Month: June 2014

Miles and ‘Trane

Now that I’ve been through being a monk and getting some realization, I finally can hear it. I used to think Coltrane was the greatest—that he had achieved something transcendental, far beyond anyone else, including even Miles.

I was wrong; now that I have realized it myself, I can hear. Miles realized the emptiness, the dhamma.

Yes, Coltrane pushed musical form to the limit comprehensible to a human being. He created fractal harmonies—3rds and diminished tonalities based on 4ths—far out into the space of harmonic implications. Even with a conservatory music theory education, it took me years to figure out what he was doing.

But Miles had the chops, the balls and the concept, to pick one—just one of those fractal branches, grok it in its fullness, realize its full harmonic and emotional implications, then trim unnecessary cruft until all that’s left is pure beauty.

I believe he got it as early as Kind of Blue; and certainly you can hear it in Sketches of Spain. There’s a beautiful space of listening in these recordings—think of In a Silent Way and Tutu. Miles had the magic of making that miracle happen in a room full of highly paid, highly stoned musicians. How well young musicians can play when they’re really listening!

Miles could afford the best rhythm sections and soloists in the world, a luxury Coltrane never really had. ‘Trane’s music was about form, and took it as far as humanly possible—but not beyond. He tried, but his formlessness was full of pain. He was still caught in being a person. Miles truly went beyond. He could create a form, let it swing hard… and then simply let it go, sometimes all the way into silence.

Miles’ music is ultimately about space. Oh yeah, he could certainly be funky and swing the hardest of anyone. But his music is really about nothing, about the inexpressible beauty of emptiness.

Spiritual Satisfaction

It has been a long journey, but now I am finally satisfied with my life. My spiritual path started very young—even before birth. My mother was a Tantric priestess. I am the result of an esoteric Tantric ritual, and Mother was practicing Karezza and other techniques while I was in the womb.

So it was natural that I was attracted to spiritual life, especially Tantra. In the beginning, of course, I had a theistic background. I took that as far as I could—which was quite far—before transcending it and taking refuge in the Buddha.

For some time I was a Vedic monk, and then a Buddhist monk. Now I am just myself, and that means being a musician. So there will be music, but it will be a very specific kind of music, the product of my meditation and realization.

I don’t know if my music will mean the same thing to you as it does to me—probably not, but that’s OK. Just hang around with it, and you will absorb something of its essence. It comes from beyond being and non-being, beyond ego and striving for results.

I call it ambient, but that’s just to fit it into a well-known genre. Actually it has no name or classification. It simply is, and doesn’t have to go anywhere.

Sometimes I help my friends with their spiritual lives. So if you have a question, you’re welcome to post it here in the comments, or send it my  YouTube inbox.

Music of the Silence

Let’s start at the beginning. At first there is nothing; then there is something; then it changes or goes away. There is a lot more nothing than something. In fact, something is always limited—it always has a beginning and an end—but nothing, silence is unlimited. As soon as you limit it, there is something.

So nothing, silence, emptiness, is always greater than somethingness: infinitely greater. Therefore we start from nothing, silence, and to silence we return at last. Then what is in-between? It’s whatever you want it to be.

This is becoming, this is being; this is creation and creativity. This is the world of the artist, the world of nature, of dharma. Dharma means reality: what is, the way it is, why it is the way it is. In one sense, everything is dharma.

But in another, very important sense, there are many things that seem real, but are not dharma. Like what? Names, labels, designations, abstractions, the ‘self’, ‘possession’, ‘control’, ‘profit’, ‘purpose’, ‘desire’ and many other human fabrications are illusory, not-dharma or adharma.

Most music is adharma; it feeds off other fabrications, reinforces them, enhances their apparent reality. Dharmasar means the essence of dharma. It is an experiment in creating dharma-music: music that just is, that has no place to go, no purpose, no axe to grind. Music that invites you to look at life just as it is, without embroidering.

And oh yes, music that is beautiful. Let us begin the journey.