THE SYMPHONY OF ONENESS AN INTERSPECIES SOUNDSCAPE ©CATHERINE MEESON 20.9.2013

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Avalokiteshvara the Buddhist Avatar of Compassion is known for their role ( dual as in masculine feminine) in listening to and responding to the cries of the world. And within this philosophical and cultural framework  is the notion of the bodhisattva, a being on the path to buddhahood that embodies the teachings of the dharma and the commitment to love and serve all species all life. This is one of the beautiful flowers of the cultural garden, a distinct sounding symphony originating from within  the Orient. The Ancient Chinese Emperors understood sound and its effects upon civilization and would survey their kingdoms, guided by the Dao. They knew that disorder within the sound of the World would spell doom for the people, and hence their kingdom sought in its ways of governance, to be strictly in accord with the Cosmic Tone.

The Indigenous of most nations are known for their roles as Keepers of Lore and traditions which place emphasis on the role of listening, heeding the voice of all relations. They know that their actions effect the generations to come and consider this is all actions. They have always striven to live in balance and close to their conception of the creator and guiding beings/ ancestors. This worldview is embodied in sayings such as In La kech, I am another yourself, and Mitakuye Oyasin for all my generations for the next seven generations, as I understand. These are other flowers in the cultural garden of being, keynotes of the larger symphony, from many places around the globe. The Nth and Sth Americas, Africa, Australia, Alaska, have many voices of cultural wisdom saying the same things, but in different ways.

The symphony of Oneness is an expression of the life of Planet Earth, the sounds of time- An Interspecies soundscape. Acoustic ecologists( a field of study currently inspiring me), speak of the voices of the natural world as geophony (sounds of earth, wind, water, volcanoes, etc), biophony( the sounds of animals and I wonder plants?), and anthrophony (the sounds originating from mankind or in relation to our activities and inventions). The Soundscape is the total sounds of place at any given time.

Our current predicament suggests our Orchestra  of being, of harmonious relationship is out of order, out of tune, out of key. The voices of anthrophony reign supreme, the voices of biophony fade as habitat is lost and monetary value eclipses relational worth. The sounds of geophony, are regarded as non essential for survival , not so core in our educated industrialized paradigm. We are not dwelling in caves anymore, so why listen for predators, or howling winds heralding storms, (maybe we are the predators?). We block out , we tune out, we choose ‘to what; we will attune. But do we ignore our ancient instincts oriented around sound, and bring about our collective destruction in our haste to live the modern life and not take heed of the ancient knowings? Do you enjoy the voice of birds? How does the sound of the ocean make you feel? What of the sounds within a forest? Do you hear them or do you have plugs in the ears to generate your own sound cocoon? I do it , many do it. How often do we do it? How often do you have conversation with others? Are they physically present of virtual? Being needs being.

We are the dominant species , but our domination is destroying ourselves and all life. Realization is the key, yet can only come through love and balanced relation with. Consciousness is able to ascend into greater aspects of being, as the capacity to love all and serve all grows within us,  we understand;  but for many it is very hard to attend to this knowing these exalted levels of being if we are bound to survival in our daily lives.  It is not impossible to act on realization in such a circumstance but much more harder, requiring  different aspects of human ingenuity ; one thing that we are very good at. If knowledge is confined only to a discipline how can its teachings, its realizations benefit the collective . Realization is intrinsic to being, yet the specifics like pieces of the pies or atoms of the molecule, needs translating into the many tongues of the human community, of the common humanity. Therefore it is the responsibility of those that do understand , who do have aspects of knowledge that relate to the whole to be stewards of all life, to act from great beneficence and to be the voice of sanity to the policy makers, economists,  those of might and power within the halls of high courts, who hold the reigns of civilization tight.

The symphony will play on regardless of our efforts, for we are not its only players, yet we are fast eclipsing the players who do not conform to our vision of reality, (other life forms, the Indigenous nations, third world etc)., the symphony of wilful egoist greed. We need to be guided by love and the higher principles common in all cultures.  Principles of order, and relation. Symphony members come and go, their skill levels voice and  per-formative capacity vary. They have different hearing capacity,  occupy different places in life and within the frequency domain., At times for many reasons being s, players; become dissonant as a result of misuse of knowledge motivated by greed. There can be no one unity of being within such diversity of population when the ground of being is cast aside- the fundamental of our symphony, which allows us to sound, to be Sound and to perceive sound; as earth  and the elements within it which allow sound to propagate. We abuse these elements and therefore ourselves. We are all related, we are all made of the same cell stuff, the elements which constitute life on earth have been found elsewhere in the universe, of course!

Just because we can does not mean we should. Our modern  Symphony conductors are economists, and corporations, military  and governments, who manipulate the masses and the elected governments with their resources. The songs that they sing, the tunes, alluring like the Pied Piper of Hamelin- appeal to the base instincts, appeal to the essential needs, the senses, and there you then have  people as a “Maestro manipulating music and matter alike”.

This may appear cynical, it sort of comes with age, but it is a perspective on our collective predicament, a specie hood critique if you will, of which I also am a player. I endeavor and many like me, to play a symphony all will like, where all are welcome because the concert is never ending, and the tickets are free.

The Symphony of Oneness an Interspecies Soundscape is the reality of the Sound world of Planet Earth. It’s nature changes over large spans of geological time. Change- modulation is a constant on the systemic level, but when human agency has wrought in 200-300 years changes which will echo on in the valleys of future mountain ranges of earth for millennia, what are we to do?. The modes of thought that got us here are what need to change, our view of reality our fundamental sonic , upon which all of our assumptions are built and that sonic is our modern civilization, the flower of the model from Ancient Greece, and Rome. If we truly understood the nature of what we were doing , if we heard clearly, we would realize the need to rewrite our symphony at the level of players and actors, actions and  directions for our collective species hood orchestra.

We must step outside ourselves for a while and step into the feet of other species, into  the cell, the soul of the world. The trunk of the tree growing, the wings of the bees labouring for the Queen. There would be no toxic pesticides in my colony. Everywhere in the natural world supreme order and harmony of relations is mirrored, is sounded, is sung in the dance of the symphony that modulates between concord and discord.

The collective stories and myths of the Great flood, the tale Of Noah, tells us we have  not changed much, each round our desire nature must be transmuted, or great change will make us. We become as children, forget the high ways of civilization before , and we progress down the same road manifest in a different way. Noah embodied the repository of wisdom, listening to guidance and making preparations,, and realizing the bigger picture is worth labouring for. He became , so we are told; steward to all life,  protector;  his role was to be the arc reaching from the old world to the new, the one to come after reconfiguration, after cataclysm. The world was repopulated so we are told, species hood again evolved and diversified. We had had great loss , we had  better make sure we remembered into the future, so how will we do it, Through art, story, song, myth, all over the world..

 But what we stand to lose this time is immense, whether through just human agency or the forces of larger spans of geological  change sped up, Do we think our sciences are evolved enough to re engineer?, revive all life forms because we have genetic repositories, because we are mapping genomes? I don’t think we are that far along yet, despite the science. We are still Mr Frankenstein  in the lab making monsters, like Monsanto cross breeding species and forms, waiting for the results of future mutations and experiments to get out of hand. What would these species sound like? Are we to be the progenitors of tomorrows symphony, do we even deserve to be? Do we know what divine will is? Do we know what it will sound like "fifty years, a thousand years from now?", a question Murray Schafer asked Maybe it will just be a gentle wind blowing over the bones of the forgotten race. A slight melodic variation, due to holes in the bones of  the humans. Maybe distant visitors will come, and reseed the earth and clean it up, maybe their knowledge and capacity to love is greater.?

The collective will of all species is to life. Most people given the facts and the truth, if it is within their ability to understand, will choose the will to life. To love to harmony. It is the great composers who govern the collective symphony as revealed in the daily song, the yearly and future forecast  levels of governance that must be brought to account. They orchestrate the belief systems and social fabric, the norms entombed in the courts of the land as Law. The knowledge transmitted in the schools.  They is us. The laws were revealed by all great teachers in all cultures . The laws are revealed in nature herself. If we have indeed been nurtured, seeded from realms above and beyond this one, what is it that you think the higher forms of intelligence would want for us? What would the gods? Angels,? Avatars say, now? How would they guide us?

Haven’t they all along? Is it us who fail to understand the message and listen? Maybe the greatest teachers are those species around us who sacrifice themselves so that we may come to realization and knowledge. And within it, what symphony will we play into the future? Will it be a symphony of Oneness?

I do hope so.

Thoughts in relation to my current Thesis work which looks at 

"An approach to soundscape composition utilizing the therapeutic and moving elements of music and sound" 

Blessings Catherine Meeson

References,

 The Soundscape -Murry Schafer

The Secret Power  of Music -David Tame

and man