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Europe Summer Tour

It has been a summer of festivals in Europe, starting with Festi’ Spirit near St. Tropez, France; the No Mind Festival in Angsbaka, Sweden; the Osho RISK Summer Festival in Denmark; and the annual Zurich Festival of Meditation and Celebration in Swizerland. We enjoyed wonderful summer weather for the most part and lots of adventures together as a band. There were many highlights along the way as I think you will see scrolling through the photos. Enjoy!

Spring Symphony

Winters can seem long, but Spring has a way of eventually arriving. It may be a little late in some years. But it never misses an appointment; nor does it disappoint. It always arrives with an explosion of color and inspiration — for the eyes, the heart and soul.

This little clip is a tribute to one of my favorite seasons http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqTAgTGsyvs. I took the photos within walking distance of my home nearby the famous Shenandoah River, Blue Ridge Mountains, and Shenandoah National Park of Virginia. The music I composed while exploring with new recording software.

“I was tired and sleeping on my idle bed, and imagined all work had ceased. In the morning I woke up, and found my garden full with wonders of flowers.”  Rabindranath Tagore

It’s All Good

I recently celebrated my sixtieth birthday in style with good friends, cake, plenty of champagne, music and dancing in New York City and Virginia; also in Dallas where I facilitated an unscheduled event and continued work on my new homepage design. Which is, by the way, finished now. Yahoo! The newly-added shop gives a possibility to share the music and meditations easily and make them more available.

The work was a lot and took me most of the winter but I got into it. I also learned some new things. In the last months, I have been leaning more towards being a geek than a musician. Now with my guitars freshly out of the shop after some much-needed TLC, I look forward to playing and the tour dates ahead.

I always thought when I turned sixty, my eyes would turn more towards The Himalayas and retirement, but surprise:  the celebration continues!

Celebrating Everything — Even the Cold!

I think of myself as a warm-weather person. Which is kind of strange because in recent years I always seem to find myself in the deepest of winter somewhere on the planet. To the point I thought to myself last summer, I really really have to be in a warm climate this winter. But alas. As fate, or as I am finding out — good fortune — would have it, I was suddenly on a plane December twenty-forth,  flying to Denmark and into the dark, Scandanavian deep-freeze. But something beautiful awaited me: the Osho RISK Winter Festival and many warm, loving friends; also some wonderful musician (new aquaintances and dear friends from past collaborations) — all of which was a big part of the pull I felt that got me on the plane in the first place. We were enough crazy hearts to create some wonderful high-energy celebration, but also some quieter, more silent music for the meditations. So, let’s see: there was that wonderful Jazz Cafe evening; and that super New Year’s Eve party; and all that wonderful food; and the many juicy workshops; and … and the Gangam-style dancing, of course! If I have to sum it all up in one word it is “wow!” Just “wow!” So much wow in fact I completely forgot about the weather. I mean, who cares really when one is having so much fun? The reality is, the festival helped open my eyes to see that even the coldest, bleakest winter has its beauty. With this insight still fresh, I say goodbye to the great year that was and welcome in the New Year that will be.

Charaiveti, Charaiveti

Buddha used to finish his sermons everyday with the same two words to his disciples, “charaiveti, charaiveti”. It literally means: “don’t stop; go on, go on. Never stop until the road ends, until there is nowhere else to go.” If there is any expression that sums up the last six months for me, it is this. I arrived in Zurich and Hamburg in early May to organize a reprint of Daydreams, the latest band cd. Then the summer’s events started mid-June and what an adventure it has been. Starting with two wonderful festivals in Romania and Turkey. Then the annual road tour starting with Osho RISK in Denmark and finishing at Osho Miasto in Italy. The summer culminated with the Afroz Summer Festival in Lesvos, Greece. I began moving out of Saturn Return by late summer. So some of the intensity I was experiencing the past year-and-a-half abated. However, the current still flows swift and life feels very rich, abundant and full of surprises. At the moment of this writing, I am enjoying the solitude of my mountains in Virginia. Long, autumn walks provided much overdue and longed-for exercise. A word about the photos: Taking pictures is a mood thing for me — sometimes I am into it and sometimes not. I have compiled what Teerth and I took, also what I gathered from the friends, and this is what there is. However, I realize they actually give a pretty good representation of what transpired. Working them always gives an overview and this particular collection really makes me smile. Some places are not well-represented (no photos for Amsterdam, Munich, or Milano!). But this doesn’t mean they were less beautiful. In fact, the tour was a wonderful ride from start to finish with many small miracles along the way. Everything adds up to one BIG miracle and that is the fact the tours are still going strong since almost twenty years. Amazing. Yes, indeed miracles happen. And especially before breakfast! Now where have I heard this said? Because I am a bit tardy with the updates, I prefer not to overload this page with all six months of photos. I will make another update next month (December) with the remaining Brasil and USA photos. And probably a few surprises! What else is new? * a new article just published in the Italian magazine ReNudo, The D, G, A’s of music and silence; a new Quote of the Moment; and a final flourish to this year’s Tour Schedule 2012. The last events of 2012 will be in Dallas and Denmark. Come join the party!
I started out with some words from Buddha. I would like to finish with something from Osho. “In Life, there are no full-stops. Only semi-colons;”

Starting Out

Arriving to Zurich, Switzerland. After an overnight flight, I paused on my wy to the studio in a beautiful park to catch my breath. There was still snow on The Alps and the morning view was inspiring.

Moving On

Completing the reprint process for Daydreams, I proceeded onto Denmark. Here I spent some days preparing for the start of the tour. June is always a magical time in Scandanavia. The light is amazing. It is also a time when the nightingales sing.

Romania — Thank you and Puni and Pari :+)

Turkey –  Thank you, Kareemi!

Osho RISK Center, Denmark — Thank you Anjee and Subhuti

Amsterdam – no photos, but super evening! Thank you, Srajan and Pratito.

Lotus Cafe Concert – Parimal, Germany

Munich – no photos. Wonderful evening, though. Thank you, Taru and Pathik.

Shanti Saburi, Milano – no photos. But always a joy. Thank you, Ansula!

Zurich – Thank you Premgit, Fredericia, and Diya (all you need is love!)

Czech Republic — Thank you, Tantra and Om Prakash.

Osho Miasto, Italy – Thank you, Prafulla!

and many small miracles along the way such as …

passing through Fruili. Bella Italia!

meetings with beloved musician friends: Rishi in Milano and Vedam in Switzerland.

and another day in paradise … enjoying the hotsprings in Tuscany.

Afroz Summer Festival / Island of Lesvos, Greece
Thank you Tameer, Disha, Osho Afroz Team, and … photographers!

published in ReNudo Magazine, Italy, October 2012
translated into Italian by Chameli

I have done a variety of different work in my life; I have not always been a musician. Music had been more a hobby for me, something I enjoyed in my leisure time, alone or with friends, simply having fun learning new songs as my musical tastes changed with the times.

I learned guitar because I was captivated by the new music unfolding in the 60’s. Like all my friends, I waited anxiously for the next Beatles or Rolling Stones album to appear in the stores. My younger brother was taking guitar lessons. My parents wanted me to learn violin. My brother was becoming cooler by the day, while I was moving in a musical direction I could not connect with. I wanted to have long hair, wear bell-bottom jeans, dress like Jimi Hendrix, and have lots of pretty girls interested in me. In those days, it was all about a sense of freedom. The Hippie Movement was an intoxicating era in more ways than one.

One day, I happened to go upstairs in our apartment complex to pick up my brother after his lesson. In my hand was a new 45 vinyl-single of a popular song I was crazy for, one I had been listening to over and over. I asked his teacher if he would show me how to play it and he said, “Oh, it is easy. It is just these three chords: D, G, A.” He strummed it, then handed me the guitar. I tried but quickly got frustrated. Why did it not sound like what I heard the cool guys play on the record? I eventually dropped violin and began teaching myself guitar. I never took lessons or studied it formally. Many years have passed since this time. I still play those same three chords occasionally, but they resonate now with a different quality. However, I can say that my journey into music started from such early age experiences.

I maintained a casual interest in music and guitar (also singing) during my teenage years. In university, I became quickly disillusioned with studies. I was bored, unsure of my life’s direction. The sense of freedom I experienced while listening to and playing music was calling me. Loud and clear, I heard it saying: “Open your wings and fly. See the world beyond your boundaries.”

Other life circumstances at the time were stimulating my interest in the Far East and meditation. At one point, I decided to leave university and follow my inner calling. It was a decision that would lead me to India and eventually the ashram of Osho. I often refer to this experience as a ‘divine accident’. It seemed every step along the way was leading me deeper into unknown territory, deeper into things I could not explain to others — even myself — rationally. It was scary but at the same time extremely attractive.

The thing that impressed me most about Osho’s ashram was the atmosphere. It was pervaded with the same fragrance I recognized from my liberating experiences in music. It was exactly the kind of freedom I was thirsting for. Music was happening everywhere in the ashram. I remember one of my first evenings, walking through the main gate and hearing the most amazing music coming from the front garden. It was surrounded by a tall hedge. One could not see inside so I followed the sounds around the corner to where I could peek through the entrance. And there was a sight to behold, one that made a lasting impression on me. Sitting on the ground was a beautiful young man with long golden hair and beard. He was playing an electrified mandolin while an older Indian woman danced around him in utter ecstasy. I couldn’t move. I was transfixed, completely mesmerized. It was pure freedom of expression in sound and motion, something so divine as if from another dimension. I had never heard, nor seen, creativity expressed so sublimely and with such grace.

Osho was my introduction to meditation. I had never met a person like him before. His whole being radiated its own kind of music: a music of silence. It was a foreign melody to me, like nothing I had heard before. At the same time, it was strangely familiar, like a long-forgotten dream. I enrolled in a ten-day meditation camp and began a cleansing diet of fruit. I attended Osho’s daily discourses; and his darshans in the evening when he met privately with seekers. I also began participating in the many therapies happening in the ashram. Everything was transforming. My thirsty soul was being quenched. For the first time in my life, I felt content and happy just being myself. The feeling was so deeply-satisfying and nourishing. It gave me courage and inspiration to go deeper. A new world was opening up for me. I had a longing to make meditation my whole lifestyle. This became my motivation to take sannyas. I saw sannyas as a way of acknowledging and embracing this new dawn happening in me. Such were my first baby-steps on the path to self-transformation: steps that would ultimately transform not only me, but my music also.

After becoming initiated and receiving a new name from Osho, Anand Milarepa, I spent some years traveling in India. Eventually, I felt to settle down and started full-time work in the ashram. I would end up working more than ten years in the community. During this time, I continued music as a hobby. But something interesting had begun to happen. Parallel to my meditation, love was expanding. My heart was opening. I had heard Osho say love and meditation are two wings of the Soul. This was becoming my reality. And the more love and meditation happened in me, the more I started feeling gratitude: gratitude not only to Osho for introducing me to my inner world, but gratitude to something bigger than myself: the vast existence I was becoming aware of within me and without. From this space of gratitude, a strong feeling arose in my heart to express it and music began to flow from me like water from a spring. This flow became more and more river-like, its powerful current carrying me towards something I could sense but could not see: something oceanic, luminous, and infinitely mysterious.

Along the way, another transforming thing happened. I discovered a golden key. I saw that the more I shared meditation and love with others, the more it grew in me. My outward expression was returned a thousand-fold forming a circle of loving energy moving in and out like breathing. This inspired fresh creativity; also encouragement to keep sharing. In this way, music became a vehicle, a way to express not only my inner experience but give something back: a way to say thank you to existence for the unfolding flower my life was becoming.

The song I heard existence sing through Osho so many years ago continues to inspire me today. It connects me with an inexhaustible source of creativity that goes on shining within like the sun. Those same three chords I once asked my brother’s teacher to show me — D, G, A — I still play them today but like I say, with a difference. Now they are less about manifesting adolescent desires and childish dreams and more about giving voice to a priceless pearl I have discovered: an awareness of who I am. Music has became my doorway to inner silence, a song that never ends, a timeless journey that goes on and on. Truly, it is something to celebrate.

The Art of Ecstasy

When I sat down to write this update, I thought how best describe the first six months of my year? Osho describes meditation as an art — the art of ecstasy. And this is the phrase that kept coming to mind, one that perhaps best describes my Zen adventures in the Far East.  I was in Japan and Taiwan a lot this winter. I stayed busy with events, but also took time to relax and enjoy. I kept my fingers stayed strong for the music and the meditations kept me on-track inside. I was also blessed to meet many wonderful people along  my way. Japan still still suffers in the aftermath of last year’s tsunami and ongoing radiation crisis.But these situations made the events all the more powerful and everyone’s celebration more authentic. It is one thing to hear Osho say “we celebrate everything” and quite another to live it as one’s understanding.

My last days in Japan were made more beautiful by the divine cherry blossom season in April, truly a wonder to behold. Also the Osaka Festival Day which was one of the best in years and joined by friends and fellow musicians from all over the country. Long travels since have carried me to the USA where after a short family visit I moved on to Europe for the summer. Spring is still unfolding in Denmark, where I am at present. So I feel lucky to be experiencing it all over again. My base is the Osho RISK Center where I enjoy helping out around the house and playing for the evening meditation. I also love my long walks in the surrounding nature. In these days (or should I say nights?) the nightingales are singing their special songs, reminding me there a simple, easy-going, natural ecstasy that requires no effort or thinking. The ecstasy that is Existence.

Temple gates in Japan have a unique feature: a high wooden doorsill on must be very mindful of. It has several symbolic functions other than its practical one of the gate’s construction. First, it requires one to look down. To do this, one must naturally bow one’s head. This indicates respect and humbleness. Secondly, awareness is needed because if you happen to space-out and not see the sill, you are sure to trip and fall. In fact, there is a beautiful Zen temple outside the city of Okayama where exactly this happened. The master was challenging one of his young diciples just by the temple gate one day and became annoyed with the monk’s answer to a particular koan. Suddenly with warning, he swung his staff to hit the disciple and lost his balance in the process, tripping over the sill and breaking his leg. The master screamed, “Itai!” which roughly translates as a painful and agonizing “Ouch!” In that same instant, the disciple upon hearing the masters scream became enlightened. Respect, humbleness, awareness — all are deeply-connected to a temple gate’s design.

I see this New Year like a temple gate. Existence has delivered me its threshold, generously giving me yet another opportunity to grow and discover myself: to live, love, dance and sing, laugh, cry, meditate and more. New adventures lie waiting just around the corner as Osho would say; as well as new life-lessons to be learned and experienced. So, with all due respect and humbleness, I bow my head in gratitude to the year that was and with all awareness open my eyes and step over the sill and into to the year that will be — 2012! At this stage, it is much too early to say what what it will be — it is a mystery waiting to be discovered — but it is off to a good start. I stand ready to set-sail and embrace it.

The USA Events — another year, another miracle

I don’t know if you are experiencing like me, but this year seem a little more intense than usual. I don’t mean it necessarily in a negative sense. It is like the intensity of everything is stronger, as if life itself is vibrating at a higher frequency. I feel it on many levels — in my creativity, my meditations, throughout my everyday activities, also in my connections with others. And it casts a shadow of uncertainty over everything, a not-knowing-what-to-expect-the-next-moment while creating a big, collective anxiety. From the perspective of the tours, they have never been more beautiful. On the hand, I find myself having to let go more and trust that things are going to work out and be ok — just maybe not in the way I am expecting. Never in all my years have I not been able to picture in my mind’s eye how the USA events would look like. Usually, I can get some sense of them. This time, I simply could not see the forest for the proverbial trees. I found myself going through the usual motions — organizing the music equipment, renting the van, making the many necessary preparations — all without really knowing what was going to happen. Looking back, having just completed three of the most-wonderful weekends possible, I find myself meditating on the koan of trust and control. Sure, I would have felt more comfortable and secure beforehand knowing who this year’s band would be. Yet, had I come with a full band as I usually do, there would not have been space for something new. And I really have to say it has been an absolute joy to have so many new musician friends join the events — Arjun and Sharabo in New York; Shanti, Suriya, Shiva Das, and Lee in Dallas; Gillian, Dave, and Orpheus in Chicago. So a very special “thank you” goes out to all of them. To be honest, I haven’t felt such energy and intensity in the USA weekends since 9/11. I guess we are all feeling the collective world-situation strongly.And in these uncertain times, I think it is safe to say this is the meditation. Before moving onto the photos (all you photographers, thank you) I am reminded of a discourse question Vimal asked Osho in 1987. I can’t remember the exact wording, but it goes something like this: “Concerning the current world situation, how to avoid feeling depressed and utterly hopeless?” Osho starts by berating Vimal for being so serious, then goes on to say the state of the world should not be our concern. Our only concern is to wake up. And that even if the world should end tomorrow, no worries. We will go dancing and celebrating.

New York

Dallas

Chicago

geetam’s lemon bars  …	osho  …	and the rainbow

In Zen the saying it is “the Path not the Goal”. Certainly, the long miles between events gave new meaning to this. Some iconic highlights along the way included crossing the Mississippi at Memphis, Tennesse, homeplace of “The King” Elvis Presely, and passing St. Louis the night of the first World Series baseball game (the Cardinals won the Series!). The game was in progres as we drove by, the stadium fully-lit within sight of the highway. Just next to it could seen the elegant and famous Gateway Arch as we again crossed the Mississippi River enroute to Chicago.