Music of the Spheres
When I was 21 years old, I lived in Hermosa Beach, California. I lived alone in a small apartment on the strand and worked as a bookkeeper at a car dealership. I loved living right there… on the beach front… close to the ocean and near all the action. I loved watching the seagulls and sunsets and riding my bicycle to work along the strand.
But, my life was not always a bed of roses. I struggled with inner conflicts and felt rather lost at times, not knowing where I wanted to steer the course of my life.
I read a lot and loved creating artwork. I especially liked to read books about the lives of prophets, spiritual leaders and writers such as Yogananda and others. Still, I could not really integrate the wisdom in the books with my own life’s path. I still had personal issues that I could not figure out how to resolve. Actually, I had issues that I did not even know I had! But that was all about to change. I was about to get a wonderful “wake up” call.
One day, after work, I rode my bike along the strand and when I was very near to my apartment, I noticed an elderly gentleman standing on the sand near the wall separating the strand and the sand. He had maybe four or five young people gathered around him, listening very intently to his words. This was a man who I had seen a few times before, and had been very curious about, for he was “different”, in his manner and his speech. I decided to find out more about him. I hurriedly put my bike away and rushed back out to the beach to listen to him speak.
He spoke with “authority” and had a serious demeanor. What struck me most about his appearance was his absolute glow of health and fitness. He had not a wrinkle that was visible, not an ounce of fat to be seen and his eyes were very, very blue and clear. He had a long white beard and close cut white hair, with no hair at all on the top of his head. From his white hair and long beard, I would say he must have been 60 years old or more, yet he did not look like any other man I had ever seen at that age. Later in my life I realized that he looked very similar to John Muir the famous naturalist, only more fit.
As I approached the group, I could hear him speaking about the nature of honesty. He said that when a person lies, the lie has a way of spreading and affecting other people. He gave an example. I liked what he said. I have always liked parables and he taught using parables. In fact, he taught very much like Christ taught, out in the open, using parables. I decided to stay there in that spot, until every one of the listeners left. Something within me wanted to talk with him. I felt he had some truth to share with me, that I needed and wanted.
Eventually it was just he and I standing there. He asked me my name and what I did for a living. I told him. I said “What is your name? What do you do?” He said ” My name is George Teng. I teach.” I said “Where do you teach?” He said “In my home mostly.” I said “What do you teach?” He said “I teach about life.”
I felt excitement when he said this. I had always wanted to learn about life… really learn about it. I sensed that he had some answers that would be very helpful to me and my “issues” regarding what direction to steer my life.
I asked him if he could teach me about life. He replied “I don’t know. I can’t teach everyone.” We then proceeded to set an appointment for the next week, when I would come to his house to see if he could teach me.
On the day of the appointment, I went to his house, which turned out to be an apartment in the next beach town of Manhattan Beach. The door to his apartment was ajar and I could see a young man sitting on the floor just inside the door, so I waited outside. When he left in a few minutes, George came to the door and asked me to take off my leather shoes and leave my leather purse outside the door. I stepped inside the apartment and was surprised to see a perfectly clean and empty apartment except for a rolled up mat and a candle in the corner and some posters of what looked like hindu goddesses to me, hung up near the ceiling on one wall. There was also a table and two chairs in a dining area off the small kitchen.
George invited me to sit down on the floor and then he sat down facing me. He asked me “So, How is your life going ?” I told him it was going well and I was very happy living here etc. He listened and then replied “Well, surely something brings you here.” I told him I didn’t really know what it was. he said “It is my belief that we all know what is bothering us.”
There was something about the way he said it, the tone of it, or the thoughtfulness of his words that caused me to stop “chatting” with him… and reach down deep within me to find the answer, an answer that I did not know was in me, before that moment. Yet I knew years later as I looked back, was the crux of all my “issues” in my life at that time.
I told him that I had problems with relationships. I did not feel that I loved many of the men I dated, yet I did not know how to disconnect from them. I was too nice to them.
He thought for a moment and said “Life is like a pond, with various life forms living at various depths. I want you to speak from the deepest part of yourself now”. I sat there and tried to speak. But, I felt completely disconnected from my “will to speak”… and was unable to utter a sound.
George then said “I understand.” And, he continued on… speaking about the various levels of life. As he spoke, I watched him intently and I noticed that the sound of his voice became “rhythmatic”. That is to say, his words began to take on a musical quality or rhythm, as though he was speaking in a sort of poetic rhythm. Then, very quickly his voice faded and I could see his lips moving, but could only hear what seemed to be music. Yet, it was not a kind of music that I could definitely call music. It was more like a heavenly choir of voices making music, rather than singing words. It was not like anything on this Earth, for it seemed to be coming from inside me, yet it filled every space in and around me. It was a beautiful experience.
I then spoke to George and said “Excuse me George. I do not understand your words in the normal sense. I seem to hear music.” He looked at me very seriously and said “Did you take any drugs before you came over here?” I said “No”. He said “Do you meditate?” I said “No”. He said “Are you afraid?” As tears ran down my cheeks, I said “No… I feel full of joy.”
Then, his face and eyes slowly blossomed into a positively luminous smile and he told me… “This then, is what one feels when one meditates.”
I left Georges apartment a while later, still under the influence of the afterglow of that experience, which changed me in a profound way, and set my feet upon the path of my heart. George continued to teach me for a few months more and then I left on an adventure which took me to Europe. We wrote back and forth for a few more years and then I lost contact with him. I have carried the lessons of that initial meeting with me for all the rest of my life. I know now that there is more to me than a body. I know that “joy” is the true state of being. I have no doubt that I “remembered” for one brief moment in my life, where I came from and where I will return. I have no doubt that God is love and I am made in God’s image. I have no doubt that I heard the “music of the spheres” and was one with it… and it was good….