Silent Mind Holy Mind
For some, Christmas is a time of fun, festivities, and family gatherings. For others, it can evoke feelings of sadness, loneliness, or frustration. The season is often accompanied by Christmas carols playing everywhere— in stores, malls, and elevators. If you love these carols, that's great; however, if you don't, it can be quite challenging. Some of the new arrangements can feel excessively busy, but the melodies themselves are timeless and beautiful.
Today, on Christmas Eve, I want to offer you something special: a music meditation featuring the well-known Christmas carol "Silent Night." This rendition includes no lyrics, only the melody played meditatively on a double-reed harmonica with a soft piano accompaniment. For our meditation practice, we will focus on maintaining a quiet mind, using the music to guide us into an even deeper silence within ourselves.
In Eastern spirituality, a silent mind invites holiness. This is one way to spend Christmas Eve—becoming quiet and still within ourselves, tuning out the noise and busy distractions of life. The light of God, which comes into the world to dispel darkness, began with Diwali and resonates with the recently completed celebration of Hanukkah. When the mind is still and the heart is open, divine light can penetrate our very being, symbolizing the mystery of holy birth.
In silence and stillness, the divine mystery is revealed in the depths of our consciousness and each person, regardless of their faith, is absorbed in the holiness of the One. And so, the mystic sits in deep reverential silence, in an a attitude of loving adoration, engaged with the great cosmic mystery that is the living universe.
Mystics are absorbed in a space that is deeper than words and more profound than images that speak a thousand words. Let us sit together therefore in silence and stillness and adoration, with the clear sense that there is Only One Great Reality, a living presence that expresses itself in both the microscopic and macroscopic.
Wishing you a blessed holy-day!
In One Heart,
Asha and Russill
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Asha Paul is an educator, author, coach, and passionate cook who is deeply committed to promoting health and well-being. Passionate about helping others feel their best and age gracefully, she shares her knowledge through online teaching. Asha resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Russill.
Author-Educator and Musician-Producer
Russill Paul
Russill Paul is the author of The Yoga of Sound: Tapping The Hidden Power of Music and Chant and co-founder of Yogic Mystery School with his wife, Asha, an integrative health coach. He teaches internationally and online. They live in Austin, Texas.