About the painting 'Grace' — Sacred Art Journeys with Kathy Stanley, M.A.

My latest painting ‘Grace’ was created in an experience of being in a sonic ritual journey of sacred North Indian Raga music from cross-cultural jazz musician Jonathan Kay.

‘Grace’ 24 x 30 inch acrylic painting by Kathy Stanley

This unique sacred musical encounter provided the sonic environment- the backdrop for creating and inspiring my sacred art journey into this painting ‘Grace.’ I am recognizing this journey experience, guided by the mystical and beautiful music created by Jonathan Kay, as a profound avenue in which to enter what I call the ‘transpersonal ecological self.’

I am delighted the painting has been selected for an upcoming exhibition in December 2021 in Bologna, Italy, and it will be seen in the January/February 2022 issue of Condé Nast Traveller Magazine.

This is the story of how I came to be introduced to Jonathan Kay and his sonic ritual journeys:

In my many years of studying with enlightenment teacher Leslie Temple Thurston, we mostly meditated to music in our retreats with her. Leslie compiled what she called ‘samadhi’ playlists, and to this day when I listen to certain CD’s, like Essence by Peter Kater, or Nada Himalaya by Deuter, I easily drop back into a deep meditative state, the experience of those times meditating with her to that music deeply imprinted on me.

I was thinking yesterday how sometimes the Universe gives you an unexpected gift that you did not even know you needed. But once received, you realize how desperately you needed this thing and will cherish it forever…

I received such a gift one recent September weekend. I kind of knew something was up when before our first PhD retreat even really started on the Friday, I surprisingly burst into tears as soon as I logged into the zoom room.

As is customary in meetings at the California Institute of Integral Studies where I teach and study, music will be playing before the meeting starts as people are logging in. When I logged in this Friday, one of the Teaching Assistants for the class, was playing the sitar. I had met Jonathan briefly in an info session for the East West Psychology Department. I remember him saying that he had been studying sacred music in India for 10 years which is where he met Dr. Debashish Banerji, the Program Chair for the department. Jonathan, a Canadian, is now a PhD student in East West psychology and I recently entered the same PhD program.

On Saturday, after a day and morning of ‘dharma’ talks that weren’t really landing for me – too many words…. the teachers gave us a choice to either go outside and do our own meditation in nature, or we could stay in the zoom room and Jonathan was going to play the sitar and we could meditate in a sonic experience of sacred Raga music.

I chose to stay in the zoom room with Jonathan. He began by inviting us to repeat a few syllables of Om with him as he began playing the sitar and then he said he was going to play for a half hour and we could either dance or process the experience in any way we wanted . . . draw, paint, meditate, move...

I lay down on my little day bed here in the office and just allowed the sound of the music to wash over me. Almost immediately I was aware of a deepening state of absorption. He was guiding us into a journey.

Words sort of fail me at this point- but it was as if the scaffolding of my subtle body began to loosen and then lift off…. like my armor was dismantling… like I was uncloaking….

….. and then I was back in the Hindu Temple in Kauai where I had been just a few weeks before . . . meditating in front of the Deities . . . listening to the Ragas playing . . . and the freeing and lifting of the subtle body increased even more . . . and now I was swimming in the gentle waves in Anahola Bay . . . back and forth on top of the waves . . . watched over by the Great Goddess sacred mountain Kalalea . . .

. . . the sound of the sitar and the waves in the ocean were cleansing . . . freeing . . .

. . . no words . . .

. . . just the sacred sound and the freedom of being unshackled from density . . .

And then after a while I could feel the subtle body start to come back – he was slowly bringing us back from the journey. As he brought us out of the sonic experience I came back fully grounded, piece by piece, fully in my body.

Astonished.

Blessed.

It was the highlight of the weekend for me.

I found out at the end of the class when Jonathan was asked to share his website with us, that indeed we were in the company of greatness, a master musician. From his bio: “Jonathan Kay is an internationally recognized cross-cultural jazz multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, esraj, shakuhachi), hailing from Toronto, Canada. In search of non-western ways of musical knowing, he moved to Kolkata, India, and for 10 years formally studied North Indian Raga music and innovated its expression on the saxophone.”

I immediately downloaded three of his CD’s: Coltrane Sutras, Temple Meditations, and Forest Dweller.

Jonathan says:

“As a musician, I experience the world as universal vibration, in which all of life’s movements symbolically become inner musical-images.

As a spiritual seeker, I am a mystic traveler of the subtle worlds of vibration who is passionately searching to reconcile the One and the Many; the duality of our surface psychological existence with the intuitive call of the Infinite Oneness, an integral Truth of Harmonic Unity.”

Jonathan has given me the soundtracks, the samadhi playlists for my PhD journey ahead. He has also introduced me to another profound avenue in which to enter the transpersonal ecological self, which you might also call the Infinite Oneness, as he does….

No words. A deep and grateful, humble bow to the musical genius that is Jonathan Kay.

And with deep gratitude, as always, to the beloved sacred island of Kauai, who calls me back to her year after year, who has inspired and led me on many sacred art journeys . . . the serene Hindu Temple, and the sacred Goddess mountain, Kalalea ….

… such amazing . . . Grace …

Visit Jonathan Kay’s website here.

Visit the Hindu Temple on Kauai here.