Chanting – An Ancient Tradition
The feeling of chanting is universal because it takes us all to a place of peace and oneness that we all long for.
—Machai St. RainChanting is an ancient practice found in many spiritual traditions from around the world. The practice of chanting the Names of God in Sanskrit is thousands of years old in the Hindu tradition. In recent times this practice has gained popularity in the West. “Chanting as a devotional practice is a good thing to do”, AC says. “It takes you away from your thinking mind which is a blessing and fans the flames of devotion inside.”
“The feeling of chanting is universal because it takes us all to a place of peace and oneness that we all long for”, says Machai St. Rain, a friend of AC’s. “All matter and life is vibration, and chanting creates that vibration within each of us when we chant.”
For many years Jon Seskevich of Durham, NC has brought chanters and spiritual teachers to North Carolina. Jon is the founder of The Flying Monkey organization.
In the near future Jon will be teaming up with AC Bushnell and the Starlight Foundation to present concerts of chanting and devotional music. Events currently being planned include Krishna Das, Jai Uttal and the great sarode player from India Sridar.
Chanting with Old-time music
It was Jon Seskevich who first came to AC with the idea of combining old-time traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo music with ancient Sanskrit chanting in the Hindu tradition. To AC’s initial surprise, this worked with many tunes! There are two examples of this on AC’s “Dancing on the Water” CD/DVD.
Jon and AC are working in partnership to produce an entire CD of Hindu chants with old-time music. If you are interested in donating to this project or possibly being on the recording send an e-mail to acbushnellspirit@gmail.com.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I SO enjoyed the entire Dancing on the Water concert - and the chanting was an incredibly unique addition to the more traditional folky music. When you paired up with Jon Seskevich it formed a truly delightful fusion of music and spiritual chanting, and was nothing less than joyful!