I love these animal sounds ... sometimes when I'm out running with my dog
Tess .. I stop when I hear a beautiful bird calling ... Tess comes up and
sits beside me .. we listen .. the bird calls out .. I answer with a feeble
imitative whistle ... the bird responds .. and Tess tilts her head towards
me ... " yes .. I tell her .. see Tess .. ? All the animals in the forest
love me ... see how lucky you are to be my doggie ..? "
I think of the solo flute sections of Sufi/Arabic music is it the ' taksim '
.. ? The longing for union with the Beloved comes through the hollow
tube and drops like nectar into the heart.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bud" <bud@rajah.com>
To: <millerbk@infi.net>
Cc: <shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 6:44 AM
Subject: RE: Shak: A Prana Connection?
> 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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