The Way of the Gong™

Today, more musings on questions   recently  asked. This time, I look at what we really do. Someone was asking, “Is there a goal to our playing?” Another way to look at it is, should we look towards an endpoint when we are playing? This is an interesting question. In the modern world, we are brought up in an atmosphere of winning is everything . It seems all our activities have as their purpose, getting better grades, making more money, acquiring more things. But in our quest for all this, we have lost our direction and veered off the path. We are wandering around in the weeds of material gain, looking for a destination. The important thing to realize when we play the Gongs/Bowls/Bells, is that there is no destination .  The journey itself is the destination.   It's important to be in the moment, to be fully present when playing. Too often we can be sidetracked by thinking ahead, thinking about some imagined ending, or result. But by bei...

Today's blog comes from   FaceBook, where someone  posted asking about how to store your Gongs. This is a great question that I haven't really seen covered before. The prevailing thought that I have seen from people is to store them horizontally, laying them on their face, stacking multiple Gongs on top/inside each other. This is perfectly fine, as long as you protect the face of each Gong with carpet/blankets/etc. Many people will say not to store them vertically on their edge because they can become damaged. I have to say that this is incorrect . I have around 200 Gongs and cymbals, and in over 40+ year of being a percussionist, I have always stored them vertically on their edge. In that time I have not had any instrument become damaged from being stored on the edge! Gravity alone will not damage a Gong stored on its edge! The only way you will damage a Gong stored on its edge is if you purposely push down on it against the floor, drop it, store something heavy on ...

I hand pick most of my instruments. I play through a lot of different ones to find the ones that will work for me. But sometimes I buy things online, based on sound files/videos, or just a general knowledge of what it will most likely sound like.  In both cases,  sometimes   when I get the instrument home, and start playing it, there is a sense of disappointment, or a feeling of “That doesn't sound like I thought it would.” This can often be attributed to the changing acoustics of different rooms, or even my own changing mood from day to day. But sometimes things just don't sound the way I had hoped they would. What's a person to do? A first reaction might be to dump it, sell it online and hopefully recoup all, or most, of what I spent for it. But a better thing to do is to live with it, to work with it, to give it time to sink in.  As humans, we are most attuned to familiarity.  We like familiar music, clothes, food, etc. Often, something differe...

“In the Buddhist tradition, compassion and love are seen as two aspects of same thing: compassion is the wish for another being to be free from suffering; love is wanting them to have happiness.” ~ T he Dalai Lama Compassion, something the world seems to be lacking in today. We only need to turn on the TV, or go on the internet, to see so many acts of disregard for our fellow humans. When people come to your sessions, please think about them, and think about the struggles and abuse in their lives that they may be bringing with them. Do not play your Gongs disregarding that. While we may have become more connected then ever with the internet, we often find our lives lacking real human interaction and connection.  When people come to your sessions, welcome them with both compassion and love.  Realize that the hour or two spent with you should be a safe haven from the outside world. Listen to their hearts and souls, and connect with their energy. Have compas...

Ritual 1  ri tual adjective   rit·u·al   \ˈri-chə-wəl, -chəl; ˈrich-wəl\ Simple Definition of  ritual :  done as part of a ceremony or ritual :  always done in a particular situation and in the same way each time We often look at ritual as something we do over and over that takes discipline. But that assigns a negative connotation to it, because we often see discipline as something negative, like it's a punishment.  It takes discipline to get up in the morning when we want to stay in bed.  It takes discipline to not eat the bag of cookies. It takes discipline to do our practice. But ritual is far from being something negative. In fact, it is something that can lead us to liberation . Think of that. Who wouldn't want to feel liberated? “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' na...

Everything in the Universe is broken in some way.  Nothing is perfect.  But in being broken everything is perfect. This state of broken perfection is a state of both change and growth. It it through the cracks in our lives, the very cracks we try to hide and avoid, that the light comes into our lives. And not just light, but sound, as they are both vibrational forms of the same Universe.  Kintsugi - the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery  with gold and lacquer to transform it into a new art object. As you do your practice, as you meditate, do not shut yourself off. Do not close yourself up. Be open. Let the cracks appear, as they are not the wounds you think they are, but are:  Doors to expansion. Doors to opportunity. Doors to the real you. How often when you were hurt or lost have you reached for the sound? Turned on the radio. Hummed or sung to yourself. Played your instruments. And how did that make you feel? Don't wait for those...

We've all had that day, the day we feel too tired, or too busy, or too scattered, or too…name a thousand things. I go through that. I go through that with Yoga, with music, with meditating, with writing, with all the things I do. But when we're too tired, or busy, or scattered, that's the time we need our practice the most. The practice is enough in itself. I resist. I make excuses. I procrastinate. I tell myself lies. Yet when I finally say yes , I am grateful. I am grateful because I am doing it for myself. Too often our modern society makes us feel guilty if we take time for ourselves. Other people tell us, “You really need to do this for me right now.”  Right now.  Well, right now is for me. Right now is my time. If you were drowning, I would stop to save you. But have you ever stopped to think that I may be drowning inside? That maybe I need to save myself?  I drown a little bit everyday. I drown little bit everyday and no one sees it but me, bec...