Recieved this video from Kailash today. Its a nice montage, with a couple of different devotional chants, and lots of pictures. He says, "The increasing length of my locks serves as an index of the passage of time. :)"
Kailash may be coming to chant at Main Line Yoga sometime in the future. We tried to find a date that worked this spring, but it didn't quite work. Be on the lookout for him in the future.



Visit Kailash's Website

Balinese Monkey Chanting is something that someone told me about once. I think they even offered me a small demonstration (to the best of their ability). I loved the idea, and it stayed in the back of my mind for a couple of years. Last night, the monkey reared its head, and I found myself compelled to start googling for everything I could find; video (below), audio (courtesy ubuweb ethnopoetics), and workshops (apparently your best bet outside Bali is Seattle or burning man). Unfortunately, noone on the internet seems to know all that much about Ketjak, and everyone seems to be quoting the same sources, and it is hard to get to the original knowledge. Any way, here is what I could gather.
I was suprised to find that the monkey chant was a product of the 20th century, I expected it to be much older. Apparently it has roots in a much older Balinese Exorcism Ritual, but the monkey chant proper is from the 1930s. Which brings me to my next misconceptions. I believed that monkey chanting was a somewhat random affair, perhaps with a conductor to guide the experience of shrieking and howling, but still very open to inprovisation and play. What I learned is that Ketjak is a scripted piece. It is a reinactment/retelling of the Ramayana focusing on the battle between the monkeys and the demons, and perhaps, told from their perspective. As the chorus chants, they sway and wave their hands, sometimes chanting together, sometimes dividing in two groups and chanting at each other. Occasionally a figure such as Ravana will pop up, and he will be chanted at (exorcized?)
As a practice it seems that it must provide an extremely invigorating, and trance inducing experience. It is said that it takes participants white alot of time to 'come down' from monkey chanting. The ritual choreography also creates an interesting experience of group mind, perhaps the same kind of group mind that Hanuman's Monkey Army experienced when they went to war in Lanka. I am always amazed at the practices that evolve out of devotion and a longing to understand and feel close to their chosen dieties. Ketjak appears to be a powerful tool for creating a certain bhava, or divine mood; a mood that allows one to feel the epic of the Ramayana play out inside the body. We are so lucky that human creativity is able to meet the challanges put forth by the very human need for divine connection, be it with yoga asana, kirtan, vedic chant, or ketjak.




video is from the movie Baraka, which is excellent.

Pankaj and Ajay Sharma of the Light of Love Spiritual Foundation (Downingtown) are featured in this video with world renown author and performer Russill Paul. The three of them will be leading a sound healing workshop during the Halloween weekend. All I know is, is that when the veils between the worlds are thin, I want to be chanting!

It is a quiet night, a few days after Winter Solstice, and a few days before Christmas. Writing a few notes about my dearly departed Ayurvedic Yoga Teacher, Betheyla, seems to be as good a way as any to begin the foray into Blogging. She died before dawn on the Ninth of December, so, where most of the major hubub around her passing has died down, we are still well within the TBOTD's 49 days. Still a good time to be feeling her out, reminding her to move on, etc.
Since she knew that she was dying, she spent a good deal of time with the TBOTD, which I suppose is what any of us would do, and she picked out some passages that she liked. I tried chanting it in Tibetan, but my Tibetan is not so good, so I scanned it a couple of times, and called it good. What to do, what to do...

Well, I suppose that that the Gods decided to take pity on me, because out of nowhere, my ole pal Pema Tendar decided to call, and announced that he was coming down to visit me for a day or two, as soon as I came to pick him up in Newark. Pema's Tibetan is excellent, and he is a Ningma Monk from The Zangdokpalri Monastery, so chanting Bardo Prayers is part of his holy work. I rushed off to collect him, with the hopes of having him teach me the chant, or in the event that it really was to much for me, to get a recording of it for listening and meditating and sharing with all of the other friends whose Tibetan is just as bad as mine. Well, Pema Tendar came through, he was happy to record the prayer, and even pulled out some other texts so that he could add some invocations and dedications. He asked me what her name was, so I believe he personalized it. He really did it up nice. I imagine that Betheyla is really happy with the result, which is good, because you've got to figure that she engineered the whole thing from behind the curtain.

Pema's Bardo Prayer For Betheyla