Two days ago this chant came up spontaneously as I was l online. It was only recently published on YouTube a few days after the passing of the beloved Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh from the Plum Village Monastery in France.

I was feeling somewhat scattered that morning, going from one thing to the next feeling my way into the day. As this chant came on I was captivated. It held me in its exquisite beauty. The rest of the morning I felt centered, directed and focused.

Today as i watch and listen again I wonder if the quiet focus of the monk playing the bowl is “contagious” in some way. I notice that listening to this chant- and the watching of the performance as well- seems to clear the clutter and crud from my brain. It brings tears, and then quiet and clarity. What is the effect on you? (Please feel free to comment below.)

[Written May 25, 2020]
So much of the world is still in lockdown- but as we are muddling our way through the strange new ways of the world we find ways to continue the beautiful expansion of the heart. The good news is THE HEART IS NOT IN LOCKDOWN!

It is Tuesday, May 26. This morning I was supposed to be getting on a sweeper flight to Manila and from there to San Francisco. The day before yesterday at the last minute, before the van came to pick my friend James and I up in Camiguin and take us to the ferry which would take us to another island where we would then be driven a couple of hours to our hotel to wait for the flight to Manila, we got an email saying the sweeper flight to Manila was full and so was the flight to San Francisco. I didn’t fall apart yet. I got on the phone as instructed in the email at 9 a.m. and spent two and a half hours on the phone to Philippine Airlines (most of it on hold at .25 a minute) to see if we could fly to LAX instead, only to learn eventually that there was absolutely no way for us to get to Manila.

That was when I fell apart- not because it is terrible here by any stretch of the imagination. Simply because I was furious with “PAL” (not my pal!) at their mishandling of the sweeper flights and total lack of communication and also, more than anything, because my heart longs to be with my family. When I go back the plan is to stay with my son Moose and his dear fiancee Jenny in Minneapolis until restrictions ease up around the country and hopefully the coronavirus begins to take a little but more of a backseat in our lives. Then I will decide where to go from there…

Meanwhile here I am, always with the awareness that I am on this incredibly beautiful island with an old friend who has become more dear to me than I would ever have imagined. We are at a resort which costs us $15 a piece per night and are being treated like royalty. In fact we are the only people on the entire island staying at a resort because all resorts and hotels have been closed and not allowed to have guests since March 22. Many of them have owners or a couple of employees staying there until such time as they can reopen but that’s it. And of course many of them will have lost so much money by the time this is over that they will never reopen. Somehow the owner got special permission for us to stay here a couple of weeks ago.

Saturday, May 30

Life has changed again so much since I started this 3 days ago. Minneapolis is on fire and there are riots around the US- the furious response to yet another brutal and senseless killing of a black man, George Floyd, who did nothing by a cop who kneeled on his neck for 9 minutes until he suffocated. I would have landed in Minneapolis yesterday. Grateful to be where it is safe and peaceful. I feel the pain and suffering of so many who are in fear, conflict and turmoil right now but I am in a place where it is easy to choose peace and send out a vibration of love to wherever it needs to go. That may sound cheesy and ineffective but in my heart of hearts I think it is the most effective thing that i can do in this moment 12000 miles from what I call home. I also think of the 45th Principle of Miracles in A Course In Miracles:
A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.

I’m going with that.

February 3, 2022
I wrote that post over a year and a half ago. I never published it because I didn’t finish it- what I was leading to was how connecting with others through online chanting groups with Jai Uttal and Gina Sala was one of my saving graces. But/and it is interesting to look back and so how we and the world have changed so I am going to post it now.