Hey all,
I just want to say thank you for creating such a beautiful, one-ness energy during chanting today. I am really happy that we're all discovering the experience of chanting together, and giving our all. In class I said how comfortable I felt with your voices, but I kind of want to expand on that feeling...
I was getting a lot of imagery. One person mentioned forests, and I totally felt that too. But I also felt this awesome "lifting" feeling whenever we became in unison, as if our voices were pulling us high into this other realm, somewhere great. I kept picturing our voices as these dazzling, yellow zig-zag's beaming from our throats, and creating a giant ball of energy.
I think sitting in a circle made a huge difference. While I had a peaceful, meditative experience at the Siddha center with chanting, I was not influenced as much by everyone else's voices. Something about encircling ourselves, making that everlasting shape, really affected me. I also remember wanting to hold hands, if just to make the experience even more "kumbaya" or powerful.
Anyway, during the chant I told myself that if I get upset, to think about the One voice we can create, and to rest in it. I hope this can be useful to you too! I would also love to hear any further thoughts on chanting :D
I wanted to hold hands too.
ReplyDeleteI also thought yesterday's chanting experience was very awesome. And I think it was especially because we were all in a circle. I also experienced a unique visual image that resonates a lot with what you've written above. With my eyes closed, I pictured everybody's body's slightly lifting up from the ground, with arms swaying above as if caught in an easy breeze (you know those flailing-armed balloon men they sometimes put outside of stores? Everyone was kind of like that, but our motion was much more fluid and gentle). It seemed that everybody was really really light. There was also a golden light that was playing across everyone's faces.
ReplyDeleteAs beautiful as the image was in itself, I couldn't help but make further interpretations. It seemed the light might have been coming from a fire in the middle of the circle. And I thought of us as resembling cilia lining an organic canal and being moved with the wind that was passing through. And then just today, as I was writing this after reading your post, I thought it was like we were all part of one great throat that was singing in the One voice!
With an experience so rich, it's hard not to delve into it and construct possible meanings about it. A good way to think about might be that I'm not trying to change what it was that happened, because it doesn't need to be any different than it was; rather I'm offering up creative interpretations about it as little offerings in return for the gift of the experience itself.
Sometimes the experiences life shows me are so beautiful, I get to feeling very quiet and reverent and try not to prick and poke it with words. Whatever words we use to describe God will necessarily narrow it from the perfection of your direct experience.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I love your analogy with the waving cilia - like we truly are cells of a single organism! Beautiful.