Listening from inside the creek
The next live Musicality of Being workshop in Rock Creek Park, Washington DC takes place on Saturday October 12, 10am - 1pm. You can register here.
This video introduces the Presence Mantra, a practice of Anytime Anywhere Awareness which is essential to becoming intimate with what I call musicality of being.
The mantra reminds you that in every moment of your life you are intimately related to breath, ground, space, sound and light.
While the Presence Mantra is beneficial to practice in any context whatsoever, it is especially valuable to explore in a beautiful natural setting.
It’s even more beneficial to practice together with others.
These circumstances are optimal for tasting the simultaneous participation of self, other and world as one single infinitely unfolding piece of ‘music.’
When musicality of being comes alive for you - when this phrase is not merely a poetic suggestion, but more like an embodied sense of participating as a co-creator of your experience while the world sings to you - the whole tone of your existence changes.
In the beginning, this may be an experience you just taste for a few minutes or a few hours, but with enough repetition, the contours of this way of being become more familiar to you and you can move into it more easily and intuitively.
The reason to practice in more natural environments is that it is simply easier to get in touch with the feeling of how self, other and world are always in flowing relationship.
You already know this.
It’s why, if you are a city dweller like me, that you relish the opportunity to spend a weekend in the countryside or hiking in the mountains. In those kinds of landscapes, there is a greater sense that everything present is listening to everything else.
In Rock Creek Park in Washington DC, when I sit by the water, I often notice the sense that the bugs and birds are listening to the creek - and the creek is listening to them!
It’s a sense that all these sounds and movements are present together in a seamless fashion. The presence of one being doesn’t interrupt the presence of the other.
Contrast this to stressed out commuters bleating their horns at each other in traffic. You can almost hear the mindset that is only interested in MY experience. Sounds cut more sharply and rudely into your ears. Your muscle tone is necessarily more tense.
Eventually, while the difference between more constructed human environments and wilder ones will remain, you can also learn to tune into the ‘music’ of the city.
Even rush hour traffic has a certain kind of energy you can learn to resonate with. Even a car alarm or a jack hammer interacts with the rest of the soundscape to create rhythm, melody and . . . harmony? Or perhaps it’s dissonance, but nonetheless it is a musical movement that you can learn to be in a conscious relationship with.
But that comes later.
Start in Nature where the musicality of being absolutely oozes out of the pores of everything and you will start making new distinctions that open further doors for you.
Enjoy a breath of fresh air.
Ground into the earth below you.
Expand your attention out into space.
Listen deeply to the song of the world.
Allow the colors and shapes to light up your imagination.
Begin in Nature, then make it a habit you take with you everywhere you go.
If you are near Washington DC, please join us in the park on Sunday, October 12!
If you are far away, I hope you’ll take the Presence Mantra for a test drive in some beautiful place where your animal body feels at home.
If you explore this practice with friends, you can begin by tuning into the five mantra relationships, then go walking - or just sit - and take turns sharing out loud your experiences of the present moment.
In addition to the simple joy of sharing the experience, the dialogue will further enhance your capacity to discover musicality because each observation that your friends make will invite you refresh your attention in unexpected ways.
Some of the following phrases could be useful to begin:
Something I’m noticing right now is…
When I listen to my body, something I notice is…
When I listen to the world, something I notice is…
When I listen to this moment in the overall arc of my life, I notice…
And I feel…
These are just suggestions. You can explore anything you like in dialogue with others, but placing an emphasis on what you are noticing and feeling right now is very useful.
Also notice how the sound of your voice enters the same space as the wind, birdsong, the sound of your feet if you are walking, the sounds of children playing nearby, etc.
In other words, be aware of the musicality of your own speech and movement even as you are expressing yourself in words.
The timing (including how much silence you allow before you speak), rhythm, tone and tempo of your speech are just as meaningful as the words from the point of view of musicality. Let yourself enjoy the words as you speak. Notice their shape and taste.
It’s helpful if, on the one hand, you don’t try especially hard to say something profound. “I notice the feeling of my feet on the ground” is good enough. And yet, if phrases that are more poetic than your typical manner of expression come to you, don’t be afraid to speak that way too!
Lastly, make sure to include the non-human voices of the landscape in your midst. Remember: musicality of being is the song of self, other . . . and world!
So if you are passing by the creek as your friend speaks, listen to the water as well as the words. If a bird calls into the silence before you speak, allow its melody to suggest the timing and shape of your own expression.
You also may choose to set aside 10 minutes or more at an opportune moment where no humans speak and you simply listen to the song of the world, eyes open or closed, in stillness or in gentle movement informed by what moves all around you.
At the end of your excursion, you may also wish to sit with your friends for a time to share your overall impressions of the day.
Does the phrase musicality of being now resonate in your body with new meaning?
If so, how might life shift if you stayed consistently connected to this participatory perception?