Paying Attention

Earlier this year our yoga class had a guest teacher, Ben of Benergy Healing, who gave us a Sound Bath with his crystal singing bowls. It was a delicious experience, feeling the vibrations of the different tones moving through my body and allowing simple movements to flow through me.

Our yoga studio is located on the second floor of the main street in Astoria, which is also a major highway cutting through town.

The traffic at times was subdued and easy to ignore, but other times loud cars would rev their engines and a few sirens blasted their way down the street.

Through it all, the sounds of the bowls kept steady waves of frequencies flowing through my body and inducing a sense of stillness from within while feeling the movement of the sounds.

Two threads of musings were formulating through my mind as we were coming to a sweet spot close.

One was how this experience is a metaphor for life. Where we put our attention matters and where we put our attention grows. I could choose to rest in the paradox of stillness within sound, or shift my attention to the loud cars and send an annoyed thought bubble to the drivers, or notch it up a bit with the sirens and go in to fear or alarm. Both of these I did and caught myself in time to remember where I was, send a prayer and put my attention back into the room and the gentleness of the sound bath, and the other noises faded away.

So much in our daily lives clamor for our attention and pull us out of our center and draw us into external world circumstances that make us forget the Beauty that resides within. How much more effective can we be if we cultivate this inner Being and be conscious when we engage with what the external world is presenting us?

And somehow, this song was playing in my head and heart as I left the class and entered back on the street and into my life.

“Hhow Can I Keep From Singing” adapted by Pete Seeger

My life flows on in endless song
Above earth's lamentation.
I hear the real, thought far off hymn
That hails the new creation

Above the tumult and the strife,
I hear the music ringing;
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?

What through the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it live'th.
What through the darkness round me close,
Songs in the night it give'th.

No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging.
Since love is lord of Heaven and earth