u/B2Trt

I listen and watch music every day. Sometimes it’ll be a performance to an audience, but many times not.

Just watched “Llive Aid” at Wembley Stadium with Queen performing, and being cast to 1.4 billion people in 1985. Apparently, Freddie Mercury stole the show from the other many performers in the enormous event. His performance was exquisite and sparkling. The whole crowd was with him instant by instant.

So this struck me like a group meditation, the enormous packed crowd, completely moving together, at one with the moment, instant by instant.

And it seems “individual identities” subsided, leaving mostly a oneness of each with the crowd, and the sound, and the performance.
This must have left people with a lasting sense of connection with others who were there, and those moments - Undoubtedly recalled by many long after the event. Like a meditative fulfillment? - But what is the difference between the two? Very interesting to me!

Do rock concerts make the society more spiritual? It must, in some ways. What is the difference from meditation? Why don’t I see advice about rock concerts in spiritual writing? What is the difference?

But my fulfillment in meditation is not a crescendo of movement and momentum, that builds and becomes a completeness in my consciousness in the moment.

In meditation, it is a pause in movement, as the motion tapers down - A power of stillness and space, the cessation of momentum from past acts and thoughts, leaving no trace, in the moment, of past confusions. And that profound clarity of space sees no separate things or identities anywhere. - Open space all around, and within, all that is, a transcendent sacredness of what is - Being itself. Not mine in any way. Not part of my streams of identification all the way along. - An emptiness of me and of things, that is completely convincing, but is not authorized in any way.

And so, without any fixed boundaries around, we are so much bigger than we thought we were.

It’s like saying, “ For a long time, I thought I was my right arm. But it turns out, that was only part of me!”

So memories of music are full of content, whereas my fulfillment of meditation is absent any content that connects with the streams of my identifications that go all the way back.

(Over 50 years ago, after investigation, I sat to meditate, completely on my own, not trying to meet direction from any authority. I sat for two hours, and have pretty much for two hours most every day since, with additional retreats and meditation programs. But I have no authority about meditation from any tradition or organization.

And I have much less authority about music, by far…)

Medical result -

..much time I must eat, 

..and basically unpleasant, 

..so similar to job I don’t like.

But the job’s not complicated, 

..and I can listen to music, 

..have on a TV, 

..but best is free to think about things.

And the job keeps me in,

....not to socialize, 

..yet I make that monastic, 

..which deepens my thought.

And solitude 

..draws much to the friendly abyss, 

..that goes all the way down, 

..not only touching around, 

..but connecting, to reveal much more than I knew before.

Thus, this way is more rich, 

..than the common way was.

And when the day’s work is done, 

..I lie down to bed, 

..in more luxury than I used to afford, 

....with other jobs I’ve had…

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Medical result -

..much time I must eat, 

..and basically unpleasant, 

..so similar to job I don’t like.

But the job’s not complicated, 

..and I can listen to music, 

..have on a TV, 

..but best is free to think about things.

And the job keeps me in,

....not to socialize, 

..yet I make that monastic, 

..which deepens my thought.

And solitude 

..draws much to the friendly abyss, 

..that goes all the way down, 

..not only touching around, 

..but connecting, to reveal much more than I knew before.

Thus, this way is more rich, 

..than the common way was.

And when the day’s work is done, 

..I lie down to bed, 

..in more luxury than I used to afford, 

....with other jobs I’ve had…

 

Medical result -

..much time I must eat, 

..and basically unpleasant, 

..so similar to job I don’t like.

But the job’s not complicated, 

..and I can listen to music, 

..have on a TV, 

..but best is free to think about things.

And the job keeps me in,

....not to socialize, 

..yet I make that monastic, 

..which deepens my thought.

And solitude 

..draws much to the friendly abyss, 

..that goes all the way down, 

..not only touching around, 

..but connecting, to reveal much more than I knew before.

Thus, this way is more rich, 

..than the common way was.

And when the day’s work is done, 

..I lie down to bed, 

..in more luxury than I used to afford, 

....with other jobs I’ve had…

 

My previous post (How to do things) sketched 6 stages that we repeatedly go through when we carry something to completion.

Openness   Discipline   Patience   Energy   Meditation   Insight

That sequence of development is visible throughout our lives, in big things and small:

When the doctor said, “ You have a large stomach cancer”, I do not recall any hesitancy to begin making all arrangements for treatment (Openness).  After radiation, chemo, surgery, hospital, and nursing home, I think I had about a 20% chance for five years survival. And indeed, I was very low. That situation governed everything (Discipline). There was discomfort, physical disruption, and numerous uncertainties about how to proceed. (Patience) With my wife’s extraordinary help, (Energy) we addressed multiple specialists and accumulated a host of medications and supplements. A return to a little yoga, a little push-ups, and a little jogging (Energy). What and how often to eat became simply the primary structure to the days (Discipline). I felt it wise to practice meditation lying down, because I had had to lie on my back most all day for as much as two months. Maybe some day I would again.

As decisions were made and patterns set up, I settled into routines. These were very different from what I had been used to, with very many more restrictions. Then, I identified all this with old age (70 years), which had come quick, and now was here! I could feel it deeply - I was one with it (Meditation) - I am now an old man, truly (Knowledge). All part of the ordinary life cycle (Knowledge). 

Not uncommonly, I recall lying in meditation between meals, feeling no pain, and having no immediate concern at all in the moment (Meditation). I knew (Insight/Knowledge) without doubt, there was open space (Openness) in the midst of everything now. That perception deepened and expanded.

Approaching 11 years after surgery, I may be happier now than I’ve ever been before. And, though there is an increased difficulty without any stomach, I am becoming one with that situation (Meditation).

This is an update of an old teaching, that is the most helpful thing I have learned in my last 50 years.

 There is an innate pattern of stages (S) to how we carry through an engagement to proper completion. Thus we have all gone through this many, many times - just doing things - not always to satisfaction. But it is helpful to know where we are along the way, and not feel uncertainty for what we are doing. So here is a brief map:

  (S1) A space of openness. (S2) Something arises to us in that space, and engages us in the specifics and distinct form and dynamics requiring its particular discipline. (S3) But with our incomplete vision of this, there is uncertainty and irritation, requiring patience to continue, and not just abandon the discipline toward this development. (S4) Then something clicks, and starts to carry us forward along the energy of this process. (S5) Carried into the fullness of this, we come to connection, even being one with the process, and absorption with it - Meditation. (S6) Now, with nothing obscuring the process, with no filters, we see clearly and know what is here, that we have Insight.

openness, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, insight

 This sequence of development happens repeatedly for all of us, whether toward material (as to build something), intellectual, or outcome in relationships. And it is very helpful to recognize the stages and the pattern. What's going on, and where am I.

But everyone has also failed to carry through 1 to 6. Stage 3 is critical!! Patience. When something is uncertain and irritating, there are tendencies to grab ahead, to push away, or to ignore. Each of these loses the path forward, without maturing. We don’t finish something properly (or at all). In contrast, development stays with what is really there, and not by your manipulations that you wish will fit. Not from want, don't want, won’t look.

At one time, some changes brought me to a simpler, quieter life, and I felt the poor condition of my body. Living close to Jamaica Pond, I decided to start jogging around the pond, about 1 and 1/2 miles. There being some freedom and openness (Openness), the condition of my body and a discipline (jogging) arose (Discipline). How it would go, I wasn't sure - uncertainty. 

First time, I had some physical soreness, and also unused to the breathing or a rhythm for it - and general uncertainty. How would that soreness develop further, would I make it around (Discipline)? I did not know. But I did complete the loop (Patience ). And I returned (Patience). And returned.

During one time, a good way from the end of the loop, I knew I would finish, period. My energy, and the energy of the surrounding I was now familiar with, had a flow that would carry me through to completion (Energy). That flow toward completion expanded (Energy). I came to know earlier, then earlier. More and more I became familiar with the surroundings and my routine; more and more familiar, and in touch with my body and surroundings (Meditation ).

 I came to generally know the feeling of my body and each part of the trail (Knowledge/Insight). Aware of many details in form and feel, the whole of it became intimately familiar.

It is common to stick a bit at discipline and patience, with uncertainty that we will complete this - so a risk to step away, and not finish, or force an outcome that doesn’t really fit. But with patience, an energy enters to carry us over the hump. Then, possibly, deeper connection and clarity to the finish.

And the whole structure of this process is in our favor. It is innately part of the nature of things, and always has been.

There is much here for further discussion…

Just now,

..the forsythia is heralding the coming of spring, 

..and does not take its time doing so - 

but instead, 

..burst out suddenly, 

..and is there, 

so sparkling I can’t miss it, 

..as I sparkle with it, 

..and move along into spring…

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