ABSTRACT

The first thing is to get an invitation from the music itself to be invited into its house. To develop a relationship with it as a living thing outside of oneself, as something you can feel, like the wind, but you can only see when it moves something. Then you can enter the rooms in this house of music. The context-the aesthetic-that music is spiritual and political, and that the desired purpose of music is to heal, uplift, and change lives, invigorates and stimulates the soul and spirit. The side effect of music is to elevate the mind from intelligence to wisdom, filling all listeners with a greater sense of compassion. Then establish the parameters of that existence. One of the first things that is established is the acknowledgement that humans did not invent music. Music existed before we got here. It is a force, a living spirit that is found in all creation. What’s important is not necessarily learning how to play music, but rather how to become music. Finding one’s placement and role in the world called music, in other words, is not about making sound on instruments. Music is the art of living. It is, I believe, the key to discovering the essence of life.