quiet time is to be dedicated to reveal why we are here, living this life, that time of meditation is forgiving in allowing us to rediscover what’s possible when the whirling noise, the confused debris, the dark sediments settles to the bottom … so that we can again, see with clarity and act with intentions. To find that distilled essence of you who is pure, strong and kind.
That’s the practice I myself seek and that’s the practice I want to share because I feel it’s of most value … and rewarding … living this busy demanding life filled with whole range of emotions …embracing them all as we wish to be happy and free:
“May we live like the lotus, at home in muddy waters.” – Buddha
