I arrived early at beautiful Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens (PAL&G) to be cheerfully greeted as usual at the door by one of the assistants volunteering today. I got myself checked in and spotted a chair with my name on it in which I would be very comfortable. I decided to walk around and speak with people that were possibly here for the first time and find out what brought them. As it turns out, they all had a different answer for how they heard about today’s event. It was a joy to mingle and introduce myself with a cheerful smile of welcoming and see the glee in the eyes of people who were looking for a different and more personal experience of Spirit.
I noticed that lovely music was playing in the Large Seminar Room for what I anticipated would be a very delightful day. I have been looking forward to this particular Spa Day with Reverend Tom Boyer as I am familiar with his expertise and background in music. Tom has a clear and fun way of presenting information too.
We all settled in and we were welcomed by Zoe Golightly from PAL&G. Zoe began by giving us a brief overview of the day’s activities and then introduces Tom Boyer as our facilitator of today’s theme ” Listening, A Door To The Awareness Of Spirit.” The room was filled with joy as Tom started to speak a bit about today’s topic.
Tom began with some of the various ways we listen. A few examples were: reactive listening, judgmental listening, non-listening, and attentive listening. With brilliant wit, charm, and joy, Tom shared some of the ways he has experienced reactive and judgmental listening. We all had our hands raised with laughter at what Tom was mirroring to us as some of the human behaviors we do. I chimed in when he talked about having sonic disturbance with loud car stereos. All my bells and whistles went on that one.
Tom explained that he wants to share about attentive, receptive listening towards awareness. He mentioned a quote: “You can close your eyes, but you can’t close your ears.” At this point, Tom spoke to the group about chanting the name of God as a way to attune to Spirit and do attentive, receptive listening. He introduced this method by way of a Light invocation that brought us all into a oneness and empathy as a group as we chanted Ani-Hu. Tom asked us to listen to one another as we chanted. As we finished, there was a peace and loving that swept the room. As many times as I’ve done this I am always amazed at how different each group is when chanting. Our song was gentle, sweet and compassionate.
We next heard to an excerpt on listening from John-Roger, the Founder of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness MSIA. After John-Roger’s excerpt, we are asked to put on our attentive receptive ears on as we take in a beautiful piece by Mozart to see what we notice. When it comes to Mozart, I know I will have a profound and expanded experience. As predicted, I was taken back into that time when this piece was composed. I did not know that, however, until Tom tells us that this twenty-sixth movement was composed in 1790. Talk about tuning in? I also experienced my heart open, which is something that always takes place for me with Mozart’s music. Here are the words and experiences that came forward for the rest of the group when this piece was played: “Beauty, silence, play, Light, communion, God speaking, dance, healing, moving, water, body vibrations, a child being born, peace, calm, joy, celebration, soothing, quiet, getting answers, and tears of spiritual joy.”
Next we heard another musical piece of a different color. I know from my own experience that color, light, and sound are all the same, and Tom mentioned this fact as we listened to “Twinkle Twinkle” by IS. What a beautiful voice this man had. It is such an angelic sound. There was a lot of beautiful feedback from the group as we listened to IS. After we shared about what we heard in listening to the human voice, Tom told some very funny stories about his musical encounters with others.
For lunch, the Gardens Caf
