Multiphonic Chanting ...

     "Multiphonic chanting" is the term Huston Smith coined for Tibetan monks' ability to sing three chords simultaneously. 

     “What those lamas did, however, has a significance that goes beyond singing. They took from the outskirts of awareness overtones ordinarily too faint to be heard and made them conscious. This is what worship is intended to do: move the sacred – in this case, sacred sound – from the periphery to the center. I asked one lama, ‘What’s it like to sing like that?’ He answered that at first it was quite ordinary, what anyone experiences when singing. Then, as the resonant chords take on a life of their own, it felt as though not he but a deity was creating the music and he was just riding the waves of it. As the chanting climaxed, in that crescendo all distinction between lama, deity, and chords collapsed and all sound was holy sound.”

       Huston Smith, Jeffery Paine. “Tales of Wonder. Adventures Chasing the Divine. An Autobiography.” HarperOne, NY, 2009.

Depth of Meaning

     "In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some intangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on."


       David Foster Wallace "This is Water" http://www.metastatic.org/text/This%20is%20Water.pdf

 

 

"Gotta Serve Somebody" ... Something ... or Wake Up!

     "in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. 

     If you worship money & things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. 

     Worship your body & beauty & sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

     Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. 

     Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

     But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing."

                                                                                                         David Foster Wallace

      Wallace's entire 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Speech is WELL worth 22 minutes of your time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI

 

Spiritual, but not Religious

     "... some thirty million Americans - maintain some type of spiritual belief and practice, even though they no longer feel at home in a church, synagogue, or mosque.
     These are the famous 'spiritual but not religious,' philosophically the fastest-growing demographic in the US. Generally, they're educated, liberal, and open-minded, with a deep sense of connection to the Earth and a belief that there's more to life than what appears on the surface.
     ... contemplatives of different faiths often have more in common with each other than they do with practitioners of their own religion. It comes down to how much we personify or solidify the absolute - whether it's a supreme being who passes judgment on us or an open expanse of love and awareness. In their experience of God, Thomas Merton, Rumi, and Martin Buber had more in common with the Buddha (and each other) than with most practitioners of their own faith.
     The difference is that meditation is the very essence of Buddhism, not just the practice of a rarified elite of mystics. It's fair to say that Buddhism is the most contemplative of the world's major religions, which is a reflection of its basic nontheism.
     Buddhism is about realization and experience, not institutions or divine authority. This makes it especially suited to those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious."               Melvin McCleod, Shambhala Sun, November 2013

See "Psychospiritual Technologies": http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/04/psychospiritual-technologies.html