Heartbeats: Music Infused Insights
Monique Rhodes
Sounds True

Awakening to the present moment—“the eternal now”—is a spiritual thread that weaves through Heartbeats: Music Infused Insights. This new album from Sounds True is an inspiring collection of 12 songs by Monique Rhodes that accompany vibrant teachings from some of today’s most important spiritual leaders, in their own words. Heartbeats begins with Adyanshanti, and includes words of deep wisdom from Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckart Tolle, Angeles Arrien, Caroline Myss, Tara Brach, and others.

The music by Rhodes is uplifting and spacious with pulsing electronic beats, easy-on-the-ear guitar melodies, and simple chord progressions that serve as a supportive net that holds together these luminous teachings on gratitude, emptiness, compassion, and interconnection: “Our body and mind are often separated from each other” (Thich Nhat Hanh); “Spiritual awakening is when we awaken from the dream of separateness, from this dream that the egoic mind creates” (Adyanshanti); “We can learn how to rest in empty space” (Reginald Ray); “The future is a thought form” (Eckart Tolle). 

Heartbeats is an inspirational garden of sound lovingly mixed with practical and rich spiritual messages from 12 diverse teachers. Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön ö speaks gently and clearly on track seven, “Being Present.” She reminds us that noticing one’s monkey mind is not a problem, but rather an important realization on the path of liberation. Chödrön offers, “The truth is, anyone who’s meditated even one day learned fast that we almost are never present,” adding, “The few people I’ve met who I consider to be completely awake; they learned to stay … They don’t go off anywhere like we do; they just stay.”