Post from Leigh Ann
~ The River ~
Personal Note:
Like all of you, my life and work is significantly influenced by the support and guidance of our honorable teachers. I wish to make it clear that the following information about this project is my own personal, artistic interpretation of the teachings I have been graced by. Thank you for holding the space for me to share this project with you.
ĀKĀŚA is the title of my second full-length album due to be published on October 10, 2018. Ākāśa is a concept album based on the Saṃskṛtam word for the element of space/ether. A concept album is like a storybook, with each song being like a chapter of the story. Each of the songs that make up the album hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually.
Much like the five elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space that make up our physical sphere, an effective story is also made up of five elements which are the setting, plot, characters, conflict, and theme. The theme of this story is Ākāśa as the sense of “holding space”. Space is the container which holds and supports the other elements. The protagonist of the story is one’s soul, and the antagonist is the human ego, making the overall conflict of the story an internal one. Conflict is created where there is a struggle between opposing forces. Conflict must be present in a story for there to be growth and an overall moral or lesson to be learned. The two basic opposing forces that create conflict in an effective story are desire and obstacle. In the story of Ākāśa, the soul’s desire is Realization and its obstacle is avidya (ignorance) created by the ego.
My main intention with this project is to provide a sonic tool that can be used to support one’s journey toward Realization. Our physical selves are made of the basic elements earth, water, fire, air, and space. Therefore, our understanding of the qualities each element possesses, can support an understanding of how they present themselves in our mental, emotional, and energetic bodies, which tend to be the more challenging areas for us to recognize and understand.
I’m still not certain how many songs in total will complete Ākāśa. What I do know at this point is there are five songs that represent each of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space. There are four songs that represent the relationships between earth + water, water + fire, fire + air, and air + space. There will also be a song inspired by ājñā chakra, and another inspired by sahasrāra chakra.
The River is the third track on the album and it represents the element of water. The qualities of water I connected with while channeling this song include cool, stable, heavy, moist, smooth, gross, flowing, dull, cloudy, soft, and sweet. It represents for me the spring season, fluidity, cohesion, creation, and reproduction. It is the protector of the physical body and its sense organ is the tongue. Water is what makes our sense of taste possible. It also represents “taste” figuratively, meaning “preference” as it relates to our needs and desires on earth. Disturbance of the water element can be caused by excessive desire and/or avoidance of life results.
The main theme of The River is “going with the flow” and is inspired by a visualization technique I like to practice sometimes. I imagine that I’m flowing down the river (human life/time) in my raft (physical body). Thoughts are like rocks and other obstacles I can see coming up ahead, and also the faster white rapids created by the flow of the river itself create the constant challenge of maintaining balance and control. We can’t stop the river of life/time from flowing but we can accept and surrender to the nature of the flow and take control of what can be controlled, such as attention, awareness, foresight, approach, and response.
The biggest catalyst of this project’s journey has been my trip to India for last year’s Sadvidya Foundation retreat. I had written about half of the album when I left for my trip, and I had a sense that the rest would be written either during the trip or shortly after. After a magical two-week journey in India, I returned home to Tucson with one new song for the album. This song is the epicenter of this project and it came through immediately after an amazing experience with Ācārya during a lecture gathering on an auspicious day. This song, “The Battlefield”, is the most precious on the album to me and was inspired by Ācārya’s teaching of the Bhagavad Gītā.
LOVE,
Leigh Ann