Meditation + Fun = TranceDance
By Carol - Holy Names Mission
Meditation + Fun = TranceDance!
At our “Connections” gatherings we enjoy getting to know one another, gaining insights from the many paths of wisdom, and experiencing something from other world cultures of the ancient and not-so-ancient ways of attaining yoga, or divine Union. In both quiet and noisy ways we individually detach from the frantic activities of the mind and experience just being in flow of the eternal blissful Now.
As Americans, we have appropriated any number of ancient traditions and adapted them to our own understandings and our need and knack for getting things down to their basics. While a Native American or African traditional ceremony using drums may have been a beautiful and formal observance for centuries, many people now from various cultures benefit from and enjoy sitting in a casual drum circle and simply drumming together. Likewise, the ancient teachings of India and elsewhere about the powerful effects of sound vibration have traveled into our American culture and are currently being shared as tonings, crystal bowls and such, and also as modern electronic music infused with ancient syllables, ancient hymns, and Sanskrit words. In 1990 a group called Enigma brought this concept to popular attention with Gregorian chant set to disco music.
There are countless scriptures that refer to the beneficial effect of using the ancient, divine addresses, and in particular the cosmic, some say eternal, language of Sanskrit to raise vibration in oneself and on the planet. The simplest example is that of chanting the "Om", a Sanskrit word that has many definitions, perhaps the best being that it means "Yes" in the very most cosmic sense. It is easy to understand that one gets a different effect from saying an ordinary word over and over, such as Coca-Cola, and a word such as Om, which contains vast metaphysical meaning and mathematical vibrations that attune us to the greater life of the Universe.
So at Connections we listen to one another, and we drum, and chant simple songs, and sit in Silence with one another, and we also bring our higher consciousness more into our bodies by dancing to music that is composed around ancient hymns or various Sanskrit names of God. Gabrielle Roth introduced the concept she called "sweating our prayers" - letting our bodies move freely and fully while immersed in ritual sounds. It can be healthy and deeply satisfying to simply let ourselves dissolve into a safe, softly-lit space and the beat of danceable music while hearing cosmic, transcendental sounds, whether we know what they mean or not. As we move in the high vibe colors and music and fun of this kind of spirit dance, we're brought into the light-hearted Presence of divinity that brings joy and gratitude and a sense of being unconditionally loved and accepted. That’s union, that's yoga.
A divine connection, peace and bliss may also be achieved through any number of other forms of yoga, the breathing of Prana-yoga, the postures of Hatha-yoga, the study of Gnana-yoga, the devotion of Bhakti-yoga, the service of Karma-yoga - and at Connections we may explore any of these as well - but we'll probably always do Trance-dance, because it easily brings us into wholeness, it’s blissful - and it's fun!
This article was posted by Holy Names Mission
