This month’s Composer’s Choice, “Lotus Opening”, is a meditation on a painting by Frank Wesley called “Krishna and Radha”. (see the full image below)
It was painted by Frank for my 21st birthday in 1982.
This is what I’ve said about it in other blogs:
“This painting came about from long discussions with Frank about the origins of religious deities and the connection I saw between Pan and Krishna.
The drawing alone took 3 months to complete. Another 3 months to paint.
Frank Wesley was a prime influence on my creative and philosophical development.
He taught me drawing, watercolour and calligraphy over the 6 years I’d visit him, once a week , after school.
It was only after I left home, that he revealed that as a young man he was commissioned to make the funereal urn for Ghandi’s ashes.”
This astonishing painting (more so if you know how difficult it is to paint watercolours!) resonates with me on so many levels:
Krishna and Radha are dancing into being – the universe itself. To do so, they have to be synchronised- separate in their identities, unified in action. It reminds me of the love I have for my wife, Celeste Coucke, and how each day we say to each other “I choose you”. Each day with this simple statement we are renewing our world. Choosing to be with each other. Choosing to dance the world together. Of course there are times when its hard to choose but to practice this simple idea gives us a way to return to each other when difficulties arise.
And of course there is the music that Krishna is playing.
The very presence of a musical instrument is not just an accompaniment to the dance, to keep in time, to synchronise, but to actually shape the world into being through vibration.
Check out this great clip by Nigel Stanford- I think you’ll get what I mean :
CLICK HERE (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3oItpVa9f)
There is so much to say about this topic – so much astonishing science – so much convergence of spiritual and scientific disciplines arriving at the same place.
In fact, you will find reference in all the great religions about sound and its primary role – Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian mystics believe that the Word creates and pervades everything that exists. “The Word” is sound…
The Bible: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God
In the ancient Hindu Vedas: In the beginning was Brahman with whom was the Word, and the Word is Brahman.
Science is proving what the mystics from our religious traditions have been saying all along. The entire universe is an infinite combination of sound patterns. That all things, from the biggest star to the smallest flower—are harmonic dances of sound waves. That sound organises matter into form.
All the music I make for One Mind Live has this in mind. Use this music through headphones but also play it through a good sound system and have the sounds resonate your body in physical space. Sound re-patterns water and, also, hydrogen molecules – from which we are solely made. And this music is composed – the instruments tuned – to the perfect frequency 432 Hertz, so it has a true harmonic effect upon your brainwaves as well as your body.
Steve Fearnley
“Krishna and Radha” by Frank Wesley
Stephen Fearnley is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and composer. He composes transformational soundscapes for the meditation journeys guided by Naomi Carling and facilitated by Naomi Janzen for One Mind Live – a unique worldwide online group meditation community. To sample One Mind Live, go HERE