As a young man, I spent a few years studying and even teaching hatha
yoga/pranayama with several teachers around California..
As I move into old age I am enjoying the rigors of "just sitting" Zazen with
the Soto Zen Buddhists, and I have found that playing my newly aquired
"Shakuhachi" (actually longer flutes) for a few minutes in the morning
before I go to sitting practice is immensely helpful from the standpoint of
the "science of breath", pranayama... when I return home later in the day I
spend my day listening to various Shakuhachi musicians (this goes on thru
the night while I sleep as well) studying a little and sitting zazen and
playing various scales, answering birdcalls etc. on my various long flutes
(I have no teacher nearby as yet, but sometimes a player stops by to check
on my progress). It took me a month to learn to play my first note. I spent
another month practicing "Roh", now I just play up and down the scales and
try imitating mourning doves and various other birds... the other day a
blackbird actually came up to me...
So I guess my pranayama/shakuhachi teachers are Mourning Dove Sensai and
Blackbird Sensai ;*) at least for now... I really love playing these flutes,
the sound of bamboo is after all, the sound of Zen... I found the advice of
Suzuki Roshi quite helpful, to paraphrase his chanting instructions, "{Play}
with your ears"...
Brett "Bud" Breitwieser (bud@rajah.com)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Miller [mailto:millerbk@infi.net]
> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 4:30 PM
> To: Deana Dearry
> Cc: shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Shak: A Prana Connection?
>
>
> Dear Deana,
>
> I can fully appreciate and agree with your assessment of the connection
> between shak and pranayama. It's wonderful, isn't it! That is one of
> the factors that drew me to shakuhachi. As a kriyban (kriya yoga) I was
> already familiar with the connection between the breath and prana (chi
> for the zen/chan oriented). And my initial extended efforts to blow shak
> proved that fact to me. After several hours of deep, inner focused
> blowing, my PVC shak finally broke forth into a deep vibrant tone as
> simultaneously a jolt of prana shot up my spine.
>
> The flute may be one of the most "spiritualized" musical instruments as
> a result of this breath/prana connection. When one plays the shak he is
> literaly pouring his soul into the sound. Lord Krishna, in Hindu
> mythology, is often shown playing the bamboo flute (transverse - not a
> shak). On this flute he plays an eternal song of divine joy that all who
> hear may be awakened from their sleep of material delusion.
> Cheers,
> Brian
>
> Deana Dearry wrote:
> >
> > I am so pleased to learn about this workshop! Thank you to those
> > of you who included the information here. Since there haven't
> > been many replies to the topic - and I don't remember reading
> > anything about this before - I would like to take this opportunity
> > to ask some of you to weigh in on the subject. You see, Mary
> > Lu's articles "The Bamboo Way" and "Playing Honkyoku, Praying
> > Honkyoku" have been a very important part of my experience. I
> > have not been on the Shakuhachi path very long and I also do
> > not live in an area where there is a teacher to accompany me
> > on my way. To complicate things even further, when the flute
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