The Meaning Of Healing, In “Sound Healing”
If a therapist does not know their goal with a client, then it is hard to know where to go with that client, and how to get there. Students in our programs often want to learn about sound healing, and hope to help future clients, but struggle with the question “what do I do?” or “what is the method.”
Clear intentions directly support the outcome of action. Thus, it is important for any student to understand the end outcome of therapeutic sound healing, in order to have a clear intention for how get there, and lay down a pathway.
In sound healing, “healing” is the goal. Understanding the meaning of “healing” provides a clear view of getting there, and, it is within that meaning, we can understand the power and practice of using sound.
“Healing” can mean physical healing, psychological healing, spiritual healing, and more. Zacciah’s teachings focus on the psychological and spiritual side of the term. Specifically, Zacciah, in understanding the meaning of healing, looks to etymology, or the historical root, of the word itself. A words etymology is how the word has evolved over time, showing where it came from, and how the meaning has changed.
The derivative meaning of healing actually comes from the word “wholeness.” Understanding this connection can already be familiar to those in the healing arts, who adopt “holistic” ways of thinking or life. Zacciah states, “that gives me some concept of where I might want to go when I’m talking about healing. I want to discover what wholeness is and promote that state in myself or those that I’m working with.” But what does “wholeness” mean, and how is it experienced?
One way of understanding wholeness, is within a clear meditative state. When we relax, and can calm down anxiety, worry, fear, and just focus out on the present moment, our awareness expands to incorporate more and more experience. Our focus clears and clarifies to incorporate a sense of ‘wholeness’ or completeness in the present moment. The tense sensory experience of the mind, which typically commands attention and perception, eases, and calms. This leaves a present experience of being aware, with a calm peaceful sensory quality. There is a ‘wholeness’ to this experience, of being a non-separate, non-needing, complete and whole being. Our perception is not isolated, and tensely focused upon a certain goal or task of the mind; we have a sense of openness, and availability to what is arising in the moment. In this experience we are not suffering, longing, needing, or tensing, but in our clear view, are in a state of peace.
This is an experiential understanding of wholeness and healing, where we simply let go of attachments, and allow for a peaceful experience of unity in the moment. Zacciah though, does not stop in exploration of healing with the word wholeness, but goes further into an exploration of the very meaning of who we are as spiritual beings:
“If I go further in the word derivation of wholeness, I was blown away by Webster, who shows the root word for wholeness is holiness. That may not fit with some of our minds and understanding of things, but for me that was just amazingly perfect. My own understanding through my studies was that discovering our true nature and purpose was the foundation of our healing and wholeness, and there it is, discovering our holiness. In pretty much every spiritual tradition, when we get to the core teachers, the core teachings are about who you are, who you truly are as a spiritual being, and why you are really here. And those two (our nature and purpose) interface very directly in the discovery of who we are. Our purpose is derived from that self-discovery, that self-revelation. In our greater body of work, that is really the core principle and essence and path of exploration, is one of exploring our true nature, and I can’t help it be part of our sound healing classes, because we are talking about healing, and if we are talking about healing it is very beneficial to understand what that means, and what our intentions are as a therapist.”
We can take the meaning of healing, past our suffering minds, into an experience of wholeness. But as we can see with the word holiness, wholeness takes into exploration who we truly are, as a whole part, non-separate, intertwined and interlaced, literally with the Entirety of the flow of the cosmos.
The derivation of holiness means, “that which is not tainted.” That which is not tainted, is that which is not impure; and that which is not impure, must be pure to begin with. The meaning of healing thus takes us into deep understanding of our true nature and who we are in our ‘purity.’ As Zacciah states, “When I am abiding in my true self, my true nature, what difference does it make if my mother did not love me.” In our purity, we were already and always “healed.” We were already, and always “whole” in our “holiness.” Truly, if we take the meditative experience of “wholeness” deeper, with great clarity and spaciousness, we can even understand we are wholly integrated into the Universal movement. We are “One,” with all “Creation.” In this experience, we are not suffering but healed.
Zacciah speaks often of the intersection between the meaning of healing, self-discovery and entering right relationship with the cosmos in his teachings. Entering a clear coherent state and resting in one’s wholeness is self-revelatory. It is by that process, that who we are is naturally exposed, and in such, we enter living relationship with the giving and taking of all life:
“We’re all seeking fulfillment in our lives. That can mean different things to different people, whether it means a new job or new house. What that really is about is self-fulfillment, and in the wisdom schools that equates to self-realization. It is realizing who we really are. And in that content of who we really are, is as well the content of why we are really here. What is the real purpose of being here on this planet at this time? It is important that we pursue this practice of self-realization, and this involves going into living relationship or right relationship with the principles of the cosmos. There is so much alive and relating to us right now. Step out into nature and feel the beauty. It is a living organism. They (living organisms) feed and commune with each other, and it is through entrainment, syncopated resonance, they entrain to each other: the community of trees, and the beings within the forest. Science is speaking of more and more to the nature of frequency and resonance as to how things interact and cohese or not.
Cohesion is an important part of this process. Cohesion is coherence; the positive or coherent feeling states literally mean that which binds things together, and it is what coheses us to those greater principles of the cosmos; when we abide within those coherent states we abide within those coherent principles of life. When we understand this, it helps us to pursue them, embody them, enliven them within us, to thrive within that knowledge, and within the choices that build our cohesive states. This really brings us into alignment with the fundamental inherent wisdom that we all embody. That we are inherently good, joyful, loving, kind, luminous, liberated. These are our inherent states, and if we don’t experience it, it is because we have learned to fix our attention upon lesser states of being and believing that this is so: that I am lesser than that, I’m not divine, I’m not worthy, I don’t have enough. All these lesser things that our society has made us believe on a cellular level: that we are not worthy of the greatness and grandness of who are and what we truly are as spiritual beings, thriving in a magnificent universe with endless bounty. We have bought into the principles of make believe, that we are lesser than that, and have to struggle through life; even while, there are other ways, that have to do with coming into alignment with the greater principles of self, in alignment with the greater principles or resonance of the universe. When we understand this, it allows us to move more quickly into that resonant field in which we can thrive and which feeds each other.”
It is by the very nature of going into coherency, that our true nature, or our holiness, can be revealed. And, within that clear view, right action within the principles of the cosmos can be taken. If we can understand the process, of going into coherent states, of going into our wholeness, we will simply have a better understanding of where we would like our clients to go, and how to best support them in getting there. In healing, we are not necessarily “fixing our attention” upon the problem. As Zacciah states, “if we believe we need to be healed, then we are not healed.” If we stand in our wounds, we are not healed, but wounded. Though our nature is healed, it is holy, or untainted to begin with; meaning if we learn to stand in our true nature, we are already healed. This process of resting in coherent states is self-revelatory, and self-healing, allowing us greater and greater insight into the experience of our mind, who we are, and the meaning of letting go.
For a therapist, without a clear view of an outcome, there can’t be a clear view of the needed intention and actions. Within the meaning of healing, of standing in our wholeness and holiness, we understand the pathway and can provide support for our clients. Just by the very nature of resting in a coherent state, we resonate out a vibratory field that our clients can naturally entrain to; For example, just by the nature of resting in a calm, peaceful, and open demeaner, our clients may as well calm within themselves. Add to this a harmonic sound field, and we just provided an even more powerful environment for our clients to rest into their own spaciousness. Add to these tools from our “toolbox” (for example, guided meditation, or using vibration on the body) and we have further supported our clients in the self-evolutionary experience of understanding their true nature within the cosmos, their holiness, as healed, whole beings.