Blowing Zen: Japanese flute for calm (audio)

Pássaro Trovão - Sons Ancestrais, Oct. 16, 2017; Tod, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Shakuhachi (the Japanese flute) - Kohachiro Miyata (full)

(Pássaro Trovão - Sons Ancestrais) What if there were a way to "blow," or pipe, Zen (suizen)? To communicate a calm experienced in meditative absorption (zen, jhana = dhyana, chan, seon) would be a marvelous thing, an induction or simulation of the deep serenity produced by these natural states of calm and tranquility (samatha bhavana or "cultivation of tranquility).

TRACKLIST:

1. Honshirabe
2. Sanya
3. Tusuru No Sugomori
4. Shika No Tone
5. Akita Sugagaki

CREDITS: Artwork (cover art) – Watanabe Seiti. Coordinator – Teresa Sterne Design. Art Direction – Paula Bisacca. Engineer – Larry Mericka. Liner notes – David Loeb. Mastered by – Robert C. Ludwig.* Producer, engineering, photography – David Lewiston. Shakuhachi – Kōhachiro Miyata.*

The Monks of Emptiness

Zen monk beggar spy on street corner

Suizen (吹禅) (“blowing Zen”) is a Zen practice consisting of playing the traditional Japanese shakuhachi bamboo flute as a means of attaining self-realization (1).

Suizen was traditionally practiced by the Komusō (“monks of emptiness”), the Zen Buddhist monks of the Fuke sect of Japan who flourished during the Edo period (1600-1868).

Instrumental music is rare in all Buddhist practice, where instruments usually accompany ritual chants if they are used at all.

With suizen, the playing of the shakuhachi as a spiritual exercise is at the core of the religious practice, making it unique in the world of Buddhism (2, 3). More

Dark and sweet scales: Michael Graham Allen

(Rita's Flute & Music, March 29, 2009) In this video the Coyote Oldman talks about the different moods a replica of an ancient Anasazi [Native American] flute can produce. Michael Graham Allen was one of three featured performers at the NSU Jazz Lab during the OK Flute Festival in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. To learn more about the man and the group go to: coyoteoldman.com, coyoteoldman.blogspot.com, and shopworks.com/coyote.