The heart of meditation, the heart of love, the opening toward what is true, healing and beautiful — words fall short! The most sincere attempts to communicate can seem trivial and ineffective. Yet through music, poetry, art, touch, hidden doors may open....
These songs began to arrive from such a longing, to express, to share. All have their roots deep in the paths of meditation and love and are informed by the insights and touch of Aikido. Their rhythms, melodies and interweaving musical lines are different expressions of a many faceted whole.
Alaya means abode, the inner abode, the inner sky that contains light and dark, joy and pain, death and abundant life. Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba spoke of the one and the many — “Use the one to strike the many!” From the mystic Osho I heard that when you move to your inner abode, all things come into harmony, return to their essential dharmata, their nature. Then inner and outer dissolve. Then there is only one sky. I wish us all courageous, fruitful journeys toward Alaya, the one sky.
It was my great good fortune to meet up with multi-instrumentalist Eric Forrest, who brought musical artistry, amazing versatility and technical expertise to this project. We worked together from my original arrangements for guitar and piano, and with his talented hands rich instrumental fabrics emerged.
Along the way, many wonderful people were essential to bringing this album into being. For their ongoing support, love, laughter and tears, my deepest thanks go out to Dhyan Kundan, Prem Vidhana, Lon Hultgren and Jamie Tipton.
As this music came into being, Beth Schenk and David Moore were the first ears to hear and hands to play several of these songs. Sudhananda walked me into the recording world and helped me get started. Jason Hicks provided invaluable assistance as well as introducing me to Eric. Linda Holiday gave warm and very generous support.
This project was funded primarily by a successful Kickstarter campaign. Thank you so much to all who contributed and offered sustaining encouragement!
Abiding gratitude to mentors Elwood Peterson, Emilie Conrad and Mitsugi Saotome Sensei for their priceless insights and inspiration.
This album is dedicated to the mystic Osho, whose brilliance, grace and devastating love returned my life to me and opened inner sky.