When I was a kid I spent much of my time ill with asthma and consequent secondary infections such as bronchitis, laryngitis, etc. On one occasion, when I was about 12, my father came into the bedroom and told me he was going to the library and did I want any books. I said to just get something that looks interesting. He came back with three books, all mongraphs, on Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen. I remember leafing through them and marvelling that there were whole worlds out there I had no notion of. Reading the Stockhausen book, the author kept referring to the trinity of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, all names new to me. I turned on Radio 3 and playing was Schoenberg's Opus 31. "This is meant to be", I thought.
Yesterday my teacher showed me an energy I had no idea even existed. It required a relaxation I had never touched before. "Your soul must relax, into your destiny", he said. I had that same awestruck sensation I had at 12: there are whole worlds out there I am not party to. The feeling was that at some level (in the mind) I stopped clinging on and slipped into a larger world, a world that contains the one I'm used to but is far vaster. I know I have drifted in and out of this energetic reality before but it required someone who knows to point out certain landmarks in its environment, and a means of entry, for me to register it as a place to reside. Experience has shown me that there is always a world beyond the one you're in and that the work at hand, rather than consolidating your gains, should be unsettling you sufficiently to be disatisfied with where you are and building up the grace to allow entry into the next.
In one sense we are all equal, in God's eyes anyway, however we are not all at the same level. Some people are spiritually more advanced than others, i.e. they exist within a higher (larger) energetic space than others. As a smaller space is nested within a larger one, so a spiritually advanced person naturally allows a less advanced person into their larger heart - this is compassion. In the presence of a master it is important to relax into their presence and allow yourself to nestle into their heart otherwise you will learn nothing. This may be a terrifying prospect and, if you are master and teacher yourself it may take some time to slot into, but it will only be difficult if your own work is not taking you deeper. The work is not about fortifying your enclosure but about becoming more open and more vulnerable.
Yesterday my teacher showed me an energy I had no idea even existed. It required a relaxation I had never touched before. "Your soul must relax, into your destiny", he said. I had that same awestruck sensation I had at 12: there are whole worlds out there I am not party to. The feeling was that at some level (in the mind) I stopped clinging on and slipped into a larger world, a world that contains the one I'm used to but is far vaster. I know I have drifted in and out of this energetic reality before but it required someone who knows to point out certain landmarks in its environment, and a means of entry, for me to register it as a place to reside. Experience has shown me that there is always a world beyond the one you're in and that the work at hand, rather than consolidating your gains, should be unsettling you sufficiently to be disatisfied with where you are and building up the grace to allow entry into the next.
In one sense we are all equal, in God's eyes anyway, however we are not all at the same level. Some people are spiritually more advanced than others, i.e. they exist within a higher (larger) energetic space than others. As a smaller space is nested within a larger one, so a spiritually advanced person naturally allows a less advanced person into their larger heart - this is compassion. In the presence of a master it is important to relax into their presence and allow yourself to nestle into their heart otherwise you will learn nothing. This may be a terrifying prospect and, if you are master and teacher yourself it may take some time to slot into, but it will only be difficult if your own work is not taking you deeper. The work is not about fortifying your enclosure but about becoming more open and more vulnerable.
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Questions come from the head.
Belief comes from the heart.
There is a famous story of David Tudor, the great pianist, teaching at Black Mountain College in North Carolina with John Cage in the 1950's. A student came up to Tudor one lunch break in the canteen and asked a question about the class he'd taught that morning. Tudor, somewhat irritated I guess, looked up and snapped, "If you don't know then why do you ask?".
When you proceed from the heart there is no time for questions because you are consumed by the quest.
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