I trust everyone is enjoying their holiday and looking forward with hope
to the changes that 2009 will bring. Lucy and I have managed to escape
the cold for a few days but will be returning in time for the
Kirtan on Saturday January 3rd at Yoga Center Amherst.
It will be the second time we've offered Kirtan in Amherst and I'm
excited to announce that I'll have 4 other musicians with me for the
first Kirtan of 2009!
If you were at the first Kirtan in December you'll remember Kevin
Germain bowing the hauntingly sweet and melodious yayli tanbur
and Dona O'Dou playing the tamboura. This month I'll also be joined by Bob Weiner, an extraordinarily sensitive
percussionist who sets up a beautiful sound-scape with his
instruments and Marilyn Hart playing cymbals. I hope you can join us for the first 2009 Kirtan at Yoga Center Amherst.
with much love,
Rick
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NOTE:
Thanks to the inspiration of another Kirtan leader in New Hampshire
(Wendy Walsh Rezzonico) who
includes beautiful poetry with all her Kirtan announcements I'm
including a piece of inspiration with this email for your reading
pleasure.
Also, at the
bottom of this and all future emails there are links that allow you to
update your Interests (Profile) and to completely unsubscribe for
future mailings.
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Inspirational Corner
In
late November I celebrated my birthday by chanting the mantra Om Namah
Shivaya for 3 hours with a small group of friends. After the chanting
everyone offered an inspiration and I would like to
share one of them with you now. It's from a book by David Carse called Perfect Brilliant Stillness:
The Ultimate
Understanding is a seeing and a knowing rather than a comprehending. And it does
satisfy all questions, though not answer them. Answers become as irrevelant as
the questions themselves; both cease in the
seeing.
Do not judge the
questioning or the longing, the seeking or the sadness, the impatience or the
resistance, the opening or the letting go. It is all the perfect unfolding as it
is: only watch it and know you are not that. You are Loving Awareness in which
all this arises. You are Quiet Compassionate Space in which the life that you
think of as "yourself" unfolds.
This Still Expanse of
Acceptance between the thoughts is All That
Is.That is What You
Are.Let the Love that is
this Stillness that You Are Embrace you, Overcome
you.
Svaha!
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Experience
the Joy is a time for people to come together, open their hearts and
sing. For years chanting has helped people to effortlessly reach a
state of quite and stillness that easliy leads to meditation. While
it's true that we can chant in our car or in the solitude of our
home, there's nothing like chanting with others and with live
musicians. Every kirtan is different depending on the energy of the
group, but as the evening progresses one becomes saturated with the
Name and the mind becomes one-pointed. The tempo may increase but
all the while there is this soft center, this open heart to which we
ever return.