A pebble dropped into the ocean vibrates its waves outward. A skilled vibraphone player sends out good vibrations overcoming and reversing the direction of the negative energy in the musician’s path.

If we let it happen, we can constantly feel bombarded with gunk, garbage and negative energy. With me, it can start with something as small as facing a choice between cursing or blessing the driver in front of me who sticks his stinky burning cigarette outside his window when not puffing from it, so as to stink up my captive lungs rather than his car’s interior. I can curse to myself at the seemingly fascist prosecutor or uncaring-seeming judge, or can have compassion for them as humans — while never backing down — while I fight for the best possible results for my client.

The concept of the vibrating sound helps me. whether through summoning the mental sound of a bell, vibraphone instrument, or anything else that rings. The ringing emanates outward to neutralize any negative energy in its path. The concept of the ringing sound can also help remind me to remain fully awake, aware and focused with my eyes on the prize of the best possible results.

The concept of the calming, cleansing, and centering benefits of sound is far from farfetched. Sound plays an important part for most people, from being drawn to crashing waves and haunting winds, to listening to and even performing instrumental and vocal music. Chanting “om”, for instance, can be very uplifting, as I have learned when attending Tara Brach’s large weekly local meditation gatherings (start at minute 4:00). Krishna Das (born Jeffrey Kagel) passed up a chance to be Blue Oyster Cult’s lead singer, and today chants and sings from another angle. He believes that only singing would enable him to clean out the dark places in his heart (minute 2:00).

When we take the music everywhere we go, then we are lighter, more impervious to dung, and bolder. Getting sidetracked with others’ funks — whether from judges, prosecutors, police or anyone else — weakens my campaign for my client. It is a given that dung will fly on any given day, whether that dung comes in my direction or towards another person. It is said that in some periods of time in certain places without indoor plumbing, people would dump their daily dung buckets out the window from upper home floors, risking hitting passersby below. In India, cow dung is considered by many to be holy to burn; what a great way to be comfortable with dung.

To succeed for my clients, I need to acknowledge that dung always will fly, and that I let myself get stuck in dung and sidetracked from success by dwelling on the dung. Just as most air in populated areas has its pollutants, dung should be approached as no more an obstacle than those minor pollutants.