As a teenager Miles Davis’s album Kind of Blue and Sonny Rollin’s album Saxophone Colossus inspired me to no end. Every note seemed perfect. Every phrase seemed like grace. I call this kind of music Enlightened Music or No Mind Music. My life has been the pursuit of playing in this way. Even my major in college was Musical Improvisation as a Spiritual Path.
A friend of mine recently wrote me:
“I have to tell you that I had a pretty wonderful experience on Sunday night playing with my Kali. It was one of those magical times where everything just felt right and my tone and how the mouthpiece felt was totally inspiring me. I played better than I felt like I’ve played in a long time and just had one of those transcending experiences where the sum of the music that you make is more than its parts. Very fun and very spiritual for me.”
This is the experience of Enlightened Music! In my years of meditation and musical study I have learned that the qualities of Enlightened Music are:
Not thinking
No Doubt
No Worry
A sense of rightness, correctness, and perfection happening.
A sense of doing nothing. NO CONTROL!
The music just flows through on its own.
Enlightened Soul Music is when our Souls are in control of the music instead of our minds. This is rather simple in concept but can be rather challenging in practice! It means we can have no expectation, attachments, or ‘good ideas’. The mind is not involved with this process.
I have heard the word Soul tossed around my whole life. It has seemed like a metaphor. Recently through my studies with Master Sha though, my Soul has become as real to me as my own body. Very real! In fact my soul in many ways is MORE real because it will not die in the way my body will!
So what is the Soul? It is the energetic part of us that gives direction from the perspective of unity of all life and the accumulated wisdom of all our experience, including past lives. If you don’t believe in past lives, that is not important. What is important is to know that our Souls are connected to, and operate from, a unity with all existence. This is why operating from the Soul feels ‘in the flow’ and why we feel connected to other musicians and the music. This experience can NOT be had while playing music from the mind or analytically.
Our Souls are constantly giving direction. Many people experience this as intuition, integrity, or knowing. Our minds then either agree or disagree with that direction. When our minds agree there is harmony.
My life is a clear example of both. There was a period of time my mind was totally in service to my Soul. I simply watched myself talk and act, never really knowing WHY I was saying and doing anything often until later. I felt one with all of life and every moment felt like perfection. Magic constantly happened around me. I lived in a state of constant benevolent coincidence.
I then fell from grace when one day I chose to feel unworthy and believe there was something wrong with me. This was when my illness got really bad years ago. I have written prior blogs that talk about this. Living in grace, then loosing it, and now learning to return to grace has been extremely educational. I now have an understanding of the process that I did not previously have.
In a nut shell: Our minds can either agree to follow our Souls direction or they can fight to do things their way. Most people follow their logical mind alone. If it makes logical sense to them then they act. The problem with this is that everyone has a different perspective that makes sense to them. This means everyone is living according to their own truth. This is why wars break out.
Integrity: Living by what we KNOW is right, even if we have no understanding as to why, is following the Soul. This is living in integrity actually. Compassion, love, service, and selflessness are qualities of following the Soul’s direction because the Soul experiences itself one with all other Souls. Loving ourselves becomes the same as loving others. This is why service is so important in life. There is no way to feel free without living in service, for it is the natural state of our Souls.
I used to think this meant I had to do community service every day! This belief is why I fell from grace, because I am far from that goal. All it means is to do what we are already doing from a place of service. When playing music, do it to improve the lives and head space of your audience. Just this intention alone is necessary. This intention will most probably lead to further service, but to start the correct intention is all that is required.
The purpose of my work is to support musicians in playing Enlightened (no mind) Music . This is my service and purpose in life. My goal is to have my products and life inspire in this way. It is when I forget this perspective that I get sick and loose my passion in life. This is now crystal clear to me! So this blog is not only to share what I have been learning, but it is also a reminder to myself! Ha!
Note: I have learned a great deal about what I call Enlightened Music from Master Sha’s teaching of Soul Song. More info can be found in his book Soul Wisdom. I thank Master Sha for deepening my understanding of this music which has been the passion of my life.
