On Friday, June 21 at 7 PM, we will celebrate the longest day of the year with poetry, candles and a meditative sound bath featuring Jessie Solon playing bowls, bells, gong, chimes and monochord. No registration necessary. Donations gratefully accepted. Any funds collected will be split between equally between the BDC and the guest artist.
Our May SoundGate features Annika Sophia Grace (vocals), Marius George (percussion) and Jessie Solon (bowls, gong, monochord) offering a soundbath of mantras of compassion. Join us this Friday, May 10 at 7 PM.
No registration necessary. Donations gratefully accepted. Any funds collected will be split between equally between the BDC and the guest artists.
Our SoundGate program offers an opportunity to meditate using sound as a source of concentration. Experience how the union of breath and sound can anchor you in the present moment. No prior experience or registration necessary.
The Buddha instructed his students to bring awareness and sensory clarity to each of the six sense “gates” of experience. Just as we can anchor in breathing, we can anchor in body sensations, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling or mindfully track the activity of the thinking mind.
These SoundGate Meditations offer a sound-scape of sensory experience to be your object of meditation, allowing you to linger in the experience of hearing (and take a break from other sense gates perhaps). A variety of sounds will be offered, bells and bowls, chanting, music, recordings of the natural world and soundscapes of our common humanity. While most are designed to be pleasant and carry beneficial intention, some will be neutral or varied in content.
You may simply relax and bathe in harmonious sound, or more intentionally bring elements of Insight practice to your meditation.
Enjoy Tibetan Bowls with Brian Sparks for our second SoundGate meditation of the month on Friday, April 19 at 7 PM.
Brian received his spiritual teaching from several masters in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. His teachers blessed his bowl work by giving him the specific “Prayer of Aspiration” and granted him many Buddhist empowerments. He has toured with notable Tibetan musicians, actors, and at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas in Arlee.
He offers his practice of playing Tibetan bowls in service of healing, compassion and awakening.
No registration necessary. Donations gratefully accepted. Any funds collected will be split evenly between the BDC and the guest artist.
Learn more about upcoming SoundGate offerings here.
If you play an instrument or are practiced in singing/chanting as a form of meditation and might like to offer a program, please let us know. We welcome collaborators. Please email programs@BozemanDharmaCenter.org to be in touch. Thank you.
Sounds are a wonderful object to practice the key elements of a meditation practice. We can be aware of how they arise, change, flow and pass; aware of whether they are pleasant, neutral or unpleasant; and watch whether the mind creates commentary or judgements about them. In this way, we hone the skills of practice which can be brought to any and all sense gates in turn.
Ultimately we begin to notice that sounds, like all passing experience, have the “Three Characteristics” of all phenomena: they are Impermanent, Impersonal and Incapable of providing lasting satisfaction. This leads to the development of Insight and a wise relationship to our experience.
We often take our thoughts and internal sensations personally – they seem to be by us, or about us, and the mind often reacts with wondering what to do about them. Sounds are far less likely to be taken personally, though we may have a judgement that “this shouldn’t be happening” or strategize how to fix some of them. Many people find it relatively easy to cultivate a dispassionate equanimity with sound, which can then carry over to the other senses. Thoughts, for example can be experienced as simply internal sounds. These SoundGate meditations, while (mostly) lovely and soothing, can also be used to develop your range of meditation experience.
Our second SoundGate offering for the month features Kathleen Karlsen! Kathleen is a mantra practitioner, kirtan leader, composer, and artist focused on the transformative power of the arts. CD). She has three levels of training from the Kirtan Leadership Institute and has led regular kirtans, mantra events, and workshops for the last six years.
Chants will be provided for those who would like to chant in unison — this is an evening where your voice is welcome! No registration necessary. Donations welcome; any funds collected will be split evenly with the guest artist.
More about Kathleen can be found on her website.
Ann Marvin returns to our SoundGate program on Friday, March 1, with her glowing Tibetan crystal bowls to treat us to a healing vibrational soundscape. SoundGate meets from 7-8 PM. No registration necessary; donations welcome. Any funds collected will be split evenly with the guest artist.
February’s SoundGate meditation features Brian Sparks offering a healing symphony of Tibetan bowl harmonics. Brian has received his spiritual teaching from several masters in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. His teachers blessed his bowl work by giving him the specific “Prayer of Aspiration” and granted him many Buddhist empowerments. He has toured with notable Tibetan musicians, actors, and at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas in Arlee.
He offers his practice of playing bowls in service of healing, compassion and awakening. No registration necessary! Donations gratefully accepted. Any funds collected will be split evenly with Brian.
Annika Sophia Grace, Jessie Solon and Marius Michael-George will be our guests again for the January SoundGate meditation on Friday, January 5 to share bells, bowls, gong, monochord, drums and vocalizations of healing mantras. All donations will be split between the BDC and the guest artists. Suggested donation between $10-$45. All are welcome regardless of funds. No registration necessary.
Annika Sophia Grace, Jessie Solon and Marius Michael-George will be our guests again for the January SoundGate meditation to share bells, bowls, gong, monochord, drums and vocalizations of healing mantras. All donations will be split between the BDC and the guest artists. Suggested donation between $10-$45. All are welcome regardless of funds. No registration necessary.
