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.
More on using sound as an object for Insight Meditation:
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.