Ricard is a returning guest. If you are a subscriber, you might enjoy checking out his previous sessions — #346, #337, #319 and #316 — in the archives.

ABOUT Ricard

Ricard Perez lives in Berlin, Germany, where he is a professional musician and instrumentalist, vocal coach, and producer.

I’ve been playing music since I was eight years old. I can’t stop being a musician. It is part of my dna, my nature. I first got into meditation through weird experiences as a child and teenager, and the concentration and creative aspects of my work with music. I have practiced meditation for decades under different disciplines and intuitively, and now I lead weekly meditations with groups of people, too. I enjoy helping other people in their practice. That’s why I got into UM Pathways.

He spoke more about how music and meditation are integrated indistinguishably in his life.

The unusual early personal experiences opened my curiosity and as a young adult I began reading books in wisdom traditions. There was a five year period where I’d practice music exercises many hours a day, and I would experience clear states of concentration through the intense playing. Playing music was like communicating my understanding of mind and emotions in an abstract language. In part, I deepened my pursuit of meditation at this time because I noticed it was necessary to do so to bridge the inner abstractness of music to ordinary life. You can get a little lost inside yourself, touching craziness. After that five year process I found a balance where meditation became as necessary as eating or having a shower in the morning.

Ricard described some of his current explorations in meditation practice.

Right now I’m dedicating most of my practice in the UM system, and have put other frameworks on hold. UM is so versatile. In terms of techniques that I focus on, I tend to float a lot. I'm still getting acquainted with labeling and noting. I try to touch the 4 quadrants every day. I tend to gravitate to Do Nothing and Flow techniques with more enthusiasm. And as I mentioned, I enjoy supporting others with their practice as a part of my own practice.

You can find more about Ricard and his main music project "Ed Richwood" in Spotify here.