Past Programs
Meditation and Prayer - 2008
The Songs and Silence of Taize
17/10/2008
Three times a day the French hill-top village of Taize in Burgundy comes to a standstill. The church bells call everyone to stop what they are doing and come to prayer. And thousands of young people from around the world, pilgrims to Taize, do just that because prayer and worship at the Taize community is a unique experience. It involves the white-robed brothers of the community and the pilgrims coming together to sing short songs over and over again in a service that also includes a long period of silence for contemplation.
Director of Music, Br Jean Marie, was in Australia recently conducting a series of Taize services and Geoff Wood went along with his microphone to join the hundreds of worshippers eager to sing out their faith.
Special Audio Downloads
Download an extended interview with Br Jean-Marie from the Taize community in France. The duration is 14.47.
The Inner Voice
22/08/2008
Two voices of hypnotic beauty take us on an inner journey of meditation. Czech singer Iva Bittova confronts time and death, while Prem Williams, from Queensland duo Sacred Earth, sings a mantra to Ganesha, the Hindu elephant-headed god who removes all obstacles.
Wisdom of the Gong Master
20/06/2008
With his long grey hair and weathered face, Don Conreaux looks a lot like Willie Nelson. But he's no country singer. Don Conreaux is the Gong Master. "The Gong Master of Ceremonies", he adds. "Most everything that we do is a ceremony." Don is Artistic Director of the Mysterious Tremendum Sacred Tone Ensemble which travels the world providing social rites of passage. These events which might take place in a concert hall, in a desert or at Stonehenge combine sacred conch playing, overtone chanting, Himalayan Singing Bowl improvisations and gong performances. But these are no ordinary gongs. They are massive disc-shaped Tam Tams, one metre wide, made of copper, tin and nickel and struck with a felt-covered mallet. According to Don, the gong is directly descended from the Bronze Age 5000 years ago when they were used as a spiritual technology for healing by shamans. It's a lineage he happily accepts.
Don has been following the gong for more than 40 years and this week he shares the wisdom of a Gong Master.
Music and the Maharishi
22/02/2008
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who died this month aged 91 was the founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement. The Maharishi became world famous as the Indian swami who brought meditation to the West and cosmic consciousness to The Beatles and The Beach Boys in the 1960s.
The Beach Boys met the Maharishi in December 1967 and took him on tour with them during 1968 with disastrous consequences. Between songs he would chant and deliver wise teachings but the crowds usually booed him off stage. Most of The Beach Boys moved on but Mike Love remained a long-time devotee of the Maharishi. The Scottish folk singer Donovan and flautist Paul Horn were also followers and we'll hear both those artists later tonight as we follow the music and the Maharishi. We'll also hear from the swami hismelf, interviewed on BBC Radio in 1969.
The Beatles spent several weeks at the Maharishi's ashram in Rishikesh, India in February 1968 but left soon after hearing rumours that the guru had made sexual advances to one of the women on the meditation course. There was never any evidence behind these accusations but it was enough to plant a seed of doubt in their minds. It was during the course that about half of The Beatles White album was written, mostly on acoustic guitars giving the album its laidback feel.
The Maharishi's message was always a simple one: 'Life is bliss. Man is born to enjoy. Within everyone is an unlimited reservoir of energy, intelligence, and happiness.' Meditation, and a personal mantra, were a means of tapping into this reservoir of energy.
Although he was mocked as the 'giggling guru', he was an ordained monk in a venerable Hindu tradition. According to the TM movement, more than 6 million people have undergone TM training.
The Abbey and the Ashram
15/02/2008
Evening hymns from the Benedictine nuns of Jamberoo, an enclosed order in an Abbey in rural NSW, and the Moola mantra sung by Deva Premal and Miten, devotees of Osho, formerly known as the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
The nuns were featured in the ABC TV series The Abbey late last year on Compass. Unlike an ashram which encourages devotees to live an integrated spiritual life in the world, the Benedictine Abbey at Jamberoo is totally enclosed, devoted to meditation and prayer, and they stop whatever they're doing to sing the Liturgy of the Hours seven times a day.
It's evening and the final office of the day, Compline, when the nuns are officially released from the day's activities to a quieter night watch. We'll start with a hymn by Hildegard of Bingen, O Quam Preciosa featuring Sister Magdalene Mather, and then the Nunc Dimittis.
Following that we hear the Moola mantra, sung in the ancient religious language of Sanskrit. It affirms the Oneness of God, the eternal reality and begins OM SAT CHIT ANANDA - the primordial sound of the universe, truth, pure consciousness, bliss...
Deva Premal, who was born in Germany, and Miten, a one-time rock musician from England who toured with Fleetwood Mac and Lou Reed in the 1970s, are devotees of Osho, formerly known as the Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh. They've been together since 1991 and are massively popular around the world for their music and chanting which is based on the principle of music as a spiritual practice, one of the daily devotions of every ashram or spiritual retreat.
