Suizen - Ancient Flute Music Meditation

Flute music meditation became very noticeable in Japan in 1600’s through the Komuso movement. Komuso, which means “monk of emptiness”, were wandering monks who were walking by feet all over Japan. They were wearing special baskets called tengai over their heads to symbolize their separation from the World and from their own identity. There were many komuso temples all over Japan, and monks would travel from temple to temple.

Playing the bamboo flute, known today as shakuhachi, became one of the main practices of komuso. Most of them were former samurai, so they modified the flute to make it look like a nice club just in case they had to protect themselves.

In addition to wearing baskets, komuso monks were not allowed to talk outside the temple. That’s why playing music pieces not only became the meditation practice, but also communication tool. Saying hello to another monk on the road, saying thank you for offering, announcing that the monk was entering the village, asking the temple to open the gate and let the monk in, etc. Monks received special permission from the government to travel all over Japan without any boundaries. On the other hand, only monks were allowed to play shakuhachi flute for a long time.

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Flute Music Meditation Transcript

Hi everybody,

This is Eugene Sukhorukov from beautiful San Diego, CA. I hope you are having a great time in your corner of the world. Welcome back to my Healthy Positive Lifestyle podcast. The year 2013 is coming to the end. Christmas lights are everywhere. And yes, we got some chilly weather too. Nothing compared to some other states, but 50’s in San Diego is considered to be a cold winter. If you celebrate any holidays, then Happy Holidays to you!

So far, I have been talking about various subjects I’ve been studying for the past 30 years. I started with Autogenic Training in early 80’s, when doctors failed to diagnose the reason for my headaches, again. Since then I got into Yoga and various types of meditation, Martial arts, Chi Kung, Daoism, reflexology, NLP, positive affirmations and many other related things.

Well, now we can talk about new chapter in my life, and that started with music. With the flute music, to be exact. Yes, this was me playing in the background recording you can hear. Guitar sound was produced by me using virtual instrument in GarageBand for iPad.

I really like guitar sound, even though I don’t play it myself. Just an electronic version. I grew up listening to guitar. First, my grandma used to play it all the time. My mom was working 12-hour shifts as a ticket agent at the railway station, so my grandma was babysitting me a lot. And she played finger picking style 7-string guitar really well. She loved to play and sing Russian romances. So I’ve heard the guitar literally since before I was born.

My next music chapter began when my brother started playing guitar. He was playing 6-string guitar together with other guys. Often they were just sitting outside and playing some teenage songs. We called it 3-chord guitar. Basically most of the songs could fit within 3 standard chords.

Well, for some reason I did not end up playing guitar. I studied an accordion when I was a young teenager. However, with my headaches I could barely tolerate all my school work, and I was an “A+” student. So I had to drop music couple of years after I started it. I think about one year before I began my holistic journey.

I am not gonna repeat my whole life story, you can listen to that in my second episode. I will just repeat some details related to today’s topic.

I came back to music about 10 years after I started Martial Art and Yoga practice. My martial art teacher was often talking about masters in China playing music. So I thought it might be not bad idea to try something. Especially when I saw the soprano recorder played by one of my friends, an American missionary in Ukraine. That was exactly the size I was looking for! Something small enough that I could put in the pocket and take with me everywhere. Unlike the accordion, which was way too big to carry around.

My dream came true when I came to the US in 1995. It was very easy to find a recorder in the music store, and I got me one.

I played the recorder for about a year, and soon I began realizing that this was not what I was looking for. There’s nothing wrong with recorder, it just did not have the sound I was looking for. I needed something more oriental. I listened to a bunch of CDs, and my next choice became Chinese Di-tsu flute. I got one for myself.

Learning transverse flute became fun. I played it for a couple of years, but again, it did not have the sound I was looking for. Nice sound though, and it definitely has its place in relaxation music. I did not like, however, that the Di-Tsu flute was transverse. I had to turn my head to the side, and hold the flute horizontally. Even though after some exploration I discovered bansuri flute, which is a very famous indian instrument, I did not like the idea of holding my head sideways.

I kept looking. Chinese vertical flute known as Dong Xiao, got my attention. That made a lot of sense. I could sit straight, breathe, meditate and play some music. Besides, I was practicing Chinese martial art, so Dong Xiao looked like a perfect flute for me. However, I could not find any information about this instrument or its makers, at the end of 90’s. Perhaps, because the internet was not as popular as it is today.

I was lucky enough, however, to find some information about shakuhachi, which is a Japanese cousin on Dong Xiao. I even found a couple of samples of shakuhachi recordings on the internet. One of them really got me, and I decided to learn this instrument.

I was scared first, since all notation was written in Japanese, the scales were different from everything I’ve heard so far, but I like learning new things. Anyway, I don’t regret my decision.

Shakuhachi is a vertical bamboo flute. According to what I know, it came to Japan from China with Chan or Zen Buddhism. Shakuhachi tradition is connected to monk Puhua, known in Japan as Fuke. Fuke was walking all over the place preaching Zen, and he had a hand bell he carried with him. Fuke did not play flute, he was just ringing the bell. However, one of his disciples cut a piece of bamboo and started making sound blowing it like an end blown flute. The instrument did not have holes yet, and the name of it was Kyotaku, which means false bell. The sound of the instrument reminded sound of the bell. This is how the tradition was born.

Over the centuries, members of Fuke-Shu, or Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism, refined the instrument and made it look like a flute, meaning it got the holes and it could play the scale. No, we are not talking about contemporary western scales. I don’t think they even existed at that time anyway, and definitely not in Japan. Bamboo flute was tuned to itself using its special tuning methods.

I am not going into details of making flute, or deep into the history of the tradition. I just wanna give you a very brief overview so you can see where it is coming from.

Flute playing became very noticeable in Japan in 1600’s through the Komuso movement. Komuso, which means “monk of emptiness”, were wandering monks who were walking by feet all over Japan. They were wearing special baskets called tengai over their heads to symbolize their separation from the World and from their own identity. There were many komuso temples all over Japan, and monks would travel from temple to temple.

Well, any coin has a flip side. No matter how humble the komuso movement was, the government had an excellent opportunity to place tengai baskets over the heads of some spies and give them permission to travel all over Japan without disclosing their identity, just like the rest of the monks. That’s why, at the end of the 19th century, Fuke sect, komuso movement and shakuhachi flute were banned. The whole army of wandering monks lost their temples. All temples were closed. Except one. That was Meyan temple in Kyoto. The temple was so isolated and closed to outside World, that the government allowed it to exist as a religious organization. Yes, Meyanji still exists, and one of my teachers is a member and a recognized teacher of Meyan shakuhachi tradition.

The world almost lost shakuhachi flute after the ban. But some komuso players did not give up, and after 10 years of total ban, shakuhachi was allowed again, as a folk and ensemble instrument. It was tuned to the western scale to be able to play with the rest of the instruments and with each other. This is how we got the instrument we are playing today. Indeed, contemporary shakuhachi is just around 100 years old, but the roots are going back 100’s of years. Some of the pieces we are playing today, are 6-700 years old. Are they the same as they were back then? Most likely, not. Shakuhachi tradition was passed from teacher to student verbally until late 18th century, when first attempts to transcribe the pieces were made. This is how Kinko-Ryu school was created. But temples played their own interpretation of the pieces, and today we have multiple versions of some pieces coming from different temples.

All right, this should be enough history for today. Let’s look at the flute and tradition as we have it today.

The name Shakuhachi in Japanese means one shaku eight sun. These are measurement units. And all it means is 1.8 foot. Yes, nothing sacred in the name, just the length of the standard instrument. Again, I am not getting into details today. There are different types of shakuhachi, also there are other variation of the instrument, like hotchiku or kyotaku. But let’s keep it simple today.

As I mentioned earlier, shakuhachi was tuned to western scale at the end of 19th century, so it could be played with other instruments. And today we can hear shakuhachi in Japanese Folk and ensemble music, New Age music, and even Jazz and Blues. But also we can hear solo music played on shakuhachi. And this is what I’d like to talk about today.

Zen practice on Shakuhachi is known as Sui-Zen, or blowing meditation. Unlike very traditional Zen practice Za-Zen, or sitting meditation, Sui-Zen is using shakuhachi flute as a tool, and making the sound – as a form of meditation. Using sound during meditation is not that rare. I think everybody knows about famous “Ommmmm”, or using singing bowls, or “wooden fish” mokugio, or Buddhist Chant, or Daoist voice meditation, or even Gregorian chant in Europe. So playing the flute is not something totally out of proportion. Besides, as I was saying in my last episode, anything can become a form of meditation, as long as it is done mindfully.

As in other forms of Zen practice, Sui-Zen requires to be present at the moment. While making a sound, the practitioner is concentrating on making the sound. Being with the sound. Observing the sound, the beginning, the end..

The repertoire of meditative music, known as Honkyoku, or original pieces, is not very large. The temple might have 8 to 10 pieces at the most. Lately many pieces were combined in several Schools. School may have 33 or 36, or 24 pieces. That’s it. That’s the practice for the lifetime. Again, I am not going into specific details of each school.

With all the precision that has to be perfected in those pieces, learning one piece a year sounds about right. After all, this is not a stage performance, this is a Zen practice. Here’s a short example of Honkyoku music I recorded. Not perfect by any means, just a quick snapshot of my Path at certain point.

This was a part of Hi-Fu-Mi piece, which is translated as One-Two-Three. It can be played as a warm-up before any other piece, or it can be a good reminder that every step we take is the first step into the rest of our life. This is a beginner piece, but Zen mind is a beginner mind. Every moment is new.

Playing Honkyoku has several advantages.

First of all, being present is the major point in all Zen practice. Just be here and now, as the sound is happening here and now.

Second, making sound has a great effect on breathing. Yes, I know at least a couple of people who got amazing health benefit from playing the flute. It saved their lives, to be exact. Constant breathing developed lungs enough to help them survive what they might not otherwise. People got rid of asthma and some other lung disorders.

However I do not suggest using Sui-Zen practice as a substitute for any traditional treatment. And if you do have any serious health problems it is always better to talk to your doctor first.

Vibrations from the flute definitely have some positive effect on the body. Just like singing bowls, harp, other music instruments or like singing mantras.

Finally, every piece was created with certain image in mind. It can be gratitude for the offering, or nice blue sky, or fog over the sea, or waterfall, or falling leaves… Playing these pieces recreates those images in our mind and brings us into the same state of consciousness as the creator of the piece had. Which is calmness and balance. So music works like an excellent form of guided meditation without words.

When I do performances in various meditation or yoga studios, tea clubs etc., I can do flute meditation itself or talk about flute meditation. Former is a good practice for somebody who is already meditating. It is just music with no or very few words between pieces. I may tell what the piece is about, or what it means to me, or I may let everybody’s imagination draw the picture in their minds. Latter is usually done as a form of educational class, when I talk about the instrument, tradition, various schools etc. This would be better for somebody who is just curious about shakuhachi.

If you are in San Diego area, and you would like to host an event at your center, or maybe you know of somebody who may be interested in such event, please send me a message at AncientSoundsOfPeace@gmail.com

Send me a message anyway, I’d love to hear from you. You can find me on the FaceBook at Ancient Sounds of Peace, or follow me on Twitter @Ancient_Sounds

Hope to hear from you soon!

Until then,

Smile, stay happy, keep the balance and make a wonderful day happen!

This was Eugene from San Diego, CA. Talk to you next time!