Monthly Archives: May 2026

Sound Healing, Spiritual Awakening, Enlightenment, Tibetan Monks, Drepung Loseling Monastery

The Tibetan Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery

  Sacred Music and Chants by the Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery

Photo : https://www.mysticalartsoftibet.org/sacred-music-sacred-chants

The Ancient Art of Sound Healing

   Because of my interest in sound healing, especially toning from the voice, in the early 1990s, I attended a performance at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium given by the Tibetan monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery located in Karnataka State, South India. They are part of the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism and represent one of Tibet’s largest monasteries, which was re-established in India after many monks escaped Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1959. The original Drepung Monastery was founded near Lhasa, Tibet in 1416. The Drepung community in South India is a “monastery-in-exile,” dedicated to preserving Tibetan traditions, and where over 2,500 monks reside.

     It was an hour’s drive north from my home to Santa Cruz, where the monks would play their traditional Tibetan instruments and perform their sacred chants. When I arrived, I took a seat along with some friends in one of the rows closest to the stage. The monks came out wearing their traditional yellow and maroon robes and wearing their yellow hats—aRtse-zhwa, a tall, crescent-shaped, or fan-like hat with yellow plumes worn during ceremonial events. Their shape represents wisdom and enlightenment, with the high peak symbolizing “middle-way” teaching.

     The Loseling Monks are renowned for their multiphonic chanting, known as zokkay, where each monk will simultaneously chant three notes of a chord, creating a complete chord that results in sacred overtones. As they begin their low, guttural chants, they also perform ancient temple music using 10-foot-long dung-chen horns, drums, bells, cymbals, and gyaling trumpets. These sacred sounds are believed to invoke the deities and can often cause the listener to go into deep meditative states and transcend ordinary consciousness.

     At first, I found the lowest tones that reached my lower chakras to be painful. The sounds set up a vibration, a resonance in my body, that at first made me want to leave, and not stay for the remainder of the performance. But my inner guidance was to stay and allow the sounds to surround me. Soon, the pain dissolved, and my entire body began to vibrate. As the horns, bells and cymbals were played, the chants became more powerful, and I began to experience something I had only heard of, but never imagined I would feel. As I went into higher and higher states of consciousness, I felt my body begin to disappear! My head was still there, my feet were still touching the floor, but the rest of my body had vanished. I could not see it or feel it any longer. It was an amazing experience, and it left me feeling completely astonished.  

     I later found out that the monks’ chants are intended to induce a meditative state where one might experience a dissolution of boundaries between oneself and the external world. It is not a physical disappearance, but a profound mental shift where you lose the perception of your body’s limits, often described as a sense of “oneness” or losing oneself. The intense, low-frequency vibrations created by the monks can alter your sensory perception, making your body feel as though it has merged with the sound or has disappeared. This is a recognized effect of this traditional Tibetan meditative practice.

     I left that night in a state of awe. For several days after the performance, I began spontaneously toning and chanting in the deep, low tones of the Tibetan monks. I was totally transformed by my experience.

Tibetan Monks of Depung Loseling Monastery Jumping for Joy

Photo: https://www.mysticalartsoftibet.org/about-us

The Mystical Arts of Tibet is a world tour endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to promote world peace and healing by sharing Tibet’s rich and authentic sacred performing and visual arts with modern audiences.  The tours offer a rare opportunity to witness one of the world’s most ancient sacred traditions presented by a group of monk artists for whom these traditions are a way of life.

For more information go to: https://www.mysticalartsoftibet.org/programs

Amma, Amritapuri Ashram, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Spiritual Awakening

Amma’ s Train to Ayodhya

Amma looking at her devotees, on the train to Ayodhya

         In March 2026, Amma was invited to participate in a most auspicious event, the Shri Ramayantra pratishta—the installation of the Shri Ramayantra in Ayodhya, an ancient city situated on the banks of the Sarayu river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The event was held at the Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, which is considered to be the birthplace of Lord Ram and is a significant pilgrimage site. The temple complex was first inaugurated on January 22, 2024, by India’s Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and is a restoration of one that was destroyed five centuries ago.

     From March 15 through March 22, 2026, approximately 1,200 people accompanied Amma from Amritapuri on a specially arranged train to Ayodhya and back. They included her disciples, ashram residents, and devotees from across the world. The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust organized the large-scale gathering where over 7,000 invitees were in attendance.

     On March 19, the first day of Chaitra Navratri, known as the Hindu New Year, Amma and the President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu, led prayers and rituals to install the Shri Rama Yantra, a sacred geometric diagram intended to invoke world peace and divine protection.

     Those who traveled with Amma on the train turned it into a traveling ashram. Each day, the devotees mediated, chanted sacred mantras, sang bhajans and did the archana. Not a moment was lost in performing their sadhana—their spiritual practices—while making this sacred journey.

     Swami Dayamritananda later told us that the train was 1.5 miles long, and that Amma herself visited every car, giving Darshan and encouraging her devotees in their worship. It was truly a sacred pilgrimage for all those who accompanied Amma to this historic city. To the delight of Amma’s international devotees, Amma’s evening Satsangs were livestreamed directly from the train and from the temple compound itself. Video clips and photos of the train ride and Amma with her disciples meditating on the banks of the Saryau River were posted online daily, allowing those who could not be there in person to also participate in the joyous event.

    Amma had traveled by train since the 1980s with small groups of devotees and ashram residents to destinations such as Kozhikode (Calicut), Mumbai (Bombay), Bhuj, and Kolkata (Calcutta). This was the first time Amma had taken such a large group of people on a spiritual journey via a special chartered train that carried only Amma and her spiritual children across India. After Amma and her entourage returned to Amritapuri, she began giving Darshan again on March 25th, 2026.

A most wonderful time was experienced by all!