Muggy night in the Yucatán. Ceiling fans limp, incense curling through heavy air. Circle of strangers on mats. Then comes a late arrival, a woman clattering crystals, cheeks flushed, breathing in bursts. “I’m sorry, I just, I need to heal tonight. Please.” Her voice wobbles between hope and apology.
She drops to her spot, knuckles white around a stone. Even before I strike the bowls, the room has shifted. Her need announces itself, shy and urgent. I see it land in the bodies around her: shoulders tense, breathing goes shallow. The tone rings out, but it feels brittle, thin where it should hum. It’s as if the sound recoils from too much wanting.
The Pattern of Wanting
I’ve watched this pattern play out for years. We are taught to beg: ask for mercy, ask for love, ask for one more break. Light the candles. Send a prayer. Wait and hope the universe hears. I’ve done it myself. Falling to my knees, mistaking desperation for devotion, wishful whispering for power.
No Answer to Begging
But sound doesn’t answer requests. Not really. The bowls, ancient, yes, but no fools, don’t respond to begging. They mirror what you bring. They amplify the frequency you actually stand in, not the story you tell. When someone enters a ceremony clutching lack, the air thickens, the sound drags. When the group settles, claims their aliveness without apology, the sound builds, a presence you can almost see.
The Shift
Tonight I say nothing at first. I let the bowls keep sounding, low and steady. I invite the group to sit a little taller. Feet on the mat. Spine long. Breath in, fill the belly. Exhale, claim your place here. “Don’t ask for peace,” I whisper, “be the place peace could live.” A softer tone rises now, warmer, stronger, as if the bowls recognize the shift. The visitor’s hands unclench. Shoulders drop. She breathes deeper, less frantic. The room hums with a new fullness.
Coherence, Not Begging
This is it. The universe isn’t a parent handing out treats when you say please. It’s a field responding to coherence. When you show up already whole, the world reshapes around that. The “asking”, it’s just static. Presence is the signal.
Try This
Next time you’re about to beg, another job, a lover to call, even for your own body to heal, pause. Drop the question. Notice your posture, your breath, your energy. Are you radiating from lack, or standing in what’s already true?
Try this: Inhale with conviction, as if you’re taking up space on purpose. Exhale with certainty, like you belong. Let your frequency be an answer, not a question.
What happens in you, right now, if you stop pleading for a change and declare, “I am the space where change happens”?
Sit in that wordless echo. Listen for the sound to rise up and meet you.
– Rafa
