2.5
February 26, 2012

Life Takes Us. ~ Todd Boston

Photo by Todd Boston.

A talented and soulful friend and member of the yoga community, Todd Boston is a well-established musician on the spiritual path. In the short time since I first interviewed Todd for Elephant Journal, he has taken the next exciting and joyful leap in his career. He has recently announced that he will be touring with Snatam Kaur for her 2012 tour of North and South America. Additionally, Todd Boston’s next album Touched by the Sun is set to release in Spring 2012. Tour dates and music are available on www.ToddBoston.com.~ Editor’s Note.

 

 

We participate in the journey, yes. We can even say, “I want to go over here or there.” We can envision, manifest and create our life but there is another part of the journey where life takes us unexpectedly and often out of our control.

There is a force at play. Call it Divine Creation, The Universe, God, Creator, Nature, Destiny, Allah, Jehovah, Christ, Krishna, The Guru, Buddha or any other name. Whatever you choose to call it, it is the same force of energy ultimately at work that takes our requests, considerations, dreams, hopes, manifestations, fears, karma and sends us on our way.

If we are fearful and unhappy it can be a miserable ride at times and if we are positive, joyful, optimistic and aware then it can be a magical mystery tour sure to excite, enliven, enrich and create a deep sense of awe and inspiration. Because of the magnificence and beauty that is life there is so much potential within each and every one of us to live our lives in a beautifully inspired way.

I am a product of my life and destiny. In other words, I came into this life and certain things were completely out of my control or at least they have appeared to be. My family, the environment I grew up in, certain life experiences, certain lessons and maybe even what you may call my destiny.


Photo by Mario Covic, www.mariocovic.com.

For me music is a component of my life that has felt predestined. I came here in this lifetime to be a creator of music, this fact is an absolute certainty that I can feel in every part of me. To deny this reality is to deny a part of who I am. Music is so deeply a part of my life that it affects just about every aspect of my life and provides opportunities, clothing, warmth, life experiences, relationships, dreams, aspirations, food, inspiration, spirituality, healing, and friendship to me.

Photo by Todd Boston.

I am not a religious person although I would say I am a deeply spiritual person. I believe in a higher power, divinity, angels, in fact I pray regularly. I believe that we are all one people born from the same Nature and “God.” We are all created by the same Sun, without it we simply would not be. We are completely reliant and created out of the dark, dense, empty vacuum of space by a ball of light and energy that has manifest our reality. This is why so many of the spiritual traditions of earth over history have celebrated and worshiped the Sun as divinity in some way or another.

In many of the greatest spiritual texts available to us there are writings about the inner relationship between us and nature, the importance of meditation and prayer, acceptance, destiny and our part in the creation of life. It is written that if we live by certain basic principles of goodness, and harmony with the environment and people around us we can truly have any life we choose in one way or another.

There is something greater that drives all of us, we are born with it, we can’t always explain it. Despite our biggest hopes or fears it sometimes drives us exactly away or toward what we want most. It shows us our strengths and our weaknesses and pushes us to evolve and reach for our highest nature. It can be painful, relentless, beautiful, inspiring, awkward, natural, scary and completely nurturing. It can bring us pure joy and bliss if we surrender to our calling and destiny as a part of who we are as people.

Some of us can feel and see clearly what this is and it may take many shapes, conditions and forms but each one of us has a particular drive built into us in some way or another that just takes us along despite and often in alignment with our best efforts. If we deny it we can suffer much but if we tune in and accept we can live an absolute life of magic, dreams and beauty.

Perhaps if we can sit quietly, breathe consciously, still our mind, focus on our heart and listen to the inner most depth of what we are and ask the question, “how can I serve and reach my greatest potential?”…perhaps then we can receive an answer that will guide us to truly be and live a happy, harmonious life.

I dare not say “easy” because life is not necessarily designed to be “easy.” Sometimes in order for us to meet our highest potential it can be quite difficult but if we live in harmony with our calling and destiny then all the forces of divine nature will be with us and will support us in reaching higher and higher within ourselves so we can serve the highest good.

We can each save the world, one person at a time simply by being our best and living in harmony with ourselves, each other, our environment, and our destiny.  Then life can take us…

 

Todd Boston is an international performing artist, a guitarist/multi-instrumentalist, and a producer of world, devotional and folk music. Live on stage he combines advanced finger style guitar techniques, percussion and various world instruments to create a sound both memorable and mesmerizing. Todd Boston’s music has been gaining popularity and recognition worldwide.  He received nominations in the 2003 Arizona Music Awards and in the 2005 California Music Awards. Todd was chosen as Top Performer for Philly Rising at the esteemed World Cafe Live in 2005. His first two albums (Urban Nature, Coming Home and Todd Boston Alive) have been consistently featured on Echoes, the two-hour nightly music show heard on over 130 NPR channels and distributed by Public Radio International. Urban Nature Coming Home was voted #13 for the Best CDs of 2009 on the Echoes listeners poll. Todd Boston, Alive was chosen as the CD of the Month of October 2010 by host John Diliberto and was chosen in the top 25 Listeners Choice Awards for 2010. Read the review. Todd has worked and performed with Snatam Kaur, Tony Levin (legendary bassist of Peter Gabriel), Grammy-winning musicians Charlie Bisharat, Jeff Haynes and Eugene Friesen; Deva Premal & Mitten, Manose, Tina Malia, Shimshai, Donna De Lory & Suzanne Sterling. Todd has studied North Indian Classical music with the late great maestro Ali Akbar Khan and has studied with guitar virtuoso Alex De Grassi. He has begun working on his next full length album produced with Will Ackerman (Grammy winner and Windham Hill Records Founder) due for release in 2012. Todd believes music is healing and continues to explore the deep relationship that exists between music and movement. In addition to his live stage performances, Todd accompanies yoga classes across the U.S. in his project Live Music Yoga Flow. He is also an educator and believes that music is an important part of our communities and offers his time to schools, hospitals, institutions, and healing centers to share and spread the powerful healing effects of music. Todd Boston can be found on Facebook here.

Editor: Jeannie Page

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