What tunes me to love? Meditation, prayer, contemplation, insight, sangha, music, the touch of a dear one. As Hafiz so eloquently expresses "sadness and fear come from being out of tune with love. " I wonder if it is also from being out of time with love? My fear is seldom in the present moment, nor is my sadness. To bring my instrument into tune, I must be there in the moment listening, just listening. Sadness and fear are powerful emotions, watered by family, community, country, and life itself. Yet as one wise sage has said "in the end there are three things that last - faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love." So again I ask what tunes me to love? When do I tune?
When a piece of music touches someone, this becomes part of their memory, life, and being. One of a multitude of subtle shifts and insights forming one life, yet forming all of life. Seek truth in yourself, and truth will manifest in your art. In the ocean of my heart there are depths that words cannot touch. The language which expresses that which is inexpressible - music - can stir these depths, bring them into light, and allow them to heal and blossom into understanding. And as I have been taught in the Fourth Awareness
- "We are aware that understanding is the very foundation of love." As cycles of suffering surround us, we pause, tuning our instrument carefully with the breath. Finding the present moment, finding love, tuning and turning towards love. There is no end in mind. There just is. So I breathe, I tune, I play my notes listening to the melodies of life, pausing to tune as needed. Becoming lost in the flow, distracted, and then the muse reminds me to tune again, to begin again, to connect again with life. Will I ever stay in tune? What a question as I smile. Never will I stay in tune, so I practice. To tune a thousand strings takes a lifetime, needs a craft of loving care, requires help from a Sangha, and beyond.
"To bring my instrument into tune, I must be there in the moment listening, just listening." and as you so eloquently point out, we are the instrument, we are the listeners and all we can do right now is listen in a deeper more profound way than we have ever listened before.
ReplyDelete"Seek truth in yourself, and truth will manifest in your art." yum yum yummy!
I listened to three calls today - all of them were about what wants to happen, what is wanting to unfold, how can we consciously evolve.
You, my friend, have written something sublimely in tune with all of it. Music is vibration, resonance. It speaks to us because it is what we are.
I'm sharing this post all over the place.
Me thinks your retreat brought out the best in you.
with love and gratitude - k
Such a beautiful writing, Patrick, and so very true, indeed. A musician who is in tune can spend hours lost in the sublime. A musician who is not in tune, will become in tune as "practice" continues, as when playing music, one cannot help but go naturally into the depths of meditation. Much love to you!
ReplyDeleteYour words are such a gift, Patrick. And they resonate within me to my core.
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you for your gift of meditation, love, and music. I am thankful for you.
-Erica
Perfect timing for me to read these exquisite words of deep wisdom , thank you for sharing with me, so I could read them and feel them resonate their chords of healing . It is lovely to meet you , and thank you so much for your comment on my blog of encouragement :) many blessings and love to you .
ReplyDeleteAh, Patrick. As I read this beautiful post, the heart opens to hear the inner Music that flowed through you as you wrote it, and continues to flow now...and time begins to dissolve as I know there was no beginning to what went into it, and there is no end as the words trail off... the eternal Music flows like a stream and you tuned yourself into this Music for the words to sing out, just as your readers have tuned into the same, in order to listen...and the Divine Play of Love continues timelessly... waiting for us to hear Its/Our Beauty whenever we remember... very grateful...
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