Bali Bhakti Bliss with David Stringer

December 7th, 2009 by Janet Carscadden

It’s been a while since you have heard from me. Some of you may know that I arrived home safely on Saturday. The last week and a half of my training flew by. Unfortunately some of my posts don’t seem to have made it to the blog. Like many parts of the world, internet access is spotty. You can spend an hour working on a post, think it is saved and then the connection goes out. It’s a great lesson in non-attachment. I hope that this and the next few posts convey the spirit of my last 10 days in Bali.

During the second week of the training we were blessed by a visit by David Stringer. Some of you may have seen him this fall when he played a show in Vermont. Dave tours the world bringing modern interpretations of yoga chanting to the world. He introduced us to the concept of the universal language hidden in chanting. He had us singing the syllables of sanskrit chants, feeling the meaning rather than directly translating words. Try this, close your eyes and chant this familiar closing chant syllable by syllable, “Om Shantih Shantih Shanti -ih (om, peace, peace, peace). Feel the vibration of each syllable. How do you feel? Sound vibration gives you meaning. Yoga directs us towards this universal experience of meaning. You don’t need to speak english or sanskrit to feel the vibration.

David talked about the physiological changes that occur in the body with yoga and chanting. Neuropeptides are responsible for the sensations of ecstasy that occur in our body. Yoga releases these neuropeptides and we experience a high. One of these paths, Bhakti Yoga is the yoga of devotion. Chanting is one form of Bhakti Yoga. Our lungs contain lots of neuropeptides. Breathing exercises also known as pranayama and chanting releases these neuropeptides and we experience bliss states.

David had us exploring the sensations of Bhakti with chanting, ringing bells, percussion, using shakers and playing the harmonium. He believes there’s a musician in all of us. We played with tuning our voices, then chanted, rocked, shook and clapped our way to bliss. Powerful! I’m still vibrating just writing about it. Here’s a link to David’s website. Check out his workshops around the world. He’s a very accessible down to earth yogi.

http://davestringer.com/