Pachelbel's Canon

At 11:45 I took my lunch break from my job at a publishing company in downtown San Francisco. As I stepped out of the building and onto 2nd Street, a cold wind blew in my face, and I clutched my jacket closer. Walking down the street, I began to think about the wonderful experiences of the previous evening, sitting in meditation with my Buddhist Master Rama at the Fairmont Hotel. Rama and his band Zazen were recording a new album called "Techno Zen Master," which incorporated excerpts of a techno version of Johann Pachelbel's famous classical piece "Canon in D", as interludes between the other original dance-oriented songs. Rama had played this "work in progress" for us, and the Pachelbel tune was pervading my consciousness. Hearing the song in my mind took me right back to the night before, meditating in a room with Rama, watching all of what I thought I knew to be solid reality, literally dissolve into golden light before my eyes.

I continued down the street and into my favorite downtown deli, ordering some hummos and pita bread for lunch. As I finished my lunch and was about to leave, a classically orchestrated version of Pachelbel's Canon came on the radio. The song had been running through my mind for the past several hours and it was delightfully cosmic that it was now playing on the radio during my lunch break, just about a mile from where we had met with Rama the night before. The song is an amazingly beautiful piece, and it had been re-introduced to me the night before in a modernized version, with a hip-hop beat and a healthy dose of golden light from a Buddhist Master.

As I left the deli and walked out onto the street, the strangest thing happened: everything on the streets of San Francisco turned into Pachelbel's Canon. The traffic sounds were actually playing the tune and the people on the street were walking and chatting to the rhythm of this tune! I stopped in my tracks and listened as my entire experience of the universe played and danced to the sound of a Pachelbel's Canon. For several minutes the grimy streets were transformed into a majestic dance and a magical moment of synchronicity.

Pondering this experience, I think of all of the Buddhist scriptures I have read and all of the teachings that I have learned through Rama. These teachings say that everything is perfect at all times, that everything is connected, and that we create our own reality. Our lack of seeing the perfection and interconnectivity of everything causes us pain and confusion. A correct seeing of the world reveals magic at all times. The streets of San Francisco and every other town are always playing a lovely tune, if only we can open our awareness and understand that everything is truly magical and perfect.

Thank You Rama!

-- Peter B.