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#2870 - Friday, July 13, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz

The Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights  

One: Essential Writings on Nonduality: http://tinyurl.com/2blmhy    

    Gabriel Rosenstock contributes the material for today's issue.    

Gabriel Rosenstock:

Spring with a thousand clichés

Spring with a thousand clichés has arrived

Hafiz puts each one to work as though never employed before

Those swallows, for instance, he is their loopy flight

(Though ostensibly holding up a corner, eyes half closed)

Peach blossoms? He has taken on their scent

Oozing, literally, from every pore

All this without willing it to be so

Spring with a thousand clichés has arrived

And Hafiz, friskier than a kid goat, dozes outside a half-door

Lengthening days; he stretches his feet

Light trickles into the world. More more!

Somebody gives him a well-aimed kick. ‘Drunken useless poet!’

The heart of Hafiz bursts open, a rose

Without willing it to be so

Until there is no cliché left. Not a sight. Not a sound.

No doves moan

A breeze from the desert comes suddenly to a halt

Recognising home

A stork tidies her nest. Could that be  -? Is that

Hafiz  again, helping out with her annual chore?

All this, all this without willing it to be so

    Dharmasong Publications is dedicated to Buddhism, music, and the relationship between them. Our first project is a series of pamphlets, in electronic PDF format, called the Buddhist Musicianship Series. And the first pamphlet in the series is Listening, by Phil Nyokai James.

From the Introduction to Listening:

Twenty-five hundred years ago the Buddha discovered a method for living life more freely and compassionately. His method was empirical rather than religious: instead of theological concepts and devotional commitments, he outlined a set of practical techniques his followers could try out for themselves.

The Buddha rarely mentioned music, and yet much of what he taught can be applied directly to what I call Buddhist musicianship. Buddhist musicianship is a radical return to the basics of working with sound, emphasizing concentration, mindfulness, personal discipline, attentive listening, breathing, community, and compassion. 

This Buddhist Musicianship series of pamphlets is about becoming a musician or, for those who are already musicians, about revisiting the foundations of the craft and discovering new approaches, using the Buddha’s teaching as a framework. By “musician” I don’t necessarily mean a professional musician – I mean somebody who is creatively engaged with the world of sound.

For music to exist in the world, one of the most basic requirements is attentive listening. What a simple idea, but one that is often ignored because it seems so obvious. That’s why the first pamphlet in the Buddhist Musicainship series delves deeply into the practice of listening, drawing parallels with Buddhist methods and offering exercises that bridge the gap between art and meditation.

Do you have to become a Buddhist to learn Buddhist musicianship? Absolutely not. Though this pamphlet casually draws on many of the Buddha’s insights along the way, it does not require a commitment to his overall approach. I avoid highly technical explications of Buddhist thought, emphasizing instead those features of Buddhism that help illuminate the musical path.

I hope that through the Buddhist Musicianship series, and through this individual pamphlet, you will develop a sense of the world of music that is at once broader and more precise than you thought possible. I hope you will begin to see yourself as an active, creative, and self-assured participant in that world. I hope, too, that the Buddhist approach to musical expression enriches other areas of your life.

Read more at http://dharmasong.com/

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