Mysticism in Music 2.2
The currency of kindness, the timelessness of change.
Very recently all of my “stuff” was stolen. My guitar, my amp, my effects, my eagle feathers, my passport, my computer, my backups, my contact files and many other personal items. I was moving from one short term rental to the next within the city of New York so I was carrying more things than usual. In a way it was my fault for leaving these things in a car in the city even if it was for 40 minutes, but in another way it was simply time for these things to go. Not to say that this is an easy thing to come to terms with right away, it is alot to deal with financially when instrument insurance doesn’t cover car theft and car insurance doesn’t cover personal theft, but money is just another concept of energy in motion isn’t it ? And in the real world of mysticism, money is just another idea, an idea that should not stand in the way of getting what you need or going where you need to get to. Money is a friend when it shows up, just like the north wind. But if money goes away, well, there are many replacements to keep you going such as sunlight and supportive friends. (By the way, sending a thanks out to all my friends who have loaned me guitars, amps and pedals in the last few weeks.) Before moving on I just want to reiterate that money is just an idea often used to control the minds of people, to keep people locked in their own jail cell of what they can’t do without it, or on the other hand to give a false sense of security when having it - both resulting in a certain kind of sleeping-while-alive effect on the human spirit potential. Though security may be true to the extent that money buys you food, it will not by you personal evolution. Seems to me the best association with money in a money driven world is to learn how to be come unattached to it but in the flow of the abundant mindset...always enough and grateful for it. Plus there are alot of good people out in the world who want to help you. Always remember that. That is another currency that still exists. . . kindness.
Anyways, my guitar was stolen. I had grown very attached to that guitar, there is no other like it and I felt it like a brother or an extension of my self. . . but there is no choice other than to see that it was time for a change. This is called forgiveness. Instead of harping on bad wishes towards some thief or other related concept, you recognize where you are as a person along your lifespan line and that perhaps what’s more important than your instrument is your personal and spiritual growth in relation to your perception. Without it the music would suck anyways. Let’s just take a minute and recognize that. The music that is created by musicians pouring their authentic, rich and heartfelt life experiences into their sound and song are the ones who tend to resonate something deep and meaningful inside of us as listeners..and all the other music floats on the surface like bubble gum wrappers. Different purposes or maybe more like one way of music has purpose and the other doesn’t. It’s very simple, if you want to make deep music you have to live a life devoted to that deepness. If you want to be a deep listener you need to devote yourself to a life of deep listening. Otherwise you’ll never brake the surface and you’ll remain in an experience of pop music and pop magazines and thus pop culture will own your mind and thus your soul. We all like a little sugar here and there but too much will dumb you down. Thats the truth. The three minute song with its ‘verse - pre chorus - chorus- repeat- bridge-and-end” is a formula to keep artist and listener in an invisible cage of mediocrity. . New forms are needed and no forms are necessary at times. Who is driving that traditional form-train and why do so little people question its direction? Who’s keeping those old train tracks intact anyway? A good question for our awareness. Keep creating my friends because American Idol and MTV are only repeating and rehashing old forms and for the sake of that money concept thus keeping people in a middle-of-the-road-mindset. They are telling the masses that if you can be technically proficient then you are good enough to be considered one of the best. But being a creator in alignment with Creation is another level. New songs. New forms. New views. New sounds. New sounds, which brings me back to the letting go of my guitar into the winds that vanished it away... I find myself in a situation of discovering just how much of my sound is in my hands and how much is in the machinery. No doubt there should be an equilibrium. With a few items of gear lent to me by friends, I happily embrace a new sound of the machinery, but when we get playing, the winds still pick up, the spirits still show up, the illumination of the one true song still shines bright.
The machinery is made to change and the timelessness of change never will.
Amen to that brothers and sisters