BowlSounds at Rancho Solano Private Schools

- Stacey Lane, Advisor

http://staceylanes.blogspot.com

On October 9, 2009 Kenton Knepper enchanted the Rancho Solano Private Schools Missouri Campus with his magical Singing Bowls. Bowl Sounds are deeply massaging vibrations masterfully created by Mr. Knepper through the use of ancient Tibetan and Quartz Crystal Singing Bowls.  Students experienced a magical concert of symphonic sounds as they listened to the unique and harmonious playing of his mysterious bowls.

The class was intrigued and described the experience as sacred, secretive and something you have known your whole life but never understood….

Sixth-grader, Hannah E. reflects;

I felt like I was entering some forbidden, ominous and yet magical place.  A forest.  It felt like I wasn’t exactly there.  The noise seemed too loud for my ears; it went through my whole body with a vibrating feeling.  Part of the time I was terrified about… something.  I could almost hear the exotic birds chirping, and when I closed my eyes – a dense green, lush, amazing forest.  It made my heart thump as though something terrible was about to happen.  Then it got better, although I was still somewhere forbidden.  I feel honor and respect for Mr. Knepper for playing such unique instruments.  It made my stress and worries fly away – and I was…. carefree.  All my attention was now on the music…

Judge Not? Take A Breather…

People say “Do not judge” but that usually causes us to be instantly upset with the statement. Often people who tell us not to judge are judgmental of those who they view as judging.

Judgment and comparison can seem to be a never ending circle of criticism not easily escaped.

One day a new thought occurred to me on this subject.

“Which breath is your good one? Is it your breathing in that is good, or your breathing out that is good? Which breath is wrong? Is it your out breath that is bad or your breathing in that is bad?”

“Both my breath in and my breath out are needed for me to be in the physical

I responded to my Self.

Neither are good or bad, though some occasions I might honestly say that it would be better if I held my breath – that holding my breath would be good.”

“So, holding your breath is good. The in breath or holding your breath is good. You pray to never breathe out ever again, as this is bad”

my Self poked back at me.

“No, I am just saying there are times…”

“There are times when you should only breathe in and never out. When have you done that?”

my Self prodded.

“Only momentarily, obviously, or I would not be alive”

I voiced rather angrily.

“Precisely

said my Self

You see both are required for being alive in a body. No part is better or worse than the other. Even when you wish you did not need to breathe in or out, you simply must or you would cease to be, physically.”

“Yes, of course that is true and rather obvious”

was my reply.

“Then it should be obvious concerning all of the other polarities you witness in this life. For life to be manifested, there must be these two poles, just as there must be an in breath and an out breath. Protest and upset yourself all you like, but this does not change the requirement of an in and an out breath.”

“Where is union in opposites then? Is all life forever struggle?”

“Y is a line divided. Didn’t I give that to you decades ago? The answer is not in seeking the opposing poles but in recognizing the outward requirement of opposites for physical manifestation. This does not change that there is unity.”

“How is there unity?”

my personality demanded,

“What sort of unity is that!”

“Breath. You forgot we were talking about a single fluid thing, and got confused by looking at the parts. We were simply talking about breath and its different manifestations. Both in and out breaths are still but expressions of breathing. So are personalities and outer expressions simply expressions of that One. It is the single line of the letter Y before division into expression that is the actual start or Unity. To put it simply, it is all Life, just as in and out breaths are all Breath. You can condemn an expression of Breath just as you can condemn an expression of Life, but it changes not a bit of Breath or Life or what is needed for Breath and Life to be expressed.”

“I can handle breath being expressed or otherwise I would not be me, but I am not sure about everyone else”

my little me argued back.

“You can stomp your feet and hold your breath until you turn blue, but that will change only your expression, and nothing else. Life and Breath will still go on. Consciousness will still express Itself. Realize simply that all expressions of opposites are simply needed for Life to be expressed.

Put your focus on Life, on Consciousness, on the One that is expressed in an infinite variety of ways. Enjoy the expressions if you like, or do not. Do realize however that these are but expressions, no more good or bad than a breath in versus a breath out. All expressions are needed whether you can grasp why right now or not. Your job is not to focus on the opposites but to focus on the idea that no person, place or thing is in and of itself  ’good’ or ‘bad’ – no more than a breath in or out is better than the other. Each has its important place in the flow of Life expressed. Without such expression, any expression would cease to exist. Just as your personal expression would cease to be in the physical if you stopped breathing.”

“I need to debate that within me some more”

was my only response.

“Go right ahead

said my Self

You’ll be breathing the whole time, either way.”

People often ask me if it’s all right for them to fall asleep while meditating.

The truth? It depends…

In a recent radio interview a person calling in asked me if it was OK for her to fall asleep during her meditation. She explained she was using meditation for the purpose of relieving chronic pain.

Given the option of meditation or medication, meditation seemed to be a better option for her, and without the side effects or drug interaction issues medication can bring. Surely this is an option many a person could use in these days of high stress and high prescriptions.

I told the caller that in her case it was fine for her to fall asleep. She was, after all, needing to avoid pain. It was important that she rest deeply so that her own natural healing abilities could go to work. It mattered not then that she fell asleep as she meditated, as she was achieving her objective.

This may seem at odds with those who were taught one should never fall asleep while meditating – ever.

First of all, telling people who are trying to meditate at all that they are “wrong” mainly adds complications and stops people from meditating – period. This does no one any good, including the ego-personality that insists they are the ones to determine “right” and “wrong”. I want more people to find help through meditation, not fewer.

Secondly, the person calling was in pain. Her primary purpose at this point was to stop feeling pain and rest so the body could heal.

So Is It Always Fine To Fall Asleep?

It depends on what your purpose is for meditating. In many traditions teachers run around and make sudden, startling noises, or physically hit a student with an item, to keep them from falling asleep in meditation.

Why would they do that?

Because those who are meditating to hear the Inner Voice, experience The Presence or achieve some measure on enlightenment won’t hear much if they fall into normal sleep.

Meditating for a spiritual insight means one must let go yet still be alert enough to hear or feel any insight coming in meditation.

A less painful way of doing this is meditating on a sacred text – what I call “Ponder Power” in my book. This is an ancient method and when one is actively listening for an answer or insight about a question or sacred reading, you are less likely to fall asleep. You are focused on waiting for insight.

If then in meditation your mind happens to wander a bit, you can always bring your mind back to a focus on the question or text, and attentively listen for that “still small voice” for new insight.

It’s important here to say that such listening is active, and attentive listening is important whether you hear an inner message or not.

Many people get discouraged as they do not hear an inner voice for weeks, or months, or years. What matters though is the devotion to listening for that Voice which allows for eventual insight or inner communion.

If you want to experience inner communion with that Something within, then you probably don’t want to fall asleep waiting for your Source to show up. If you wouldn’t fall asleep waiting for an important first date, how much more important is it to wait to hear The Voice within – your very Source?

Still, some of us do fall asleep or at least drift off from time to time. Don’t be disparaging of yourself if you do so . Just gently remind yourself that you want to stay focused on actively listening for any insights that might come concerning sacred issues. This will soon quicken you to a very deep, yet relaxed, alertness.

One more simple technique: Keep your eyes slightly open. You may notice certain Monks and Lamas doing this as they meditate. Keep your eyes almost entirely closed. If you prefer, close your eyes and then open them just ever so slightly, as if looking through tiny slits. In this way your eyes are closed, yet flutter just enough to be barely able to see a little, and this will keep you from falling asleep.

The trouble with saying all of this, as I often point out, is that saying much of anything may cause additional confusion. So please keep my basic rules in mind… Any meditation is better than none at all. What is a rule for you may not be a rule for someone else, and what is a rule for others may not hold true for you. Some say personality cannot determine what is right or wrong in any real sense, for right and wrong is tied up in sense itself. You might think that statement is wrong, but many swear it is very right. And there you are.

So, go with what seems right for you as long as it does not hurt you or (seeming) others. Like the wonderful woman who called in to the radio show, you probably already know what is best for you, honestly. You may not want to admit it, or you may want verification from an outside source. But deep inside you know whether what you are doing is exactly right or not – for you. At least at this moment in time. Trust me, it’s likely going to change anyway.

There is such a thing as Dream Yoga, but even that has to do with keeping an awareness. In Dream Yoga, you intend on being aware that you are dreaming. In a sense this is a meditation as well, but one beyond the scope of our immediate need. You will no doubt note the similarity between these and the topics at hand.

In many of my BowlSounds recordings you will hear sudden tones or more forceful striking of sounds from time to time. These sounds help keep people “alert enough”, while allowing listeners to go deep within themselves as the BowlSounds penetrate and vibrate into deep meditational states.

I hope these basic guidelines will help you determine what sort of meditating you mean to do, and whether or not sleep should be a part of that.

Perhaps I have given you a few additonal things to ponder as well…until we meet again.

Until Then and As Always, Many Blessings Extended To You

Kenton

The Magic of Moments

Some people fail to meditate regularly because they think they need to sit in one place for thirty minutes, and they just don’t have the time for that. But if you have a minute, you have time to meditate. You probably still don’t think that you have the time. Let me prove to you that you do.

Right now, as you read this, pay attention to your breathing. Don’t change your breathing. Don’t work at it. Just breathe as you usually do and pay attention to your breathing.

Don’t judge your breathing. You can always choose to change it at some other time. Right now, just pay attention to your breath, don’t force or change it.

There. You’ve just meditated for five or ten seconds. Good for you!

You see, everything adds up.

Imagine if you wanted a drink of water, but you refused to catch rain in a glass because rain is “only made up of little drops”. That would be absurd, of course. But we do much the same with meditation. We fail to meditate at all, because we imagine we don’t have the time. Yet every moment we Pause for the Cause, each bit of time we meditate, adds up to our benefit.

Right now, as you read this and consider your breathing you are going back and forth between two kinds of meditation. One style of meditation is calming conscious thought by paying attention to your breathing. A second meditation style is that of pondering or contemplating. You are doing that as you read the words on this page and consider what they mean to you.

Of course, it matters what you contemplate. It also matters that you listen for inspiration and guidance coming to you in the form of new insights, as you ponder a thought or question.

These are simple yet effective tools.

All throughout your day you may take just a moment to consider a deeper, more enlightening thought. Anytime in your day, you may shift your attention to your breathing for just a few moments.

The moments add up.

The more you take just a moment for two for such easy meditation, the more you will want to do it. As you notice your awareness shift,  experience a moment of peace or relief, or get a new insight, you will want to allow time for more of these gifts.

It only takes a moment, here and there.

One of the highest forms of meditation comes when you meditate unceasingly. This doesn’t mean you sit still all day long and hide away from the world. Constant meditation is an experience where you notice all throughout your day that inspirational thoughts, ideas, feelings, and whispers come to mind as you go about daily business. Such experiences are constant moments of small meditations, just like the ones we have been considering.

You may not have a minute. But if you have thirty seconds, or only ten, contemplate a deeper thought or observe your breathing for that short moment.

Do this off and on all throughout your day, and you will experience the Magic of Moments.

What You Do With An

Unintentional Occurrence

Matters Greatly

Kenton

While Kenton is known for being a mystic who plays the Tibetan and Crystal Bowls, doing so has taught him many life lessons to be shared with others. By telling of his experiences as a player of the Bowls, he sheds light and comfort to our more typical life events. As is usual with mystics, it’s best to read between the lines and look for the deeper principles hiding under the surface discussion.

A note that sounds wrong to me can suddenly happen as I am playing the bowls. There is no doubt that the sound has taken place, and while seemingly at odds with all other sounds, one cannot un-ring the bell. The sound has happened – there is no sense in staying in denial about it.

Mystical Bowl players like to say, “There are no wrong notes.” It’s a good approach to have once a sound seems horribly out of place. Accepting the note as it is, and that it must have a place in what I am playing, allows for a new perspective. From this new perspective of “no wrong notes” one can consider ways to better view seemingly odd or surprising situations.

A seemingly disharmonious note may sound wonderful when other bells or bowls chime in next. Sometimes notes seem odd when they are out of proper relationship to current vibrations. When chimed along with other bowls however, this note may well find its special place in a very magical and previously unheard harmony. Yet this is not to dismiss the previous clash of sound, as these interactions too are part of the entire composition.

The note askew may be expanded upon and used as a tool to transform the way the previous song had been being played or heard. If the odd note is hard on the ears of many, then of course this may not be the best choice. But if the note can be expanded upon in such a way as to create a new harmony, then playing it again with conscious intent may be a fine solution.

The seemingly wrong note might make you aware that there is more to this bowl than you previously imagined. One of the keys to bowl playing is that the more you play any one bowl, the more possibilities you find within it. Only by working and playing with the same bowl repeatedly, over a long period of time, does the bowl reveal more of its notes, tones and range.

If a player cringes over a wrong note, that player is stuck with hearing and communicating to others that the note is somehow wrong. But the note isn’t wrong, in the larger direction of the song, unless the player insists that this note is wrong. Once a player understands the note cannot be un-rung, the player realizes it is up to the player how to make this note fit his or her ongoing composition.

Learning to adjust and play on with the notes that surprise us in life is of immense value, even when we find it difficult to imagine the sound of an entire life score.

So often have I imagined how imperfectly I had played something, only to discover that these imagined imperfections were the precise moments of transformation for my listeners. “There are no wrong notes.”

What may seem to be imperfections to us can actually be the requirements of Something Greater doing what It means to do through us. From the level of our little personalities, such seeming mis-takes can appear ego deflating. At those moments, it is important to recall that we do not know the entire sound of the universe and what is needed at all times. We truly don’t know the score. We are players in the grand symphony and there is an Intelligence that just may know better than our finite and egocentric viewpoint. Allowing the larger viewpoint of “no wrong notes” makes for a play of discovery as we experience the constant unfolding journey while we dance and stumble along through life. It’s all part of the larger dance, part of the Great Score of which we but participate, and hopefully learn to savor as we partake.

People often hear “wrong notes” as the chord of their own inner healing. We do not know how our mistaken impressions, faults, stumbles or falls might heal not only us, but also those around us. Surely we must not work towards creating a messy symphony in our lives or the lives of others. No one wishes to listen to a score made up of self-conscious, egoistic wrong notes for the gratification of the player solely.

Most of us mean to play well, and wish to produce a grander, more glorious and harmonious, score. As we do, we ought not fret what we perceive as wrong notes in our lives. We are listening to but a moment in time, and we do not yet know the full measure ahead of us, let alone the completed score.

For more information on Kenton and his amazing Bowl work and other teachings, visit his website at www.BowlSounds.com

Kenton Knepper

Hello Inner World…

This is my blog to talk more in-depth about simple meditation issues, why people imagine meditation as difficult, and why it simply does not have to be so.

In fact, I can prove that you meditate. Yes, you do.

If you doubt that, then let me ask you a few basic questions.

Have you ever worried? If so, what happened mentally? Did your mental focus dwell on this one thing over and over again?

Then that was a meditation.

If you ever had a deep desire that simply would not go away easily, that too was a meditation.

Such meditations may not take you where you really need to go for true inner relaxation or enlightenment, but that doesn’t mean such things are not a form of meditation.

When we watch television, drive down a long stretch of road, or are busy texting a person, we may find ourselves “elsewhere” in thought. We often become temporarily unaware of our body, or the environment. We are so focused on one thing that we ignore most other input as either not existing or as temporarily unimportant. Such times are periods of meditation too.

It’s just a question of where you want to go when you meditate. What do you wish to dwell upon?

If you insist on not being able to meditate, then your meditation has become a mantra of “I cannot meditate.” But even this is a mental mantra that you constantly practice.

You may just as easily mentally dwell on a phrase such as “It’s possible to relax.”

If you are mentally stubborn, you might choose a mantra instead of “It is impossible for me to relax!”

The secret is, you have to repeat whatever you are saying or doing for a couple of minutes without stopping. You can say it in your mind – you don’t have to speak it out loud. You might try saying things out loud too.

And remember – laughter is very relaxing. It is a sign of relaxation and letting go. If you laugh at yourself, you are making progress.

If you still think you cannot enter any altered state, relax quickly or delve into deep meditation, then get a few of the Bowl Sound audio programs at www.BowlSounds.com and feel for yourself how these work even when you are not trying to make them work.

Especially when you are not trying.

As I am fond of saying, “Trying is very trying.” “Trying” tries our patience, our talent, our ability to relax.

Simply be aware of the daily meditations that you already do.

If you do not like the results of your current mental dwellings, then change them.

Choose other things to meditate upon, even if for just a minute or two each day.

Soon it will be self-evident that you meditate.

Once you have done that, let’s work on how you can meditate and get the results you WANT!

Blessings To You,

Kenton

www.BowlSounds.com

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