PADMA SOUNDSYSTEM

One night at the yoga studio we improvised with the Guru Rinpoche mantra, Om Ah Hung Benzra Guru Pema Siddhi Hung.  I recorded this performance using one microphone and brought it home. Inside my computer the performance was vibrated and tickled and introduced to the Sonoran drummers who had been drumming under a full moon a few weeks before. So there are two recordings of live performances, seemingly unrelated moments of time in the desert under the stars. With a wish to be of benefit to you dear listener we created layers of sonic mysticism. Sounds which you welcome into your mind  and the confidence that the Guru Rinpoche mantra  is medicine.

After layering moments in a kind of temporal timbre storm which builds over ten minutes, we chant mantra until the bliss cascades from our pineal glands.

The song is over at 11:11 which is a random choice I often use as the time limit for our inner space psychonautics..

New Steps in the Old Pueblo

We have a new sound subscription piece that calls itself Atom. It is designed for a 20 minute Qi Gong session. It was recorded in three places, at three different times and includes some White Tara mantra. Some of the crickets are from the Sky Islands southeast of Tucson. The rest were singing with us in the desert west of town. There's a low frequency didgeridoo sound underneath everything to penetrate those hard to get at emotions. Intentionally created to benefit the listener. Enjoy

Atom

Hi: Sorry I have not been able to send out any music for so long. Lots of change is happening for us all right now, and perhaps through all of this turmoil and transformation we're getting closer to an understanding of our place in the universe. Me, I've been very precoccupied of late. Finally I have some time to reach out and communicate with my fellow sonic mystics.

The shadows fall in unfamiliar ways and this year seems completely unreal. So many incredible challenges all at once. I have been watching death creep and snatch away my mom. Healing is a game I play with myself, trying to find archetypes who might want to play along. 

My mind is disoriented by flying over all the malls in America several times now this year. Sonora is home, but California knows my name. I put my feet into the ocean right where Elizabeth's first colony was declared by Francis Drake and watched whales. I recorded a podcast for you from there. There was a wisdom in the water, washing up and whipsering to us. About some surfer dude.

Check out this story about a surfer who thinks about how everything fits together.  I have taken a beautiful image created by his science and adapted it to my thoughts of how we heal.  We love - we heal. Its my personal experience that the more we open our hearts the healthier we become. I have these thoughts of panpsychism, a consciousness that pervades all life, and that we connect with this consciousness through love and sound.  I am sending you Tara Appears White Alone file as my gift to your own efforts to love and to heal. The NPR program 'To The Best Of Our Knowledge' selected this song for a show East Meets West: Dharma Days Yoga Nights  These are challenging times, and the shifting energies give us our opportunity to change the world by changing ourselves. May all beings be happy, may all beings be free. Namaste.

Tara Appears White Alone

As we get ready for all of the changes coming our way this Fall, as the world turns, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about the evolution of Padma Soundsystem. We are about to launch our own social networking site for yogis who love sound. This will be a meeting place for all of you who love music, spirituality, and the various yogas that help us through the transitory nature of appearances. This our chance to create an enhanced sense of interconnectedness. And its going to be fun!

I have developed technology and a unique creative process that allows you to custom design your own sonic environment, and I'm stoked to share it with you. My heart intention as a sonic mystic is to transform your consciousness and benefit your mind, body and spirit. We all need to relax. I love my yoga practice. I love my Dharma practice. I love the power of mantra and sound. So I have somehow discovered a novel way to give you the tools to create your own hour of music for yoga, relaxation or intentional sound healing environment, and you don't need any musical knowledge or technical skills. Doesn't this sound like sound we all need now? New sounds for now people. People who want to offer a present of their presence, each moment, more and more, every day. For the benefit of all beings.

In the coming month please keep returning to the website to see the latest news on our progress creating the Padma sonic pueblo, a village made of sound and you. We'll also be creating new music, beginning with the lunar eclipse this Tuesday, August 28th. This could be a memorable night for many reasons, and I'm looking forward to sharing this music with you.

Please start letting your yogi friends know there's a site where they can create their own music for yoga! Our intention is that this is going to benefit an increasing number of people seeking calm in the eye of the storm. The more people you can invite the more merit we all generate together...

Peace 

Cubist Monastic Trio

While we're gearing up for the new release of Padma Soundsystem 2.0 I thought I would share this song Night. It mashes the field recordings I made while in India walking around a sacred lake in Rewalsar with the rhythms of some of my drumming friends under a full moon in the Sonoran desert.

I thought these words from His Holiness the Dalai Lama might be helpful to you as well:

The Eight Verses on Transforming the Mind -

With a determination to achieve the highest aim
For the benefit of all sentient beings,
Which surpasses even the wish-fulfilling gem,
May I hold them dear at all times.

Whenever I interact with someone,
May I view myself as the lowest amongst all,
And, from the very depths of my heart,
Respectfully hold others as superior.

In all my deeds may I probe into my mind,
And as soon as mental and emotional afflictions arise
As they endanger myself and others,
May I strongly confront them and avert them.

When I see beings of unpleasant character
Oppressed by strong negativity and suffering,
May I hold them dear-for they are rare to find
As if I have discovered a jewel treasure!

When others, out of jealousy,
Treat me wrongly with abuse, slander, and scorn,
May I take upon myself the defeat
And offer to others the victory.

When someone I have helped,
Or in whom I have placed great hopes,
Mistreats me in extremely hurtful ways,
May I regard him still as my precious teacher.

In brief, may I offer benefit and joy To all beings,
both directly and indirectly,
May I quietly take upon myself
The hurts and pains of all beings.

May all this remain undefiled
By the stains of the eight mundane concerns (gain and loss; pleasure and pain; praise and blame; fame and obscurity)
And may I, recognizing all things as illusion,
Devoid of clinging, be released from the bondage of attachment.

Night