How I became Om Jaya is a lifetime still unfolding.. As a young music professional I worked under a few names. As I matured I became Maxwellvision. This title branded body’s of work I am still involved with. Drumming, Fine Arts and Transition Theater.
My music and art have supported my independence, liberating me from the conventional ways of living. Always soul searching I have moved from communities I loved. I have lived years alone in the wilderness, on the beach, in the desert, in the redwood forest. I have lived in tipis, in lofts, in downtown major cities and I have spent time in slums. I have also been homeless.
Now, age outweighs my youth, my hair has thinned and I have lost teeth.
Beyond the memory's I carry I have been searching for God. Studying many faiths and learning many disciplines, and my life was still an unclear forecast. Late in my fifties I met a man who had great love for God. I asked him to take me to his place of worship. He took me to a temple. There I met Krishna. I was given the Bhagavad Gita. I began chanting and my heart began clearing. Humbled, I felt a rebirth, and for the first time, I put my hands on a piano.
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By the grace of a beautiful monk, I was given the name OmJaya.
My life is blooming again.
the lotus
an autobiography
Its flattering when someone writes about you. Accolades and accomplishments, its an overcoat. One day fitting nicely and later discarded for the crave of something new. I know, I've worn a few.
For now, these are my words, and here is my story. I was born and raised in Hermosa Beach, California. A surfer, a professional drummer and a visual artist. I became Maxwellvision. Blessed, I have drummed on hundreds of published recordings and toured many parts of the world. My artworks have been exhibited in reputable galleries and my collectors are many. Always producing art and music, I was living the dream, and the dream became an illusion.
Like a candle burning at both ends, I was burning out.
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Then unexpectedly, not long ago, my outer world was shattered and my inner world collapsed. Walking on a path shrouded with illusions, I had mislead myself and broke my own heart. Who I had become was the bitter fruit of a garden neglected and the coats in the closet had become my skeletons.
I fell from grace and closed the doors on the light of hope. Seeking an answer to why such fate, I crawled to a temple and there a monk gave me a string of beads. He said welcome home. I learned the mahamantra and I began to chant. Like a drowning man reaching for rope, I chanted, and my chanting was heard.
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A beam of light, pure light, light from every star, sun and moon found its way into the four corners of my exile, and rushing over me like a great flood I was silenced. Without a sound I heard this message;
'Who you are now
is what you have been.
Who you will be
is what you do now'.
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I became OmJaya, A man rebirthed, not purified but humbled.
Shed of the coats of my ego, for the first time I saw who the man in the mirror was.
Then in a dream a voice said, 'she is a piano, its her time now, find her, learn and love her. That same day before the sun set, an abandoned piano was carried up the antique stairs of my studio. And there she was, untuned and dusty, quietly waiting for someone to love her again, and that lover was me. I found her to be a healing tool and my perfect companion. She needs only one note to touch me and laying my hands on her gives a voice to my soul. Stumbling across her body, she taught me to slow down, to simplify, to go deep and to play the way I feel, not the way I think.
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I have become a pianist. A composer. Not one of practice and theory but one of listening and reflection. Now, like a lotus bloomed thru the mud, here I am, sharing with you the fruits of my dharma.
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OmJaya