Gratitude and Dr. Sha

We are all aware of the horrible catastrophes happening on the earth right now. The flip-side of that coin is there are also huge blessings being given to us as well. There are gifts being offered to us, such as the teachings of Dr. Sha and other Masters that are truly rare in the history of our planet. I, for one, am profoundly grateful for these gifts!

My teacher Delphi Amritam introduced me to a Chinese Master named Dr. Sha. He and his teacher are responsible for containing the Sars epidemic in China. They are Master healers in both Chinese medicine and Western Medicine. In fact, Dr. Sha is also a Western MD. Because of his incredible service to the world Dr. Sha was given many gifts to help in his work by the Divine. He teaches Soul medicine. “Heal the Soul first, then the mind and body will follow,” is his motto. He teaches profound respect for all souls, and he teaches that EVERYTHING has a soul. More information on him can be found at: www.drsha.com, and a great movie about his work can be seen at: http://www.soulmastersmovie.com/

I have experienced a profound connection to the purity of the Divine with him that I was previously unaware of. This purity has a peace in it that makes the bliss I was previously addicted to seem painful. Really! There really are no words to describe it, but I have changed since meeting him and studying with him.

The group I have studied with for over 15 years in Boulder CO is now caretaking a divine temple initiated by Dr. Sha in Boulder. This temple houses the Divine in a way that I simply cannot put words to, and to be honest am nervous even talking about. I would have had no understanding of what I myself am talking about prior to actually going there. One story of the temple is by my friend Susan:

“I was in an auto accident in August 2007 that left me with ringing in the ears and severe migraine headaches 3 to 5 days a week. I tried a variety of treatments but nothing really helped me. I was struggling to figure out how to support myself and live my life when I could only function half of my days.  When I came to the Divine Healing Temple on March 15^th I asked for a blessing for my head. I started feeling bright, sparkly, high-intensity light energy pouring into the back of my head. Then it felt like it was filling up my whole body, and my whole body was vibrating with it by the time I left. The rest of the day, I felt this pleasant uplifted feeling. Then the weather began to shift and I could feel a migraine coming on. However, it never really happened.
I woke up in the middle of the night with fluid coming out of my ears. At first, I was hesitant to think this meant that my migraines were gone. Even one week without them was such a gift. Now it has been four weeks, and I have not had another migraine. Since that extra fluid trapped in my head was released, I seem cured. It is quite an amazing experience. I feel very grateful to Master Sha for the transformation of Baba’s Barn into the Love Peace Harmony Center.”

The ability to truly appreciate this kind of miracle energy has been a process in my life. After visiting the Pyramids of Egypt in my 20s I started feeling vibrations around my body. Later, through the teachings of Delphi (my teacher in Boulder, CO) I learned how to focus on those vibrations and go into various states of bliss. Though warned, I grew rather attached to feeling the bliss, and got arrogant thinking I was the one creating it.

Later during my illness when all the bliss went away, I rather abruptly learned that the bliss did not belong to me. Rather, I experienced it through open channels to Divine Energy I had un-knowingly opened.

I now know that, that like everything, the Divine likes to be respected and appreciated for its gifts. I now humbly acknowledge that it is the Divine that gives the gift of bliss, peace, and contentment. It is not there for me to falsely own like a thief, but there for me to receive like a present.

All people like to be appreciated. All people deserve to be appreciated. And when appreciated they are more likely to respond in kind. The Divine is no different. The Divine likes to be appreciated and likes to respond in kind. It is a law of the universe. And I thank Dr. Sha for bringing my attention ever more firmly on this truth.

The Power of Sound

    Sound has a large and powerful affect on the human mood. The phrase ‘music tames the savage beast’ is, I believe, an accurate one. We use music to tame our wild emotions as well as lift our spirits. We play music:

• At parties to lift the mood and create a fun atmosphere.
  
• At sports events to charge the event with excitement.
  
• At work to create a pleasant and work-inspiring environment.
  
• During entertainment such as movies, plays, etc. The music heightens the drama.
  
• During pregnancy and a child’s development years to promote the child’s healthy mind and body.
  
• To relax and center ourselves from our busy lives.
  
• To help create a personal sacred space.
  
• To set the mood for romance. Oooo la la!
  

    In India a song (Raga) is made to express a particular mood (Rasa). This is true of Persian Dastga Music as well. While Western music creates similar effects we have not officially categorized our music in terms of the mood it promotes, yet.

    Years ago I attended a retreat led by a Native American Shaman named Beautiful Painted Arrow. The retreat was held out in an amazing forest. One day while I was playing the flute for some of the members of the retreat, Beautiful Painted Arrow came up to me and shared some wisdom that has impacted my life ever since. He told me that when I, or anyone, plays music, their inner experience is transmitted to the listeners. Music is a great service to the world because the musician can help create a beautiful world simply by playing beautiful music. Whatever state of being, or mood, the musician is in, is transmitted to the audience.

    An easy way for me to understand this is to think of the impact the tone of my voice has during a conversation. If I use an accusing or angry tone while conversing with someone, the impulsive response I get is usually one of defensiveness and/or anger. If I bring a peaceful disposition to communication, the conversation is usually quite peaceful and effective, even on many difficult topics.

    In a similar way, by playing music from an inspired internal place, the musician inspires his or her listeners to experience that same place inside them-selves.

Hence the musician is impacting his audience with his or her music in two primary ways:

1. The actual music (including notes and silences) that he or she is playing impacts the audience. Rowdy music, disconnected sounds, etc. will have a very different affect on the audience than melodious music. Please note: I do not hold one as superior to the other, they simply support different purposes.
   
2. The mood, or space, the musician is in while playing. The musician’s mood is amplified and holds the space for the audience to join them there.
   

I build saxophone mouthpieces with four intentions:

1. To inspire and support musician’s in expressing their inner voice.
   
   1. This means making mouthpieces the musician doesn’t have to fight in order to express themselves.
      
   2. To make mouthpieces that can translate the musician’s authentic inner voice into audible sound-waves.
      
2. To bring specific types of sound, that only certain mouthpiece configurations like the True-Large Chamber can create, out into the musical world. Not only does the musician playing experience the beauty inherent in these mouthpiece configurations, but their audiences do as well.
   
3. To create a piece of art. Even physical beauty inspires!
   
4. To create a domino effect of beauty. By helping the musician have a wonderful experience playing, the musician then shares their beautiful experience with their audience. Then the audience shares that experience with friends and family, and so on.
   

       The domino effect can start anywhere….I simply want to be part of it! For example, about two weeks ago we ordered way too many shipping boxes. These arrived in a tiny shipping station for pick-up. I couldn’t figure out how transport all the boxes in my small car so they sat there until I arranged the use of another car to come pick them up. When I arrived to load the boxes I noticed the boxes had taken a good quarter of the station attendant’s already tiny working area for the last week. I felt horrible! But the man, with a big kind smile on his face, started helping me load and carry all the boxes. He was not upset at me. In fact he showed great compassion. He even arranged for me to have half the boxes returned too. Wow! This guy was like a saint. He inspired me! I went home inspired to put as much care in my work as this man did in his. Hopefully my inspiration is evident in our products, and so on.
   

    If even in a small way, I believe it is possible for Theo Wanne Classic Mouthpieces to be part of creating a more beautiful world. It is my hope and prayer that our products will inspire and assist musicians to experience and express their inner beauty and share that beauty with their fans and audiences.

    It may not be the same as creating a peace agreement between the world powers. But because I believe in the power of sound, it is my belief that promoting beautiful music helps, to some degree, in the formation of a more beautiful world.

The Juicy Parts of Responsibility – Peace and Power

I have been having a beautiful conversation about responsibility with a friend of mine.  So here you are!  Besides saxophone mouthpieces, this is the type of conversation I love to have….  

Common definition of responsibility:  Being held accountable and liable for something.  

Nobody has to be responsible.   We don’t have to take responsibility for ourselves or others.   It is a choice. 

Choosing to be responsibility for myself means taking care of the needs of my body and mind.  If my body is hungry I feed it healthy food.  If I am not responsible, I eat what’s convenient, and my body suffers.   When I feel stressed, I can meditate or do something relaxing.  Otherwise, my mind will suffer.  The more responsibility I accept for me the healthier my body and mind are.  

There was a time I did not believe it was OK to take care of my own needs.  I thought it was selfish, so I ignored what my body and mind needed to feel healthy.  I got sick, and felt helpless to change.  I felt like a victim.   By not taking responsibility for our body and mind we become a victim to them.

By choosing responsibility I gain power!  It is part of the package.  By being responsibility for my body and mind, I have the power to impact them.  I have the power to improve my diet, or increase the time I take to relax in the day.  If I do not take responsibility for them, then I am a victim to them.   I am stuck, unable to act, for I am waiting for something outside of me to fix me.    

Personal experiments with this include:

v  When I was very sick, I eventually choose to take responsibility for my illness, even though I did not know why I should at the time.  This gave me the power, though, to heal myself.

v  I ran into many road blocks in producing new products for my business.  I felt like a victim to other businesses and manufacturers that were not in integrity.  By taking responsibility for choosing to work with them in the first place, I gained the power to find other more reliable companies.  

Responsibility does not stop with my body and mind though.  There is a sliding scale of responsibility that starts with accepting responsibility for myself and extends to taking responsibility for the world I am a part of. 

My favorite definition of responsibility is one given by a teacher of mine: 

“Responsibility is acting in the moment with love for my-self first and then others.”-        Oceana 

On a physical level we breathe each other’s air; we pass molecules to each other when touching.  The sounds and words we speak vibrate each other’s ear drums.  The light our bodies emit is absorbed by the retinas of others eyes.  It is a fact that we all impact each other, intentionally or un-intentionally.  

In fact, the impact we have on each other is greater still…     

I was talking with a friend the other day.  I had a migraine (which includes light sensitivity) so had a mask over my eyes.  During this time only I was talking.  My friend was a distance from me; however, I could feel her reactions clearly.  To be sure I was feeling her accurately I asked her questions like, “are you feeling a sense of openness now?”…”are you feeling angry and upset now?”….”are you thinking ____ now?” And so on.  Her thoughts and feelings varied greatly during our conversation.  During this experiment the only time she replied (until a juicy conversation later) was to briefly answer my questions.  With promises of total honesty we discovered I had 100% accuracy.  This experiment validated the connection beyond the physical we were both feeling.  I believe everyone has the ability to connect with each other in this way. 

This type of interaction is called Kything.  Kything is something I have worked at for a long time now.  Here is a definition: 

“Kything is a wordless, mind to mind communication in which one person, in essence, almost becomes another, seeing through their eyes and feeling through their senses.”

“In such a frame of mind, the two people intuitively know the meaning of what the other is telling them. The idea may be based on the concept of Oneness, which states that all that exists is one in its source and end.” 

Kything requires releasing all ideas and feelings about oneself and the other person.  It means experiencing another with brand new eyes, like seeing them for the first time.  When our noisy thoughts and feelings are quieted, a serene emptiness remains.  In that emptiness we experience awareness outside our body, including in others around us.  Kything allows us to share our being as well as our thoughts. This experience helps me realize I am not only this body and mind, but something subtle, peaceful, and very big. 

Chaos Theory’s Butterfly Affect demonstrates our inter-connectedness.  The Butterfly affect was discovered by meteorologist Edward Lorenz.  He found that minute changes in his initial data (.506127 was rounded to .506) while simulating weather patterns had unpredictably huge affects in the resultant weather model. The Butterfly Affect states that something as subtle as the gentle flap of a butterfly’s wings can stir up a whisper of air, tickling a draft, forming a breeze, triggering a chain of atmospheric changes that culminates in a killer tornado ripping through some seemingly unrelated part of the world.  The Butterfly affect states the giant impact every small action has on the world around us.   It shows our interconnectedness and the power our actions have on the world.

Science states that every sound we make travels into infinity, forever impacting, and spreading through the universe.  Musicians have a huge impact on the world.  Consciously created music affects listeners deeply.  We all know the power good music has to change our mood or create a cool ambience.  This is a wonderful service to the world.   Furthermore, recorded music multiplies this affect as it is played over and over again.   The photo is of Jamie Cullum charming his audience.  

Accepting responsibility for the impact our words and actions have on the world around us gives us the power to choose new words and actions that will get the positive responses we want.  We no longer need to feel like a victim to the events happening in our lives.    

Personal experiments with this include:

v  After getting divorced I felt like a victim to my x-wife.  Our relationship was not very good at that time either.  Choosing to take responsibility for the problems my marriage had gave me the power to heal my hurt and create a new me who would not repeat the same mistakes again.  It also created a beautiful space of peace and caring between my x-wife and I so that we could have the healthy and caring relationship we have now.

v  By taking responsibility for my lack of clarity in business production, I gained the ability to learn how to be crystal clear with production processes.  I was then able to hold the space for greater clarity with my work partners as well. That clarity snowballs with those I now choose to work with too and we produce incredible products. 

I used to think it was arrogant to think my words and deeds affect others.  After all, doesn’t everyone have their own free will?   Yes, they do.  However, since we are all interconnected, we impact those around us whether we choose to believe it or not. 

Taking responsibility for our inter-connectedness allows us to create the outcomes we want with others, and in the world! 

Even if I am being treated poorly by another, by taking responsibility for their mood, I can then respond in a way to help alter their mood for the better.   This usually means communicating and acting with compassion and kindness.

A fact often missed is:  If I respond to a negative situation with compassion and kindness, I get the experience of compassion and kindness.  It is not possible, then, to be a victim to other’s negativity.

Also, because we are interconnected, I am holding the space for others to access that kindness in themselves.  Hence, I often find that kindness gets reciprocated.  By being an example of what we want, the world will follow suit.  It has to. We are interconnected with the world and our actions help create it.   It works like magic!  

This is why I pick up garbage in the park.  It is my park and I choose to be responsible for it.   In so doing I experience a connection with the park.  I experience a sense of pride that I previously did not have.  On a large scale if everyone chose to be responsible for our planet, pollution would go away.  Imagine everyone picking up the pollution around them in this very moment.  Some would clean up parks, others their factories.  The affect would be huge and beautiful.

I am no master with responsibility, but I experience its truth profoundly.   

It is fact that we are all inter-connected and if we don’t take responsibility for our world, then we are powerless to affect it.  Responsibility allows us to change things for the better.  It is what gives us that power.  

Y The more I accept responsibility for the way my thoughts, words, and actions affect ME the more peace and power I experience in myself. 

Y The more I accept responsibility for the way my thoughts, words, and actions affect OTHERS the more peace, connection, and power I experience in myself and with others. 

Y The more I accept responsibility for the way my thoughts, words, and actions affect the WORLD the more peace, oneness, and power I experience in myself and in the world I live in.