"INTRODUCTION"

by Rich Goodhart
(from The Sound Inside The Sound, 2013)

""Divine sound is the cause of all manifestation. The knower of the
mystery of sound knows the mystery of the whole universe."
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

Truth is encountered through true listening.
Comprehending the intellectual meaning of the message, if there is one, is of course an essential part of the picture. Listening to the subtle soundings of the voice, to that which resides in silent spaces unspoken, to the dynamic responses of the heart and the quiet language of eyes, to the breathful conspiring voices of wind and rain and trees are all of equally vital significance to a holistically illumined perception.

A guide book or training of techniques is not sound healing and it is not shamanism. The listening must come first. True listening. The shutting off of internal dialogue in order to be fully present kind of listening. It is by this kind of reception to the radiant expansions of the Great Mystery that one gets consciously closer to it, that it may reveal the beauty within its beauty, its mystical power and its healing light.

The writings in this book are a result of an honest and dedicated attempt at such listening. Some of these invocations of spirit are about sound, some are about shamanism, some are about earth and healing, love and luminescence, heart and whole being attunement. All are about the listening.

There is the meaning of words and there is also the music of words. The music of words includes their melodic texture, shape and color as well as their rhythm, accent and flow. The color of words may be described as their tonal vibration, their inherent essence, their feeling and effect, in the mind, to the ear and on the tongue. In addition to saying something meaningful, it is important for me that the invocational writings also express a certain experience of sound in regard to these musical qualities. A basic level of visual elegance on the page is important as well. The combination of meaning and music within one's expressed words also carries and transmits a movement of energy. This energy is of and interwoven with, but also in addition to, the thought and the sound.

Yes, there is an energy to words as well, and with our words we work the vibrational fields within us and between us whenever we speak. We all do this. The question is not if we do it but how. More specifically, in what direction and with what level of consciousness, heart resonance and intention do we manipulate these energy fields with our words? One may be unaware that they are doing it but the effect, whatever quality it may have, is still felt. Bringing awareness to it, deeply bringing conscious, intentful awareness to our use of words can transform our communications into a vibrant life affirming and healing art. In accord with the themes of this book, I would like to call this phenomenon, and the practice of it, linguistic shamanism. The writings in this book may be seen in part as a manifestation of my ongoing exploration of and apprenticeship to this art.

Although a good portion of my creative output has rather simple form, I rarely ever write with form in mind as a preconception to fulfill. (This applies to both music and the written word.) Instead, the form reveals itself uniquely in the process of each creation. Among the writings in this collection however, there are two very specific forms that I attempted to allow the muse to be expressed within. The first is the Japanese tanka. The tanka is an unrhymed five line form with a specific syllable count per line of 5-7-5-7-7, like an expanded version of the more popular haiku though the tanka predates it. There are further subtleties to the traditional rendering of the form but I make no claim to be a strict adherent or scholar of them. The second form is the palindrome, i.e., to quote the Monty Python skit where I first learned of the word, "That which is the same forward as it is backward!" Two pieces in this collection are complete palindromes and a third piece contains a partial one split between its beginning and end. All of these are word for word palindromes, not the strict letter for letter variety, thus allowing for the possibility of much greater expression and meaning and not simply a very tricky game of word play.

Part One of this book could easily stand on its own. Part Two as well, but not as a book only in that it is far too short for the form. However, I expressed what I wanted to in those three essays and I am also not a great fan of the need to fill space. As they are, both parts compliment each other and they were created with the intention to do so. Quite often I feel that wisdoms and insights have their best opportunity for effective transmission through the arts of music, poetry, lyric and short story. If Spirit has something of value to share here through moments of attunement, inspiration and art it has done so at least as well with the poetry as with the essays. The spirit dances and the teachings reveal in each section no less than in the other.

May the words on these pages invite the reflection of quiet eyes, and may they inspire an ever deeper listening to the gifts of rhythm, of music, of the subtle songs of nature and heart attuned perception - of the sound softly singing, inside the sound.

From The Sound Inside The Sound:
Spirit Medicine for a Renewed Earth Conscoiusness
Copyright 2013 Rich Goodhart/Beginner's Mind Productions
Reprinted by permission.


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"Called out a tune but I never saw the face, heard but not replaced, I ventured to talk,
but I never lost my place."
~ Jon Anderson (Yes)