Mantra Meditation. Roots Music. Communal Song and Prayer. Wild Dance. True Trance. Sober Freedom.
We’re in a time of deep division. Surface fixes aren’t working. We need a transformation from within. We need a potent medicine. We need a good crazy.
You’re invited to join in a joyful, music-infused meditation on spiritual sound (kirtan) that powerfully cleanses the mind, awakens the heart and connects us soul to soul.
Our meditations are simple Sanskrit mantras set to easy singalongs in a group call and response. These prayers are the sound manifestation of pure, unconditional love. Carefully passed down since time immemorial through an unbroken lineage of teachers and students from around the world, they are described as the most potent vibrations of spiritual energy in existence.
Singing, dancing and praying together builds spiritual community, erases anxiety, powerfully regulates our nervous system and allows us to tap into a well of deep inner peace untouched by the chaos of the world.
Sanskrit is the root sound of all other language and originally it was sung rather than spoken. This ancient tradition is meant to be adapted for time and place, to be accessible to everyone regardless of where we’re from or what we believe. This tradition is not of one culture or another. It is our shared, living culture. These spiritual sound vibrations are our mother tongue. Let’s sing them together.
Beginners highly encouraged, all ages, voices, abilities and experiences welcome!
This gathering is offered at a sliding scale suggested donation with volunteer opportunities (details below). An RSVP is requested so we can comfortably prepare the space for you!
SCHEDULE
7:00 – Arrive and settle in with tea, stretch and breathe as you like. No yoga mats required. Floor pillows will be provided
7:15pm – Opening breathing meditation
7:30pm – Soul Song Meditation & Spiritual Rewilding Celebration
This is a guided journey and group kirtan meditation that we’re doing together. No prior experience required. Choose your own level of participation. You may find yourself singing louder than the shower. Dancing is a common reaction. Silliness is encouraged. Tears are natural. Joy is inevitable.
9:30pm – Final breathing meditation, closing circle
10pm – Close
WHO WE ARE
Chay Tanya Lila and Friends is a group of friends, musicians and long-time practitioners of kirtan and bhakti yoga from Hawaii, California and Oregon who were inspired to create unique opportunities for groups of people to drop deeply into meditation together. We have dedicated our lives to this tradition so that we can pass on the transformative gifts that we’ve been given in the spirit in which they were offered to us.
Kirtan is meant to be adapted and sung in any style, any tune or any spirit that moves you. As a band, we draw on a diverse range of influences including American roots music, world percussion and chant traditions, ambient EDM textures, fun poppy singalongs and the occasional rocking headbanger.
WHAT IS A REWILDING CELEBRATION?
Rewilding means to return to our essential nature, to break free from the constraints of the mind and become deeply rooted in love, gentleness and the sweet madness of true joy.
A rewilding celebration is a gathering space where we give each other permission to let go into waves of spiritual sound and be carried by elemental forces that run deeper even than the natural world.
Sometimes when we have an instinct to return to our most basic nature, we look to the behavior of animals. We dive deep into the senses. Or we give up into substances that promise to deliver us into a painless place. But in this pursuit, it’s easy to get lost and forget what it is that makes us uniquely human.
The mantras that we sing in this practice are a tether that allow us to go deep without ever getting lost. This spiritual sound allows us to travel back to the essential heart of where we’re from, to make contact with the wild, ecstatic joy of pure love in a deeply grounded, integrated, caring way that engenders mutual respect, forgiveness and healing.
In this space, we recognize that love runs deeper than hatred. Joy is a more primal energy even than fear. We recognize that there is no battle between good and evil, there is simply a choice to remember or forget. Love cannot be defeated, but it can be forgotten and all we need to do to return to the peace and belonging we all seek is to remind each other, again and again and again. Spiritual sound is that vehicle of remembrance.
We don’t worry about finding the right words. The words are there, and we can simply rest our heart and our mind in the sound. We don’t worry about putting on a good face. It’s mostly dark anyway and no one’s looking. We put aside all the surface stuff that is necessary to keep polite society together but which so often distracts us from the unique opportunity of human life. We put aside the need to be polite, and we instead create space for deep presence and true joy.
ABOUT THE TRADITION
We are following in the footsteps of two transcendental personalities, Sri Chaitanya and Sri Nityananda. 500 years ago in India, their ecstatic devotion inspired a nation at war with itself to come together. At a time of intense hatred and division, Sri Chaitanya invited everyone to sing, dance and pray together, regardless of their religion, caste, class or creed. Sri Nityananda embodied the spirit of transcendental madness in a mood of ecstatic love that inspired everyone to cast aside their doubt and fear and step into forgiveness and celebration. The miraculous transformation that followed as hundreds of thousands of people put aside their hatred and came together to sing and dance in the streets has continued to ripple around the globe.
In a world gone mad, we can’t rely on reason to lead us back to ourselves. We need a more powerful, overwhelming joy to shift out of our fear-based survival brains. The spiritual sound vibrations that have been lovingly passed down in this lineage are the raw materials of joy – but they need to be translated through our ears, our hearts and our mouths. We need you! Please come join our joy factory and bring your whole self.
All the details
Address: Bridge Space, 133 SE Madison Street, Portland, OR 97214 United States.
How to find us: Look out for an A-frame on the street pointing you towards the door - the entrance isn’t obvious from the street but we’ll have someone standing outside to greet you.
Parking: There is plenty of free street parking in the area.
Accessibility: Thanks to an amazing volunteer crew from Fernhill Ecstatic Dance, the venue now has an ADA accessible ramp entrance! We will have floor pillows and some seating. If you aren’t comfortable sitting on the floor, please come on the earlier side to reserve a chair (you’re welcome to come as early as 6:30pm)
How to support: A $10-30 sliding scale suggested donation helps make these events possible and is always deeply appreciated. Please don’t let a lack of funds prevent you from attending! If you would like to stay and help us clean up afterwards, that is another wonderful way to contribute. Alternatively, if you’re interested in helping to get the word out in advance and would like posters or other materials, please text Chay at 808.369.6320
