A pilgrimage on crossroads from boundaries across an ocean some portages toward silence so many loons and an eagle right above on a treetop an old linden at least three hundred years needs patience to stay overnight when you ask for sounds of silence one keeps hearing but others may not or at least not yet… talking a little about only what is present a stillpoint here now trusting awareness in everyone’s heart.
“A pilgrim’s path” — here now
PentaMin / PentaEol or pentatonic minor on B 123 Hz (rel. A 438.2 Hz) — 7-string guitar, singing saw, tenor recorder, tanpura — 7:30
Trust your intuition
“There are so many problems at this time, it is overwhelming… The problems that face humanity on this planet… The delusion, the ignorance, the cause of the suffering. And now we are looking here, … not blaming someone else, but recognizing the ignorance in our lives, the illusions we create and operate from. We are learning to recognize that which isn’t deluded. That takes a willingness to be patient with yourself, and being receptive and open to whatever you are feeling, whatever results you are having from your practice… Come and see, trust this awareness more and more, recognize it… Be aware.”
— The Sound of Silence, Ajahn Sumedho, p. 118
Pilgrimage beyond boundaries
Ulrico canoeing in the mist of the rising sun — July 2025 — BWCAW, MN, USA — photo by Karin Gsöllpointner
“Experience is always now, here and now… All that — memories of the past or anticipation of the future — is happening now… The future is a thought in the mind, in the present, and the past is a memory. You can be aware of thinking, be aware of thought. We are not our thoughts; our thoughts are artificial creations… that we tend to identify with, intimidate ourselves with…”
“Thinking is a critical faculty… a very useful function to have. But as an identity it’s a failure. You’re not at all what you think, you know — what you think you are is not what you are. And yet we tend to believe what we think we are… Thought is a creation. So in this very present moment, what is it that isn’t a thought? Awareness isn’t a thought.”
“When we develop awareness, we’re coming from intuitive awareness rather than from personal experience. … Getting beyond that to an awareness before the personality can arise or cease — that’s awareness or sati-sampajañña [in Pali].”
“Trust in the awareness as that which holds you, which you’re resting in, in which you can observe. Witness the observer…”
The sound of silence
“I notice the kind of background sound which I refer to as the sound of silence, a resonating vibratory sound… a high-pitched kind of vibration that’s always present. … When you recognize this sound of silence your thinking process stops — you can rest in this stream. It’s like a stream. It isn’t like ordinary sound that rises and ceases or begins and ends. … Behind that, behind all other sounds is this sound of silence. … It’s always present, it’s just there whether I notice it or not.”
“One can see, recognize the sound of silence, the reality of consciousness — it has no boundary because it takes consciousness to be aware of this subtle, ringing, resonating vibration — and as we explore that, it has no boundary. We don’t create it, it’s like space, it’s infinite.”
“We’re not projecting or experiencing the consciousness through perceiving any particular thing but through awareness. That’s why I keep pointing to this sense of attentiveness and listening, like the sound of silence. I use this listening or hearing… learning to pay attention and recognize what awareness really is. … It keeps you fully present.”
Non-thinking and boundless awareness
“In this you recognize non-thinking. And as I said before, you have to think to create yourself as a person. With non-thinking, there’s no longer a person. … This is the point: present-moment awareness of the infinite that embraces the finite. To me the great gift of being human is that we can do this.”
— The Sound of Silence, Ajahn Sumedho, pp. 21, 37, 63-70
Floating harmony of silence
Blooming lotus in the nature pool of the Kientalerhof — July 2025 — Kiental, Switzerland — photo by Karin Gsöllpointner
Elephants, cattle, horses, and mares gold and silver, women and men no assembly all empty and void except the community of heart no village, no people to be seen but forest in resolute confidence hardly stress disturbing perception void and empty of what is not there in the singleness presence of forest that becomes a perception of earth no ridges, rivers, mountains, ravines just this even and smooth sphere genuinely undisturbed and pure proceeding in boundless space one perception field to another previous ones empty and void in singleness of the present boundless consciousness recognizing base spheres nothingness that’s empty neither nor non-perception finally signless concentration what it could at all be, or not empty, void, and full at once confident, steady, and resolute in this body conditioned by life as an individual consciousness to recognize boundless at last understanding what is present and empty or void what is not conditioned as well as volitional impermanent and prone to cease let go all taints of ignorant desire always liberated free in holy life what had to be has been done no more coming nor going to whatever state of being sensing what is present in this body and mind boundless conscious sound and space empty and void it’s all the same unsurpassed pure we train to enter and abide in this supreme emptiness to be.
(Inspired by and based on the Cūḷasuññata Sutta, #121 in the Majjhima Nikāya, the middle length discourses of the Buddha)
“Swami Uodalric puja” — spontaneous celebration
LoMidReach, a Reach tonality derivative, 1-2-4-5-8-9-12-1, on G# (rel. 438.2 Hz) — akin to Raag Puriya Dhanashree —vichitra veena, lap slide guitar, conch, tanpura — 8:30
No elephants, cattle, or horses — but forest here
Evergreens reaching high up from earth into boundless space — June 2025 — Hohwald, Beatenberg, Switzerland
Anattā — not self This is not mine This I am not This is not my self So please, what is? Reality and delusion We are all in between Rather practice reality Nurture what is uplifting Not what is pulling down With all human limitations Better treasure freedom Interwoven all together Not self-centered fear But realizing rather This is not mine This I am not Is not my self Consciousness In calming silence Where life is flowing We can ride the waves Of being in harmony Ever here and now.
“Satipaṭṭhāna concordance” — a meditative object
LocorReach derivative w/2- on C# 138 Hz (rel. 438.2 Hz), octatonality 1-2-4-5-7-8-9-12-1 with a hint of progression (single up 3 & lo 6) — double 7-string guitar & tanpura — 6:01
Anattā — not self: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“As to those various views that arise in the world associated either with doctrines of a self or with doctrines about the world: if [the object] in relation to which those views arise, which they underlie, and which they are exercised upon is seen as it actually is with proper wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self,’ then the abandoning and relinquishing of those views comes about.” — Sallekha Sutta — effacement — #8.3
“A well-taught noble disciple who has regard for noble ones and is skilled and disciplined in their Dhamma [harmony of life], who has regard for true men and is skilled and disciplined in their Dhamma, regards material form thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ He regards feeling thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ He regards perception thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ He regards formations thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ He regards what is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, encountered, sought, mentally pondered thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ And this standpoint for views, namely, ‘That which is the self is the world; after death I shall be permanent, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change; I shall endure as long as eternity’ — this too he regards thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ “Since he regards them thus, he is not agitated about what is non-existent.” — Alagaddūpama Sutta — the simile of the snake — #22.16 & 17
— Majjhima Nikāya — the middle length discourses of the Buddha, translated from Pali by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi, pp. 123 & 229-230
Strawberry moon in the advent of summer heat
American natives referred to June’s full moon as the “strawberry moon”. It supposedly supports deeper, more authentic communication. Here, pollution from Canadian forest fires colored it reddish. — June 2025 — near Bern, Switzerland
Fabulous fabulating takes nothing literal apparent flexibility and total freedom in consciousness and everything works very well for sweet angels ferries and gnomes maybe also unicorns and for humans mostly while still quite young again when very old perhaps dement out of the body when all literal locks in tight to pull so-called impure rotten teeth draws exclusive lines between us and them ignoring we’re woven together in one unity that all try to protect but most do trample with their bare feet polluting in excess instead of purifying with what we think we say and all do in this very body here and now.
“Sunrise miracle”
LoMidReach on C# (rel. 438.2 Hz) — Christina Braun: voice — Ulrico: 8-string guitar — 5:35
Contemplating the body as a body
“In this way he abides contemplating the body as a body internally, or he abides contemplating the body as a body externally, or he abides contemplating the body both internally and externally. Or else he abides contemplating in the body its nature of arising, or he abides contemplating in the body its nature of vanishing, or he abides contemplating in the body its nature of both arising and vanishing. Or else mindfulness that ‘there is a body’ is simply established in him to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and mindfulness. And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That is how [one] abides contemplating the body as a body.”
— Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta — Majjhima Nikāya — the middle length discourses of the Buddha, translated from Pali by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi
Fabulous non-fabulating reality
Tso Moriri – ལྷ་མོའི་བླ་མཚོ – Tibetan meaning “Mountain Lake” — at 4,522 m (14,836 ft) — summer 2008 — Korzok, Ladakh, India
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