I was recently presented with a very difficult situation where a friend of mine was detained from crossing the border from Juarez, Mexico into El Paso. Her short trip from the airport to the border was delayed by over an hour due to traffic. And when she finally reached immigration, she had to wait another 3 hours in line only to be interrogated and denied access to coming over. Not only that, but the locals who I had talked with in El Paso earlier that night had filled my head with stories about how dangerous it was in Juarez, and I began fearing for my friend’s life.
It was interesting to watch the crazy trip that my mind went through… the worry, angst, and fear that I experienced. And finally remembering to chant a prayer of protection and meditate on serenity and project a good outcome of the situation. Ultimately the lesson that I “remembered” in this experience is that I need to be grounded and maintain a meditative, neutral mind no matter what.
Another example of this is when I was 14 years old and my dad and I were driving back home from Boy Scouts one night. We were sitting at a stop light at a quiet intersection waiting for the light to change, when I looked up and saw two cars smash head on into each other. Whoa! I’d never seen anything like that, and I remember feeling totally in shock. My dad looked over at me and asked if I was alright. I mumbled, “Yeah, I guess so…” He said, “I need to go help these people. Are you ok here until I get back?” I replied, “Yeah, I’m fine. Go help them.” He got out of the car and went to check on each person and make sure they were OK. I watched as he totally handled the situation with a sense of authority and calm until the police and ambulance got there and took over. When he came back to the car and got in, I just looked wide-eyed at him and said, “How did you do that?” “Do what?”, he replied. “Just be so calm and know exactly what to do and how to help those people.” He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “Meditation, my son.” Ever since then I’ve tried to make meditation a daily part of my life… sometimes I take the time to do a full meditation with posture and chanting, etc. And some days it’s just repeating a simple prayer in my head or focusing on my breath or whatever. Regardless of how you do it, the goal is getting to that point inside where YOU are in control of your mind, not the other way around.
Later that night as I was getting ready for bed tonight and thinking about my friend in Mexico, I decided to play a prayer on my iPod to keep the vibration of peace and protection throughout the night. I looked at my collection of the the Sikh prayers, and used my intuition to find one that felt right. The one that felt the strongest was Sukhmani Sahib. I didn’t know what this prayer was for until I looked it up later… of course, it was perfect! The word Sukhmani is rendered into English as “consoler of the mind.” Other common translations are “Jewel of peace”, “Psalm of peace” or “Song of peace”, signifying the soothing effect it has on the mind of the reader/listener. Depending on the person reading or speaking, this bani (psalm) takes approximately 60-90 minutes to complete. You can listen to a beautiful recitation of Sukhmani by Prof. Satnam Singh Sethi in two parts:
Sukhmani Sahib Part 1 (37:50 minutes)
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Sukhmani Sahib Part 2 (35:25 minutes)
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You can find other Sikh prayers and music at www.sikhnet.com/gurbani
simply amazing hargobind ji
can’t wait to see you at solstice bro
This is one of my favorite versions which is slow and soothing with background sound of rain.: http://www.sikhnet.com/audio/sukhmani-sahib-rain