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THE
BUDDHA A Spiritual Journey to the Promised Land of Non-Duality & BRUCE Foreword by Bruce Springsteen SPRINGSTEEN
BRENDAN CALDWELL & THE GYPSY RADIO PROJECT
For You
The Buddha and Bruce Springsteen:
A Spiritual Journey to
The Promised Land
of Non-Duality
Brendan Caldwell & The Gypsy Radio Project
Table of Contemplations
Program Note: What the Hell is Consciousness? ...... 3
Follow the Yellow Brick Road ...... 8 In the Journey ...... 9 The Blind Side ...... 10 Transcending the Ego ...... 11 The Age of Integrity ...... 12 High Hopes: In Bruce’s Words ...... 15 We’re Off to See the Wizard ...... 16 Our Whole Life is Gypsy Radio ...... 17 The Love / Fear Continuum ...... 19 Editorial Note: Borrowing from The Boss ...... 21 Mr. Holland’s Magnum Opus ...... 22 All the World’s a Stage ...... 23
Chapter I – Thunder Road: An Invitation into Non-Duality ...... 31
Come, Take My Hand ...... 32 Thunder Road ...... 33 These Two Lanes ...... 35 I Ain’t No Hero, That’s Understood ...... 37 Cliffs Notes: Buddhism ...... 38 Central Premise ...... 39 In Which Hand He Held His Fate ...... 40 Cautious Man ...... 41 This Too Shall Pass ...... 42 The Rising ...... 43 Tonight, Tonight ...... 45
Chapter II – Devils and Dust: An Examination of Fear ...... 47
Ease On Down, Ease On Down The Road ...... 49 The Inner Code: Navigating The Love / Fear Continuum ...... 50 Discernment Vs. Judgment ...... 52
Shame: Adam Raised the Cain ...... 54
The Birth of Awareness ...... 56 Blinded by the Light ...... 56 Fear’s a Powerful Thing, Bobby ...... 58 Devils and Dust ...... 60 The Hand That Turns The Key ...... 62 Jackson Cage ...... 65 If I Was Only Better ...... 66 Summarizing Contemplations ...... 67
Chapter III – Tunnel of Love: An Examination of Personal Consciousness ..... 69
Guilt: A Brother Named Frankie ...... 71
Highway Patrolman ...... 72 Turn Down That Goddamn Guitar ...... 74 My Father’s House ...... 75 It Ain’t No Sin To Be Glad You’re Alive ...... 76 Badlands ...... 77
Sadness: Down Bound Train ...... 78
Too Many Phone Calls ...... 79 You’re Missing ...... 79 When You’re Alone, You Ain’t Nothing But Alone ...... 80 Down Bound Train ...... 81 City of Brotherly Love ...... 82 Streets of Philadelphia ...... 83
Oasis of Optimism ...... 85
Anger: Don’t Fall To Your Fears ...... 86
Wrecking Ball ...... 88 Things Fall Apart ...... 90 Death To My Hometown ...... 92 C’mon Rise Up ...... 93 My City of Ruins ...... 94
Pride: The Man At The Top ...... 96
Man At The Top ...... 97 Pride Goes Before The Fall ...... 98 War: What Is It Good For? ...... 99 Born in the USA ...... 101 This Land Is Your Land ...... 102 We Take Care Of Our Own ...... 103 Summarizing Contemplations ...... 104 Yeah, You Right ...... 105
Chapter IV – The Empathic Shift: Transcending the Illusion of Separateness ...... 107
Went On To Organize ...... 110 Joe Hill ...... 111 Born Again ...... 112 We Are Alive ...... 113 Out of the Many, One ...... 114 The Hunter of Invisible Game ...... 115 Ancient Voices of Children ...... 116 Summarizing Contemplations ...... 117
Chapter V — Jesus was an Only Son: An Examination of Love ...... 119
The Content of Character ...... 120
Courage: If I Were The King of the Forest ...... 121
Look In Their Eyes, Ma, You’ll See Me ...... 122 Ghost of Tom Joad ...... 123 Jesus Vs. The Buddha ...... 124 At His Mother’s Feet ...... 125 Jesus Was An Only Son ...... 126 We Shall Overcome ...... 127 We Shall Overcome ...... 129 It Only Matters How ...... 130 Summarizing Contemplations ...... 131
Chapter VI – Shackled and Drawn: An Examination of Work ...... 133
The Inform / Affect Distinction ...... 135 To Work and Love ...... 137
Will: Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My ...... 138
Shovel In The Dirt Keeps The Devil Gone ...... 138 Shackled and Drawn ...... 139 The Working Life ...... 140 Factory ...... 141 I’m Swinging 40 Pounds From My Hips On Down ...... 142 John Henry ...... 142 Summarizing Contemplations ...... 144 Glory: The Campfire Scene ...... 145
Chapter VII – On the Destiny of Species: An Examination of Evolution ...... 147
Reason: If I Only Had A Brain ...... 150
Part Man, Part Monkey ...... 151 The Stations of the Cross ...... 152 I’ll Work For Your Love ...... 153 Jacob’s Ladder ...... 154 The Gospel According to Bruce ...... 155 I Want To Know If Love Is Real ...... 156 Born to Run ...... 157 Summarizing Contemplations ...... 158
Chapter VIII – Two Hearts: The Crucible of Relationship ...... 161
The Role of Grandparents ...... 163 Big Brother, Bruce ...... 164
Integrity: One and One Makes Three ...... 166
Two Hearts ...... 167 The Number That Adds Up To Bliss ...... 168 Frankie Fell in Love ...... 169 I’ll Be On That Hill ...... 170 Darkness on the Edge of Town ...... 171 It’s Christmas In Odessa ...... 172 Summarizing Contemplations ...... 173
Chapter IX – Mary's Place: An Examination of Communal Consciousness ... 175
Also Peace ...... 175 Discovering Your Also Tendency ...... 176 House Party: Spiritual Tent Revivals ...... 177 Completing The Circle ...... 178 The West Wing ...... 179 Working On A Dream ...... 180
Peace: There’s No Place Like Home ...... 182
Drop The Needle And Pray ...... 183 Mary’s Place ...... 184 Let Me Catch Your Tears ...... 186 Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart ...... 186 You Can’t Get There By Yourself ...... 187 Roll Call: The E Street Band ...... 189 Cover Me ...... 190 Your Love Keeps on Lifting Me Higher ...... 191 Communal Consciousness: Generation X Style ...... 192 Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be ...... 193 My Good Friend, Puck ...... 194 Think Of This But As A Dream, (Although…) ...... 195 Summarizing Contemplations ...... 196 (Music Geek Stuff) ...... 196
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Coda: Encore ...... 197
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Chapter X – The Will of the Universe: An Examination of Cosmic Consciousness ...... 199
I Am That I Am ...... 200 The God Equation: First Draft ...... 201 Blown Away The Lies That Leave You Lost And Broken-Hearted ...... 202 The Promised Land ...... 203 Our Love Is Real ...... 204 This Is Your Sword ...... 205 Three Bruce Blessings ...... 206 The Ties That Bind ...... 207 Advance Always ...... 208 Commencement Address ...... 209
Chapter XI – We're Having a Party: The Joy of Non-Duality ...... 211
Other Ways To Perceive The Love / Fear Continuum ...... 212 Mid-Life Crisis: Having ! Doing ! Being ...... 212 Object / Subject Relationship ...... 214 E Pluribus Unum ...... 214 Highway to Hell ...... 215 The Pointers and The Moon ...... 216 Ramrod ...... 217 Is There Anybody Really Alive Out There? ...... 218 Darlington County ...... 219 A Rock & Roll Exorcism ...... 220 Twist and Shout ...... 221 Lagniappe’s Lament ...... 223
Chapter XII – The Land of Hope and Dreams: The Twelfth Step ...... 225
Don’t Leave Before The Miracle Happens ...... 226 Jacob’s Ladder: 57 Channels to Recovery ...... 227 I’m Sick: Of Sitting ‘Round Here Tryin’ To Write This Book ...... 230 Dancing in the Dark ...... 231 Dream On, Baby ...... 233 Dream Baby, Dream ...... 234 This Train Is Bound For Glory, This Train ...... 236 Land of Hope and Dreams ...... 237 Sonic Contemplations ! Completing The Circle ...... 238 The Sacred Syllogism ...... 239 The Namable God Is Not The Eternal God ...... 241 The God Equation: Revised Draft ...... 242 Arrival: The Promised Land ...... 245
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Post Script ...... 246 Dedication ...... 249 D.C. al Fine ...... 250 Navigatio Brendani ...... ---
“In the beginning, there was nothing. Then God said, ‘Let there be Light.’ Of course, there was still nothing, but now you could see it.”
—Groucho Marx
1
“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way, and not starting.”
—The Buddha
2 Program Note: What The Hell Is Consciousness?
I would like to invite you on a journey.
This journey is intended to help make connections between seemingly unrelated things in order to discover how all things in the universe are inter-connected.
We will use quotations from great Spiritual teachers alongside the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen to point toward the insights that they share. Ultimately, the goal of this journey is to use these insights as a proverbial finger, pointing us toward the experience of Non-Duality.
Non-Duality is the perception of a universal energy that exists within all things. For the sake of this journey, we will start by conceiving this universal energy as Consciousness.
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Q: What is Consciousness?
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In short, Consciousness is Awareness.
Gaining Awareness of Consciousness can also be conceived as becoming Conscious of Awareness—as Awareness and Consciousness are synonyms for precisely the same thing. In both cases, the goal is to expand Awareness (or Consciousness) to perceive universal patterns through a wide variety of systems—including the manner in which you perceive and experience the patterns of the universe.
Hence, the goal for this journey can be simply conceived as expanding Consciousness.
Expanding Consciousness may seem like a very easy thing to do. However, while it is simple, it is not easy.
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Q: Why is expanding Consciousness difficult?
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3 To answer this question, let’s explore a metaphor through the esteemed novelist, David Foster Wallace.
In 2005, David Foster Wallace delivered the commencement address at Kenyon College. In it, he asserted “the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”
To highlight this idea, Wallace’s speech began with the following parable:
“There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Good morning boys. How’s the water?’
And the two young fish swim on for a bit. Eventually one looks over at the other and asks, ‘What the hell is water’?”
The Fish Parable invites you to consider the difficulty in becoming Conscious of Awareness by comparing it to the difficulty a fish might have in gaining a conceptual understanding of water. In other words, if a fish were to have lived its entire life in water, how could that fish have any understanding of the concept of water?
The only conceivable way that a fish could truly gain an understanding of water is to have experienced “non-water.” So, as soon as the fish jumped above the surface of the water and experienced non-water (air), it would be given the opportunity to know water—perhaps, for the very first time.
The same holds true for the human quest to gain Awareness of anything.
In order to gain an Awareness of x (water), someone must first experience non-x, (non-water).
“What does he know of England, he who only England knows?”
—Rudyard Kipling
4 The take-away concept is that we can only perceive through contrast. If there is no contrast, it is impossible to attain any discernable perception. We need non-water to gain a clear perception of water, just as we need Non-Consciousness to gain a clear perception of Consciousness.
This concept is easily transferable to the acquisition of Awareness in any domain. Take, for example, the Awareness of wealth.
The only way we can conceive of a concept like wealth is through the concept of non-wealth (poverty). For, if we lived in a universe in which resources were absolutely evenly distributed, the concepts of wealth / poverty would be impossible to discern because everybody would possess precisely the same amount of resources. However, because we do, in fact, live in a universe in which resources are unevenly distributed (hierarchy), we can consequently perceive the contrasts between poverty and wealth.
It is only through perceptual contrasts that discernment is possible.
Likewise, the only way we can discern any of the following concepts is through its relative contrast:
Long / Short
Up / Down
Left / Right
Open-Minded / Closed-Minded
Open-Hearted / Closed-Hearted
Faith / Doubt
Awareness / Ignorance
Acceptance / Denial
Peace / Agitation
5 It is through our perception of contrasting energies that discernment arises. Ultimately, a fluent discernment of contrasting energies is the key to intentionally navigating the journey of expanding one’s Consciousness.
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The intension of The Buddha and Bruce Springsteen and its accompanying CD Gypsy Radio and the Rock & Roll Consecration is for you to expand your Consciousness through discernment. Ultimately, the goal for this Conscious expansion is for your Consciousness to gain Awareness of itself.
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In order for a fish to become Conscious of water, it must also become Conscious of Non-Water. Accordingly, if a human is to become Conscious of Awareness, we must also become Conscious of Non-Awareness.
This Non-Consciousness (or “Yet-Consciousness”) is the ego. We, as human beings, can only learn through discernable contrasts. Resultantly, we can only gain Consciousness through Non-Consciousness.
“There can be no Enlightenment without ego.”
—Eckhart Tolle
6 The ego will be examined throughout this journey. Please consider the ego to be the part of you that lives in a sense of “not-enough.”
Eckhart Tolle speaks of the ego through the biblical story of The Garden of Eden. He says that the incident with Adam and Eve biting an apple from The Tree of Knowledge is a metaphor for our “fall” into the separateness of our ego.
The ensuing nakedness represents the Shameful birth of Awareness.
Tolle goes on to say that “the fall” coincided with the rise of language and the Evolution of human thought. With this Evolution of thought, arises the Evolution of identification with those thoughts. That identification is our ego.
Tolle continues:
“At first, we had atonement (literally, ‘at one-ment’). As evolution unfolds, at some time we make the egoic fall into disconnected separateness.”
When he says the “evolution of thought,” Tolle means the ability of the mind to conceptualize the world. The “egoic fall into disconnected separateness” arises from the conceptualization of the world around us.
The process of conceptualizing the world around us looks like someone pointing us toward a towering plant and calling it a “tree.” When they point toward another towering plant and likewise label it a “tree,” we begin to make connections about how these two towering plants can be classified equivalently. Thus, we arrive at the concept of “tree.”
When Tolle says “identification with those thoughts,” he points toward our evolutionary compulsion to classify and conceptualize our “self.” Upon doing so, we become susceptible to Fear.
Concepts have form. Forms have beginnings and endings. All that has form must eventually come to an end. When we conceptualize our self, we simultaneously take on the Fear of ceasing to exist because we identify our self with our conceptualized form.
The journey beyond Fear is the journey back to one-ness (Non-Duality) in which we no longer conceptualize our self as a disconnected form.
7 Follow the Yellow Brick Road
This Evolution of Consciousness is also the same journey described by Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth. In this book, Campbell describes this journey as universal to the entire human species, regardless of geographic, linguistic or cultural differences. He calls this journey: The Hero’s Journey.
The destination of this Hero’s Journey is to be re-connected with the one-ness of Love through overcoming our most primal Fears.
Fearlessness arises through discovering our essential ‘one-ness,’ because if there is only one thing, what in the world could one possibly Fear?
This book examines seemingly disparate idioms that all intend to describe the Evolution of Consciousness. In making the connection to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, we will explore the iconic film, The Wizard of Oz. Through this beloved movie, we will call upon characters and events that describe the universal narrative of expanded Consciousness through The Hero’s Journey.
I invite you to use The Wizard of Oz as a means to understanding the universal narrative that Joseph Campbell wrote about. This iconic film is a perfect embodiment of The Hero’s Journey and, accordingly, stands as an excellent model to explore the Evolution of Consciousness.
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To lead you into an Awareness and Acceptance of the Formless nature of Non-Duality, we will play around with many, seemingly disparate, forms. Our goal is for you to awaken to how these seemingly disparate forms are inter-connected.
When reading, you will notice that the longer journey is broken into small sections—each section bearing its own title and usually only one to two pages in length. At times, you might fail to see the connection between sections. It might even feel like adjacent sections are in no way related to each other. In this manner, I ask for your patience.
I invite you to imagine each section as a stone on your own Yellow Brick Road. In finding the connection between the various sections, you may begin to discover a pattern.
The overall arc of this journey seeks to reflect and reveal the Evolution of our Consciousness. Discovering how each section is connected with another will hopefully bring you closer to discovering how all things in the universe are connected to everything else. At the moment of making these connections, your own Yellow Brick Road has the potential to be revealed, guiding you to The Promised Land of Non-Duality.
8 In The Journey
The journey of The Buddha and Bruce Springsteen is a journey toward the “One-ness” of Non-Duality.
This journey will use concepts as a means to point toward experience.
“Concepts are simply classes of behaviorally equivalent things.”
—Julian James
Concepts have form. We will explore concepts as a step-by-step mechanism to arrive at experiential truths that exist beyond form. In this manner, we might conceive of concepts as beliefs and experience as knowingness. Accordingly, as we seek to transcend form, this Spiritual journey seeks to experience something that is “beyond belief.”
Ultimately, you can conceive of this journey as starting in naïve simplicity, traversing conceptual complexity, and ultimately arriving at wise simplicity.
The naïve simplicity could be conceived as a fish, perpetually swimming in the “Water of Consciousness” without any Awareness of it.
The conceptual complexity could be conceived as the fish exploring the Non-Water of disconnected forms.
The wise simplicity could be conceived as the fish finding connections between seemingly disconnected forms and thereby returning to the “Water of Consciousness” with Awareness of its “Self,” as that Consciousness.
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“I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity. But I would give my life for the simplicity that exists on the other side of complexity.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
9 The Blind Side
Everybody has “blind spots.” A blind spot can be conceived as an unexamined habit of perception. These unexamined habits of perception lead to distortions in the way we perceive the world.
Perhaps the most famous example of an unexamined habit of perception is the old belief that the world was flat. It was not until explorers sought to examine this habit of perception that this myth was transformed into the Awareness that the Earth is, in fact, a sphere.
Recently the acclaimed writer and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman used this famous misperception as the title for his bestselling book, The World is Flat. In this text, Friedman uses the metaphor for a “flat world” to symbolize the democratization of information through the Internet, thereby correctly predicting a breakdown in the old hierarchical structures brought about by the World Wide Web. Furthermore, Friedman correctly predicts how the new, emergent systems would be more complex, equitable, and efficient than the antiquated systems they would replace. His title is meant to invite the reader and, by extension, the society at large, to examine our collective habits of perception.
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Regardless of the context in which these “blind spots” are explored, they can all be conceived as unexamined habits of perception. In the monumentally important book on “systemic thinking” entitled, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge refers to these blind spots as “mental models.” Senge goes on to say that mental models impede efficiency and effectiveness if we are unaware of how they distort our perception.
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Our ego arises out of an illusory identification with our transient self. This transient self can be conceived as any part of you that could ever cease to exist. In contrast, our Consciousness can be conceived as our eternal Self. Through expansion of our Consciousness, we begin to dissolve the ego through the inter-related practices of Awareness and Acceptance.
The ego can be conceived as “Yet Consciousness.”
Our “blind spots” arise out of our ego because our ego is essentially a compilation of unexamined habits.
David Hawkins, M.D., PhD. offered a most useful definition of ego. He wrote:
“The ego is simply a compilation of unexamined habits of perception.”
10 Transcending The Ego
The ego is simply a Compilation of Unexamined Habits of Perception (CUHP).
This simple definition is very useful. We often hear people espousing how we should “leave our egos at the door.” But how does one go about leaving one’s ego at the door unless one has a clear understanding of what the ego is in the first place?
With CUHP as our simple definition of ego, transcending the ego also becomes simple. Transcending our ego is as simple as examining our habits of perception.
This concept is incredibly important for people of all walks of life, because decreased ego leads to enhanced Consciousness. And enhanced Consciousness increases efficiency and effectiveness with all endeavors.
In other words, we become better at any activity when we are practicing it with expanded Consciousness and decreased ego. We do this through examining our habits of perception.
In other words, to transcend your ego, you need only to “Empty your CUHP.”
“Soul is the light of Consciousness, the beauty of life that is given to you to keep. When we talk about people being Soulful, or full of Soul, we are referring to layers of Consciousness, layers of Awareness. The more life that you let in, the more life that you will have—and your own Soul does grow.”
—Sister Joan Chittister
11 The Age of Integrity
“Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger.”
—Myrko Thum
This journey is neither directly about The Buddha nor Bruce Springsteen. Rather, it seeks to use the music of Bruce as reference points, guiding the listener toward an Awareness of Universal Experience.
This Universal Experience is evident at any Springsteen concert as the audience is moved by what I call Bruce’s Spiritual Narrative. This narrative is the primary focus of this book—the essence of which is the transcendence of Fear through Love.
Upon grasping the arc of Bruce Springsteen’s Spiritual Narrative, I invite you to triangulate those reference points with insights from some of the greatest Spiritual teachers of human history. These insights will occur through the 100 quotations cited throughout this book that form the conceptual pathway of our journey.
--- N.B.
I would like to note that I am not trying to co-opt Bruce’s music by claiming to know exactly what he thinks. I have never heard Bruce Springsteen speak directly about this subject manner. In fact, I have a strong suspicion that Bruce experiences these concepts in a non-linear, visceral way. In other words, I bet you that Bruce simply follows his “gut.”
However, even though Bruce may experience these concepts in a non-linear fashion, it does not mean that they cannot be arranged in a linear fashion. The aim of this book is to explore Bruce’s music through the lens of Consciousness. By doing so, I hope to offer a linear model to point toward the non-linear experience of Consciousness itself.
12 The linear fashion of the following explanation is designed to help you—and by extension, our society at large—evolve into a new era in human Consciousness.
For the last 250 years, our species has been in a stage of Conscious Evolution. This era in human Consciousness arose out of the advent of the Printing Press—an invention that, most importantly, increased literacy. Increased literacy allowed for a freer flow of information. This free-flow of information transformed human Consciousness, giving rise to a new era named The Age of Reason.
Currently, a new era in human Consciousness is dawning. This new era might be thought of as The Age of Integrity.
The Age of Integrity is arising through the Integration of systems. This Integration allows for an even greater free-flow of information through inventions like the Internet.
Both in the case of The Age of Reason and The Age of Integrity, informational exchange (and thus, Consciousness) becomes increasingly democratic: The Printing Press democratizes Consciousness through literacy and the Internet democratizes Consciousness through a world-wide informational exchange system.
This new era is enabled through the Integration of seemingly disparate resources into new and compelling forms. It is defined by un-bundling of inefficient and ineffective systems and re-bundling them into new systems that enhance effectiveness and efficiency. This process is the Evolution of our Communal Consciousness. When we as a species Evolve, a new era in human Consciousness arises.
This era is defined by Integration, Inter-connection and Inter-dependence. Ultimately, those who thrive in this age will be those who display Integrity. The resulting Integration will give rise to enhanced Empathy by the Spiritual practice of awakening from the illusions of separateness.
13 The Age of Integrity is beyond the belief systems awakened in The Age of Reason because The Age of Integrity accepts that which is beyond form.
Discovering the Formless essence of the universe is our Spiritual quest.
Spirituality is the Evolution of Consciousness.
In this way, Reason is Spiritual, as it is an essential step in the Evolution of our Consciousness.
Integrity is of a more expanded Consciousness than Reason because Integrity includes Reason in all of its manifestations: Un-Reason, Reason and Non-Reason.
Un-Reason includes all that has yet to Evolve into Reason. Non-Reason includes all that transcends Reason.
“The heart has its reasons, of which Reason knows nothing.”
—Blaise Pascal
14 High Hopes: In Bruce’s Words
I have only ever tangentially heard Bruce refer to his music in these Spiritual terms. One such example occurred when Bruce was speaking about the Wrecking Ball, recorded in response to The Great Recession of 2008. Bruce Springsteen said:
“In closing with “The Land of Hopes and Dreams,” I needed a song that was very Spiritual, because the record moves from guys who are really very Angry, to guys who are Angry but constructive.
And to me, there is always a Spiritual element in that.”
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Another example occurred when Bruce was speaking about the writing process that led to the High Hopes album. He said:
“I find I am just trying to resolve something that’s bothering me, internally. That’s really the thrust. The thrust isn’t a theme. It’s not conceptual. It is something that is continuing to bother me, even after all these years. And I am going through my meditation that helps me move toward a slightly greater degree of resolution.
You have to be tolerant of that part of your makeup. You also don’t want to dismiss it, or try to banish, or deny it. Because it is where all the fuel for what you’re going to do is.
It’s quite non-intellectual and non-verbal. It’s just feeling. It usually comes from a feeling of discomfort. I’m usually in a discussion with that part of myself, where I am very uncomfortable with myself. But that’s the real mechanism of writing.
Fundamentally, we are repairmen. Everybody is broken somewhere, you can’t get through life without it.
You’ve paid your artists and your filmmakers and your poets and your novelists to be your handyman, repairman. And we are willing to go into the garage, where all the junk is hanging around, and we start to tinker away.
When you contextualize and make small sense of those little things, it just starts to repair those little pieces.”
15 We’re Off to See the Wizard!!!
Once you fully perceive the narrative arc of Bruce Springsteen’s music, you will find resonate overtones within many other art forms as well. One such example can be discovered by exploring the epic struggles of Bruce’s characters with the main characters in The Wizard of Oz.
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The Spiritual Journey of The Wizard of Oz uses characters to represent stages of Conscious Evolution.
Observe how the Lion (animal) represents the Evolution of Courage, Dorothy (human) represents the Evolution of Free Will through determination, the Scarecrow (dusty façade of a human), represents the Evolution of Reason and Tin Man (hollow shell of a human who is embodying the essence of the struggle transcending The Age of Technology), represents the Evolution of Love.
Throughout the journey of this book I will offer landmarks to remind you of the correlation between our Spiritual journey and Bruce Springsteen, by further triangulating them with the Spiritual journey of The Wizard of Oz.
I believe that Wrecking Ball is a Spiritual album, just as I believe that The Wizard of Oz is a Spiritual movie. Both Art forms seek to bring the audience into a higher degree of Awareness and Acceptance. This process is the Evolution of Consciousness through decreased Fear and increased Love.
The “Pinball Wizard” of Oz: A Rock & Roll Juxtaposition
1) Main Title – Theme from the Wizard of Oz – Badlands / New York City Serenade (Orchestra) 2) Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Thunder Road (SWE Street Band…) 3) Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are – The Rising 4) Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead – 10th Avenue Freeze Out / Waiting on a Sunny Day 5) Follow the Yellow Brick Road / Ease on Down, Ease on Down the Road – Part Man, Part Monkey / Drive All Night 6) If I Only Had a Brain – Reason to Believe / Frankie Fell in Love 7) We’re Off to See the Wizard (fear) – Cautious Man / Devils and Dust 8) If I Only Had a Heart – Born To Run / Two Hearts 9) We’re Off To See the Wizard (love) – The Promised Land / Dancing in the Dark 10) If I Only Had the Nerve – Growing Up / Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart 11) Optimistic Voices – This Is Your Sword / Crush on You 12) In the Merry Old Land of Oz – Mary’s Place 13) If I Were King of the Forest – Dream, Baby Dream 14) Home Sweet Home – The Land of Hope and Dreams
• Encore: o Blood Brothers (Solo acoustic) o This Hard Land (Solo acoustic)
16 Our Whole Life Is Gypsy Radio
The Hero’s Journey seeks to re-mind you of your true Self. To facilitate this process, we will traverse the treacherous terrain of your ego through finding connections between the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen, The Wizard of Oz and the quotations of great Spiritual teachers—who represent humanity’s highest capacity for Consciousness.
With whatever insights that process reveals, I ask you to further transfer that Awareness to the accompanying song cycle:
Gypsy Radio and the Rock & Roll Consecration
This musical offering is intended to expand your Consciousness through an experience-based counterpart to the Reason-based concepts contained herein.
The songs contained on Gypsy Radio should be conceived as Sonic Contemplations. I would ask that you make the connection between what these contemplations are intending to communicate with what you believe is Bruce’s essential message and that of the Spiritual teachers cited throughout this journey. Or, if you prefer, you can make a connection between what these Sonic Contemplations are intending to communicate and The Wizard of Oz. Regardless of where and how the transfers are made, it is through finding connections between seemingly unrelated narratives that a larger narrative will begin to reveal itself. This larger narrative is the Evolution of Consciousness and the key to Non-Duality.
I do not mean to imply that the potential to transfer is limited to the Artists explored in this particular journey.
If you wish to explore this journey through popular musicians other than Bruce Springsteen, I invite you to consider the essential message embedded in the Work of Artists like Jason Mraz, Alanis Morissette, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Bob Marley or any other artists with whom you deeply resonate.
Furthermore, if you wish to explore movies other than The Wizard of Oz, I invite you to consider films like The Matrix, Shawshank Redemption, Interstellar, The Big Lebowski or any other films with which you deeply resonate.
Regardless of the contexts of your exploration, you will ultimately be invited to transfer the resultant insights from this exploration into your own Spiritual journey. Again, your Spiritual journey is the Evolution of Consciousness.
17 Consciousness is Formless. To awaken to Formlessness, we often use form to point toward it. (Even the word “it” implies form and can therefore be misleading.)
In an effort to help you more easily understand the Formless nature of Consciousness, I offer the form of The Love/ Fear Continuum. Please consider using The Love / Fear Continuum as a finger pointing to the moon of Consciousness. This info-graphic serves as a visual representative to aid in your conceptual ability to perceive Consciousness.
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Perhaps, when seeking to comprehend The Love / Fear Continuum (LFC), a metaphor using light could be useful.
Think of the LFC as the colors of the rainbow. In school we learned ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet). Clearly, there are more colors in the spectrum of light than those seven. However, the seven represent a labeled discernment that aides in the understanding of the changing energies of light.
Furthermore, ROYGBIV allows us to perceive the discernable energetic contrasts between one “end” of the spectrum and the other. (One end looks like that because the light waves—ultraviolet—are vibrating faster, and the other end looks like that because the light waves—infrared—are vibrating slower.)
So too, can Consciousness be conceived as a Spectrum of Awareness in which one side (Shame) has more agitation, and one side (Peace) has more stillness.
Awareness of Consciousness arises out of perceiving energetic patterns in the universe that, when harmoniously adjusted to, increase efficiency and effectiveness. Accordingly, while in a state of Peace, we experience less agitation and therefore attain a higher fluency in our perception, interpretation and expression.
The Love/ Fear Continuum offers discernment of Consciousness through its various levels of agitation, experienced as attitudes, creating our Spectrum of Awareness.
The Love / Fear Continuum represents a map for our Spiritual journey.
18
19 If you are like me and you enjoy naming things and consider yourself a fan of Bruce Springsteen’s music, you might consider calling this info-graphic the Tunnel of Love. Or, perhaps, Jacob's Ladder.
The Love /Fear Continuum seeks to give form to the Formless nature of Consciousness.
The Love / Fear Continuum can also be conceived as a Spectrum of Awareness.
--- N.B.
I should note the debt of gratitude all Conscious Beings owe to the Work of David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Hawkins was the first to “map out” human Consciousness through his Map of Consciousness. The Love / Fear Continuum contained herein, owes a huge debt of gratitude to Dr. Hawkins’ transformational Work.
Put most simply, my Consciousness awakened through the writings of Dr. Hawkins.
20 Editorial Note: Borrowing from The Boss
I make a disclaimer that this book takes some liberties regarding the spacing, punctuation and spelling of Bruce’s lyrics. All editorial changes are offered in an attempt to best communicate what I believe to be the intention of his writing.
By so doing, I hope to more acutely point Bruce’s finger toward the moon of Consciousness, thereby highlighting our collective Spiritual journey.
The punctuation is added to give a reader who might not be familiar with Bruce Springsteen’s music, a sense of his phrasing, proportion and time. I also hope that the punctuation serves to assist the reader in discovering Bruce’s narrative arc by helping it to read like a written text.
I hope that the reader unacquainted with Bruce’s music will consider listening to each song as it is explored throughout this journey. Bruce’s music beautifully reinforces his lyrics, making the experience very powerful for the attentive listener. If you are unable to listen to Bruce’s music, please consider reading his lyrics like poetry.
---
Since this book seeks to collaborate with the music of Bruce Springsteen, I decided to supplement the Spiritual form of this narrative arc with musical landmarks from my own Artistic voice.
Gypsy Radio seeks to mirror the Spiritual arc of a Bruce Springsteen concert, while simultaneously overlaying that with the form of a Catholic Mass.
While some may conceive the CD as being an accompaniment to the book, I view the book as accompaniment to the CD—perhaps as extended liner notes.
Experience is more valuable than concepts. Accordingly, the heart of The Gypsy Radio Project lies in the music. The book simply serves as a proverbial finger pointing the listener toward the experience of Non-Duality embedded in the music.
* The lyrics to the Sonic Contemplations of Gypsy Radio can be found in the booklet inside of the CD.
--- N.B.
Since the aim of this journey is Formlessness, I have taken great pleasure in playing with various overlapping forms to help you perceive commonalities. Through these commonalities, I hope you gain a greater Awareness and Acceptance of the Formless essence that all forms share. This process is the key to experiencing Non-Duality.
21 Mr. Holland’s Magnum Opus
The completion of this journey will take three volumes to accomplish – this text and CD being volume two.
My mission statement for the three-volume set is:
To explore Consciousness through Bruce Springsteen and apply these Spiritual insights to society through Music Education.
---
Volume I—
A Conscious Education: Conducting and the Art of Listening
Goal: To apply insights of Consciousness to the Art of Education through Music.
Volume II—
The Buddha and Bruce Springsteen: Consciousness and the Art of Connection.
Goal: To facilitate the Evolution of Consciousness in Non-Duality through Spiritual lyrics and concepts. Arriving at a better understanding of the nature of God.
Volume III—
Gypsy Radio and the Rock & Roll Consecration
Goal: To apply intellectual insights into “Spiritual experience” through the “redemptive power of Rock & Roll.”
22 All the World’s a Stage
Your Evolution to the Formless recognition of Non-Duality can develop through three stages:
1) Personal Consciousness
2) Communal Consciousness
3) Cosmic Consciousness
I believe this is the same journey Bruce Springsteen intends through his concerts: to engage your Personal Consciousness in an effort to contribute to the audience’s Communal Consciousness through experiencing the Cosmic Consciousness of Spirituality through music.
---
With me serving as both your curator and companion on this journey, we aim to give form to the Formless experience of Love through a shared sense of time. This shared sense of time arises out of you deeply listening and experiencing Consciousness through Rock & Roll.
~
The mission of The Gypsy Radio Project is to collaboratively take a Spiritual journey beneath this Dirty-hood (Fear), through the Tunnel of Love (Consciousness) and into The Promised Land (Non-Duality).
--- N.B.
I intend the following chapters to serve as extended Guest DJ spots, in which I seek to offer my ideal, “fleshed out” version of what I wish I could have contributed to the Ridley Scott movie, Springsteen and I. In this movie, people told stories and offered three words to capture their relationship with Bruce and his music. I couldn’t do it in three words. Instead, I wrote this book.
If I had to choose just three words to summarize my relationship with Bruce Springsteen, I would say: Integrity through Work and Love.
23
24
The readiness to initiate the journey cannot be forced nor can people be faulted if it has not occurred in them yet. The level of Consciousness has to have advanced to the stage where such an intention would be meaningful and attractive.”
—Dr. David Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.
25
26
“Perfect Love casts out all Fear.”
—1 John 4:18
27
28
“The secret to life is to never Fear what will become of you.”
—The Buddha
--- N.B.
Hear, (sic) We Geaux!!!
29
“When a world of Love comes rushing in, a world of Fear comes rushing in with it. My music has dealt with these most primitive issues. It’s about walking through that world of Fear so that we can live in a world of Love.”
—Bruce Springsteen
30 Chapter I—Thunder Road: An Invitation into Non-Duality
I would like to invite you on a journey toward Non-Duality through expanded Consciousness.
---
Q: What is Non-Duality?
---
Let’s start with the opposite of Non-Duality as a point of departure.
Duality is the perception of the universe as having different things. So anyone who only perceives the universe as existing in separate parts, (and let’s face it, that’s most of us), exists within the perspective of duality.
Duality perceives “this” as being separate from “that.” The “this” and “that” can be replaced by any two objects you wish to use for comparison. Simply pick any two forms and then subsequently examine how these two forms are separate and distinct from each other. For example, a fork is separate from a knife. A football is separate from the field. I am separate from you.
On the other hand, in addition to a dualistic perspective, Non-Duality also includes the perception of a universal essence that infuses everything. For eons, humans have tried to label that one universal essence. Some call that universal essence Spirit; some call it God; some call it Consciousness.
To be clear, a dualistic perspective only perceives the universe as containing separate forms, while Non-Duality perceives both the separateness and the one-ness of the universe.
To explore Non-Duality, simply consider those same two forms, but now in addition to understanding how they are distinct from each other, please also examine how those two forms share an identical essence. In other words, in what way are these two “separate” objects equivalent?
It is within this radical sense of equality that the pathway toward the One-ness of Non-Duality is revealed.
--- N.B.
Q: What did the Dalai Lama say to the hot dog vendor?
A: Make me one, with everything.
31 Come, Take My Hand
Let’s begin our journey with one of the greatest “invitation songs” of all time.
Bruce Springsteen opens his epic album Born to Run with an invitation that stands shoulder to shoulder with the greatest songs ever written. In the pantheon of art songs, I assert that Bruce Springsteen singing Thunder Road stands adjacent to Aaron Neville singing Amazing Grace, Sarah Vaughan singing Gershwin’s Embraceable You or Jesse Norman singing the third movement from Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs!!!
---
The music of Bruce Springsteen is extremely cinematic. Never is this more evident than in Thunder Road—a song that I imagine as a grand theatrical plea, inviting the listener on the long Spiritual journey to follow.
To assist in understanding the cinematic intentions of Bruce Springsteen, it might be helpful to distinguish between the actual dialogue that an actor would speak on stage, and the stage directions that silently tell the actors how to present the scene.
I interpret the first 29 words of Thunder Road as stage directions [in brackets and italics], setting the stage for the forthcoming narrative.
In other words, if Thunder Road were a movie script, it might look like this:
--- N.B.
Please again note that the punctuation, spacing and spelling of Bruce’s lyrics have occasionally been altered throughout this text, as editorial decisions, to illustrate the journey his music points toward. This was done to highlight the Spiritual narrative of Springsteen’s music.
32 Thunder Road
[The screen doors slams.]
[Mary’s dress waves.]
[Like a vision, she dances across the porch as the radio plays Roy Orbison singing, “For the Lonely.”]
“Hey, that’s me, and I want you only. Don’t turn me home again. I just can’t face myself alone any more.
“Don’t run back inside, darling, you know just what I’m here for. So you’re scared and you’re thinking !! that maybe we ain’t that young anymore. ! ! Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night. You ain’t a beauty, but hey, you’re alright. Oh, and that’s all right with me.
“You can hide ‘neath your covers !! and study your pain; ! make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain. Waste your summer praying in vain !! for a savior to rise from these streets. !
“Well now I’m no hero, that’s understood. All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this Dirty-hood. With a chance to make it good somehow, hey, what else can we do now except roll down the window !! and let the wind blow back our hair? Well, the night’s busting open !! these two lanes will take us anywhere. We got one last chance to make it real, to trade in these wings on some wheels. Climb in back,! Heaven’s waiting down on the tracks.
“Oh, oh, come, take my hand. We’re riding out tonight to case The Promised Land. Oh, oh, Thunder Road, oh, Thunder Road, !!oh Thunder Road.
~
33 “It’s lying out there like a killer in the sun. Hey, I know it’s late we can make it if we run. Oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road.
“Well I got this guitar !! and I learned how to make it talk. !! And my car’s out back !if you’re ready to take that long walk ! from your front porch to my front seat. The door’s open but the ride, it ain’t free. I know you’re lonely !! for words that I ain’t spoken, but tonight we’ll be free, all the promises will be broken. !!
“There were ghosts in the eyes !! of all the boys you sent away. ! They haunt this dusty beach road !! in the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets. !! They scream your name at night in the street, ! your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet. !!
“And in the lonely cool before dawn, !! you hear their engines roaring on, but when you get to the porch they’re gone, !on the wind.
“So Mary, climb in.
“It’s a town full of losers !! and I’m pulling out of here to win.”
34 These Two Lanes
Hopefully, perceiving this small distinction between the stage directions and the pleading narrative of the singer helps you to better see the scene for the dramatic monologue that I believe it to be.
The singer pulls into a house with a porch, a screen door and a radio. Mary is wearing a dress that can wave. Everything else is left up to our imagination.
I imagine my grandfather’s farm in Centerville, Virginia. I picture Bruce driving through the metal gate and dusty driveway, pulling up his sports car diagonal to the porch. Opening the driver’s side door, with a body half in the car and half out, he talks over the roof to Mary.
Then slowly, as his invitation crescendos in intention, he walks around the car, and ends on bended knee, pleading:
“So Mary climb in. It’s a town full of losers and I’m pulling out of here to win.”
Who is Mary?
Why, me, of course!
Or you.
One of the primary metaphors Bruce uses in his music, is the protagonist female character (and sometimes male character) acting as a stand-in for the listener, allowing Bruce to sing directly to his audience without using the “preaching” pronoun of ‘you’ found in second person directives.
We, the listeners, are Mary. We, the listeners, are Wendy. We, the listeners, are Janey.
We, the listeners, are Billy. We, the listeners, are Bobby. We, the listeners, are Frankie.
We, the listeners, are the characters (on our own proverbial porches) to whom Bruce is singing. In Thunder Road, his singing is an invitation.
35 Please take some time to consider the following three questions:
1) How is Bruce’s music serving as an invitation?
2) What are you being invited to?
3) Do you accept?
--- N.B.
I assert that Bruce Springsteen is inviting us to participate in the “two lanes” of Communal Consciousness.
36 I Ain’t No Hero, That’s Understood.
The central words of Thunder Road occur when Bruce proclaims:
“I ain’t no hero that’s understood. All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood.”
One of the words I editorially manipulated, is the word “Dirty-hood.” Originally, when Bruce published the lyrics, it was written “dirty hood.”
Upon my very first listening of the song when I was about five years old, I took it to mean “dirty-hood.” This interpretation of the lyrics implies dirty-hood as the state of being “dirty.“ It was only upon researching this book, some thirty-five years after my first impression, that I realized I was mistaken.
Or was I?
With one reading, Bruce promises that the redemption he can offer as being revealed through the upward mobility enabled by the engine beneath “this dirty hood” of his car. This interpretation aligns with the “busting out” theme that pervades the entire Born to Run album.
Another reading could also include the interpretation that “dirty-hood” is a play-on- words describing a state of being in one’s “dirty-ness.” With this reading, redemption is offered beneath and beyond one’s dirty-ness. This eloquent metaphor will be further explored later in this journey through songs like Devils and Dust and Darkness of the Edge of Town.
But the question remains: What does the “dirty-ness” represent?
I suggest that the “dirty-hood” evoked by Bruce Springsteen is explored through the Shame, Guilt, Sadness, Anger and Pride of Fear.
Further, the “redemption” Bruce Springsteen offers is revealed through the Courage, Will, Reason, Integrity and Peace of Love.
But to get to the presence of Love, we must transcend the resistance of Fear.
37 Cliff’s Notes: Buddhism
In an effort to distill Buddhism down to one concept, I offer the following perspective given to us by the Buddhist monk, Thick Naht Hahn—who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Our purpose is to awaken from the illusion of separateness.”
To awaken from the illusion of separateness, one must transcend separateness.
Once again, the name we are giving to the experience of separateness is duality. It is the perception that the universe is filled with different things. If ever one believes that the sole nature of the universe is a universe filled with different things, they lack the perception of everything being a part of one universal system. One such system is Consciousness.
---
One way to awaken from the illusion of separateness is simply to examine three, seemingly different, passions you have in your life. Then explore how these seemingly disparate passions are related. By doing so, you open up the possibility of discovering the principles that underlie these “different” idioms, thereby potentially revealing universal systems of energy and, perhaps, the hidden order of the universe itself.
At the very least, the process of examining your three greatest passions has the potential to reveal your highest purpose—your so-called, Hero’s Calling.
Just imagine how fulfilling your life’s Work would be if it somehow connected you with your three most important passions!!!
38 Central Premise
Consciousness can be experienced as the inversely proportional relationship between Love and Fear experienced as attitudes. These resultant attitudes form the gradated steps that The Love / Fear Continuum seeks to reflect.
By becoming Aware of the attitudinal levels that form The Love / Fear Continuum, we can become more present with our current state, and more intentional with our Spiritual Evolution.
39 In Which Hand He Held His Fate
Dramatic opposition is the key to all great Art. The listener must feel the two opposing systems interact with each other. Accordingly, the systems are forced to respond. Or, sometimes, they do not respond, as is the case in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
Music and lyrics both contain opportunities for dramatic opposition. Springsteen does a masterful job at succinctly placing the listener right at the precipice where two systems collide. By placing the listener at the crossroads between Love and Fear, Bruce invites the listener to explore the Evolution of Consciousness through the struggle of his characters.
---
One of the most under-appreciated songs of Bruce’s entire catalog is an elegant dramaturgy entitled Cautious Man. This song appears on the Tunnel of Love album. And while the harmony and form are relatively predictable in composition, Bruce’s lyrics are astounding.
Bruce puts his protagonist on the crossroads of a Spiritual crisis. He does so with a remarkable economy of words, efficiently and effectively conveying our essential Spiritual struggle.
The central metaphor for this Spiritual struggle is explored through the protagonist’s two tattoos.
“On his right hand Billy tattooed the word Love and on his left hand, the word Fear. And in which hand he held his fate was never clear.”
40 Cautious Man
Bill Horton was a cautious man of the road.!! He walked looking over his shoulder and remained faithful to its code.!! When something caught his eye he’d measure his need.!! And then, very carefully, he’d proceed.!!
Billy met a young girl in the early days of May.!! It was there in her arms he let his cautiousness slip away.!! In their lovers’ twilight, as the evening sky grew dim,!! he’d lay back in her arms, and laughed at, what had happened to him.!!
On his right hand, Billy tattooed the word Love and on his left hand, the word Fear.!! And in which hand he held his fate, was never clear.!! Come Indian Summer he took his young lover for his bride,!! and with his own hands, built a great house, down by the riverside.!!
Now Billy was an honest man, he wanted to do what was right.!! He Worked hard to fill their lives, with happy days, and loving nights.!! Alone on his knees in the darkness, for steadiness he’d pray.!! For he knew in a restless heart, the seed of betrayal lay.!!
~ One night Billy awoke from a terrible dream calling his wife’s name.!! She lay breathing beside him, in a peaceful sleep, a thousand miles away.!! He got dressed in the moonlight, and down to the highway he strode,!! when he got there, he didn’t find nothing but road.!!
~ Billy felt a coldness rise up inside of him, that he couldn’t name.!! Just as the words tattooed ‘cross his knuckles, he knew would always remain.! !At their bedside, he brushed the hair, from his wife’s face, as the moon shone on her skin so white. Filling their room in the beauty, of God’s fallen light.!
41 This Too Shall Pass
In the weeks following September 11th, Bruce was compelled to help the nation heal its traumatic wounds through an album and tour entitled, The Rising. In it, Bruce invites his audience to participate in Communal Consciousness as Spiritual therapy for a society gripped by Fear.
The title track of the album is yet another one of Bruce’s great “invitation songs.”
On The Rising, Bruce’s lyrics become more overtly Spiritual. In the chorus, his words are reminiscent of religious tent revivals, traveling from town to town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Come on up for the rising. Come on up, lay your hands in mine. Come on up for the rising. Come on up for the rising tonight.”
In this song, Bruce uses imagery from the firefighters who lost their lives in the World Trade Centers as a tool to express the trauma and transformation we all experienced through this tragedy.
---
I again invite you to deeply consider what specifically Bruce is inviting you to.
And, do you accept?
42 The Rising
Can’t see nothin’ in front of me.! !Can’t see nothin’ coming up behind!. !I make my way through this darkness!!. I can’t feel nothing but this chain that binds me!!.
Lost track of how far I’ve gone.!! How far I’ve gone, how high I’ve climbed!!. On my back’s a sixty pound stone!. !On my shoulder a half mile line!!.
Come on up for the rising. !!Come on up, lay your hands in mine!!. Come on up for the rising. !!Come on up, for the rising tonight!.
!Left the house this morning,!! bells ringing, filled the air!!. Wearing the cross of my calling!! on wheels of fire, I come rolling down here.!
!Come on up for the rising. !!Come on up, lay your hands in mine!. !Come on up for the rising. !!Come on up, for the rising tonight.
~ Spirits above and behind me!!. Faces gone, black eyes burning bright!!. May their precious blood forever bind me,!! Lord, as I stand before your fiery light!.
~ !I see you Mary in the garden, !!in the garden of a thousand sighs!!. There’s holy pictures of our children!! dancing in a sky filled with light!!. May I feel your arms around me!!. May I feel your blood mix with mine!. !A dream of life comes to me!!. Like a catfish, dancing on the end of my line!.
!Sky of blackness and sorrow. (Dream of life)!! Sky of Love, sky of tears. (Dream of life)!! Sky of glory and sadness. (Dream of life)!! Sky of mercy, sky of Fear. (Dream of life)!! Sky of memory and shadow. (Dream of life)! !Your burning wind fills my arms tonight. !!(Dream of life)! Sky of longing and emptiness. (Dream of life)! !Sky of fullness, sky of blessed life. (Dream of life)!
!Come on up for the rising. Come on up, lay your hands in mine. !!Come on up for the rising. !!Come on up, for the rising tonight.!
43
“To live is to be slowly born.”
—Antoine de Saint Exupéry
44 Tonight, Tonight
When I was imagining the opening track to Gyspy Radio, I wanted to write a song that invited the listener on a precise Spiritual journey. I wanted an opener that would serve as a thesis statement, forecasting where the listener will arrive at journey’s end.
I also wanted a song to pay homage to Bruce Springsteen’s influence on my writing while still conveying my own Artistic voice. In addition to Bruce, my music is heavily influenced by a great variety of genres and styles.
My profession is conducting. My position is Professor of Conducting and Director of Wind Ensembles at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music in Cleveland, Ohio. With this position, I am given the opportunity to conduct and collaborate with some of the greatest composers and musical Artists to have ever lived. I very much enjoy transferring the analytical rigor of my conservatory training, and applying it to popular music.
---
Another influence in my music is South Louisiana. There is a certain groove that Louisiana music embodies. That groove arises out of a relationship with the perception and expression of time.
Groove is simply deep patterns of time. In Louisiana, the “Time Vector” (as the esteemed music theorist Michael Cherlin might describe it), is often felt backwardly or, put another way, felt extremely late.
In fact, my best advice when helping people to feel music with a Louisiana flavor is to suggest that they play as late as possible without being late. This resistance deepens the groove.
In Gypsy Radio, I seek to explore the perception of time through a Rock & Roll context.
Sonic Contemplation 1—Processional: Tonight, Tonight
--- N.B.
I would like to introduce you to my “side-man” (as well as trumpet soloist for the U.S. Army Blues) Graham Breedlove. When Graham joined The Gypsy Radio Project, everything got a lot cooler in a hurry. As you can probably detect through his playing, Graham drips with Louisiana hot sauce, and he truly does: Breed Love.
45
“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.”
—Pema Chodron
46 Chapter II—Devils and Dust: An Examination of Fear
There are a few spoken gems that have found their way into our shared lexicon. These axioms become a part of our Communal Consciousness.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt uttered one such example during his inaugural address when, in the midst of World War II, he proclaimed:
“The only thing we have to Fear is Fear itself.”
There is clearly enough truth in this statement to enable it to survive for over 70 years. However, is this statement entirely true?
There are aspects of this statement that have resonated with our society. Perhaps the wisdom of President Roosevelt’s statement is that, in the midst of a great Spiritual crisis, Fear is ultimately the essential nemesis.
While President Roosevelt’s statement points us directly toward the challenge of Fear, it can also be trapping. Because to Fear the experience of Fear, is still to Fear.
A yet further evolved sentiment might proclaim:
The only thing we have to Love is Fear itself.
Because if we Love Fear, we learn the lessons that Fear is teaching us. When we learn and grow from Fear’s lessons, everything else will take care of itself.
We will further explore how to Love Fear later on in this journey.
For now, please simply consider the perspective that Fear is a gift. Fear manifests as resistance toward the direction of our dreams.
---
Q: How is the resistance of Fear a gift?
---
The exactness of the resistance, when precisely inverted, can point us directly to our highest aspirations. Resultantly, Fear can serve as an excellent compass pointing us toward our True North.
Again, resistance is a Fear-based force aimed in the precise opposite direction of our dreams.
47
“Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point toward True North – meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.
We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our Soul’s Evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”
—Steven Pressfield (from The War of Art)
48 Ease On Down, Ease On Down The Road
The call to action Pressfield writes about in his seminal book, The War of Art is precisely the same call to action Joseph Campbell writes about in his Hero’s Journey.
When the protagonist first hears this call to action, they usually refuse to act upon it. This refusal to act upon the call is an outgrowth of the resistance of Fear. Ultimately, at some point in the early stages of the Hero’s Journey, the protagonist is given no choice but to act, usually because the conditions have become unavoidably urgent.
To relate this Hero’s Journey with our cinematic companion, the Hero’s Calling is represented in The Wizard of Oz through the song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
---
Some might know precisely what their call to action is, while others have yet to discover their calling. From a very early age I discovered a secret that has helped me to pursue my dreams. The secret is simple: when faced with a choice between two paths, choose the path that I most Fear.
Fear can be both useful and limiting. If the Fear seems useful—like not wanting to jump off of a building—consider following its wisdom. If the Fear feels limiting, consider it as a type of resistance pointing you in the direction of your dreams.
For example, I once recall being asked if I would be scared to take the MCAT exam (an examination one must take to enter medical school). My response was that this exam did not scare me in the least. Not because the test would be easy or because I thought I would ace it. Rather, because in my heart of hearts, I have no desire to become a medical doctor. Accordingly, I have no Fear when contemplating taking an exam that would determine my medical acumen.
However, when given the opportunity to conduct for legends like Frederick Fennell or H. Robert Reynolds, I was scared beyond Reason—because I always wanted to become a conductor, and I knew that their opinion of my artistry could change the trajectory of my career.
So, when faced with two pathways, consider simply choosing the one that feels like limiting Fear—because it is highly likely that this limiting Fear is pointing you precisely in the direction of your highest hopes, dreams and aspirations.
--- N.B.
To further correlate The Hero’s Journey to The Wizard of Oz (and ultimately, to the Evolution of Consciousness), please consider The Wicked Witch of the East to represent Fear, and Glenda, The Good Witch of the North to represent Love.
49 The Inner Code: Navigating The Love / Fear Continuum
If you feel comfortable with the form of The Love / Fear Continuum, then you may be asking: “How can The Love / Fear Continuum (LFC) be useful?”
For the LFC to be useful, you have to learn how to navigate it.
First, let’s try to use the LFC as a tool to help you attain a stronger sense of Presence.
---
Q: If you had to limit yourself to these stages of Consciousness what level are you currently experiencing?
---
Of course, there are countless more attitudinal stages that could be included in the LFC. However, for the time being, please consider limiting yourself to these ten. Furthermore, you might not feel comfortable limiting yourself to just one level. That is perfectly cool. Often times we feel multiple levels simultaneously. When this occurs, I suggest focusing on whatever level is higher.
When experiencing multiple levels at the same time, it is very important to learn how to become intentional about the level on which we are choosing to focus. The Reason this is so important is because of an essential rule of Consciousness:
Whatever we give our attention to will inevitably expand.
Accordingly, if we give our attention to Fear-based levels, that Fear will expand. Likewise, if we give our attention to Love-based levels, those too, will expand.
---
In moments of intellectual reading, you might be in Reason. In moments of transcendent reading, you might be in Peace. In moments of frustrated reading, you might be in Anger. And in moments of terrified reading, you might be in Shame.
Whatever level or levels you most resonate with, consider that as a possible doorway into Presence.
50 A second way of using the LFC is to leverage it as a tool to help when you feel stuck.
The LFC can help you get un-stuck. When feeling confined to one specific level (with aspirations of attaining higher, more powerful, vibrational patterns), consider the level directly above your current level as a possible tool, leveraging you out of your “stuck-ed-ness.”
For example, please pick any level on the LFC. Subsequently, please consider how the level directly above it can be a useful step forward toward the Evolution of your Consciousness.
It is important not to add any judgment about each level. Rather, try to see all levels as being a useful step “forward.”
The concept of “forward” is an interesting one. I have found that, while I don’t always know exactly if something is right/wrong or good/bad, I can usually intuitively know if something feels like I am moving forward or backward. I suggest learning to trust our own inner sense of “forward,” and Fearlessly using it as an inner compass, pointing us toward our dreams.
Anger, for example, can be a healthy Evolutionary step forward when comparing it to Shame—just ask any victim of sexual abuse or citizen in The Middle East if Anger feels like a step forward.
---
Regardless of your current level, if you are feeling stuck, focus your Awareness to the next highest level. Remembering that what we focus our attention on will inevitably expand.
One of the benefits of this type of Awareness is that it abolishes judgment through Peaceful discernment. In other words, no attitudinal level should be considered good or bad. They are all useful, and they can all be limiting.
Judgment adds value, and can accordingly engage one’s ego. Discernment is simply an informed preference. Or, as I often say to my conducting classes:
Life is like Outback Steakhouse: No Rules, Just Right.
--- N.B.
For the rest of this book, I will use the Cajun spelling for “go” (spelled “Geaux,”) to imply moving forward in the Evolution of one’s Soul.
51 Discernment Vs. Judgment
In my conservatory conducting classes, I ask the students to include a statement of authenticity with each project submission. The statement is called The Inner Code.
The Inner Code is the first sentence of my students’ reflection papers.
I, ______, submit this project with an inner sense of
______.
In the first blank, they sign their name. In the second blank, they identify their state of Being with respect to the submission of this project. They can choose any of the ten attitudes in The Love / Fear Continuum (LFC).
Could they choose other levels? Sure. But these levels (and the order in which they are sequenced) offer the students an opportunity to perceive their attitudes represented by each stage of the LFC and the corresponding relationships these attitudes have with each other.
There are three primary benefits to including The Inner Code with assignments.
First, it offers students the opportunity to authentically express themselves. The issue of authentic expression is essential for the students to feel connected to their Work. Furthermore, the ability to express the accompanying attitude gives the student an opportunity to communicate struggle, intention and success with their own goals.
Second, it helps the students gain a deeper sense of their own Presence. This sense of Presence is essential to the development of a student’s mastery within any discipline.
Third, it gives the teacher a window into their students’ attitudinal issues and progress. This insight is very, very useful for teachers. For example, imagine how the feedback a teacher gives a student might change with the knowledge that a student was submitting a given Work with a sense of Shame, Anger, Pride, Courage or Peace.
52 “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
—Zig Ziglar
The best teachers know that attitude is everything. Attitude is the foundation upon which all other learning is based. If the attitude is based in Fear, the learning will become inefficient. If the attitude is based in Love, the efficiency of the learning will be increased.
To intentionally utilize attitude as an essential learning device, I strongly believe that judgment should be replaced with discernment. To remove judgment, while facilitating discernment, I ask the students to explore two questions regarding The Love / Fear Continuum (LFC):
---
Q: How is my current LFC level useful?
Q: How is my current LFC level limiting?
---
Through this exploration, students awaken to the idea that the labeling of Shame can be useful and the labeling of Peace can be limiting. Resultantly, they begin to discover that each stage along the journey is neither something to avoid, nor hold onto. Rather, each stage along the journey is just that—a stage.
Once judgment is replaced with discernment, students can then decide what attitudinal level they believe would be most beneficial to their goals. Through Courage, Will, Reason and Integrity, students soon learn how to choose their attitudes and increase their effectiveness at any given task.
“The greatest discovery is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.”
—William James
53 Shame: Adam Raised the Cain
We have now reached the part of our journey wherein we will explore each of the levels of The Love / Fear Continuum. Within each level, we will seek to explain the nature of each attitude, experience what it feels like, and explore possible tools to transcend it.
To offer a three-dimensional perspective on each level, we will explore three Bruce Springsteen songs that shed light on some aspect of that particular attitude. When triangulating the lyrics of the Springsteen songs with the Spiritual insights that accompany them, it is my hope that the nature of each attitude will become increasingly revealed.
Lastly, I invite you to transfer the insights from this triangulation with the music of the accompanying CD Gypsy Radio and the Rock & Roll Consecration. Through this process, the intention is to transcend the world of Spiritual concepts and enter the world of Spiritual experience – the ultimate goal of our journey exists beyond intellectual form and resides in practicing the Awareness and Acceptance of Non-Duality.
---
All births are painful. This includes the birth of Awareness. Shame can be conceived as the painful birth of Awareness. It is like realizing that you are the last one in on a joke that everyone else seems to already know. And, of course, being the last one in on a joke means that the joke is on you!
As we traverse the levels of the LFC, I will use the metaphor of “sight” to represent our Evolution of Consciousness. Put most simply, Shame desires not to be seen.
---
To make the LFC levels resonate more deeply with you, I will occasionally offer personal stories that seek to reinforce the essence of the concept being explored. I hope, when reading the anecdotes, you find personal resonance with similar stories in your life. After all, that’s what this journey is ultimately about:
Your Life.
54 I have many Shameful stories that I could share. Some deal with very public failures in my art; others deal with Guilty indulgences. But in lieu of the many anecdotes I could share, I will simply offer my first memory of Shame.
---
I was in the second grade and my oldest brother Mike was visiting for one of the first times that I could remember. He was also bringing his wife and their two-year old son, my nephew, Ryan.
It was a great trip. Ryan and I connected very quickly.
After baggage claim, we drove Mike’s family to our childhood home. After the bags were put away, my dad summoned the men of the household to go into the back bedroom and have a toast. (I believe it was a shot of whiskey. At least, that’s how I now imagine it.)
As I was only eight years old, my joining them would have been inappropriate and so, I was not invited.
I was disappointed, but I felt OK playing in the living room with Ryan. However, though I was with my nephew, my ears were pinned to the back bedroom, eavesdropping on the toast.
After the first round of toasts, my dad said a simple statement that jolted me to my core. He said, “Well, I guess the next man of the household to join us in this circle will be Ryan.”
I was stunned.
My three older brothers looked oddly and corrected him by saying, “You mean, Brendan.”
Dad suddenly remembered, quickly and earnestly apologized, and the toasting continued on...and on. (We are, after all, Irish.)
And while the rest of the evening joyfully continued, my world stopped.
I stared down at the old green carpet, not daring to look into anyone’s eyes, and trying to choke my throat up so that my tears would not flood the home.
Instead, my eyes became blurry. My throat constricted to where I could not breathe. In that moment, I felt crushing Shame. Not because I had done anything wrong. Rather, because I felt rejected, isolated and abandoned.
55 The Birth of Awareness
Shame is the painful birth of Awareness. Accordingly, Shame is also the birth of light. Light is a common metaphor for Awareness – just as darkness is often used as a metaphor for Fear.
Light is also a metaphor for Love. Ultimately, Love, Light and Awareness are all synonyms for precisely the same thing.
---
To really gain an understanding of Light, one must explore Darkness. The ultimate service that Bruce offers his listeners is an exploration of Devils, Dust and Darkness. But he does not start there.
On Bruce’s first album, Greeting from Asbury Park, he offers an epic and rollicking rhyme-a-thon entitled, Blinded by the Light. In it, Bruce points toward our shared journey. He foretells of his goal to aim for “the eyes of the sun,” and he points toward the mistakes others have made before him.
In retrospect, having Blinded by the Light on your first album is a bit like stepping up to the plate on your first Major League Baseball game, and pointing to the stands like Babe Ruth—predicting a legendary career and an epic journey.
Blinded by the Light
Madman drummers, bummers, and Indians in the summer, with a teenage diplomat.!! In the dumps, with the mumps, as the adolescent pumps, his way into his hat.!! With a boulder, on my shoulder, feelin’ kinda older, I tripped the merry-go-round.! !With this very unpleasing, sneezing and wheezing, the calliope crashed to the !! ground!!.
Some all-hot half-shot, was heading for the hot spot, snappin’ his fingers clappin’!!his hands.!! And some fleshpot, mascot was tied into a lover’s knot, with a whatnot in her hand!!. And now Young Scott, with a slingshot, finally found a tender spot , and throws his !!lover in the sand.! !And some bloodshot, forget-me-not, whispers daddy’s within earshot. Save the! buckshot turn up the band.!
!And she was blinded by the light.!! Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night!. !Blinded by the light.!! She got down, but she never got up. She’s gonna make it through the night.
56 Some brimstone, baritone, anti-cyclone rolling stone, preacher from the east!!. He says: "Dethrone the dictaphone, hit ‘em in its funny bone, that’s where they !! expect it least.” !And some new-mown, chaperone, was standing in the corner all alone, watchin’ the !! young girls dance.!! And some fresh-sown, moonstone, was messing with his frozen zone, to remind him of !! the feeling of romance.!!
Yeah, he was blinded by the light.! !Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night!. !Blinded by the light.!! He got down but she never got tight, but he’s gonna make it tonight.!!
~ Some silicone sister with her manager’s mister, told me I got what it takes!. !She said, “I’ll turn you on Sonny, to something strong, if you play that song with !!the funky break.” And Go-cart Mozart was checking out the weather chart, to see if it was safe to !!go outside.!! And little Early-Pearly came by in her curly-wurly, and asked me if I needed a!! ride.
~ Oh, some hazard from Harvard was skunked on beer playing backyard bombardier.! !Yes, and Scotland Yard was trying hard, they sent a dude with a calling card, !! he said, “Do what you like, but don’t do it here.”!!
Well I jumped up, turned around, spit in the air, fell on the ground !! asked him which was the way back home.! !He said, “Take a right at the light, keep going straight until night, and then, !!boy, you’re on your own.”!!
And now in Zanzibar, a shootin’ star, was ridin’ in a side car, hummin’ a lunar !!tune.!! Yes, and the avatar said, “Blow the bar, but first remove the cookie jar, we’re! gonna teach those boys, to laugh too soon.!! ”
And some kidnapped, handicap, was complaining that he caught the clap, from some !!mousetrap, he bought last night,. !Well, I unsnapped his skull cap, and between his ears I saw !!a gap, but, figured he’d be all right.!!
He was just blinded by the light.!! Cut loose, like a deuce, another runner in the night.!! Blinded by the light.!!
Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun.! But mama, that’s where the fun is.
57 Fear’s a Powerful Thing, Bobby
“We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.”
—Anais Ninn
Fear can be conceived as a state of inner agitation. We label the various gradations of agitations with words like Shame, Guilt, Grief, Anger and Pride (among others). The inner agitation of Fear is powerful because it distorts our sense of perception, thereby affecting the manner in which we experience the world around us.
If you want to think of Fear in musical terms, perhaps you can conceive Fear as a state of internal dissonance. Within this metaphor, Love could likewise be conceived as a state of internal consonance.
---
Q: If you resonate with the metaphor of Fear and dissonance, then please consider the following questions:
a) What is it within ourselves that is being agitated?
b) What is it that is causing the agitation?
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Ultimately, the agitation of Fear causes a distortion in our perception. This distortion makes it difficult for us to fluently perceive the reality that surrounds us. This distortion in our perception is our ego.
Our ego can be conceived as a Compilation of Unexamined Habits of Perception, or CUHP as an acronym. For this journey, we will refer to our ego as our CUHP. To transcend our CUHP, we must examine our habits of perception. To examine our habits of perception, we must examine our Fears.
Remember, Fear is not bad. Nor is Fear good. Like all levels of the LFC, Fear can be both useful and limiting. We should feel comfortable using Fear when it feels useful, and we should feel comfortable surrendering Fear once it becomes limiting.
To make the distinction between useful and limiting Fears, we need to examine our Fears. The music of Bruce Springsteen is incredibly adept at examining Fear.
58 I believe that the secret behind Bruce’s music can be revealed through an understanding of how the characters in each of his songs are, in some way, examining Fear as a means to enter a world of Love.
Springsteen’s characters often stand at the crossroads between faith and doubt, hope and despair, Love and Fear. To explore these dramatic decisions, Bruce uses language that examines Fear with poetic imagery through words like:
- Night - Darkness - Dirt - Devil - Dust - Blindness
Inversely, when listening to Bruce’s music, please consider how many times you hear the words “Love” and “Light.”
---
In the song Devils and Dust, Bruce explores the experience of Soul-mutating Fear from the perspective of a soldier forced to make life and death decisions about his enemy and his self.
The protagonist turns to his friend Bobby and says:
“Well, we’ve got God on our side. And we’re just trying to survive. What if what you do to survive, kills the things you Love?
Fear’s a powerful thing, Bobby. It can turn your heart black you can trust. It’ll take your God filled Soul, fill it with devils and dust .”
59 Devils and Dust
I got my finger on the trigger,!! but I don’t know who to trust.!! When I look into your eyes,!! there’s just devils and dust.!!
We’re a long, long way from home, Bobby!!. Home’s a long, long way from us.!! I feel a dirty wind blowing,!! devils and dust.!!
I got God on my side.! !And I’m just trying to survive.!! What if what you do to survive, kills the things you Love?
!Fear’s a powerful thing, Bobby!. !It can turn your heart black you can trust. !It’ll take your God filled Soul, !and fill it with devils and dust.!!
Well I dreamed of you last night,! !in a field of blood and stone.! !The blood began to dry,!! the smell began to rise.!!
Well I dreamed of you last night, Bobby!, !in a field of mud and bone.!! Your blood began to dry,!! and the smell began to rise.!!
We’ve got God on our side.!! We’re just trying to survive.!! What if what you do to survive,! kills the things you Love?!!
Fear’s a powerful thing, Bobby!. !It’ll turn your heart black you can trust.! !It’ll take your God filled Soul,! !fill it with devils and dust. !!It’ll take your God filled Soul,!! fill it with devils and dust.!!
60 Now every woman and every man,!! they wanna take a righteous stand.!! Find the Love that God Wills,! !and the faith that He commands.! !I’ve got my finger on the trigger,! !and, tonight, faith just ain’t enough.!! When I look inside my heart,! !there’s just devils and dust.!!
Well I’ve got God on my side.!! And I’m just trying to survive.!! What if what you do to survive,!! kills the things you Love?!!
Fear’s a dangerous thing.! !It can turn your heart black you can trust.! !It’ll take your God filled Soul,! !fill it with devils and dust.! ! Yeah, it’ll take your God filled Soul,!! fill it with devils and dust.!
61 The Hand That Turns The Key
Fear is natural. It is the universe’s way of letting us know that something is off the mark. However, Fear can long outlast its Evolutionary function—in this case, Fear is limiting, harmful and damaging to our development.
The real tragedy of Fear is that it is never completely self-contained. When someone is in Fear, they simultaneously transmit this agitated energy to others. All Consciousness (Love or Fear) extends beyond the singular person who is experiencing it. Awakening to this realization is key to perceiving Non-Duality. It is through our inter-connectedness that Fear can mutate a society.
---
The idea that Fear can mutate a society was an abstract concept until I visited my wife’s homeland and witnessed first-hand what Fear does to a nation of people.
My wife Luda was born in Russia, then later emigrated to Ukraine, then later to America. We try to visit Ukraine as often as possible. When visiting her family in Odessa (an absolutely beautiful—and very cool—port city, located right on the Black Sea), I began to notice a trend in the way her family acted. This trend was even further noticeable when we visited her best friends, still living in Russia.
Luda’s friends are all smart, well-educated people who have been very successful in their careers, family and life. Two of her closest friends became doctors in Moscow’s Central Hospital. In the evenings of our visits, we typically walked with them and engaged in long conversations about society. While in each other’s company, we all spoke relatively openly and freely. But, when talking in public, I noticed another pattern.
While walking the streets of Moscow, I soon observed that the conversation would occasionally stop suddenly. Everyone would look dead-eyed, straight ahead, and not say a thing. Then, after about 100 paces, the conversation would resume precisely where it had left off.
At first I failed to see the connection. I simply thought that whoever had “the floor,” was pensively thinking through a difficult translation. However, over time, I began to notice a pattern. The conversation would pause abruptly whenever they passed someone wearing any type of uniform. Whether that uniform was a police officer, military soldier or government bureaucrat, the conversation inevitably stopped until that person was out of the auditory range of our conversation.
To be clear, these visits were not happening during The Cold War. They happened as late as 2014. Furthermore, our sidewalk conversations were never about politics or about any other socially controversial subject matter. Lastly, our companions were esteemed citizens—they were heart surgeons in Moscow’s largest hospital!
62
I was astonished at the level of Fear that pervaded the society. But what was truly mind-blowing was observing how, over the course of my visit, I could feel my own Consciousness mutate and become more Fearful—simply by living in this culture for a month. By the end, my sense of scarcity and Fear had grown to the point that I stole toilet paper from a restaurant that offered it for free, in Fear that our next stop would not be so generous.
On the plane ride back to America, I was seated next to a very distinguished African American gentleman who, when asked, identified his occupation as being a civil- rights leader. He was an extremely good listener and asked me many questions about my experiences in Russia. Since I was just returning, this conversation gave me the opportunity to process my experiences for the very first time. I was most surprised with the affect that Fear had on me—how it changed me at some fundamental level of perception.
After he questioned me and listened to my stories for a couple of hours, our conversation took a long, pregnant pause. Dinner was served. We all stretched our legs. Soon it became evident that the plane was getting ready to slumber for the remaining hours of the flight. Before he went to sleep, I thanked him for our conversation and his listening.
This gentleman graciously accepted my gratitude and then said something that has changed my life. He said, “Since you now have an understanding of how Fear can mutate your Soul over a four-week period, can you better understand the societal mutation that the African-American community has experienced over the last four hundred years?”
I was shocked. For the entire trip, the discussion had revolved around my experiences. With this one question, this person transformed my life through expanding my Empathy—all through considering Consciousness in others.
---
Q: Can you imagine the many ways in which people project their Fears onto others?
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63
We must understand that Fear does not always look like being scared. Very often it looks and feels like other emotional overtones, resonating over the fundamental frequency of Fear. These emotional overtones include:
- Defensiveness - Insecurity - Greed - Embarrassment - Unworthiness - Resentment - Bullying - Dismissal - Indulgence - Envy - Wrath - Jealousy - Frustration - Regret - Pessimism - Isolation - Depression - Psychosis
As humans, we inherently project our Fears onto others. Accordingly, we are constantly creating cycles of Fear (or Love) within our families, our communities and our species.
In the song Jackson Cage, Bruce beautifully captures how a community can turn into a prison, in which we are the prisoners and, eventually, the wardens.
64 Jackson Cage
Driving home she grabs something to eat,!! turns a corner, and drives down her street.!! Into a row of houses she just melts away,! !like the scenery in another man’s play!. !Into a house where the blinds are closed!! to keep from seeing things she don’t wanna know!!. She pulls the blinds and looks out on the street!!, the cool of the night takes the edge off the heat!! in the Jackson Cage!!.
Down in Jackson Cage!!. You can try with all your might!!, but you’re reminded every night,!! that you been judged and handed life,! !down in Jackson Cage!!.
Every day ends in wasted motion!. !Just crossed swords on the killing floor!!. To settle back is to settle without knowing!! the hard edge that you’re settling for.!! Because there’s always just one more day! !and it’s always gonna be that way!!. Little girl you’ve been down here so long !! I can tell by the way that you move you belong to!! the Jackson Cage!!.
Down in Jackson Cage!!. And it don’t matter just what you say!. !Are you tough enough to play the games they play!!? Or will you just do your time and fade away!! down in the Jackson Cage!?
!Baby, there’s nights when I dream of a better world!!, but I wake up so downhearted girl!. !I see you feeling so tired and confused!, !I wonder what it’s worth to me or you!!. Just waiting to see some sun.!! Never knowing if that day will ever come!. !Left alone standing out on the street!! till you become the hand that turns the key down in!! Jackson Cage.!
!Down in Jackson Cage!!. Well, darling can you understand!! the way that they will turn a man!! into a stranger to waste away ! !down in Jackson Cage!!?
65 If I Was Only Better
Through my next Sonic Contemplation, I try to stare directly into the eyes of Shame. I do this by imagining the death of Abraham Lincoln through the eyes of his killer, John Wilkes Booth.
The book My Thoughts Be Bloody by Nora Titon explores the ego (CUHP) of John Wilkes Booth as possibly arising through a dysfunctional relationship between him and his dad. In the book, Titon offers a perspective of John Wilkes Booth as a mentally ill son, dealing with rejection from his father.
John Wilkes Booth was an actor, but apparently, not a very good one. The very same mental illness that would compel John Wilkes Booth to kill President Abraham Lincoln, must have also precluded him from the required Empathy to become a truly great Artist.
His father was a great actor. In fact, New York City still has the famous Booth Theatre named in his honor. His brother Edwin, too, was a famous and successful actor. Because his dad and brother were famous, they had a family name to uphold. Therefore, the paternal Booth prohibited John Wilkes from acting because it would hurt the family name. In a compromise of sorts, John Wilkes was allowed to act only in the south, while John Sr. and Edwin acted in the north.
John Sr. was a celebrity who publically supported the abolishment of slavery—what Fox News might currently label a “Hollywood liberal.” In Nora Titon’s compelling book, she posits that John Wilkes might have confused the issues he was having with his father, with grievances John Wilkes had against Abraham Lincoln, the abolitionist movement and the north.
Perhaps, John Wilkes Booth’s act of terrorism arose out of the fact that he was not accepted by his family and was not allowed to become a professional actor like his dad. And because of John Wilkes Booth’s so-called “daddy issues,” our country still suffers.
---
Q: How would this country be different if Abraham Lincoln had not been assassinated?
Q: How different would the South be had Reconstruction been more constructive?
Q: How might the world be different if every citizen within it participated in music, drama and/or the Arts?
--- Sonic Contemplation 2 – Lamentation: The Ballad of John and Eddie
66 Summarizing Contemplations: Chapter Two
---
Q: How does your ego (CUHP) distort your perception?
Q: How might your projection of Fear perpetuate Fear in others?
Q: What are the Evolutionary ramifications of Fear (terrorism)?
Q: Now that we have explored a possible alternate context for John Wilkes Booth’s motivations, does that offer you increased Empathy for his struggle?
---
--- N.B.
The villain is the hero of his own story.
67
“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn.
The Spiritual journey is the unlearning of Fear and prejudices and the Acceptance of Love back into our hearts.
Love is the essential reality and our purpose on Earth. To be Consciously Aware of it, to experience Love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life.
Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.”
—Marianne Williamson
68 Chapter III—Tunnel of Love: An Examination of Personal Consciousness
There are some questions that have been asked for as long as our species could ponder. One such question is:
What is the meaning of life?
Throughout my earliest memories, I recall exploring this question through a myriad of lenses and contexts. During one such exploration it occurred to me that for the meaning of life to mean anything, I first needed to understand the question:
What is the meaning of meaning?
In other words, before the meaning of life could mean anything to me, I first needed to understand how I made meaning and what purpose that meaning had in my life. I call this quest: The Meaning of Meaning.
After many years exploring this quest, I have come to discover that the manner in which I interpret meaning in my life is a direct reflection of my inner state of Consciousness.
Consciousness can be elusive. Like the water in The Fish Parable explored at the very beginning of this journey, Consciousness can be very difficult to detect. But meaning can offer us a mirror to help us perceive Consciousness.
The world itself is benign. But our interpretation of the world is not benign. Our interpretation serves as a mirror, reflecting back the perceptual lens through which that world is being experienced.
One might think of the various levels of Consciousness as colored contact lenses that change the way the world appears to us. One common phrase that echoes this sentiment is saying that somebody is experiencing the world through “rose-colored glasses,” meaning that this person experiences the world in a naïve and simplistically optimistic manner.
Truthfully, there are many different colored lenses through which we perceive the world. Some lenses color the world in an Angry manner, while other lenses color the world in a Peaceful manner.
---
Q: How can we discern what type of lenses we might be wearing?
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69 One such way to discern our lens of perception is through exploring the meanings we give things.
Have you ever been frustrated by watching politicians give contrasting interpretations of the same event? I know I have—and it can be infuriating. One sees a particular event as progress, while another interprets that very same event as the end of the world. I now understand that both politicians are seeing the shared event through very different lenses (or levels of Consciousness). Politically speaking, I have come to support the political candidate whose lens is less oriented toward Fear. I acknowledge that often both political candidates use Fear as a tool, but usually one political candidate benefits from Fear more than another.
Observing how politicians interpret meaning can be a great training exercise aimed at turning that skill inward. How do you interpret meaning in your life?
When we are in Anger, we typically create Angry meanings. When we are in Reason, we typically create Reasonable meanings. When we are in Peace, we typically create Peaceful meanings.
Again, I share these concepts without judgment toward a particular way of meaning-making. I simply offer an examination of the Meaning of Meaning as a pathway to help determine your current level of Consciousness and to facilitate your perceptual fluency and informed discernment.
---
Q: So what then, is the meaning of life?
---
I have come to believe that the meaning of life is to discover one’s Self as Consciousness.
One pathway toward achieving this goal can be discovered through the understanding and eventual transcendence of meaning.
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Earlier in this journey, we examined Eckhart’s Tolle’s quote that we can only discover Consciousness through Non-Consciousness.
“There can be no Enlightenment without the ego.”
Accordingly, we can use the Non-Consciousness of our ego to reveal the Consciousness of the universe. One pathway to this goal is to learn from the many incarnations of our Fear.
70 Guilt: A Brother Named, Frankie
If you resonate with the concept that the meaning of life can be revealed through discovering your Self as Consciousness, then Guilt can play an essential role in facilitating that journey.
Guilt differs from Shame because Guilt has increased Awareness. This increased Awareness feels like culpability. It feels like attaining the Awareness of wrongdoing without the Acceptance of the accompanying responsibility.
As previously stated, Shame wants not to be seen. Guilt wants not to be seen, but is seen nevertheless. Guilt is the self-perception as being somehow unworthy. Often, Guilt is experienced through the eyes of another person, which points toward the importance of Communal Consciousness in the Evolution of our Self and our Society.
The perceptions of those closest to us are the ones who most easily engage our Guilt. This is why family members so easily “push our buttons,” and also why family is so essential to the Evolution of our Consciousness. (We will explore family and Consciousness in greater depth in Chapter VIII: The Crucible of Relationship.)
---
One of the most astonishing characteristics of Bruce’s writing is his ability to take on Spiritual corruption through the perspective of the villain. In the case of Highway Patrolman, Bruce tells the story of two brothers, one of whom is held in high social regard, and another who is not. Bruce explores the inter-related-ness of family and the importance of occasional relativity when it comes to one’s moral compass.
In this story, both brothers break the law.
a) Frankie Roberts breaks the law by getting into a fight…again.
b) Joe Roberts breaks the law because he lets him get away...again.
Bruce also explores social inequities that lead to contrasting life trajectories. Frankie got drafted into the army and served in Vietnam, while Joe stayed home, managed the family farm, and married Maria—a Love that the two brothers shared.
As the “wheat prices kept on dropping,” farming became unsustainable for Joe. He then became a police officer who is placed at the moral crossroads between two completing ethical codes: The law and brotherhood.
71 Highway Patrolman
My name is Joe Roberts, I Work for the state.! !I’m a sergeant out of Perrineville, barracks number eight!. !I always done an honest job, as honest as I could.! !I got a brother named Frankie, and Frankie ain’t no good.!!
Now ever since we was young kids, it’s been the same come down.! !I get a call on the shortwave, Frankie’s in trouble downtown.!! Well, if it was any other man, I’d put him straight away,!! but when it’s your brother sometimes you look the other way.!!
Me and Frankie laughing and drinking. Nothing feels better than blood on blood.!! Taking turns dancing with Maria, as the band plays "Night of the Johnstown Flood."!!
I catch him when he’s straying like any brother would.!! Man turns his back on his family he just ain’t no good.!
!Well, Frankie went in the army, back in 1965. I got a farm deferment, settled down, !took Maria for my bride. But them wheat prices kept on dropping !! till it was like we were getting robbed.!! Frankie came home in ‘68, and me, I took this job.!!
Yea, me and Frankie laughing and drinking. Nothing feels better than blood on blood.!! Taking turns dancing with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood." !! I catch him when he’s straying like any brother would.!! Man turns his back on his family he just ain’t no good.!!
~
72 Well that night was like any other, I got a call ‘bout quarter to nine.!! There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line.!! There was a kid lying on the floor looking bad, bleeding hard from his head. Was a girl crying at a table, and it was Frank, they said.!!
Well, I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights.!! I must’ve done a hundred and ten through Michigan County that night.! !It was out at the crossroads, down round Willow Bend.!! Seen a Buick with Ohio plates, behind the wheel was Frank.!!
Well, I chased him through those county roads till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here. I pulled over the side of the highway, !! and watched his tail lights disappear.!!
Me and Frankie laughing and drinking. !Nothing feels better than blood on blood.!! Taking turns dancing with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood."!
!I catch him when he’s straying like any brother would. Man turns his back on his family, he just ain’t no good.!
73 Turn Down That Goddamn Guitar
Bruce’s music often reflects a very tense relationship between him and his father. In fact, the angst of Bruce’s relationship with his dad fuels a lot of his early writing. He constantly battled between the limited view of his father and his own vision of possibility.
As Bruce matured, so too did his relationship with his father, a relationship that continues today—well beyond the actual lifespan of Frederick Springsteen, Bruce’s dad, who died in 1998.
In My Father’s House, the protagonist recalls the dissonance between him and his father through a dream. Subsequently, the protagonist wakes up in a terrible state, deciding to rush to his father’s house in order to rectify the situation. Upon arrival, he discovers he is too late—his father no longer lives there.
This song wrestles with the competing experiences of regret and redemption.
Regret is made obvious throughout the song. More challenging to uncover, perhaps, is the redemption that two Souls can experience, even if only beyond the lifetime of their human form.
If you perceive that life ends with death, then this redemption is thwarted because the protagonist’s father is no longer alive. If, however, you perceive that the Soul can continue beyond the form of a given life, then perhaps, redemption can be revealed through the following lines:
”I awoke and I imagined the hard things that pulled us apart Will never again, sir, tear us from each other’s hearts.”
74 My Father's House
Last night I dreamed that I was a child, out where the pines grow wild and tall. !I was trying to make it home through the forest before the darkness falls. !
!I heard the wind rustling through the trees, and ghostly voices rose from the fields.! I ran with my heart pounding down that broken path, ! with the devil snapping at my heels.
!I broke through the trees and there in the night !my father’s house stood shining hard and bright. The branches and brambles tore my clothes and scratched my arms. !But I ran till I fell shaking in his arms. !
!I awoke and I imagined the hard things that pulled us apart ! will never again, sir, tear us from each other’s hearts. Got dressed, and to that house I did ride. From out on the road, I could see its windows shining in light. !
!I walked up the steps and stood on the porch. A woman I didn’t recognize, came and spoke to me through a chained door. !I told her my story, and who I’d come for. ! She said, "I’m sorry son, but no one by that name, lives here anymore." !
!My father’s house shines hard and bright. It stands like a beacon calling me in the night. !Calling and calling, so cold and alone. ! Shining cross this dark highway, where our sins lie un-atoned.!
75 It Ain’t No Sin To Be Glad You’re Alive
Overcoming Guilt arises from the Spiritual act of Compassion. In my experience, Compassion arises out of perceiving a larger arc of growth and development. In this way, Compassion can arise through an enhanced Awareness of Evolution.
It would make no sense for a gardener to stand over a seedling and yell at it for not yet being an oak tree. When nurtured by the gardener, the seedling will eventually grow into a “stately oak” precisely when it is ready to do so. The seedling only needs water and sun.
Like water and sun, our Souls develop through the Spiritual practices of Awareness and Acceptance. Acceptance is the Work (Will) and Awareness is the Love (Grace).
Ultimately, for us to develop into our Soul’s potential, all we need to do is Work and Love.
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To overcome Guilt and Shame, we have to look deep within our own Fears. We all have them. Most people do not like labeling something as Fear. They prefer the label of “anxiety” or “frustration.” However, all conscious agitation fundamentally arises out of Fear.
Remember, Fear is simply a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth. Ultimately, when we learn to Love our Fear by learning its lessons, we discover “a notion deep inside, that it ain’t no sin to be glad we’re alive.”
Bruce sings about the process of overcoming the “Badlands” of Fear.
“Well I believe in the Love that you gave me. I believe in the faith that could save me. I believe in the hope and I pray that some day it may raise me above these Badlands.”
76 Badlands
Lights out tonight, !!trouble in the heartland!, !got a head-on collision, !!smashing in my guts, man,!! I’m caught in a cross fire!!, that I don’t understand.!! But there’s one thing I know for sure, girl, !!I don’t give a damn! !for the same old played out scenes!. !I don’t give a damn!!, for just the in betweens.! !Honey, I want the heart, I want the Soul, !!I want control right now!!. You better listen to me, baby!!. Talk about a dream!!, try to make it real!, !you wake up in the night,!! with a Fear so real.! !Spend your life waiting!! for a moment, that just don’t come.!! Well, don’t waste your time waiting!!.
!Badlands, you gotta live it everyday.!! Let the broken hearts stand!! as the price you’ve gotta pay!!. We’ll keep pushing till it’s understood !! and these badlands start treating us good!!.
Working in the fields, !!till you get your back burned.!! Working ‘neath the wheels, !!till you get your facts learned.!! Baby, I got my facts, !!learned real good right now.!!
You better get it straight, darling!!. Poor man wanna be rich,!! rich man wanna be king!!. And a king ain’t satisfied!! till he rules everything.!! I wanna go out tonight,!! I wanna find out what I got.!
!Well, I believe in the Love, that you gave me!. !I believe in the faith, that could save me.!! I believe in the hope ! and I pray, that some day!! it may raise me, above these !! Badlands.
!You gotta live it everyday!!. Let the broken hearts stand!! as the price you’ve gotta pay.!! We’ll keep pushing till it’s understood !! and these badlands start treating us good!!.
For the ones who had a notion,!! a notion deep inside,!! that it ain’t no sin !!to be glad you’re alive.! !I wanna find one face!! that ain’t looking through me!. !I wanna find one place, !!I wanna spit in the face of these Badlands.
!You gotta live it everyday!!. Let the broken hearts stand!! as the price you’ve gotta pay!!. We’ll keep pushing till it’s understood !! and these badlands start treating us good.
77 Sadness: Down Bound Train
Earlier we explored how Shame arises out of not wanting to be seen and Guilt arises from being seen while in a state of Shame. Continuing along this pathway, Sadness arises out of a loss of being seen.
The loss of being seen can be experienced through many different situations. The most obvious situation is when someone close to us dies. Our Grief arises from no longer experiencing being seen through their eyes. In other words, when someone dies, we lose the physical experience of shared Consciousness with that person.
Another way we lose being seen is through a change in someone’s perspective of us. Let’s take, for example, an incident in which we fall out of someone’s good graces through our behavior. The Sadness that might follow the Shame and Guilt of such a fall from grace arises from the loss of being seen as an upstanding person through their eyes.
Regardless of the situation, once we discover that Sadness is simply a loss of being seen, we can fully experience the essence of that experience, and perhaps, more easily transcend the Sadness—once we are Evolutionarily ready to do so. Always remembering that Grief is a natural stage along the Evolution of one’s Consciousness.
Sadness can also be conceived as a hyper-attachment to form. There is no judgment behind this statement. No grieving person wants to be accused of being hyper- anything. Any manner in which a grieving person is “hyper” is completely justified. However, all Grief comes from the perspective that the loss of a given form means the loss of connection with that form’s essence. Once we awaken from the illusion of separateness, we come to realize that such a disconnection is impossible.
With this Awareness, there will come a time in the grieving process that this hyper- attachment will surrender and the bereaved will awaken to the concept that the essence of a lost form is never lost.
“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God.”
—A Course in Miracles
The pathway out of Sadness lies in experiencing the Grief fully until the poison lessens. Which, in some cases, might take longer than a single lifetime. Another way to imagine being fully present to one’s Sadness, is to consider being in Peace with our Sadness. I label this as being in Also Peace.
78 Too Many Phone Calls
If I were to pick just one asset of Bruce’s writing that I most admire, it would lie in his capacity to paint such a vivid scene with such economy of words.
In You’re Missing, Bruce exquisitely expresses Grief of a spouse widowed on September 11th through ten simple words:
“Too much room in my bed. Too many phone calls.”
You’re Missing
Shirt’s in the closet, shoes in the hall.!! Mama’s in the kitchen, baby and all.!! Everything is everything.!! Everything is everything,!! but you’re missing.!!
Coffee cup’s on the counter, jackets on the chair.!! Paper’s on the doorstep, but you’re not there.!! Everything is everything.! !Everything is everything,! !but you’re missing.!!
Picture’s on the nightstand, TV’s on in the den.!! Your house is waiting, your house is waiting,! !for you to walk in, for you to walk in,!! but you’re missing. You’re missing.!
!You’re missing, when I shut out the lights.!! You’re missing, when I close my eyes.! !You’re missing, when I see the sun rise,! !you’re missing.!!
Children are asking if it’s alright.! !Will you be in our arms tonight? !!
Morning is morning, the evening falls. I got !!too much room in my bed, too many phone calls.!! How’s everything, everything? !! Everything, everything.!!
You’re missing. You’re missing.!! God’s drifting in heaven, devil’s in the mailbox.! !I got dust on my shoes, nothing but teardrops.!
79 When You’re Alone, You Ain’t Nothing but Alone
When you are feeling alone, it is difficult to feel anything else. Sadness feels like isolation and aloneness. If the Spiritual purpose of our journey is to awaken from the illusion of separateness, than Grief succumbs to the illusion of separateness.
~
“The word “happiness” could lose its meaning if it were not balanced by Sadness.”
—Carl Jung
~
Bruce eloquently paints a musical scene in Downbound Train that perfectly depicts the drama of frantically trying to chase after a Love that is fading away, only to find that connection has already been lost. When the protagonist hears the sound of a train in the distance, he knows that his Love is aboard and that their relationship is over. Then he drops down to his knees, holds his head and cries.
80 Downbound Train
I had a job, I had a girl.!! I had something going, mister, in this world.! !I got laid off down at the lumber yard.!! Our Love went bad, times got hard.!! Now I Work down at the carwash,!! where all it ever does is rain.! !Don’t you feel like you’re a rider, on a down-bound train?!!
She just said "Joe, I gotta go.!! We had it once, we ain’t got it any more."!! She packed her bags, left me behind.! !She bought a ticket on the Central Line!!.
Nights as I sleep, I hear that whistle whining.!! I feel her kiss in the misty rain.! !And I feel like I’m a rider, on a down-bound train.!!
Last night, I heard your voice.!! You were crying, crying, you were so alone.!! You said your Love had never died.!! You were waiting for me at home.!! Put on my jacket, I ran through the woods.! !I ran till I thought my chest would explode.! !There in the clearing, beyond the highway,! !in the moonlight, our wedding house shone.! !I rushed through the yard. I burst through the front door.!! My head pounding hard, up the stairs I climbed.!! The room was dark, our bed was empty.!! Then I heard that long whistle whine.!!
And I dropped to my knees, hung my head and cried.!!
Now I swing a sledge-hammer on a railroad gang,!! knocking down them cross ties, Working in the rain.!! Now don’t it feel like you’re a rider, on a down-bound train?!
81 The City of Brotherly Love
In the movie Philadelphia, Jonathan Demme beautifully captures the experience of isolation accompanying an AIDS diagnosis in the 1980s.
After Tom Hanks’ character has run out of options, he steps out onto the street, looks left, then right. Bundles up his jacket and realizes that he has no place left to go.
Emerging from this tragic Sadness arises a mechanical drumbeat with alternating F Major and d minor chords from an organ. In the bridge, the texture moves to the IV chord (Bb Major) as the protagonist realizes:
“Ain’t no angel gonna greet me. It’s just you and I, my friend. And my clothes don’t fit me no more, I’d walk a thousand miles just to slip this skin.”
82 Streets of Philadelphia
I was bruised and battered, I couldn’t tell !! what I felt. !!I was unrecognizable to myself.!! Saw my reflection in a window and didn’t know !! my own face.! !Oh brother, are you gonna leave me!!wasting away !! on the streets of Philadelphia?!
!I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone.! !I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone.! !At night I could hear the blood in my veins,! !just as black and whispering as the rain !! on the streets of Philadelphia.!!
~ Ain’t no angel gonna greet me.!! It’s just you and I my friend.! !And my clothes don’t fit me no more,! !I’d walked a thousand miles, !!just to slip this skin.!!
~ The night has fallen. I’m lyin’ awake.! !I can feel myself fading away.!! So receive me brother with your faithless kiss.!! Or will we leave each other alone like this !! on the streets of Philadelphia?!
83
84 Oasis of Optimism
“I have lost my smile.
Don’t worry, the dandelion has it.”
—Thich Nhat Hahn
85 Anger: Don’t Fall to Your Fears
To follow our sequence of understanding the nature of each level of Consciousness through sight, Anger is demanding to be seen.
Anger is an interesting level within our society. Because Anger is often associated with violence, we tend to Shame Anger. However, Anger can be useful. There is use in all of the levels in The Love / Fear Continuum (LFC), but Anger is an attitude with which our culture really struggles. We struggle with Anger because we often do not know how to express Anger in a constructive, healthy manner.
“Anyone can become Angry – that is easy. But to be Angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, and in the right way – that is not within everyone’s power and is not easy.
—Aristotle
The Spiritual purpose of Anger is to lift us out of our lower attitudes. Anger arises out of resentment of an ineffective system. It is in this way that transformation usually requires a degree of Anger. However, Anger (like all the other Fear-based attitudes) can be a trap. When Anger becomes destructive toward oneself or others, its violence can cause further damage that actually can move one toward Fear and away from Love.
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I first discovered the Evolution of Consciousness contained within the LFC through observing my conservatory students deal with struggle in their rigorous coursework. Because music is so very important to these students, they often use their success in music as a means to self-identify. Accordingly, they occasionally interpret their struggles as signs that they are untalented, and thus, unworthy as a person.
When I first tried to map the progression of their attitudes while traversing difficult skill acquisition, I discovered that the journey looked a lot like The Five Stages of Grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance). Learning a new and challenging skill often requires some previous mental model to “die,” and students often do go through these five stages. However, over time, The Five Stages of Grief seemed too limiting to the overall experience of attitudinal development.
The Reason that The Five Stages of Grief was too limiting to express students’ attitudinal growth was that four of the five stages were Fear-based. In the LFC, I sought to capture some of the Fear-based stages, while also offering the Love-based attitudes that help to heal the practitioner. In both The Five Stages of Grief and in The Love / Fear Continuum, Anger plays an essential role.
86 Anger can be seen as an assertion that the present conditions are no longer Acceptable. Anger demands to be seen. Anger seeks to transform the present system into one that is more comfortable. The problem with this assertion is that Anger is still Fear-based. Accordingly, while one is in a state of Anger, one’s perception is still quite distorted.
When one makes an assertion in Anger, it often comes out of a state of suppression. Understanding that this Fear-based suppression often distorts one’s perception helps to explain why Anger is often misdirected, overdone and unnecessarily violent. But we can also have compassion for those who are in Anger, because we can see how it arises out of Fear and suppression.
Think for a moment about a school bully. Why does he act the way he acts? Usually, it is because he is suppressing violence perpetrated onto him. His only way to express his Fear is through perpetrating violence onto others.
Anger can be healthy for those suppressed by Fear. Take, for example, The Arab Spring. If we see the uprising in Syria, Egypt and Libya as a healthy (albeit painful) step forward in their collective Evolution of Consciousness, perhaps we can begin to see the situation with less Fear and more compassion. This insight might positively inform our intervention efforts—through this perspective, any intervention rooted in a Fear-based attitude, will probably add fuel to an already ferocious fire.
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On the Wrecking Ball album, Springsteen seeks to tap into our collective Anger about The Great Recession of 2008. His songs invite the audience to get Angry about the social, political and economic inequities that have corrupted our society. Through healthy Anger, societies can muster the political Will that leads to meaningful transformations through the democratic process.
“Hold tight to our Anger, but don’t fall to our Fears.”
--- N.B.
The song Wrecking Ball was originally written for the last performance at New York Giant’s Stadium in The Meadowlands, before its demolition.
87 Wrecking Ball
I was raised out of steel here in the swamps of Jersey, some misty years ago.! Through the mud and the beer, and the blood and the cheers, I’ve seen champions come and go.!
So if you got the guts mister, yeah, if you’ve got the balls. !If you think it’s your time, then step to the line, and bring on your wrecking ball,!! bring on your wrecking ball.!
Bring on your wrecking ball.! Come on and take your best shot, let me see what you’ve got,! Bring on your wrecking ball.! Bring on your wrecking ball.! Bring on your wrecking ball.! Come on and take your best shot, let me see what you’ve got,! Bring on your wrecking ball.!!
Now my home was here in the Meadowlands, where mosquitoes grow big as airplanes.! Here where the blood is spilled, the arena’s filled, with Giants playing games.
So raise up your glasses, and let me hear your voices call!. Because tonight, all the dead are here, so bring on your wrecking ball!!, bring on your wrecking ball.
!Bring on your wrecking ball.! Take your best shot, let me see what you've got, !Bring on your wrecking ball.!!
~
88 Yeah, we know that come tomorrow, none of this will be here.!
So hold tight on your Anger,! hold tight on your Anger,! hold tight to your Anger, and don't fall to your Fears!!.
Now when all this steel and these stories, they drift away to rust.! And all our youth and beauty, has been given to the dust.!
The game has been decided, and you're burning down the clock down.! And all our little victories and glories, have turned into parking lots.!
When your best hopes and desires, are scattered to the wind.! And hard times come, hard times go,! hard times come, hard times go,! and hard times come, and hard times go,!! hard times come, hard times go, !hard times come, hard times go, !yeah, just to come again,!! bring on your wrecking ball.!
Bring on your wrecking ball ! Come on and take your best shot, let me see what you've got,! bring on your wrecking ball.!
Bring on your wrecking ball. !Bring on your wrecking ball. Take your best shot, let me see what you've got, bring on your wrecking ball.!!
89 Things Fall Apart
Outside The Walker Museum of Art in Minneapolis, the following inscription adorns the museum’s publically external wall:
“Bits and pieces put together to present a semblance of a whole.”
I adore this installation by Lawrence Weiner. I see it as the perfect definition of Art.
Art can never present the whole it seeks to represent. Rather, Art can only present “bits and pieces” to present a semblance of that whole. That’s why we have Art as an integral part of our species’ existence—to have an experience in which the audience can re-construct a holistic experience based on the bits and pieces presented by the Artist.
In temporal Art, such as music and theatre, the narrative arc arises from the Artists establishing a system, having that system fall apart in various ways, then ultimately reorganizing with higher levels of complexity. The higher complexity that culminates this journey is usually embedded in a resolution that, retrospectively, reveals transformation.
The initial scenes of a theatrical production establish the characters and context. Subsequently, the characters are faced with a conflict—a conflict that is usually accompanied by a call to action. The protagonist initially refuses the call, only to have the conflict rise and the call to action to become undeniable. This moment is known as the central conflict.
The conflict then continues to escalate as the protagonist traverses the “road of trials.” Along the way the protagonist meets people who help her with her journey, offering indispensable wisdom that will inevitably be used further on up the road. The road of trials leads to “the dark night of the soul,” in which the protagonist is overwhelmed by her most crippling Fear. Ultimately, the climax occurs through a revelation of power that facilitates Fearless transformation.
If we think of the protagonist as a system, then the Hero’s Journey described above can also be conceived through the lens of that character’s “system” being established, breaking down, then reorganizing at higher levels of complexity. In theatrical communities this process is known as the dramatic arc. In Scientific communities, this process is known as Entropy and The Entropic Corollary.
Entropy is a universal law that states that all forms are in the process of breaking down or dis-integrating. The fact that Entropy can only move in one direction explains why we perceive time as moving in only one direction. The Awareness of Entropy is the basis for all Fear. Awareness of The Entropic Corollary facilitates the Evolution of Consciousness. (We will further explore this in Chapter IV.)
90 The central conflict of the dramatic arc arises from two systems acting in opposition to each other. By observing the “bits and pieces” of these two systems interacting with each other, the audience can reconstruct a semblance of a whole, and transfer that holistic insight into their own, seemingly unique lives.
The Hero’s Journey allows the audience to consider the conflicting systems of Love and Fear as a means to gaining insights into the Evolution of their own Consciousness. These conflicting systems are just as pervasive in “low-brow sit- coms” like Three’s Company, as they are in grand Shakespearian films like The Big Lebowski or The Brothers Bloom.
All great temporal Art is unified by systems being established, breaking down and reorganizing at higher levels of complexity. This is also true in music.
Music with lyrics abides by the same principles established in the dramatic Arts, but also includes musical elements like harmony, tonality, orchestration, tempo, rhythm and form. These musical principles will be further explored in the second volume of this journey (The Conscious Conductor). But for now, please know that good music also abides by the same rules that govern Entropy: systems are established, fall apart and then reorganize at higher levels of complexity.
In music, the higher levels of complexity often take the form of consonance earned through traversing various forms of dissonance. The dissonance informs the consonance by giving it context and meaning. And just like in the dramatic Arts, the higher complexity that culminates this journey is usually embedded in a resolution that, retrospectively, reveals transformation.
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Bruce’s lyrics often comment on the conflict of two opposing systems. In Death To My Hometown, Springsteen continues his exploration of economic inequities that run throughout the Wrecking Ball album. In this particular song, he expresses Anger at how the institutions that might be deemed “too big to fail” wreak havoc on communities whose voices seem to be lost, ignored and under-valued.
Springsteen compares the destruction usually associated with war (cannon balls, rifles and blood) with the destruction of financial piracy. And while financial piracy does not include war’s egregious physical atrocities, the damage and trauma remain just as real and devastating for the victims.
91 Death To My Hometown
Oh, no cannonballs did fly, no rifles cut us down.! No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground.! No powder flash blinded the eye, no deathly thunder sound.! But just as sure as the hand of God, they brought death to my hometown, boys,! they brought death to my hometown.!
!No shells ripped the evening sky, no cities burning down.! No armies stormed the shores for which we'd die.! No dictators were crowned.! I awoke from a quiet night, I never heard a sound.! Marauders raided in the dark and brought death to my hometown, boys.! Death to my hometown.!!
They destroyed our families' factories, and they took our homes.! They left our bodies on the plains, the vultures picked our bones.!
!So listen up, my sonny boy, be ready for when they come.! For they'll be returning, sure as the rising sun. !Now get yourself a song to sing and sing it 'til you're done. Yeah, sing it hard and sing it well, !send the robber barons, straight to hell. !The greedy thieves who came around, !whose crimes have gone unpunished now,! who walk the streets as free men now.!!
Ah, they brought death to our hometown, boys. !Death to our hometown, boys.! Death to our hometown, boys. !Death to our hometown.
92 C’mon Rise Up
Once Bruce Springsteen takes his audience through the darkness of Shame, Guilt, Sadness and Anger, he always offers the Love that allows the community of listeners to rise up. This was never more evident (or needed), then in the months following September 11th, 2001.
The nation and the world were in a shock of Fear following the terrorism that struck America’s shores with the attack on The World Trade Centers. Fear gripped our Souls. We were in need of a Spiritual healing.
Bruce tells the story of driving around New Jersey in the days following 9/11. He walked the beach and came upon a man who saw him and said, “Bruce, we need you.” This man gave Bruce his call to action. The resultant album was called The Rising.
At the emotional catharsis of the album, Bruce converted a song he had earlier written about the economic decline in Asbury Park, New Jersey, into a song that could now speak to the nation’s need for physical and Spiritual healing. The first and second verses remained the same in both versions, but the post 9/11-version added a new third verse. The third verse addresses our trauma and leads us back into Love through Work.
93 My City of Ruins
There is a blood red circle ! !on the cold dark ground.! !And the rain is falling down.!!
The church door’s thrown open,! !I can hear the organ’s song.!! But the congregation’s gone.!!
My city of ruins.!! My city of ruins.!!
Now the sweet bells of mercy !! drift through the evening trees.!! Young men on the corner !! like scattered leaves.
The boarded up windows, the empty streets,! !while my brother’s down on his knees.!!
My city of ruins.!! My city of ruins.!
Come on, rise up! Come on, rise up! !! Come on, rise up! Come on, rise up! ! Come on, rise up! Come on, rise up! !!
Now there’s tears on the pillow,!! darling, where we slept.!! And you took my heart when you left.!!
Without your sweet kiss !! my Soul is lost, my friend.!! Tell me how do I begin again? !!
My city’s in ruins.! !My city’s in ruins.!!
~
94 Now with these hands, !! with these hands, !! with these hands, ! !I pray Lord.!!
With these hands, !! with these hands, ! !I pray for the strength, Lord.
With these hands, !! with these hands, !! I pray for the faith, Lord.!!
We pray for your love, Lord.!! We pray for the lost, Lord.!! We pray for this world, Lord.!! We pray for the strength, Lord.!! We pray for the strength, Lord.!!
Come on,!! come on,!!
Come on, rise up! !!Come on, rise up! !!Come on, rise up!!! Come on, rise up! !!Come on, rise up! !!Come on, rise up!
!Come on, rise up!
!Come on, rise up!
95 Pride: The Man At The Top
Following our previous exploration of sight as a means to understanding the Evolution of Consciousness, Pride is the victory of being seen.
Pride exists in a zero-sum world in which one person’s gain is another person’s loss. So Pride does not simply celebrate accomplishments. Pride celebrates having more accomplishments than someone else.
Pride arises out of hierarchy and hierarchy arises out of duality.
Again, duality is the perception of the universe as being comprised of different parts. As long as there are different parts, resources will always be unevenly distributed among those different parts. This uneven distribution is a rule of a dualistic universe and is called hierarchy. As long as there is duality, there will always be hierarchy. As long as there is hierarchy, there will always be inequality.
To observe hierarchy in nature you can look anywhere. Let’s take a forest for example. If there were no hierarchy, all of the resources would be evenly distributed—accordingly, all the trees would grow to the same height. But this is not the case. When we observe the hierarchy of nature, we observe that trees and plants form niches that grow to various heights because the distribution of resources (in the case of vegetation, water and sunlight), are unevenly distributed.
Since hierarchy requires an uneven distribution of resources, anyone stuck in a dualistic perspective must also experience the world hierarchically, and thus, must experience the world as an uneven distribution of resources. Fear (usually revealed in the form of Greed and Pride), arises out of a dualistic perspective.
Because duality requires hierarchy and hierarchy requires an uneven distribution of resources, then true equality can never exist within a dualistic perspective. Because whenever there are multiple forms, resources will always be distributed unevenly among those forms.
True equality can only arise out of a Non-Dualistic perception. As an historical analogy, you might recall the famous U.S. Supreme Court case Brown Vs. Board of Education, which asserted that separate was inherently not equal.
You cannot have winners and losers except through duality. In Non-Duality, we are all both winner and loser / saint and sinner, because we all inter-exist.
The root of Pride is hyper-identification with your transient self. The ego of your transient self arises out of identification with any part of you that could ever cease to exist. Built upon a sense of scarcity, Pride lives in a zero-sum universe in which my acquisition of resources demands that others receive fewer resources; and vice versa. It is in this way that Pride is an overtone of Fear.
96 Man at the Top
Here comes a fireman, here comes a cop.!! Here comes a wrench, here comes a car hop.!! Been going on forever, it ain’t ever gonna stop.! !Everybody wants to be the man at the top.!
!Everybody wants to be the man at the top.!! Everybody wants to be the man at the top.!! Aim your gun, son, and shoot your shot.!! Everybody wants to be the man at the top.!!
Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,!! doctor, lawyer, Indian chief.!! One thing in common, they all got, everybody wants to be the man at the top.!
Everybody wants to be the man at the top.!! Everybody wants to be the man at the top.!! Aim your gun, son, and shoot your shot.!! Everybody wants to be the man at the top.!!
!Man at the top says, “It’s lonely up there.”! !If it is, sir, I don’t care.! !From the big White House to the parking lot, !!everybody wants to be the man at the top.!!
Here comes a banker. Here comes a businessman.!! Here comes a kid with a guitar in his hand,!! dreaming of his record in the number-one spot.!! Everybody wants to be the man at the top.
97 Pride Goes Before The Fall
The relationship between Pride and Shame is a very delicate one. Both value themselves through achievement—one positively, and one negatively. Resultantly, Pride feels good as long as you are achieving and receiving recognition for those achievements. But because Pride attaches itself to achievements, the moment that you fail to achieve, you fall to Shame.
Actually, you don’t even have to stop achieving. If you continue to achieve but fail to receive enough praise for those achievements, you can easily fall to your Fears through Anger and Sadness. It is in this way that Pride requires constant inflation.
Pride is rooted in the Fear of “not enough.” Ultimately, Pride requires inflation to remain buoyant enough to feel good. This inflation is like a Ponzi-Scheme, where you have to constantly inflate to maintain the false sense of self.
Pride can also be conceived as a drug. Through this metaphor, Pride initially feels great. However, over time, each “hit” of Pride gives you an ever-diminishing “buzz.” Eventually, you can never accomplish enough achievements or receive enough compliments to keep the initial pleasure of Pride sustained. Like a drug, when Pride reveals itself as being somehow unsustainable, there is inevitably a crash of Anger, Sadness, Guilt and/or Shame.
Pride goes before the fall, indeed.
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Pride can be incredibly useful. It can help to lift our souls out of Hell. When 12-Step Programs publically reward addicts for achieving landmarks of sobriety, they are leveraging Pride to lift the addict out of the Shame, Guilt, Sadness and Anger of their dis-ease.
National Pride can also be useful. As I write this, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that our Constitution protects the rights for same-sex couples to marry. When news organizations interviewed U.S. Citizens, we expressed tremendous national Pride.
Furthermore, one can imagine how Pride will be an essential step in the Evolution of the conflict in The Middle East. As citizens increasingly take Pride in societal developments that ensure economic stability and a better life for all, the likelihood of Peace will likewise increase.
However, people can also over-value Pride. Politicians are especially susceptible to this trap. One famous example is Ronald Reagan in his 1984 re-election campaign.
98 War: What Is It Good For?
In Bruce Springsteen’s iconic anthem, Born in the USA, many upon first hearing it, took it as a song about Pride. Even Ronald Reagan wanted to co-opt the song to elevate his electoral goals.
While seeking to use Born In The USA as a campaign song, Reagan famously said:
“America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire—New Jersey’s own, Bruce Springsteen.”
Springsteen was not okay with his music be used as a political tool—especially by a politician who a) Bruce did not support, and who, b) clearly misunderstood the meaning behind the song in the first place.
When Reagan and his campaign staff heard Born in the USA, they were seduced by the music and failed to deeply read the lyrics.
The musical setting of the song Born in the USA embodies a fist-pumping anthem, dripping with national Pride. The dramatic irony of this song is that the lyrics tell a very different story.
Bruce later went on to perform and release the song in its original blues style, in which the music and lyrics more closely align, thereby greatly reducing the likelihood for someone to misread the song, as did President Reagan’s staff.
99 The lyrics of Born in the USA speak not of national Pride, but rather, of national Shame. The song addresses inequities that lie at the heart of the Vietnam War.
This song addresses how the draft disproportionately affected the disenfranchised:
“Got in a little hometown jam, so they put a rifle in my hand, sent me off to a foreign land, to go and kill the ‘yellow man’.”
This song addresses how the country failed to support the veterans upon their return following the war:
“Come back home to the refinery, Hiring man said ‘Son, if it was up to me.’ Went down to see my V.A. man, He said ‘Son, don’t you understand?’"
Lastly, the song addresses the fact that the veteran’s issues exist long past the military and political conclusion of the conflict:
“Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery, I’m, ten years burning down the road. Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go.”
100 Born in the USA
Born down in a dead man’s town.!! The first kick I took was when I hit the ground.!! You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much! !till you spend half your life just covering up, now!!.
Born in the U.S.A. I was, !!Born in the U.S.A, I was, !!Born in the U.S.A!! Born in the U.S.A, now!!.
Got in a little hometown jam,! !so they put a rifle in my hand.!! Sent me off to a foreign land, to go and kill the ‘yellow man!’!.
Born in the U.S.A, I was, !!Born in the U.S.A, I was, !!Born in the U.S.A, I was, !!Born in the U.S.A!!
Come back home to the refinery,! !hiring man said "Son, if it was up to me."!! Went down to see my V.A. man.!! He said "Son, don’t you understand now?"!
!I had a brother at Khe Sahn, fighting off the Viet Cong.!! They’re still there, he’s all gone.!
!He had a woman he loved in Saigon, ! !I got a picture of him in her arms. !!
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary,!! out by the gas fires of the refinery,! !I’m ten years burning down the road,!! nowhere to run, ain’t, got, nowhere to go!.
!Born in the U.S.A, I was, !!Born in the U.S.A, now. !!Born in the U.S.A I’m a long gone daddy in the U.S.A, now!!.
Born in the U.S.A!! Born in the U.S.A!! Born in the U.S.A, I’m a cool rockin’ daddy, in the U.S.A., now!.
101 This Land Is Your Land
Bruce Springsteen uses Spiritual Evolution as a central theme. He does so primarily through one concept: The American Dream. Bruce uses The American Dream as a standard against which we can measure the Evolution of our Communal Consciousness.
Some might incorrectly guess that because of this, Bruce’s music only speaks to American audiences. But nothing could be further from the truth. Bruce’s audiences spread across the globe. These varied international audiences all use The American Dream as a conceptual framework through which they explore the Evolution of their own Consciousness and that of their respective communities. In other words, Europeans can still Love Bruce Springsteen’s music precisely because The American Dream expands beyond America.
The conceptual framework for American Democracy started with writers and thinkers in The Age of Enlightenment. This era was also known as The Age of Reason.
The leading thinkers in this era were originally Europeans who were inspired by Greek and Roman philosophers a thousand years prior. Although the foundation for American Democracy can be traced back to Europe, it was through the wisdom of The Founding Fathers that American Democracy became a reality.
I strongly believe that we are all best served through an understanding that The American Dream is an idea that should extend beyond any given form. Therefore, I believe that language, race, creed, gender, sexual orientation or nationality should never limit our vision and application of The American Dream.
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Q: How universally do you apply The American Dream?
Q: How universally do you apply the statement, We Take Care of Our Own?
Q: How universally might Jesus apply that same statement?
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102 We Take Care of Our Own
I've been knocking on the door that holds the throne.! I've been looking for the map that leads me home.! I've been stumbling on good hearts turned to stone.! The road of good intentions has gone dry as bone.!
We take care of our own.! We take care of our own.! Wherever this flag's flown,! we take care of our own.!!
From Chicago to New Orleans,! from the muscle to the bone,! from the shotgun shack, to the Super Dome!. There ain't no help, the cavalry stayed home. There ain't no one hearing the bugle blowing.
We take care of our own.! We take care of our own.! Wherever this flag's flown,! we take care of our own.!
!Where’s the eyes, the eyes with the Will to see?! Where's the hearts that run over with mercy?! Where's the Love that has not forsaken me?! Where's the Work that'll set my hands, my soul free?! Where's the Spirit to reign over me? !Where's the promise, from sea to shining sea?! Where's the promise, from sea to shining sea?!
Wherever this flag is flown, !wherever this flag is flown,! wherever this flag is flown !! we take care of our own.!
We take care of our own.! Wherever this flag's flown,! we take care of our own.!
We take care of our own.! We take care of our own.! Wherever this flag's flown,! we take care of our own.
103 Summarizing Contemplations: Chapter Three
“Nothing is either good or band, except thinking that makes it so.”
—William Shakespeare
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Q: How do you interpret the signs revealed in your life? (In other words: What is the meaning of your meaning?)
Q: How do you experience Fear within the following forms?
a) Pride
b) Anger
c) Sadness
d) Guilt
e) Shame
Q: What is the relationship between the following:
a) Shame / Forgiveness
b) Guilt / Compassion
c) Sadness / Equanimity
d) Anger / Temperance
e) Pride / Humility
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104 Yeah, You Right
Anyone in a Spiritual crisis is stuck. A Spiritual crisis implies being stuck in an inefficient or unsustainable system. There are two stages to the recovery from that crisis: Awareness and Acceptance. Awareness is the Love and Acceptance is the Work—to Work and Love!
Please consider the meaning you give something as an excellent reflection of your current state of Consciousness. Examine deeply the messages embedded in the Art with which you most deeply resonate. My guess it that within that Art you will discover all the Awareness that you need. The subsequent Acceptance is up to you.
Dangerous Paradise in a song that seeks to give voice to the City of New Orleans. When I think of New Orleans, I think of indulgence.
This song was intended to express redemption and regret in equal measure. When you listen to the song, is the voice of New Orleans offering you a pathway to liberation or is the voice of New Orleans acting as a temptress, luring you into your eventual demise? However you interpret the music, The Crescent City ultimately confirms, “Yeah, you right.”
I believe that everyone yet to experience full Enlightenment is suffering from an addiction of some sort. Perhaps this addiction is to a substance, as most people take the word “addiction” to mean. Others, however, may be suffering from an addiction to patterns of thought, cycles of behavior and/or habits of perception. Perhaps these patterns lead to indulgences like hyper-identification and/or hyper-attachment. Regardless of the form of addiction, I believe that recovery from any addiction requires examining one’s indulgences by investigating why:
1) Too much is never enough.
2) I want it all or nothing at all.
3) My best was never good enough.
Sonic Contemplation 3—Incantation: Dangerous Paradise
--- N. B.
Please note the cello playing on this track. The cellist in The Gypsy Radio Project is Matt Turner—an otherworldly improviser, musician and person—who, on this song, is playing an acoustic cello with a distortion pedal. I asked Matt to imagine mixing Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock with Yo-Yo Ma. I like to imagine Matt kneeling on stage, suit tie wrapped around his forehead, lighting his cello on fire.
105
“And the day came when it became less painful to blossom than it did to remain tight in a bud.”
—Anais Ninn
106 Chapter IV—The Empathic Shift: Transcending the Illusion of Separateness
To experience The Promised Land of Non-Duality, we must awaken from the illusion of separateness. There are countless ways in which we can transcend separateness. One such way is to awaken from the belief that Science and Spirituality are separate systems.
Some people believe that Science and Spirituality are not only separate, but that they are mutually exclusive. However, if we view Spirituality simply as the Evolution of Consciousness, then it follows that Science is an essential aspect of Spirituality because Reason is an essential aspect on the journey of our Soul’s Evolution.
If you recall The Fish Parable at the beginning of this book, you will remember that the journey toward Non-Duality starts with the naïve simplicity of the fish swimming in the water of Consciousness without any Awareness of it. Then the fish experiences non-water through the complexity of disconnected forms. Ultimately, through wise simplicity, the fish returns to the water of Consciousness with an Awareness of its Self as that Consciousness.
The step from disconnected forms into Non-Duality can occur when we become Aware and Accept how Science and Spirituality are inter-related. One pathway that can assist in the understanding of this connection can be discovered through The Second Law of Thermodynamics—otherwise known as Entropy.
Entropy is the principle that states that all “things” in the universe are in a state of disintegration. The irreversibility of Entropy is the arrow of time. In Scientific terms, we might express this disintegration as a universal movement toward chaos. In Spiritual terms, we might express Entropy through the saying, “dust into dust.”
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Fear manifests as an outgrowth of increased Awareness of Entropy. That is to say, Fear is an outgrowth of the Awareness that all “things” in the universe must fall apart and thus cease to exist. Since the ego ultimately conceptualizes the self as a thing, the ego naturally Fears Entropy.
The connection between Entropy and Consciousness can be revealed through the writings of Vice President Al Gore. In his book The Future, he writes:
“Entropy, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, causes all isolated physical systems to break down over time and is responsible for irreversibility in nature. For a simple example of Entropy, consider a smoke ring: it begins as a coherent donut with clearly defined boundaries. But as the molecules separate from one another and dissipate into the air, the ring falls apart and disappears. All so-called closed systems are subject to the same basic process of dissolution; in some, Entropy operates quickly, while in others the process takes more time.”
107 Please note that when Vice President Gore writes about a “closed system,” he means to imply any system that is unaccepting of outside resources. By contrast, an open system is a system that is accepting of outside resources. These resources enter the open system, integrate and then leave the system again.
Al Gore goes on to write that in 1977 a Russian born Scientist named Iyla Prigogine won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a major corollary to The Second Law of Thermodynamics. We will call this insight The Entropic Corollary.
“Prigogine’s discovery was that an open system—that is, a system that imports flows of energy from outside the system into it, through it, and out again—not only breaks down, but as the flow of energy continues, the system then reorganizes itself at a higher level of complexity. In a sense, the phenomenon described by Prigogine is the opposite of Entropy.
Self-organization, as both a law of nature and a process of change, is truly astonishing. What it means is that complex systems can emerge spontaneously through self- organization. While Prigogine’s discovery of this new law of nature may seem arcane, its implications for the way we should think about the future are profound.”
Gore goes on to site an example of The Entropic Corollary through the information revolution:
“Consider the increased flows of information throughout the world following the introduction of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Elements of old information patterns began to break down. Many newspapers went bankrupt, readers sharply declined in most others, bookstores consolidated and closed. Many business models became obsolete. But the new emergent pattern led to the self-organization of thousands of new business models, and volumes of online communication dwarfing those that characterized the world of the printing press.”
Both the Printing Press and the Internet helped to facilitate the Evolution of our Communal Consciousness. The Printing Press facilitated this Evolution through increased literacy, which in turn, allowed for a freer flow of information. This shift in Consciousness gave rise to The Age of Reason.
Similarly, the Internet is creating a system of informational exchange that likewise facilitates the Evolution of our Communal Consciousness. This shift in Consciousness is giving rise to The Age of Integrity.
108 To transcend the illusion of separateness we need to transcend form. We can transcend form through an understanding of Entropy and The Entropic Corollary. By doing so we can understand how things fall apart, then reorganize at higher levels of complexity. This understanding can lead one to sense the connection that exists between and among all forms.
Spirituality can be conceived as the Awareness and Acceptance of Formlessness.
Non-Duality is revealed through discovering the Formless essence that imbues all forms.
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For examples of open and closed systems, I offer the following contrasting systems to assist in your discernment:
Open System Closed System
United States North Korea
Mahatma Gandhi Adolph Hitler
Reincarnation Death
109 Went On To Organize
In considering the Formless nature of life, we have to explore how life has no beginning and no end. To do this we usually start with exploring how life continues after death. This is a concept that people are relatively comfortable exploring as most religions believe in some version of life after death.
To fully explore the Formless nature of life, I find it useful to also explore life before conception. For some Reason, we seem to have an easier time grasping eternity as having no end than we do with the concept of eternity as having no beginning.
That which is Formless has no beginning and no end—for, it is the beginning and the end of something that gives it form. Anything that begins must end. Anything that ends must begin. Eternity has neither a beginning nor an ending.
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Empathy is shared Consciousness. When expanding Consciousness, Empathy can be enhanced through an understanding of Entropy and The Entropic Corollary. The dual processes of Entropy and The Entropic Corollary show us how forms disintegrate then reorganize into new forms with a higher level of complexity. These are the processes that enable Evolution to occur.
When applied to Consciousness, Empathy helps us to perceive beyond our own Personal Consciousness. Accordingly, Empathy enables us to perceive how Consciousness is connected between different people (forms). With the insights of Empathy, we can begin to perceive how Consciousness can continue to Evolve beyond the range of a singular lifespan. This Awareness lies at the heart of Communal Consciousness.
An expansion of Empathy is really the secret to the Evolution of Consciousness. As our Awareness expands, so too does our Empathy. This expansion leads us beyond our own Personal Consciousness, through Communal Consciousness and ultimately to the Cosmic Consciousness of God.
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In the song Joe Hill, Bruce explores The Entropic Corollary. In it, he tells the story of a union leader who was killed, but his Formless Spirit did not die, and went on to inspire others to reorganize at higher levels of complexity.
“Standing there as big as life, smiling with his eyes, Joe says, “What they forgot kill, went on to organize.”
110 Joe Hill
Well I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you and me. Says I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead.” "I never died," says he. "I never died," says he.
"In Salt Lake, Joe, by God," says I, him standing by my bed. "They framed you on a murder charge." Says Joe, "But I ain't dead." Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."
"The copper bosses shot you Joe, they killed you Joe", says I. "Takes more than guns to kill a man." Says Joe, "I didn't die." Says Joe, "I didn't die."
Standing there as big as life, smiling with his eyes, Joe says, "What they forgot kill, went on to organize. Went on to organize."
"Joe Hill ain't dead," he says to me, "Joe Hill he’ll never die. Where Working men go out on strike, Joe Hill is at their side. Joe Hill is at their side.”
From San Diego up to Maine, in every mine and mill, Where Working men go out on strike. Says, "Here you'll find Joe Hill." Says, "Here you'll find Joe Hill."
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you and me. Says I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead." "I never died," says he. "I never died," says he.
111 Born Again
Through expanded Empathy and an understanding of The Entropic Corollary, I hope your perspective on reincarnation can likewise evolve. It seems to me that reincarnation is an Awareness of how our Consciousness extends beyond the form of our body. Whether first explored through Communal Consciousness or ultimately applied to Cosmic Consciousness, expanded Empathy can awaken us from the illusion of separateness and give us insight into reincarnation as both a Spiritual truth and a Scientific law of the universe.
The Law of the Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed—it can only transform from one form into another. As it is with energy, so too it is with Consciousness—as Consciousness is a type of energy.
Accordingly, Consciousness can never be created nor destroyed; it can only change forms.
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Within the form of a single life, people often claim to have been born again. What does this mean? I have come to understand the process of being born again as the transformation from one system of Consciousness into another.
The experience of being born again feels like experiencing a dramatic shift in Consciousness within a single lifespan. In order for The Entropic Corollary to Work, first an old system has to break down. This old system, when related to ego and Consciousness, is simply habits of perception. This transformation lies at the heart of being born again and at the heart of any meaningful growth.
In order for a student to acquire a new conceptual framework, an old conceptual framework must “die.” This surrendering of pre-existing ideas and habits of perception is the most challenging part of transformation, regardless of the context. Letting go of old habits of perception (or systems of Consciousness) often feels like some part of us dies. But the new birth that follows is typically more evolved because of The Entropic Corollary.
The Awareness of a Spirit that exists beyond the form of someone’s body is a theme that Springsteen comes back to often. Through songs like The Hunter of Invisible Game, and We Are Alive, Bruce explores our Formless essence—an essence that does not die with the death of our bodies.
“Let your mind rest easy, sleep well my friend. It’s only our bodies that betray us in the end.”
112 We Are Alive
There's a cross up yonder up on Calvary Hill!. There's a slip of blood on a silver knife!. There's a graveyard kid down below,! where at night did come to life!.
And above the stars, they crackle in fire.! A dead man's moon throws seven rings!. Well, we put our ears to the cold grave stones!, this is the song they'd sing!:
“We are alive!. And though our bodies lie alone here in the dark!, our Spirits rise, to carry the fire and light the spark,! to stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.! ”
!A voice cried out, “I was killed in Maryland in 1877 ! when the railroad Workers made their stand.”! “Well, I was killed in 1963, one Sunday morning in Birmingham.”!
“Well, I died last year crossing the southern desert!, my children left behind in San Pablo.! Well they left our bodies here to rot! Oh please let them know:
“We are alive!. And though our bodies lie alone here in the dark!, our Spirits rise, to carry the fire and light the spark,! to stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.”
!”Let your mind rest easy, sleep well my friend. !It's only our bodies that betray us in the end.! ”
!I awoke last night in a dark and dreamy deep !from my head to my feet, my body had gone stone cold.! There were worms crawling all around me,! fingers scratching at an earth black and six foot low!.
And alone in the blackness of my grave, !alone I’d been left to die.! Then I heard voices calling all around me.! The earth rose above me, my eyes filled with sky!.
“We are alive!. And though our bodies lie alone here in the dark!, our Spirits rise, to carry the fire and light the spark,! to stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.”
113 Out of the Many, One
I define Spirituality as the Evolution of Consciousness. This Evolution inevitably leads to a perceptual quest for Formlessness. It is in this way that Spirituality evokes the word “Spirit.” Spirit is another way of expressing all that exists beyond form.
As we understand and perceive The Entropic Corollary, we can better perceive Formlessness. Formlessness requires an Awareness and Acceptance of invisible aspects of the universe. The Acceptance of Formlessness is the ultimate Leap of Faith. Once we make this Leap of Faith, we can begin to perceive how all things are connected. Once we see this connection, we begin to discover the one-ness of the universe—also known as Non-Duality.
An elegant statement that summarizes the Spiritual journey toward Non-Duality also happens to be the first official motto of the United States of America:
E Pluribus Unum
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Form can take many forms. Things have form. Concepts have form. Even time has form. In The Hunter of Invisible Game, Bruce states:
“Strength is fantasy and time is illusion.”
The Awareness that time is an illusion is central to the practice of Buddhism. Measured time requires a past and a future, against which “now” is measured. However, since past is but a memory and future a projection, neither one is ultimately real. Thus, now is all there ever really is, and time is an illusion.
Remembering The Fish Parable, we recall that in order to perceive something (Water), we must first perceive non-something (Non-Water). This is also true with the perception of Now. In order to perceive Now (Presence), we must first perceive Non-Now (Time). Likewise, in order to perceive Here (Being), we must first perceive Non-Here (Space). Accordingly, Space / Time can be conceived as an intellectual construct leading us to Right Here, Right Now.
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If I were to pick just one song that captures Bruce’s poetic and Spiritual prowess, I would choose The Hunter of Invisible Game. In it, Bruce helps the listener to awaken from the illusion of separateness by encouraging us to explore all that exists beyond form. In The Hunter of Invisible Game, Bruce poetically expresses his Spiritual quest for Formlessness.
114 The Hunter of Invisible Game
I hauled myself up out of a ditch.! I built me an ark out of gopher wood and pitch. !Sat down by the roadside and waited on the rain.! I am the hunter of invisible game.!!
Well, I woke last night to the heavy clicking and clack,! and a scarecrow on fire along the railroad tracks.! There were empty cities and burning plains.! I am the hunter of invisible game.!!
We all come up a little short and we go down hard.! These days I spend my time skipping through the dark. !Through the empires of dust I chant your name.! I am the hunter of the invisible game.!!
Through the bone yard we rattled and black smoke we rolled on.! Down into the valley where the beast has his throne. !I sing my song and I sharpen my blade. !I am the hunter of the invisible game.!
!Strength is vanity and time is illusion. !I feel you breathing, the rest is confusion.! Your skin touches mine, what else to explain?! Honey, I'm the hunter of invisible game.!!
Now pray for yourself and that you may not fall,! when the hour of deliverance comes on us all.! When high hope and faith and courage and trust,! can rise or vanish like dust and dust.!!
Now there's a kingdom of Love waiting to be reclaimed.
!I am the hunter of the invisible game. !I am the hunter of the invisible game. !I am the hunter of the invisible game.
115 Ancient Voices of Children
Two of the most transformative experiences I experienced as a conductor involved collaborating with world-renown Artists. The first was when I collaborated with George Crumb—conducting his profound composition, Ancient Voices of Children. In addition to being a Pulitzer Prize winning composer, George Crumb is among the kindest human beings I have ever met.
Even if you only listen to Rock & Roll, please consider checking out Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children and Night of the Four Moons.
George Crumb’s music is highly Spiritual and usually involves a unique sonic palette. Some might say his music sounds weird. But once you get past his unusual use of melody and texture, people usually find his music to be astonishingly expressive.
In this Sonic Contemplation entitled, Bells of Mindfulness, I seek to pay homage to George Crumb. In keeping with the title, I orchestrated this song using only metallic instruments. Furthermore, in keeping with Crumb’s numerology aesthetic, I infused the texture with instruments all playing off of the number three.
Listen carefully to the texture and try to discover how all the instruments are playing things grouped in threes. Some of these threes are put closely together, and are thus, easily discernable. Other threes exist in less obvious ways.
In fact, the entire album of Gypsy Radio is based upon the number three. An interesting way of listening to the album is to try and find as many threes as you possibly can. There are literally hundreds of threes embedded throughout the album—all of them, intentional.
Another transformational experience occurred in collaboration with Dame Evelyn Glennie. Together, we performed Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble. During Dame Glennie’s residency, we explored her “profound deafness.” While Dame Evelyn is profoundly deaf, she is also one of the world’s great listeners. In fact, her TED Talk entitled “How to Truly Listen” is among the most watched presentations on that famous website.
Throughout her residency we explored the Art of Listening and the distinction between hearing and Listening. I discovered three insights through this collaboration:
1) Hearing is of the ears.
2) Listening is of the Mind.
3) Listening requires Mindfulness.
116 The third influence on this Sonic Contemplation is the poetic wisdom of my Spiritual teacher, Thich Nhat Hahn. The title, Bells of Mindfulness, comes from one of his Spiritual teachings. Thich Nhat Hahn (or “Thay” as his students call him) has been my greatest teacher in developing my capacity to listen. His wisdom in this area is captured through the following axiom:
“To Listen is to Love.”
Thay also offers a great exercise in becoming Aware of one’s Awareness. He suggests that we try to listen to a sound. Then, when that sounds ends, try to maintain that listening without the sound. That listening is Consciousness.
---
Awareness detects wisdom from patterns in the universe. Ultimately, these patterns reveal Consciousness as God.
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Sonic Contemplation 4—Meditation: Bells of Mindfulness
Summarizing Contemplations: Chapter Four
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Q: How is life-after-death inextricably linked to life-before-conception?
Q: How is the proverbial “Leap of Faith” linked to the Awareness and Acceptance of that which is Formless (Spirit, Non-Dual)?
Q: How is Reincarnation related to The Entropic Corollary?
--- N.B.
Now for an “extra credit” question that applies this chapter’s concepts to systems we did not explore.
Q: How is market-based economics related to the Spiritual concept of karma at the level of system?
117
“Love is the Recognition of your truest Self in the other.”
—Eckhart Tolle
118 Chapter V—Jesus was an Only Son: An Examination of Love
In the last chapter we explored The Empathic Shift. This is a shift from a primarily closed system of Fear into a primarily open system of Love. You can imagine The Empathic Shift as being the tipping point in the Evolution of one’s Consciousness. Perhaps a numerical analogy would be that moment in which we experience 49% Fear and 51% Love.
What’s important about this shift into Love-mode is that Fear does not totally disappear. Rather, this shift arises from action in the face of Fear—also known as Courage.
The Love / Fear Continuum can be conceived as a measure of your current capacity for Empathy. Empathy is the ability to expand your Personal Consciousness to include Communal Consciousness. This shift to shared Consciousness gives rise to Courage.
Love is the Awareness and Acceptance of expanded Consciousness, felt as increased Empathy. Empathy is what evolves us along our Spiritual journey. Expanding your Consciousness feels like falling in Love.
“To Listen is to Love.”
—Thich Nhat Hahn
119 The Content of Character
Courage arises out of Empathy because Empathy lets us know that we never walk alone. Barack Obama beautifully expressed this sentiment on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech. In his speech, President Obama explains how Courage arises from Empathy.
“The March on Washington teaches us that we are not trapped by the mistakes of history; that we are masters of our fate. But it also teaches us that the promises of this nation will only be kept when we Work together. We will have to reignite the embers of Empathy and the Coalition of Consciousness that found expression in this place fifty years ago.
Now I believe that Spirit is here. That true force inside each of us. I see it when a white mother recognizes her own daughter in the face of a poor black child. I see it when a black youth sees his own grandfather in the dignified steps of an elderly white man. It is there when the native-born recognize that striving Spirit of the new immigrant, and when the inter-racial couple connects the pain of a gay couple who are discriminated against and understands it as their own. That’s where Courage comes from.
When we turn not from each other, or on each other, but toward one another and we find that we do not walk alone, that’s where Courage comes from.”
—President Barack Obama
120 Courage: If I Were The King of the Forest
In the Evolution of Consciousness, Courage is absolutely essential. There can be no transformation without Courage. Since Courage is action in the face of Fear, then there can also be no transformation without Courage.
It takes Courage to make The Empathic Shift. In other words, it takes Courage to perceive beyond your own Personal Consciousness—to perceive the world as another might perceive it.
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues. Because, without it, you cannot practice any other virtue consistently.”
—Maya Angelou
Courage is the attitude that brings us into the open system of Love. Love is an open system because Love has an open mind and an open heart. To open one’s mind and heart takes Courage.
Following our metaphor of sight for the Evolution of Consciousness, The Empathic Shift from Fear-mode into Love-mode is the shift from focusing on being seen, to focusing on seeing. Courage is the intention to see beyond your self.
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In The Wizard of Oz, the main characters each depict virtues that are essential on the journey toward the Evolution of our Consciousness. Accordingly, the characters each represent the first four levels of Consciousness found in the open-system side of The Love / Fear Continuum.
Since the journey of The Wizard of Oz is a journey about the Evolution of Consciousness, the characters that represent each requisite attitude do not start off with those virtues. In fact, they are each initially defined by the absence of those virtues. Accordingly, the attitude of Courage is represented by The Cowardly Lion.
The Lion is a useful literary metaphor for two Reasons. First, since the attitudinal level of Courage is essential to the future Evolution of all the other levels, (and thus, it can be conceived as the first step along the journey of the Evolution of human Consciousness) it makes biological sense for this to be the only protagonist who is an animal.
Second, the lion has long been called “the king” of the jungle. The fact that a lion was chosen to represent the transformation of Fear into Courage points to the concept that we already possess that which we most desperately seek. In the case of The Cowardly Lion, he already possesses Courage—he simply had to re-discover his own nature to find it.
121 Look In Their Eyes, Ma, You’ll See Me
The music of Bruce Springsteen often deals with social justice. He calls upon characters with Integrity and Courage to act as prophets, shedding light on the listener’s journey. One such character was borrowed from John Steinbeck’s classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath.
In The Ghost of Tom Joad, Bruce shows his remarkable ability to distill a large narrative into a concise parable that still captures the story’s essence.
Unlike The Grapes of Wrath, this song does not take place in the 1920’s Dust Bowl. Rather, the song is contemporarily set in order to demonstrate social injustices that are still pervasive today.
“Men walking 'long the railroad tracks. Going someplace there's no going back. Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge. Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge.
Shelter line stretching round the corner. Welcome to the new world order. Families sleeping in their cars in the southwest. No home, no job, no Peace, no rest.”
By using an iconic piece of American literature from the early 20th century and showing how we are still engaged in the same fight, Springsteen points to the failures of the American Dream. Moreover, Bruce’s music often points to a specifically troubling moral turn that our nation has taken since the early 1980’s, a time in which income inequality keeps growing, and the promises of The New Deal keep being broken.
This societal schism of economic inequality will keep tearing at the very fabric of our country until we, the people, decide to do something about it. It is in this light that Springsteen has decided to be more openly political in recent years. For he shows that Artists cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and let democracy come to them. We must all take a stance for what is just in our society if we ever hope to realize the American Dream for everyone.
A calling like this engenders Fear. The requisite Courage can be mustered through the realization that we are not alone. Empathy shows us that we never walk alone. If we ever feel like we are walking alone, then just look into the eyes of injustice, and discover the Spirit of Tom Joad.
122 Ghost of Tom Joad
Men walking 'long the railroad tracks.! Going someplace there's no going back.! Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge.! Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge.!
Shelter line stretching round the corner.! Welcome to the new world order.! Families sleeping in their cars in the southwest.! No home, no job, no Peace, no rest.!!
The highway is alive tonight. !But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes. !I'm sitting down here in the campfire light, !searching for the ghost of Tom Joad.!!
He pulls prayer book out of his sleeping bag.! Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag.! Waiting for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last. !In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass.
!Got a one-way ticket to the promised land.! You got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand. !Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock.! Bathing in the city aqueduct.!!
The highway is alive tonight. !But where it's headed everybody knows. !I'm sitting down here in the campfire light.! Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad.!!
Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beating a guy.! Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries. !Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air.! Look for me, Ma, I'll be there.”!
“Wherever there's somebody fighting for a place to stand.! Or decent job or a helping hand.! Wherever somebody's struggling to be free.! Look in their eyes, Ma, you'll see me." !!
The highway is alive tonight. !But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes.! I'm sitting down here in the campfire light,! with the ghost of old Tom Joad.
123 Jesus Vs. The Buddha
If I were to point toward the human being that I have studied who resonates with me as having the highest Consciousness, I would easily point to Jesus Christ. I am continually astounded at the compassion and forgiveness he displayed throughout his trials—specifically through his torturous death, the so-called Passion of the Christ.
When thinking about the greatest gift that Jesus gave the world, I often arrive at the miraculous gift of Forgiveness. Think about it, it is impossible to understand the concept of forgiveness unless you have been forgiven. In other words, forgiveness has to start somewhere with someone. I believe that Jesus offered humanity salvation (Evolutionarily speaking) by showing us how to forgive, even in the most egregious of circumstances.
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After I deliver presentations on these Spiritual concepts, people inevitably want to speak afterward and ask questions. One question that often arises deals with the conflict a fundamentalist Christian might have with the citation of Spiritual leaders connected with many different faith traditions. This conflict arises because fundamentalists believe that there is only one way to the truth. In the case of fundamentalist Christians, they believe that the only way to God is through Jesus, because he is the way, the truth and the light. In contrast, Buddhists believe there are many pathways toward God.
How can these two perspectives co-exist?
I believe that both of these perspectives can be simultaneously justified by understanding that they are simply being perceived through two different lenses.
Through the lens of duality, there must be hierarchy. In hierarchy, resources will be unevenly distributed and thus, there will always be one “man at the top.” Since Christians perceive Jesus to be the highest Consciousness ever to have walked the face of the Earth (and I happen to agree with this perspective), it makes total sense that Jesus be the only way, the only truth and the only light.
However, in a world of Non-Duality, there can be no difference between The Buddha and Jesus, as they are both from the same Consciousness. So if you are viewing the world through a lens of Non-Duality, then “it don’t matter who you’re searching through, it only matters how.”
“If you focus too narrowly on a single path to God, all you will ever find is the path.”
—Meister Eckhart
124 At His Mother’s Feet
Expanded Empathy helps us to muster the Courage necessary for the transformation of our Consciousness, also known as our Soul. Through expanded Empathy, we realize that we are not alone. This is a primary function of the Spiritual leaders we worship—we feel less alone when we study and align ourselves with their Consciousness.
Bruce Springsteen, in his beautiful ballad Jesus Was an Only Son, paints a picture of Jesus, the man. By doing so, Bruce highlights the tangible sacrifice made by Jesus and by his mother, Mary. This perspective helps me to perceive Jesus with increased Empathy by considering what precisely was sacrificed and what was forgiven.
To best understand Jesus as the Son of God, it helps me to perceive Jesus as the only son of Mary. Through an exploration of Jesus’ mortal self, I better perceive him as the Son of God through the manner in which he endured his unimaginable suffering.
When introducing Jesus Was an Only Son in concert, Bruce paints a vivid picture of the possible life that Jesus might have sacrificed. While many think of Jesus’ death as a gift for all mankind, this song helps to paint the picture of a young mother, who lost her only boy.
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“The first thing that you realize when you have your kids is that there is this feeling that appears in your gut that there isn’t nothing you wouldn’t do, no train you wouldn’t step in front of to keep them safe. And that’s a life sentence.
If our choices are given weight and meaning by the things we sacrifice, as you choose some part of life, you give up something else.
I always figured that Jesus had to be thinking about what he was going to lose. He must have been thinking:
‘Galilee. Is really nice this time of year. That little bar, down by the beach, they need someone to manage the place. Mary Magdalene, well, she could tend bar.’
He wouldn’t have to quit the preaching, he could just save it for the weekends. And they could have a bunch of kids, and see the sun fall on their face, and get to see the air fill their lungs at night when their sleeping. And get to see the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day.”
125 Jesus Was An Only Son
Jesus was an only son ! !as he walked up Calvary Hill.!! His mother Mary, walking beside him,!! in the path where his blood spilled.!
!Jesus was an only son,! !in the hills of Nazareth.! !As he lay reading the Psalms of David!, !at his mother’s feet.!!
A mother prays, "Sleep tight, my child, sleep well ! !for I’ll be at your side.!! That no shadow, no darkness, no tolling bell, !! shall pierce your dreams this night."!!
In the garden at Gethsemane ! !he prayed for the life he’d never live. !He beseeched his Heavenly Father to remove !! this cup of death from his lips.!
!Now there’s a loss that can never be replaced.!! A destination that can never be reached. !!A light you’ll never find in another’s face. !A sea whose distance cannot be breached.!!
Well Jesus kissed his mother’s hands.!! Whispered, "Mother, still your tears.!! For remember the Soul of the Universe!! Willed a world and it appeared.”!
126 We Shall Overcome
Some people find it hard to perceive that the world is Evolving in a positive direction. They turn on the news every evening and all they see is death, destruction and the proliferation of Fear. Amidst the chaos of our societal changes, it can be difficult to see the Evolution toward Love.
I remember once being stuck in an airport, trying to get back home from delivering a speech on Consciousness and Music Education. I took the newly found free time of this delay to go to the bar and write. The gentleman sitting next to me asked what I was writing about. I said, “the Evolution of Love in our society.” Ironically, he too was a writer. In fact, he had just finished a book about how Love is leaving our society. What followed was a transformative conversation.
I asked him questions about his book and he asked me questions about mine. Finally, after quite a long conversation with each of us explaining our perception on the world, he asked me for evidence that our society was moving in a positive direction. I responded simply by asking if he was a father. He said that he was. I then asked him about his relationship with his father. Lastly, I asked him if he is able to more openly express Love for his child when compared to the Love that his father was able to express.
He sat silently for a long moment. Then he slowly turned without meeting my eyes and said, “I think I see what you mean. My father was a son-of-a-bitch. In fact, my relationship with him might very well be the Reason why I feel the world lacks Love. But then, when I think about how I am now able to Love my daughter, I can see how we, as a society, might be slowly moving in a more Loving direction.”
The signs of Fear are all around us. In fact, I have come to perceive the rising Fear as evidence that the world is quickly evolving toward Love. As a world of Love comes rushing in, a world of Fear comes rushing in along side it. For example, to me, the Fear that is sold through Fox News, is proof that society is evolving quickly. The quicker the Evolution, the quicker Fear will inevitably arise—remembering the earlier Pema Chodran quote that stated, “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.”
When Fox News asserts that there is a “war on religion” or a “war on family,” I believe what they are actually saying is that people feel threatened by the fact that old systems are breaking down and that new systems are subsequently emerging to take their place. To someone entrenched in an old system, this experience feels like war. To someone open to new, more inclusive systems, this experience feels like Evolution. If we look back at our long human history, we can see a trajectory in which we have progressively, although not linearly, moved toward justice, equality and Peace. We are not there yet and there are still many challenges to overcome. But the moral arc of the universe teaches us that, indeed, we shall overcome.
127 “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King
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Q: Is our society falling apart or is our society evolving to higher degrees of complexity, equality and justice?
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I believe the answer to both these questions is “yes.” The difference between those two questions lies in perspective. From the perspective of Entropy, things are always falling apart. From the perspective of The Entropic Corollary, things are always re-organizing at higher and higher levels of complexity
Awareness of The Entropic Corollary helps us to discover the moral arc of the universe. Whether this is perceived through the natural selection of Evolution or through the Grace of God, all open systems are Evolving toward maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
The difference between a perspective of Fear and a perspective of Love lies in what aspect you choose to focus your attention. Whatever you give your attention to will expand. If you focus your Awareness onto the breaking down of systems, the resultant Fear will expand. Likewise, if you focus your Awareness onto the reorganization of new systems with higher degrees of complexity, efficiency and effectiveness, the resultant Love will likewise expand.
128 We Shall Overcome
We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome, some day.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome, some day.
We'll walk hand in hand. We'll walk hand in hand. We'll walk hand in hand, some day.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome, some day.
We shall all be free. We shall all be free. We shall all be free, some day.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome, some day.
We are not afraid. We are not afraid. We are not afraid, some day.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome, some day.
We are not alone. We are not alone. We are not alone, some day.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome, some day.
We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome, some day.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome, some day.
129 It Only Matters How
The 5th track of Gypsy Radio is intended to serve as the homily within the form of the Catholic Mass. In it, I seek to communicate the single most essential lesson on this Spiritual journey.
“The Love I seek to be comes from deep inside of me, and that’s the ‘image and likeness’ I think the prophets were trying to say.”
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God is Love.
I am made in the image and likeness of God.
Therefore, I am Love. (And, I am God, but we’ll get to that in Chapter X.)
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Sonic Contemplation 5—Credo: Right Here, Right Now
--- N.B.
I start this piece with a brief quotation in the cello from the famous Stephen Foster lament, Hard Times, Come Again No More.
130 Summarizing Contemplations: Chapter Five
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Q: What is the relationship between Space and Time and the Here and Now?
Q: If you believe that a) We are made in the image and likeness of God, and b) God is Love, then, c) Are we made in the image and likeness of Love?
Q: How does Non-Duality relate to Empathy?
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131
“Spiritual Work is the transformation of suffering into awakening— experienced as Grace. The meaning of Work, whatever its form, is that it should be used to heal the world.”
—Ram Dass
132 Chapter VI—Shackled and Drawn: An Examination of Work
When marriage equality first started to be openly discussed in America, I remember watching a conservative talk show that was discussing the issue. When the politician was asked what was to blame for the ascent of gay rights, his answer was Will and Grace. I could not agree more, although he was speaking of the 90’s TV show and I use those terms in a Spiritual sense.
The great avatar Meher Baba said that the key to Spiritual transformation lies in Effort and Grace. The Effort is that which comes from us, the Grace is that which comes from God. Likewise, Freud was reported to have said that a person can be successful and happy in this world if they learn how to do two things: Work and Love. Both Freud and Meher Baba point to the insight that the Evolution of Consciousness takes Work.
The essence of Spiritual Work is the transformation of suffering into awakening. Each and every moment of suffering is an opportunity to convert that suffering into a more awakened sense of Consciousness. We can make this conversion at the precise moment that we realize that Consciousness is like water to a fish—always surrounding and within us. So whenever we feel discomfort, we can simply realize that this discomfort is the universe trying to communicate with us.
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Q: What is it that the universe is trying to communicate to you in moments of suffering?
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I have come to discover that suffering is shining light on some aspect of our Consciousness that is out of alignment. Some suffering arises from hyper- attachment, some suffering arises from hyper-identification and some suffering arises from hyper-duality. But all Conscious suffering arises from a disconnection from our essential Being-ness.
This is not to say that enlightened Souls do not also feel pain. But the most enlightened Souls that I have studied all perceive suffering as a gift that they experience as an opportunity to more deeply awaken to God’s Love.
Pain is universal and unavoidable. However, suffering can be conceived as being distinct from pain. In this light, suffering could be imagined to be our reaction, or resistance to pain. Using the weather as a metaphor, pain can be likened to the heat, while suffering can be likened to the humidity. With this insight in mind, we might consider the saying:
It’s not the heat—it’s the humidity.
133 My time spent with marching bands in Louisiana taught me that hot and humid days were incredibly taxing on my mind and body. But they were also incredible opportunities for Spiritual growth. While most people complain about the heat, it is usually the humidity that makes the suffering so intolerable. I soon came to experience humidity as a metaphor for my own resistance to the experience of the oppressive heat.
In order to withstand the physical demands of marching band in 100-degree heat with 95% humidity, I had to learn how to cool down my internal attitude about the experience. I learned to breathe deeply and calm myself as a means to experience less suffering—and it works! As my inner agitation calmed down, so too did my suffering. After a few years, I became quite adept at using the hot weather as a Spiritual practice for awakening.
When I became a high school band director, I began to impart this practice to my students. They soon took on the mantra, “Its not the heat—it’s the humidity.” What this mantra reminded us was that the heat represented that which we could not change, in this case, the weather. The humidity represented our inner attitude toward the weather – something we could change. The more resistance toward the suffering, the more “humidity.” The more Acceptance of the suffering, the less “humidity.” With enough practice these oppressive conditions became manageable, even enjoyable.
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The essence of Spiritual Work is the Acceptance of that which we cannot change, the Courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference. Our Attitude about a situation is something that we can always modulate if we have enough Awareness and Acceptance.
“I offer only two rules to govern your Spiritual journey: 1) be kind whenever possible and 2) kindness is always possible.”
—The Dalai Lama
Spiritual Work feels like having an “attitude adjustment” in the midst of suffering. It is usually quite easy to have an attitude adjustment while on a retreat or vacation. What is much more challenging is to be able to shift your attitude in the midst of a fight, conflict or the many other forms of suffering.
I figured out how to transform suffering into awakening with the Louisiana heat, but there still remained many aspects of my life into which I was unable to transfer these insights. My relationships remained my primary area of attitudinal stagnation. For years I languished in my Spiritual growth, knowing that I should be able to shift my attitudes but lacking the skill to be able to do so. This continued until Guru Rachel Semrow came into my life.
134 The Inform / Affect Distinction
I have never had a Spiritual teacher with whom I personally met until I was in my late thirties. All of the Spiritual teachers I cite in this text are people whose books I read, lectures I attended, or interviews I watched on TV. It was only when I got married and we hit our first rocky patch that this all changed for me.
My wife and I decided to try marriage counseling with the amazing therapist Rachel Semrow. I met with Rachel once per week, Luda met with Rachel once per week and we met together once per week. This therapy proved to be among the most transformational experiences in my life. But if there is only one lesson that I took away from my time with Guru Rachel (as my wife and I secretly called her behind her back), it was The Inform / Affect Distinction.
In our private sessions we usually did not discuss issues related to us as a couple. Rather, we explored issues in our own individual lives. As my job is very important to me, I would often speak of conflicts I was having at Work.
My colleagues at the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point were all amazing people, teachers and artists. It was a miraculous time in my life when nearly every one of my colleagues felt like a beloved friend. There was one person, however, with whom I could not connect—no matter how hard I tried.
My predecessors and colleagues all warned me about him. But I wanted to be the person who was able to break down his walls, so I took it as a personal mission to be his friend, help him through his insecurities and get him out of his Fear. In short, I wanted to be the hero who broke through his defenses.
My efforts failed. In fact, they probably backfired. The more I tried, the more resentment I felt from him. My colleagues consoled me and told me not to worry, even to give up. This just made me try harder. When people spoke badly about him behind his back, I always tried to be the person who stuck up for him.
Of course, in retrospect, I can clearly see that my intensions were rooted in my ego. I did not want to support him purely because I believed in his artistic, pedagogical and personal worth; rather, I wanted to be the hero who was able to finally break down his walls.
As I look back, I acknowledge that this person’s distrust of me was well founded. I now suspect that he knew that my overtures to him were not fundamentally authentic. He is a very sensitive person who was accurately picking up on the idea that my motivations were ultimately selfish. Perhaps, even the worst kind of self- centeredness: selfishness under the inauthentic disguise of unselfishness.
135 Sharing these trials and tribulations with Guru Rachel, one day I asked her an important question. I said, “Through our time together, I now understand that all my suffering arises through ego.”
Rachel said, “Good.”
Then I continued, “But how do I know if it is my ego that is getting in the way or his?” Rachel then said something that changed my life. She said:
“It depends on whether you are being informed or affected. If you are being informed, it is not your ego. If you are being affected, it is.”
This simple piece of wisdom has astonishing implications. First, and most importantly, this insight gave me a tool to be able to distinguish—in the moment of suffering—if I was the root cause of my suffering. In other words, this distinction can give you the ability to identify your ego in the midst of your ego being engaged.
This is no small thing. Because when our ego is being engaged, the first thing to vanish is our fluent sense of perception. Accordingly, our perception is distorted. This is why it is so challenging to adjust your attitude in the midst of your ego being engaged—because it does not feel like your ego is being engaged. It feels like someone else’s fault.
The second thing this distinction offers is a pathway out of suffering. While experiencing agitation, if I feel that I am being affected—that is to say, that I am feeling defensive, embarrassed, angry, sad, frustrated or otherwise annoyed—I simply have to turn that feeling into being informed. I can become informed about the other person or informed about myself. Either way, this transformation of turning “being affected “into “being informed” is the Spiritual Work of transforming suffering into awakening. The Inform / Affect Distinction is a wonderful example of Spiritual Work.
This amazing piece of wisdom allows us to become Conscious in the moment of agitation, thereby, stilling the agitation. If a situation is affecting us, it is letting us know something about our journey.
Shame, Guilt, Grief, Anger and Pride are all examples of the ego being affected.
136 To Work and Love
“Clinical psychologists sometimes say that two kinds of people seek therapy: those who need tightening, and those who need loosening.”
—Jonathan Haidt
Peaceful discernment about whether we are being informed or affected by a situation is a powerful tool in assisting with our Spiritual Evolution. This discernment can lead us to an Awareness of if and how we are out of balance.
A primary manner in which we are often out of balance is between our Work (tightening up) and our Love (loosening up). When we find balance, we discover that both tightening up and loosening up are both essential to our Evolution. Learning how to sequence and balance Work and Love is among our most essential challenges as Conscious Beings.
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Work should be highly regarded, because it is a pathway to our transformation as a species. Spiritual Work, like all Work, is hard. But Work must always remain in balance with Love. If we do not do the Work, our Spiritual Evolution will stagnate— even if we Love a lot.
Love without Work feels like Awareness without Acceptance. Ultimately, Work and Love (just like Awareness and Acceptance) must be in balance with each other. Likewise, one can be too engaged with Work and forget to nurture Love in their life.
We all know people who are out of balance between Work and Love. Some dedicate themselves exclusively to their job, leaving their family and friends with a sense of loneliness and isolation. Others are so dedicated to Love that they fail to do the requisite Work to enable the growth that Love points toward.
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Q: Are you more inclined to lose your self in Work or in Love?
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137 Will: Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
Following our understanding of the Evolution of Consciousness through the metaphor of sight, Will is the intension to see what is currently unseen. Will is bending the universe through intentional Work and Love.
In The Wizard of Oz, Will is embodied through Dorothy. She is the only fully human being in the film and, accordingly, she is the character that represents “free will” and determination to the goal of Oz, to help her reach The Promised Land of her family’s home in Kansas.
Dorothy’s Will is the wind that propels The Hero’s Journey. That’s why she’s the hero. When other characters want to quit, Dorothy never does. She is driven to find her way back home, no matter how treacherous that journey may be.
Shovel In The Dirt Keeps the Devil Gone
Bruce beautifully explores the Spiritual benefits of Work throughout his music. He often returns to the value of Work and the Shame, Guilt, Sadness and Anger of “Non- Work.” Work gives people purpose and a sense of Pride. Work is also a vehicle for Spiritual growth.
Earlier, we examined Ram Dass who said, “Spiritual Work is the transformation of suffering into awakening—experienced as Grace.” He also goes on to talk specifically about the Spiritual purpose of Work.
“The meaning of Work, whatever its form, is that it should be used to heal the world.”
For a brief time I taught in Thailand. I brought students from my university over there to Work with young children who were victims of the sexual tourism industry. Since most of the sexual tourists were Americans, Europeans and Australians, you can imagine how reluctant they initially were to engage with us. However, over time, we all grew close and the experience was transformational for everyone involved. While I grew a lot from the entire experience, the person I grew the most from was a gentle Soul named Pi June.
Pi June was the school’s resident custodian, although he saw himself more as someone who Worked in Art restoration. The Art that he was constantly restoring was the beautiful Earth that God had given us. He spent his Working days cleaning the school grounds with a focus equal to someone cleaning the Mona Lisa. When the school day ended, he spent the rest of his waking hours extending beyond the school grounds, cleaning and restoring the natural beauty of the local village. He showed me that Will, when properly motivated, can transform Work into Love.
138 Shackled and Drawn
Gray morning light splits through the shade. !Another day older and closer to the grave. !I'm closer to the grave and come the dawn, !I woke this morning shackled and drawn.!!
Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn.! Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on.! Trudging through the dark in a world gone wrong.! Woke up this morning shackled and drawn.!!
!!I always Love the feel of sweat on my shirt.! Stand back, son, and let a man Work.! Let a man Work, is that so wrong, !I woke up this morning shackled and drawn.!!
Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn. !Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on.! What's a poor boy to do in a world, gone wrong?! Woke up this morning shackled and drawn.!!
Freedom, son, is a dirty shirt.! The sun on my face and my shovel in the dirt.! The shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone. !I woke up this morning shackled and drawn.!!
Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn. !Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on.! What's a poor boy to do, but keep singing his song? !I woke up this morning shackled and drawn.!!
Gambling man rolls the dice, Working man pays the bills.! It's still fat and easy up on bankers hill. !Up on bankers hill the party's going strong.! Down here below we're shackled and drawn.!!
Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn.! Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on.! Trudging through the dark in a world, gone wrong.! Woke up this morning shackled and drawn.!!
Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn.! Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on.! What's a poor boy to do but keep singing this song? !I woke up this morning shackled and drawn.!
139 The Working Life
Springsteen’s music often explores un-employment and the toll that it can take on people. This was a central struggle in the life of Bruce’s father. According to stories Bruce tells at concerts, his father struggled to find Work. When he did find Work, it was never the kind of Work that nurtured his Soul.
At night, his father would sit up in the darkness. When Bruce would come home, his father would apparently project his resentment and Anger toward his son. This conflict was seminal in Bruce’s life and in his development as an Artist. Through his father, Bruce deeply learned the value of Work and the cost that unemployment (and under-employment) has on people.
On the other hand, Bruce’s mother was apparently a very positive influence in his life. She showed him that hard Work and dedication pay off, in both a professional and a personal sense.
To this day, Bruce Springsteen is known as one of the hardest Working Artists in show business. His shows are epic, long and intense. Apparently, he often reminds his band members before going on stage that the audience paid really good money and comes with extremely high expectations. Their job, Bruce says, is to give the audience more than their money’s worth. Bruce wants to leave the audience both tired and transformed.
This amazing Work ethic arises from the struggles he witnessed in his father’s relationship to Work. In the song Factory, Bruce explores his father’s relationship to Work. More specifically, Bruce explores the emotional, physical and Spiritual tolls of under-employment.
140 Factory
Early in the morning factory whistle blows. Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes. Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light.! !It’s the Working, the Working, just the Working life. !!
Through the mansions of Fear, through the mansions of pain, ! !I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain. !Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life. The Working, the Working, just the Working life. !!
End of the day, factory whistle cries. Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes. ! !And you just better believe, boy, ! !somebody’s gonna get hurt tonight. The Working, the Working, just the Working life. !!
141 I’m Swinging 40 Pounds From My Hips On Down
On The Seeger Sessions album, Bruce brought a Bluegrass aesthetic to the Stephen Foster classic, John Henry.
This song is a morality play examining the relationship between human beings and technology. At its heart, the song asks the question:
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Q: If machines replace our physical Work, how might this affect the Evolution of our Souls?
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John Henry
Well John Henry was a little baby, sittin’ on his daddy's knee. He picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel And cried, "Hammer's gonna be the death of me, Lord, Lord. Hammer's gonna be the death of me."
Now the captain he said to John Henry, "I'm gonna bring that steam drill around. I'm gonna bring that steam drill out on these tracks, I'm gonna knock that steel on down, God, God. I'm gonna knock that steel on down."
John Henry told his captain, "Lord, a man ain't nothin’ but a man. But before I let that steam drill beat me down I'm gonna die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord. I'll die with a hammer in my hand."
John Henry driving on the right side. That steam drill driving on the left. Says, "Before I let your steam drill beat me down, I'm gonna hammer myself to death, Lord, Lord. I'll hammer my poor self to death."
~
142
Well captain said to John Henry, "What is that storm I hear?" John Henry said, "That ain't no storm captain, that's just my hammer in the air, Lord, Lord. That's just my hammer in the air."
John Henry said to his shaker, "Shaker, why don't you sing? Cause I'm swingin' thirty pounds from my hips on down Yeah, listen to my cold steel ring, Lord, Lord. Listen to my cold steel ring."
John Henry he hammered in the mountains His hammer was striking fire But he Worked so hard, it broke his heart, John Henry laid down his hammer and died, Lord, Lord. John Henry laid down his hammer and died.
Well, now John Henry he had him a woman, by the name of Polly Ann. She walked out to those tracks picked up John Henry's hammer. Polly drove steel like a man, Lord, Lord. Polly drove that steel like a man.
Well every, every Monday morning when a blue bird he began to sing. You could hear John Henry from a mile or more You could hear John Henry's hammerring, Lord, Lord. You can hear John Henry's hammer ring.
I say, You can John Henry's hammer ring, Lord, Lord. You can John Henry's hammer ring.
143 Summarizing Contemplations: Chapter Six
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Q: How can Work and Love ultimately be conceived of as being precisely the same thing?
Q: How can you transform an act of Work into a prayer?
Q: Can you use The Inform / Affect Distinction in the midst of suffering as a means to Spiritual Evolution?
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144 Glory: The Campfire Scene
I have always admired the movie Glory. Especially the scene when the black soldiers sing before going into battle. I used the chord progression in their “Negro Spiritual” as the inspiration for the song Offertory: A Hammer and a Nail. I also borrowed the lyrical form from Stephen Foster’s song John Henry, covered by Bruce on his Seeger Sessions album.
In this song, I tried to capture the sound of a chain gang, Working to help build a railroad. By all outward appearances, the protagonist is a prisoner, sentenced to a life of “hard-time.” I imagine him Working in Angola Prison in Louisiana—an infamous prison (used as the setting for countless movies), in which my brother-in- law is a prison guard.
As much as the outward appearance might lead one to believe the protagonist is a prisoner, his intention shifts that imprisonment into a great Spiritual calling. From his perspective, his life is not comprised of forced labor. Rather, he has dedicated his life to building a pathway that might eventually help other pilgrims on their way.
About 60% through the tune (the moment referred to through the Fibonacci Sequence as The Golden Mean) the protagonist compares the Work he is doing to his source of inspiration—the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Following this moment, I directly quote the movie Glory when the choir sings:
“Oh my Lord, Lord, Lord Lord. Oh my Lord, Lord, Lord Lord.”
When we dedicate ourselves to a task with our whole heart, body and mind, it can blossom into a prayer. With his intention focused on Love, the protagonist knows down deep inside that he is free.
In this song, I seek to honor previous struggles and to contextualize current ones. Through this practice, I invite the listener to transform your own suffering into awakening.
Sonic Contemplation 6 – Offertory: A Hammer and a Nail
--- N.B.
Through this song, I would like to introduce you to Ryan Korb. In addition to being a world-class percussionist and member of Africa!West (an West African folkloric ensemble par excellence), Ryan has also been my closest ally in the process of writing this book. He is both my brother and our family’s “Monday Husband.”
145
“Natural selection is the quintessence of non-randomness.”
—Richard Dawkins
146 Chapter VII—On the Destiny of Species: An Examination of Evolution
For years we have debated whether or not The Theory of Evolution is true. Skeptics who deny Evolution typically prefer a conceptual framework of Creationism or, more recently, Intelligent Design.
I suggest that the conflict between these seemingly different viewpoints is an illusion. Through the lens of Non-Duality, these competing perspectives can be seen as simply being different ways of looking at the same thing.
“Evolution is the manner in which Creationism unfolds.”
—Dr. David Hawkins
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Q: Is there an intelligent designer or are we the product of randomness that happened to manifest into the universe that we currently observe?
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One way to answer this question is to examine whether Evolution is random. If it is not random, then there must be some sort of intelligent design.
Evolution is based on mutations. Throughout all levels of a system, things mutate. These mutations are random. However, the intelligent design of Evolution lies in the process of Natural Selection. Natural Selection is not random. In fact, as the esteemed Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins states, “Natural Selection is the quintessence of non-randomness.”
The key to understanding the long angst that has existed between people who subscribe to Evolution and people who believe in Creationism lies in whether or not you perceive the world through the lens of duality or Non-Duality.
In a dualistic perspective, things are separate. Creationists detect some sort of intelligent design and, accordingly, buy into Creationism as a means to explaining it. Through a Non-Dualistic perspective, we can perceive that, since there is only one thing, the concepts of creationism, intelligent design, must Evolution have commonalities.
Through studying the non-randomness of natural selection, I hope we can begin to identify an intelligent design to the universe. Through an understanding of Entropy and The Entropic Corollary, I hope that we can begin to see the manner in which Evolution unfolds.
147 Evolution occurs in every system, throughout the entire universe. Hence, Evolution must be occurring within the system of our Consciousness. The Evolution of Consciousness happens through Will and Grace. Or, if you prefer, the Evolution of Consciousness happens through Work and Love.
Love is the Awareness.
Work is the Acceptance.
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In The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt explores the balance of Work and Love through a metaphor. He states that while people often the use the metaphor of computers to describe human development, he posits that a more useful metaphor might be humans as plants.
“During graduate school, I had a small garden in front of my house in Philadelphia. I was not a very good gardener and I traveled a lot in the summers, so sometimes my plants withered and nearly died. But the amazing thing I learned about plants is that as long as they are not dead, they will spring back to full and glorious life if you just get the conditions right. You can’t fix a plant; you can only give it the right conditions— water, sun and soil—and then wait. It will do the rest.”
“Love and Work are, for people, obvious analogs to water and sunshine for plants. When Freud was asked what a normal person should be able to do well, he is reputed to have said, ‘Love and Work’.”
148
“One can live magnificently in this world, if one knows how to Work and how to Love; to Work for the person one Loves and to Love one’s Work.”
—Leo Tolstoy
149 Reason: If I Only Had A Brain
Following our analog for sight as a metaphor for the Evolution of Consciousness, Reason is the ability to see patterns in the universe. This pattern recognition is enabled through the capacity to break things down into smaller and smaller parts. By doing this, we can begin to detect patterns within our realm of perspective. Subsequently, we detect how these patterns transfer to systems of much smaller and much larger scales. Through this process we discover the universal principles that exist within all systems in the universe.
Our capacity to utilize Reason has given humans an incredible Evolutionary advantage. For it is through our ability to Reason that we have become so astute at creating relatively accurate predictive models that enable us to adjust our behavior to increase our chances at survival.
Reason is an essential step in the Evolution of our Consciousness. This Evolution often arises as situations necessitate. For example, we are currently observing an Evolution in our Communal Consciousness through Reason and Integrity in dealing with Global Climate Change.
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In The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow represents our Evolutionary quest for Reason.
The Scarecrow takes on a pseudo-human form, however, without Reason, he is incomplete. Rather, he is a dusty façade of a human, lacking one of the essential Evolutionary steps to achieve full human potential.
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In the song Part Man, Part Monkey, Bruce beautifully expresses the Evolution of Consciousness by acknowledging the part of his own being that is “yet-Evolved.”
--- N.B.
Isn’t it time for us, as a society, to put the silly debate of Evolution behind us once and for all?
150 Part Man, Part Monkey
They prosecuted some poor sucker in these United States,!! for teaching that man descended from the apes.!! They could have settled that case without a fuss or fight ! !if they’d seen me chasin’ you, sugar, through the jungle last night.!! They’d called in that jury, and a one two three, said,! “Part man, part monkey, definitely.!!”
Well the church bell rings from the corner steeple.! !Man in a monkey suit swears he’ll do no evil.!! Offers his lover’s prayer but his Soul lies,!! dark and drifting, and unsatisfied.!! Well hey bartender, tell me what do you see.! “Part man, part monkey, looks like to me.”!!
Well the night is dark, the moon is full.!! The flowers of romance exert their pull.!! We talk awhile, my fingers slip.! !I’m hard and crackling like a whip.!!
Well, did God make man in a breath of holy fire? !!Or did he crawl on up out of the muck and mire?!! Well, the man on the street believes what the bible tells him so.! !Well you can ask me, mister, because I know.!! Tell them Soul-suckin’ preachers to come on down and see ! !part man, part monkey, definitely.!!
151 The Stations of the Cross
Bruce Springsteen has always embodied both Work and Love. For over fifty years his performances have displayed a commitment unparalleled by his contemporaries. Even as Bruce enters the latter half of his sixties, his shows continue to be 3-plus hour, epic performances. Night, after night, after night, after night, Bruce commits to Work for the Love about which he is singing. Furthermore, he makes and delivers on the promise that his “Love will not let you down.”
In I’ll Work for Your Love, Bruce sings to a character named Theresa who serves as a metaphor for the listener. He promises to protect the “bones in her back” like The Stations of the Cross.
This turn of phrase is powerful for two Reasons. First, by calling upon the Catholic Stations of the Cross—a ceremony in which practitioners relive The Passion of the Christ through fifteen scenes—Bruce frames the promise of Working for Love in the most sacred of terms.
The second Reason this phrase is powerful to fans of his music, is that it clearly refers back to Bruce’s epic anthem, Born to Run, which states:
“Baby this town rips the ‘bones from your back’. It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap, we gotta get out while we’re young. `Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run.”
By saying that he will protect the “bones from your back” like the Stations of the Cross, Bruce is committing to protecting the Soul of the listener. Because, for the magic of Bruce Springsteen to come to full fruition, there needs to be a full commitment from all involved. This can only happen when the performers and the listeners alike are fully invested in the Work and the Love of Communal Consciousness.
I’ll Work for Your Love is a contract between Bruce Springsteen, The E Street Band and The E Street Congregation—the name I give to Bruce’s fans who perceive the experience of his concerts as Spiritual.
Bruce promises that his “Love will not let you down.”
Through his Work, Bruce’s Love never lets his audiences down.
Ever.
152 I'll Work For Your Love
Pour me a drink Theresa in one of those glasses you dust off.!! And I’ll watch the bones in your back like the stations of the cross.! !’Round your hair the sun lifts a halo, at your lips a crown of thorns.!! Whatever the deal’s going down, to this one I’m sworn!:
!I’ll Work for your Love, dear. !!I’ll Work for your Love.!! What others may want for free ! !I’ll Work for your Love.!!
The dust of civilizations and Love’s sweet remains ! !slip off of your fingers and come drifting down like rain.!! The pages of Revelation lie open in your empty eyes of blue.!! I watch you slip that comb through your hair and this I promise you:!!
I’ll Work for your Love, dear. !!I’ll Work for your Love.!! What others may want for free ! !I’ll Work for your Love.!!
~ Well tears they fill the rosary, at your feet my temple of bones.!! Here in this perdition we go on and on.!! Now I see your pieces crumbled and our book of faith’s been tossed.!! And I’m just down here searching for my own piece of the cross.!!
~ In the late afternoon sun fills the room with a mist in the garden before the fall.! !I watch your hands smooth the front of your blouse and seven drops of blood fall.!
! I’ll Work for your Love, dear. !!I’ll Work for your Love.!! What others may want for free ! !I’ll Work for your Love.!!
What others may want for free ! !I’ll Work for your Love.!!
What others may want for free ! !I’ll Work for your Love.!!
153 Jacob’s Ladder
You can perceive the Evolution of Consciousness through the Evolution of how we conceive God. As we are Fearful, our God is a Fearful God. As we are Angry, our God is an Angry God. Through Jesus and the New Testament, God became an increasingly Loving God.
The journey from the Old Testament into the New Testament is a journey through a Fear-based Awareness of God into a Love-based Awareness of God.
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I like to imagine the Evolution of our species as existing in four stages. Each stage Evolves through one of the four basic human domains (physical, intellectual, emotional and Spiritual).
I do not use the following terms as historical reference in the exact way that an anthropologist might use them. Rather, I seek to use these terms as metaphors in order to point toward an on-going process of Evolution.
Homo-Erectus – The physical Evolution of humankind into a species that can stand on its own two feet. This stage in Evolution produces our Athletes and Activists.
Homo-Sapiens – The intellectual Evolution of humankind into a species that can think for itself. This stage in Evolution produces Scientists and Philosophers.
Homo-Recipricus – The emotional Evolution of humankind into a species that can share and integrate. This stage in Evolution produces Artists and Leaders.
Homo-Spiritus – The Spiritual Evolution of humankind into a species that can Love. This stage in Evolution produces Saints and Sages.
--- N.B.
I do not mean to imply that this Evolution is linear, nor do I mean to imply a hierarchy between each of these levels of Evolution. In fact, the Activists/ Athletes, Scientists/Philosophers, Artists/ Leaders and Saints/Sages who are truly transformational, are typically people who are able to display traits from all the other Evolutionary stages.
154 The Gospel According to Bruce
Throughout the previous chapters, I have included my Sonic Contemplations only after exploring Bruce’s music. In this chapter, I wish to change things up a bit and give Bruce the last word when examining Evolution.
My favorite part of a Bruce Springsteen concert is when he speaks to the audience extemporaneously. When doing so, he offers a context for his music that helps the listener to transfer a particular song’s insights into their own lives.
In writing this Sonic Contemplation, I was inspired by Bruce’s storytelling. I sought to combine the way Bruce speaks to the audience during a concert, with the use of recitative in classical opera. Operatic recitative seeks to move a larger narrative forward through verbal communication that is half spoken, half sung.
Since I was five years old, I have always wanted to collaborate with Bruce Springsteen. Once, while finishing my doctorate in conducting at the University of Minnesota, I had the opportunity to be in Bruce’s presence. He was coming through town on a solo acoustical tour and playing in the university theater where my office was located backstage. My plan was to camp out in my office until I heard him come by. Then I planned on suddenly jumping out and meeting him.
For hours I waited. I could hear his sound check through the thin theater walls. When finally I heard him outside my office, I jumped to my feet and threw open my office door. There I saw him standing in the hallway about eight feet away from me.
This was the moment I had waited for all of my life. It was just like I had dreamed, except, he was not alone. Standing next to Bruce was a very sick man and his wife. I so wanted to take this opportunity to meet him and try to express what his music has meant to me. But, alas, this was not my time. I decided to back off and let this dying man have his time with Bruce. I silently retreated back into my office.
Sonic Contemplation 7 is my attempt to express what Bruce’s music means to me and what I wished to have said when I had the chance to meet him. This song serves as my personal testimonial to the Spiritual nature Bruce’s music has played in my life.
Since I wanted this Sonic Contemplation to be a testimonial, I recording it in only one take, believing that the imperfections throughout it make it more authentic. When I inquired how long the track was, my producer Steve Gotcher said, “9:23.” This happens to coincide with Bruce’s birthday (September 23rd).
It’s Christmas in Odessa!
Sonic Contemplation 7—Testimonial: To Work and Love
155 I Want To Know If Love Is Real
Born to Run is one of the greatest “invitation songs” of all time. This song has truly become an anthem to anyone who feels the need to “break out” of being stuck in a Spiritual struggle. This song speaks of overcoming Fear and pursuing our dreams, hopes and destiny.
I see this song as an anthem speaking to our Evolutionary destiny. Letting us know that we are born to Evolve. We are born to transform. We are born to awaken.
If you listen to the words of my Sonic Contemplation 7, it will hopefully explain in greater detail how Bruce’s music, and this song in particular, speaks to our innate compulsion to transcend Fear and enter into a world of Love, together.
I personally find it interesting to think of Bruce’s music as a sequel to the writings of Charles Darwin. (I acknowledge that that is a very bold statement.) But as Darwin described the process of how we got here, through his thesis, On the Origin of Species, I find that Bruce describes the process of how we will get where we ultimately want to Geaux—a thesis that I label, On the Destiny of Species.
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The ultimate quest for the narrative arc of Bruce’s music can be found within this song when Bruce proclaims:
“I want to know if Love is wild And I want to know if Love is real.”
This quest becomes the central thesis of the thirty plus years of music to follow. Ultimately, Bruce answers this question in the Wrecking Ball album through his song This Is Your Sword. (We will get to that song in Chapter X.)
156 Born to Run
In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American Dream.! ! At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines.!! Sprung from cages out on highway 9, !! chrome wheeled, fuel injected !!and steppin’ out over the line.!!
Baby this town rips the bones from your back.! !It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap.!! We gotta get out while we`re young.!! ‘Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run.!!
Wendy, let me in I wanna be your friend.! !I want to guard your dreams and visions.!! Just wrap your legs ‘round these velvet ribs ! !and strap your hands across my engines.!
!Together we could break this trap.!! We’ll run till we drop, baby we’ll never go back.!!
Will you walk with me out on the wire?!! ‘Cause baby I’m just a scared and lonely rider ! !but I gotta find out how it feels.! !I want to know if Love is wild!! and I want to know if Love is real.!!
Beyond the palace, hemi-powered drones, scream down the boulevard.!! The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors !! and the boys try to look so hard.!
!The amusement park, rises bold and stark,!! kids are huddled on the beach in a mist.! !I wanna die with you Wendy, on the streets tonight !!in an everlasting kiss.!!
The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive!. !Everybody’s out on the run tonight !! but there’s no place left to hide.!! Together, Wendy we can live with the Sadness !!I’ll Love you with all the madness in my Soul.! !Someday girl, I don’t know when ! !we’re gonna get to that place !! where we really want to go !! and we’ll walk in the sun.!! But till then tramps like us, baby, we were born to run.
Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run.
157 Summarizing Contemplations: Chapter Seven
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Q: How can everything be conceived as one system?
Q: What does The Entropic Corollary teach us about the Evolution of our Consciousness?
Q: In what ways are you closed-minded? How does this close-mindedness impede the Evolution of your Consciousness?
Q: In what ways are you close-hearted? How does that close-heartedness impede the Evolution of your Consciousness?
--- N.B.
If you answer that you are neither closed-minded nor closed-hearted in any way, please consider that as a possible unexamined habit of perception (CUHP). People who are truly open-minded and openhearted tend to be people who readily admit ways that they have yet to grow.
158
Q: ______is the practice of awakening to a hidden order in the universe with a belief that our supreme interest lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves to that order.
a) Science b) Art c) Spirituality
--- N.B.
If your answer is:
d) All of the Above
Your Consciousness is already awakening from the illusion of separateness.
159
“The parenting journey holds the potential to be a Spiritually regenerative experience for both parent and child, where every moment is a meeting of Spirits, and both parent and child appreciate that each dances on a Spiritual path that’s unique, holding hands and yet alone.”
—Shefali Tsabary
160 Chapter VIII—Two Hearts: The Crucible of Relationship
Nearing the end of my ten-year process of writing this book, Consciousness told me that the final version of it could not come until after I became a parent. I was unsure why the universe required this to be so. After all, my wife and I really wanted a child—and I really wanted to finish this damn book!!!
However, as the saying goes, Consciousness Works in mysterious ways.
My wife and I successfully conceived after a three-year process. In the nine months leading up to the big day, I wrote frantically. I tried to ignore my Consciousness and finish the book before the birth of our child—knowing well, that my addictive writing could not co-exist with the demands of being a parent—or, at least, being a good parent.
Days before my baby was born, I sent a manuscript to the printer. It was attempt #9 of writing this book—from scratch, each one unique in its approach, yet unified in their intention. In the following days, my wife gave birth to our wonderful son Alexander Patrick. (Xander, if you are Irish, and Sasha, if you are Ukrainian.)
I had long dreamed about this day. After all, I had been meditating, thinking and writing about Love for nine years straight. And finally, after all that time, I was getting to experience what everyone universally labels as a life-changing experience of Love!!!
When the day came, it was not at all what I had imagined.
I was expecting a world of Love to come rushing in. What I failed to predict was the world of Fear that came rushing in with it. You see, while writing this book and having a son, my wife and I were also moving to Cleveland so that I could take the position of Director of Wind Ensembles at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. Simultaneously, my wife’s “mother figure” died and she was stricken with Hashimoto’s dis-ease.
Through the stress of this turmoil, I did not feel especially connected with my son. Because I did not feel an immediate connection with him, I felt like a failure. Adding to this was the Shameful recognition that I have been writing and speaking on the topic of Love for years and yet, here I was, unable to connect with my own child.
I felt like a failure in the most important job I will ever have. I felt unending Shame, Guilt and Sadness. Maybe I was too selfish to be a good dad. Perhaps I was too committed to my career or an illusionary goal of gaining insights into Consciousness, Love and God.
What could have been a high point in my life, turned out to be my low point.
161 But as Xander slowly matured, an interesting transformation began to take shape. As each passing stressor in our chaotic life passed, so too did another level of Fear. Like an onion, I could only let go of one layer at a time. For example, with the realization that I could actually change diapers, a level of Fear would subside. As I learned to feed and put my baby to sleep, another level of the onion would peel away. As I started my job and conducted my first concert at the conservatory, yet another level of Fear evaporated.
My experience of Fear felt like a checklist of things I was afraid I could not do. One by one, I realized I could do them. With each realization, another level of Fear would vanish. In this process, I began to observe a pattern.
While in the midst of incredible personal, emotional, professional and social turmoil, my wife and I were far from being in Peace. However, I began to realize that perhaps Peace was not something that occurs in an all-or-nothing experience. With this realization I established a new motto for myself:
One Peace at a time.
Because my wife and I were experiencing such transformation, we were unable to tackle the entirety of our Fears all at once. Instead, we addressed them one piece (or Peace) at a time. As each level of Fear subsided, a little Love would grow in its place. Through this process my connection with my son grew. I realized that my Love for Xander expanded as my Fear about being a parent contracted. It was through this process that The Love / Fear Continuum really transcended the realm of Spiritual concepts and entered into the world of Spiritual experience.
I realized that The Love/Fear Continuum (LFC) is most especially felt in the moments of our life that carry the most weight. In other words, the LFC transcends concepts into experience during ultra-joyful and ultra-traumatic times in our lives.
Imagine losing a job. Now imagine how that experience might resonate with the Fear-based side of the LFC. Imagine (or remember) having a child, or getting a divorce, or getting married, or any other important milestone (positive or negative) in your life. Consider how the LFC captures the experience of, and the progression through, this event—the greater the power of the event, the greater the potential for Spiritual Evolution.
We can transform just as much through joyful experiences as we can through traumatic ones. However, most people don’t stop to understand the nature of joyful experiences—they simply experience them. But with traumatic experiences, a lot of people pause to understand why and how this is happening to them. It is through this process that we can transform suffering (or joy) into awakening.
162 The Role of Grandparents
Grandparents have a different experience with newborn babies. Initially, grandparents seem to experience a lot less Fear, thereby allowing for a lot more Love. After all, they have already gone through this experience at least once. They have experienced the Fear and know how that it typically sorts itself out in the long run. Now they have the joy of basking in the Love of a baby, without much of the Fear that accompanied my experience of being a first-time parent.
By watching my parents interact with my son, I observed a very interesting relationship between Love and Consciousness. I noticed how my parents marveled at observing my son discover new forms. In one minute he seemed to perceive his first nose, then the next minute he seemed to perceive his first cat.
Watching this, a question came to me: What is it in my son that is doing the perceiving? The answer is to this question is his Awareness.
We are born with Awareness. It is that Awareness that is the “thing” that is discovering form. We Love watching babies simply because they are pure Awareness, made obvious because every form is so new.
As adults, it is rare for us to discover new forms. Because of this, it is easy for us to lose sight of that which is discovering the form. As I watched my child discover form through his Awareness, I could also sense how this process symbiotically expanded my Consciousness.
Put another way, observing a baby’s Awareness discovering form, helps the form of our intellect re-discover Awareness. The relationship between parent and child is symbiotic—both parties benefit from the mutual experience of expanding Awareness. This mutual expansion of Consciousness fuels our experience of Love.
Love is the mutual expansion of Consciousness.
Loving a child feels like a mutual and symbiotic expansion of Communal Consciousness. The mutual expansion of Consciousness is Evolutionarily beneficial to both parent and child. Having children expands our Consciousness. By experiencing the expansion of our children’s Consciousness, we expand our own Awareness through Love.
In chapter five we quoted Eckhart Tolle who said, “Love is the recognition of your true Self in the other.” This definition of Love resonates with the definition of the word Namaste, which translates to “The God in me re-cognizes the God in you.” Herein lies the transformational power of becoming a parent. Love is the mutual expansion of Consciousness through the capacity to see the divinity of Consciousness (your essential Self) in the other. As a parent, this process is natural and is a driving force for the collective Evolution of our Communal Consciousness.
163 Big Brother, Bruce
While I was going through the challenges involved in moving and changing jobs, I was also learning how to be a dad at the ripe old age of 40.
As one might imagine, I started freaking out. Freaking out because of how hard it was, because of how poor I seemed to be at doing it and because, most of all, I felt like I had made a terrible mistake. Maybe I was too selfish to be a good dad.
My oldest brother Mike—constant companion along the journey of this project— sent me a quote from Bruce about fatherhood. It so encapsulated my experiences, that I offer it as the single most important Bruce Springsteen quote on this entire journey.
The original context of the quote was Bruce speaking about becoming a parent:
“When a world of Love comes rushing in a world of Fear comes rushing in with it.
My music has dealt with these most primitive issues. It’s about someone walking through that World of Fear so that we can live in the World of Love.”
164
When I am with my child, I realize that every game he plays results in his expanded Consciousness. If I am fully Aware of the intention behind the games, my Consciousness will simultaneously expand through witnessing the expansion of his. In parenting, the amazing transformation with having your first child arises out of the two-way relationship of expanded Consciousness.
Our most cherished relationships are the areas in which our Consciousness mutually expands. Each of these relationships is a crucible, with all parties committed to a mutual sense of inter-being.
Because our most cherished relationships are crucibles of Consciousness, they are vehicles for growth. However, they are also very often the sources for our most frustrating tension. This is especially true with parents, children, siblings and spouses. These are relationships that we tend not to run away from. We are typically stuck with these people for life. As a result, they know the buttons to push, they know our insecurities and they know our vulnerabilities. But these same relationships, when navigated with intention, can become the catalyst for the Spiritual transformation we most desire and need.
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We experience life in relationship. Remember from early in our journey, without contrast there can be no discernment. Discernment arises from understanding relationship. Resultantly, we perceive in relationship and we evolve in relationship. When we discover the inter-relationship of all things, we awaken from the illusion of separateness and experience the joy of Non-Duality.
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Golden Rule: Love thy neighbor as thy self.
Platinum Rule: Love = Thy neighbor is thy Self.
165 Integrity: One and One Makes Three
In The Wizard of Oz, the character of The Tin Man represents the metallic shell of a human being. This character is a product of the technological age, but was still in need of the full Evolution into Love. Without Love, this character is incomplete.
Following our metaphor for the Evolution of Consciousness through the metaphor of sight, Integrity arises from seeing how all things are integrated, connected and perfect.
We use the word Integrity in a number of different settings. For example, if a bicycle tire is perfectly round, it is said to have Integrity. If a person is of high moral character, we say that he, too, has Integrity.
Integrity arises out of a sense of completion. If something is complete, it is not missing anything. In order for humans to have Integrity, like The Tin Man, we cannot be missing Love in our lives.
At the end of the journey, while receiving his “heart,” he reverently says:
“I shall take the heart, for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.”
—The Tin Man
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Conscious expansion occurs through two hearts becoming one. This Integration is Communal Consciousness. The Spiritual practice of Integrating with something beyond your self is the practice of expanding your Consciousness. Upon expansion, we realize that we have Integrity and are complete and perfect.
While finishing my doctorate at The University of Minnesota, I took a transformational class with an esteemed professor named Michael Cherlin. One day he was explaining the original meaning behind the words “perfect” and “imperfect” when applied to cadences in music. He said that the original Greek definition of perfect was that which is in a state of Being. He went on to say that the original Greek definition for imperfect was that which is in a state of Becoming. This insight helped a great deal in understanding the Spiritual uses of these words when exploring the distinction between divinity and humanity.
Integrity arises out of completion and perfection—defined not by that which is without mistake, but rather, by that which is in a state of Being.
166 Two Hearts
I went out walking the other day,!! seen a little girl crying along the way.!! She’d been hurt so bad said she’d never Love again.!! Someday your crying girl, will end.!! And you’ll find once again,!!
Two hearts are better than one.!! Two hearts girl, get the job done.! !Two hearts are better than one.!!
Once I spent my time playing tough guy scenes,!! but I was living in a world of childish dreams.!! Someday these childish dreams must end,! !to become a man and grow up to dream again.! !Now I believe in the end,!!
Two hearts are better than one.!! Two hearts girl get the job done.! !Two hearts are better than one.!!
~ !Sometimes it might seem like it was planned !! for you to roam empty hearted through this land.!! Though the world turns you hard and cold,!! There’s one thing mister, that I know.!
~ !That’s if you think your heart is stone,! !and that you’re rough enough to whip this world alone.! !Alone buddy there ain’t no Peace of mind.!! That’s why I’ll keep searching till I find my special one.!
Two hearts are better than one.!! Two hearts girl get the job done.! !Two hearts are better than one.!!
167 The Number That Adds Up To Bliss
Reason is incredibly useful as it breaks systems down into their smallest possible parts. This process enables us to see patterns in various systems. However, Reason is also limiting. In fact, Reason must be limiting because it is based upon a mutually agreed-upon set of limitations.
If you never move beyond Reason, you will be stuck within the confines of form. Transcending Reason does not imply that Reason is abandoned. Transcending form implies that we take Reason into consideration, harness its power and then move beyond it when it limits our Soul’s Evolution.
For those who are stuck in Reason, the concept of faith seems like a lack of intellectual rigor. And indeed, our history is riddled with charlatans, largely religious in nature, who not only lacked Reason, but punished people seeking to practice it. As a result, our society has deified Reason in an effort not to slip back into The Dark Ages—a time in which Galileo was imprisoned in 1633 for proving that the earth moves around the sun.
We must be careful to honor Reason, while not being beholden to it as the end-all and be-all of Consciousness.
“Reason is an excellent servant but a terrible master.”
—Ram Dass
To think that Reason is the end-all and be-all of Consciousness is unreasonable.
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In Frankie Fell In Love, Bruce adeptly sings about the transcendence of Reason by creating an imaginary conversation between Albert Einstein and William Shakespeare. In this conversation, the Artist is helping the Scientist perceive beyond form through Love.
--- N.B.
The Catholic Church only admitted to wrongfully imprisoning Galileo in 1992. Talk about the bureaucratic wheels moving slowly!
168 Frankie Fell in Love
Good morning, good morning.! The church mouse is snoring.! News is out all over town,! Frankie fell in Love.!
!Wake up, boys, wake up.! You drunken choir boys, shake it up.! Our Juliet says her Romeo's been found.! Frankie fell in Love.!!
World Peace is gonna break out,! from here on in we're eating take out,! she ain't gonna be cooking for the likes of us.! Somebody call mama and just tell her,! Frankie fell in Love.!
!Einstein and Shakespeare,! sitting having a beer.! Einstein trying to figure out the number that adds up to bliss.! Shakespeare said, "Man, it all starts with a kiss." !!
Einstein is scratching,! numbers on his napkin.! Shakespeare said, "Man, it's just one and one makes three. ! That's why it's poetry." !
!World Peace is gonna break out,! from here on in we're eating take out,! she ain't gonna be cooking for the likes of us.! Somebody call mama and just tell her, !Frankie fell in Love.!!
Glory, glory. It's the same old story.! Kid, there ain't nothing anybody can do.! It's gonna happen to you,! just like Frankie fell in Love.!!
Good evening, good evening.! The church mouse is sleeping.! News is out all over town,! Frankie fell in Love.
169 I’ll Be On That Hill
If you ever feel disconnected from your Integrity, you might consider asking the question:
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Q: In precisely what manner am I currently lacking?
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When contemplating this question, please try to be as specific as possible. Often times when I consider this question, my first attempts to answer end up not being the real issue. For example, I have found myself saying that I lacked a sense of wealth. Then, upon further consideration, I realize I have all the wealth I need to be secure and survive. When I have this realization, I dig deeper.
Eventually I might arrive at a sense of lacking in areas like validation, recognition or accolades. I know that I have hit on the real issue when I touch on the experience of somehow being not enough.
Once arriving at this fundamental Fear, there is nothing more I need to do except be fully present with it. Give the Fear Awareness without necessarily trying to abolish it. In other words, once you arrive at your fundamental sense of what part of you is “not enough,” consider giving that Fear some Also Peace.
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Integrity is revealed when you harmoniously adjust your Self to the hidden order of the universe. The tumultuous, evolving nature of life insists that there will come a time on our journey, where we will need to stand up for something essentially important for us and what we believe to be right.
Whenever you decide to take that proverbial stand, please know that Bruce Springsteen stands with you. At the end of Darkness on the Edge of Town, Bruce states a promise to his listeners:
“Tonight I'll be on that hill, 'cause I can't stop. I'll be on that hill, with everything I got.
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost, I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost, for wanting things that can only be found in the darkness on the edge of town.”
170 Darkness on the Edge of Town
They're still racing out at the Trestles, but that blood it never burned in her veins. Now I hear she's got a house up in Fairview, and a style she's trying to maintain.
Well, if she wants to see me, you can tell her that I'm easily found. Tell her, “There's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge.” And tell her, “There's a darkness on the edge of town.
There’s a darkness on the edge of town.”
Everybody's got a secret, Sonny. Something that they just can't face. Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it, they carry it with them every step that they take.
Till one day they just cut it loose. Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down. Where no one asks any questions, or looks too long in your face, in the darkness on the edge of town.
In the darkness on the edge of town.
Some folks are born into a good life, other folks get it anyway, anyhow. I lost my money and I lost my wife, them things don't seem to matter much to me now.
Tonight I'll be on that hill, 'cause I can't stop, I'll be on that hill, with everything I got. Lives on the line, where dreams are found and lost, I'll be there on time, and I'll pay the cost, for wanting things, that can only be found, in the darkness on the edge of town.
In the darkness of the edge of town.
171 It’s Christmas In Odessa
Have you ever experienced the world as existing in one synchronistic state? I know that I have. In fact, the more I expand my Consciousness, the more every moment of my life expands into perfect synchronicity. Sometimes joyful, other times painful. Nevertheless, always perfect.
This perfection arises from the Awareness that we already possess that which we most desperately desire. Perhaps consider thinking about a “synchronistic moment” as a synonym for the experience of a “miracle.” A miracle is simply a sudden shift in Consciousness. Inversely, a sin can be conceived as simply being a habitual, inefficient use of energy that “misses the mark” of Peace.
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Her Scarlet Sails is my humble attempt at composing a Rock & Roll “art song” in the style of Franz Schubert or Robert Schumann.
The song is simultaneously about waiting, wanting and possessing. The damsel is in her “Waiting Place” (as Dr. Seuss called it). The hero can be conceived as someone outside of one’s “self,” or the hero can be conceived as your essential “Self.”
The Scarlet Sails can represent whatever you want it to represent. To me, it represents my wife, our son and my wife’s extended Ukrainian family.
The legend of Her Scarlet Sails is an old, yet popular, Ukrainian folk story. In fact, there are still restaurants in Odessa that are named Scarlet Sails. The essence of the story unfolds exactly as the song suggests.
When my wife told me of the story, I imagined her life, orphaned at age 11, with a brother, mother and numerous aunts and uncles who were killed. I imagined Luda sitting on the shores of the Black Sea waiting for her prince to come save her.
Than I imagine the last scene in the movie Pretty Woman, when Richard Gere asks Julia Roberts what happens after the prince saves the damsel, and she says, “she saves him right back.” From one perspective, the listener is Richard Gere; from the other perspective, the listener is Julia Roberts.
You can also consider the savior in religious or Spiritual terms. It’s really up to you how you interpret the relationship being described.
The piece itself is circular. If you get your CD player to continually repeat this one song, you will discover the song to have no beginning and no end (tribute to Kenny Werner). The sounds of the Jersey Shore that end track 7 blend with waves crashing against The Black Sea in Odessa, Ukraine—home of my wife’s family. (Maya Semya!)
172 Summarizing Contemplations: Chapter Eight
Christmas in Odessa is meant to represent synchronicity as observed through higher and higher Consciousness.
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As you listen to this song, please consider the following questions:
Q: What precisely are you waiting for in order for your life to be fulfilling? (In other words, in what way are you the “damsel in distress”?)
Q: In what way do you already possess that for which you most desperately seek? (In other words, in what way are you the hero with Scarlet Sails?)
Q: What are some examples of what synchronicity feels like in your life?
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Sonic Contemplation 8—Dedication: Her Scarlet Sails
173
“Our purpose is to awaken from the illusion of separateness.”
—Thich Haht Hahn
174 Chapter IX—Mary's Place: An Examination of Communal Consciousness
Most traditions of faith ultimately arrive at the wisdom that our most essential purpose is to Love and to be Loved—remembering that Love is the recognition of your true Self in the other. Accordingly, we can also say that most faith traditions ultimately arrive at the wisdom that our most essential purpose is to expand Communal Consciousness by recognizing our essential nature in others and allowing them to do the same through us.
Love is the mutual expansion of Consciousness. This process is inhibited by Fear.
Also Peace
While most of us desire lasting Peace, it seems most of us have yet to fully claim it. Perhaps an entrance into Peace can be discovered through the perspective of Also Peace. Also Peace gives Peace to whatever else you are also experiencing. In other words, as you experience insecurity, defensiveness or any other dissonance of the Soul, can you try to simultaneously experience Also Peace?
So often, while we seek to experience Peace, we imagine this state existing at the exclusion of Fear-based attitudes. Also Peace offers a paradigm shift through the recognition that for Peace to remain an unchanging constant in our lives, we must be Willing to have Peace co-exist with the transient nature of our emotions. Accordingly, unperturbed Peace can only co-exist with whatever we are also experiencing.
The avatar Gangaji teaches us that Non-Peace (also known as suffering) comes from one of two places:
1) The first form of suffering arises from the Non-Acceptance of what truly is occurring in this precise moment. Once this moment is fully and completely accepted, Peace is revealed.
2) The second form of suffering arises once one has attained a level of Peace. We then often try to hold on to Peace. This hyper-attachment inevitably leads to decreased Peace and increased suffering.
Also Peace abides the entire range of Conscious experiences, Peacefully.
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Q: What happens when you give your Shame, Guilt, Sadness and/or Anger some Also Peace?
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175 Discovering Your Also Tendency
Now that we have discussed the concept of Also Peace, we can now make the transfer to your current level of attitudinal bias. By attitudinal bias, I mean to imply a level on The Love / Fear Continuum (LFC) to which you often gravitate. For our purposes, we will call this your Also Tendency.
Your Also Tendency can be discovered through an examination of what you tend to “also be feeling” while you are experiencing a wide range of attitudes on the LFC. This tendency can help to reveal patterns where you might be stuck in the Evolution of your Consciousness.
For me, I tend to reside in Also Reason. In other words, while I experience the entire range of the LFC, I acknowledge a tendency to be in Reason as a common default. I often examine my Conscious states through Reason. Specifically, I am try to discover the Reasons behind why these attitudes are arising in my Consciousness.
Remember, any level of the LFC can be both useful and limiting. For me, the fact that my Also Tendency tends to revolve around Reason has given me the building blocks for the exploration of this journey. However, as Reason is also limiting, being in a state of Also Reason can inhibit my capacity to consistently experience the Non- Duality I seek. My path out of this dilemma includes focusing on Also Integrity and Also Peace.
Furthermore, I know when I am in an unhealthy place when I feel myself residing in Also Pride, Also Anger, Also Sadness, Also Guilt or Also Shame. These levels let me know that something in my Consciousness is out of alignment and serve as a sign that Spiritual Work is desperately needed.
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Q: What is your Also Tendency?
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176 House Party: Spiritual Tent Revivals
We all experience Communal Consciousness in seemingly unique ways. Some find it through church, some through sports and still others through the Arts. There are countless ways in which we communally share Consciousness.
I often hear people talking about the “Soul of a city”—I take that to represent the Communal Consciousness of a given locality. Sometimes we speak about how “cool” a group of friends are—I, likewise, take that to represent the Communal Consciousness of a social grouping.
I find it fascinating to examine the metaphors we use to describe the nature of Consciousness. If someone is of high Consciousness, we use metaphors of temperature like “cool.” Likewise, we might describe someone as being “warm,” or “cold.” What do these metaphors represent? Do we really believe their body temperature is somehow different than ours? Of course not—we use these metaphors to describe our perception of their Consciousness.
We don’t limit ourselves to metaphors of temperature. We often describe people as “bright” or “dark,” and “sharp” or “dull.” Again, what do these metaphors represent?
When considering Consciousness through these metaphorical lenses, we can see how we perceive Consciousness constantly. Moment by moment, we are sensing the Consciousness of our environment. When we find an environment that really resonates with us, we typically end up somehow identifying ourselves with that environment.
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I have no interest in NASCAR. I don’t understand why people get so excited to watch drivers constantly making left turns. However, I am fascinated at the culture of Communal Consciousness and the tribal identification with NASCAR drivers and fans. I am endlessly curious about why people would tattoo the number 3 to their arm because they root for Dale Earnhardt. This tribal identification seems quite foreign to me—until I consider the myriad of ways in which I tribally identify.
When examining my own patterns of tribal identification, I discover that I find Communal Consciousness through a number of settings, not least of which is College Football.
177 Completing The Circle
Bud Beyer, the great acting teacher and longtime professor at Northwestern University, is one of the most important and influential people in my life. Bud and I have collaborated together for over a decade. During that time, we have influenced each other and discovered new possibilities in each other’s Work, which has proven astonishingly transformative.
Bud and I connected immediately. Once, while meeting with Bud during one of his residencies at the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point, I asked to be excused for a moment. He said, “Of course. What do you have to do?” I sheepishly replied that it was National Football Signing Day and that I had to check in on what high school seniors chose to play football at LSU. Bud responded, “I knew it! Maybe that’s one of the Reasons we Love each other so much. I met my wife at LSU. We are huge fans!!!” In that moment, my kinship with Bud was sealed for a lifetime.
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Like NASCAR, I find it funny how folks identify with sports teams as a means of experiencing Communal Consciousness. Most teams represent communities. These communities can also be perceived as entities of Communal Consciousness. When it comes to teams representing schools, the ties become even deeper.
The literal translation of “alma mater” is “nourishing mother” or “dear mother.” Those who identify with a school feel a deep and abiding connection with that institution as a means of Communal Consciousness—a connection in which all parties symbiotically mature and evolve. This sentiment is perfectly stated in the words of the LSU Alma Mater:
“Our worth in life will be thy worth, we pray to keep it true. And may thy Spirit live in us, Forever LSU.”
--- N.B.
Please consider reading Bud’s book Completing the Circle if you wish to apply Consciousness to the art of communication through musical performance.
178 The West Wing
Have you ever wondered why religion and politics are the two things we are not supposed to bring up at dinner parties? I have. I always thought those two topics were endlessly interesting. Accordingly, I dislike avoiding them in mixed company.
I believe that the Reason politics and religion are such sensitive areas is that they are such acute representations of our Consciousness and of the dissonance that exists between people’s various levels of Consciousness.
When I speak about politics to my classes, I never let my students know my political leanings or affiliation. My goal as an educator is to have my students arrive at their own, informed perspectives on important issues. However, without ever explicitly telling my students my opinion, I believe they generally know how I vote. When asked questions about my political perspective, I generally answer with statements like,” I try to support whatever candidate resonates with the highest level of Consciousness.”
Students then typically ask how I go about making that discernment. I answer by saying, “Whichever candidate demonstrates the most Courage, Will, Reason and Integrity typically gets my vote.” The students usually nod their head introspectively.
Another answer I give to this question is that I tend not to vote for the candidate who most benefits from Fear. When students inevitably ask how I would make that discernment, I answer, “From my perspective, the candidate who is most closely aligned with the distribution of weapons is probably the candidate who is benefiting the most from the proliferation of Fear. Accordingly, whoever is most closely aligned with the NRA, is from my perspective, most benefiting from the proliferation of Fear.”
Political parties are very interesting and important ways to engage in Communal Consciousness. I openly admit that no one party has a monopoly on high Consciousness. However, I will also admit a profound disappointment that, in recent memory, only one party has consistently demonstrated a respect for the open- mindedness of Reason and the openheartedness of Empathy. I sincerely hope that this tendency shifts soon and both parties can compete for votes from people who value the virtues of elevated Consciousness.
--- N.B.
Psychologists sometimes refer to Fear as a “negative bias.” To learn more about “negative bias” as it relates to political affiliation, please consider reading a seminal work in which John Hibbing synthesizes a huge amount of research on this topic. The book is entitled, “Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives and the Biology of Political Differences.”
179 Working On A Dream
The final avenue that I will examine Communal Consciousness is through the communal experience of music. As a conductor, the experience of Communal Consciousness through music is the basis for my entire career.
I often ask three questions at the beginning of my conducting classes.
1) What makes a conductor?
2) What makes a super-conductor?
3) What makes a conductor super?
These questions encourage the student to consider the role of a conductor in both Scientific and Artistic contexts. By doing so, they can better discover the shared nature of both. In both the Scientific and Artistic contexts of a conductor, both are defined by their capacity to let energy pass through it—to be a conduit.
A super-conductor is simply a conduit with very, very little resistance. Accordingly, a super-conductor is much more efficient because energy is not lost through unnecessary agitation. Interestingly, the exact same definition also answers question #3.
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I became a better conductor by studying Bruce Springsteen as a conduit of energy. The Communal Consciousness of a Bruce concert can be explored through one’s perception of time.
Earlier in this journey I quoted from Bruce’s song The Hunter of Invisible Game, in which he states the Buddhist axiom that “time is illusion.” However, music is sculpted time. So how can these two ideas co-exist?
I like to discern between Metric Time and Experiential Time. Metric Time is measured against past and future. And again, since both do not exist in reality, Metric Time can be conceived as an illusion. However, Experiential Time can only be experienced in the present moment. Thus, Experiential Time can be perceived as being “real.”
Experiential Time arises as a groove in our perception. This groove enables large groups of people to experience time together. This is made manifest as a stadium of people hold their breath during an important field goal or when audiences clap and dance together to a favorite song. Experiential Time is an example of Communal Consciousness.
180 The element of Bruce’s musicianship that most impresses me, as a conductor, is his sense of time. Not just his sense of musical time, but also his intuitive sense of timing. The wisdom of Bruce Springsteen can be discovered through examining how having a good sense of musical time, having good timing and having a good time are all precisely the same thing.
The groove of Bruce’s music arises out of his extremely deep sense of time.
He knows that groove deepens as you give time resistance. In other words, as you play as late as possible without being late. I assert that the largest influence African- American music has had on Bruce’s music can be revealed through time.
African-American music tends to have a deep sense of time that arises from a backward time vector. To further explore this concept, please consider listening to the music of Count Basie, Mahalia Jackson and Snoop Doggy Dogg. When listening to these artists, please further consider how each of these artists feels time. What elements are in common between them? When tapping along, try to tap as late as possible without being late and sense if your experience of time deepens.
A backward experience of time deepens the groove.
When applying this concept to the music of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, please consider listening to the friction between the drummer, “Mighty Max” Weinberg, who deepens the groove by playing as late as possible without being late. The “power” of Max’s playing arises out of his resistance to the audience’s desire to push time forward.
To gain an understanding of how a large audience tends to have a “forward” sense of time, consider an audience clapping along in unison. Does the time stay constant or does it rush forward, getting progressively faster and faster?
Clearly, the energy of a large group of people always pushes the time forward. The power of Max Weinberg comes from his insistence on laying down the time as late as possible without being late. The friction between Max’s sense of time and the audience’s desire to have that time push forward provides a musical “grind” that causes the dramatic opposition of the musical expression.
This examination of time is intended to demonstrate one of the Reasons why Bruce’s music is so powerful. When you listen to his earlier performances, the band sounds anxious and a bit unsettled. This sound is usually described as raw, intense and highly energetic. I find that a comparison between the band’s earlier and later performances offers an excellent opportunity to examine their ever-maturing relationship with time. In their earlier live performances, the band had a more forward sense of time. In their later live performances, the band’s sense of time deepens through a more backward time vector.
181 Peace: There’s No Place Like Home
Peace arises through a stillness of Being. When there is conflicting agitation, we have to find a way to Work that agitation out. Some do this through violence, some do this through meditation, and some do this through Art.
In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy desperately wants to return to the Peace and Love of her family and home in Kansas. I believe we all have our own inner “Kansas.” It might look different with different people, but ultimately, it feels the same.
All Consciousness is universal. The contexts are as varied as people and places. But the experience of these varied contexts is exactly the same universally.
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One way that we instinctively try to find Peace is to seek out a “shared energy field” of Communal Consciousness to help us re-calibrate our Personal Consciousness.
For some, this healing energy field comes through family and friends. For others, this healing Consciousness comes from church or self-help group meetings. Regardless of the context, I assert that the process of healing the suffering of our Personal Consciousness often occurs by gathering into a Communal Consciousness with a shared intention.
In 12-Step group meetings, people often walk in with much personal agitation. However, over the course of just one hour, these meetings typically help the suffering addict find more stillness. How does this happen?
I have come to discover that my inner agitation is a result of my Personal Consciousness. When I gather with others, dealing with similar issues and a shared intention, the group Consciousness offers a “tipping point” of positivity that helps all those involved.
In other words, when our Personal Consciousness is out of alignment, we can turn to the Communal Consciousness of meetings to help equilibrate whatever needs adjustment. Hopefully this concept contextualizes the biblical verse when Jesus says:
“Where two or more are gathered in my name, I Am there among them.”
--- N.B.
Just as earlier I discussed the positive effect of Communal Consciousness in settings like 12-Step group meetings, I have come to discover prayer and mediation as equilibrating my Personal Consciousness with the Cosmic Consciousness of God.
182 Drop The Needle And Pray
Following September 11th, The Rising album helped to heal America’s Fear-based trauma. The climax of this great album is a song entitled Mary’s Place.
This song consecrates the concert as a medium for Communal Consciousness and healing. The purpose of this song is to throw the greatest House Party. Ever.
The “Place of Mary“ referred to in the song refers to the live experience of collaboratively participating in a concert with Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. The song reminds us that the key to healing can be discovered if we simply:
“Drop the needle and pray.”
183 Mary's Place
I got seven pictures of Buddha.!! The prophet’s on my tongue.!! Eleven angels of mercy,!! sighin’ over that black hole in the sun.!!
My heart’s dark but it’s rising.! !I’m pulling all the faith I can see,!! from that black hole on the horizon,! !I hear your voice calling me.!!
Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.!
!Meet me at Mary’s Place. We’re gonna have a party.! !Meet me at Mary’s Place. We’re gonna have a party!. Tell me, how do we get this thing started? !
!Meet me at Mary`s Place.!!
Familiar faces around me.!! Laughter fills the air.! !Your Loving grace surrounds me.!! Everybody is here.!
!Furniture’s out on the front porch.!! Music’s up loud.! !I dream of you in my arms. !!I lose myself in the crowd.!
!Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!!, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.!
!Meet me at Mary’s Place. We’re gonna have a party.!! Meet me at Mary’s Place. We’re gonna have a party.!! Tell me, how do you live broken-hearted?
!!Meet me at Mary’s Place.!
~
184 !I got a picture of you in my locket,!! I keep it close to my heart.!! A light shining in my breast,! !leading me through the dark.!!
Seven days, seven candles,! !in my window light your way.!! Your favorite record’s on the turntable, !!I drop the needle and pray.!!
Band’s countin’ out midnight.!! (Turn it up.) Floor’s rumblin’ loud. !!(Turn it up.) Singer’s callin’ up daylight. !!(Turn it up.) And waitin’ for that shout from the crowd. (Turn it up.) !! Waitin’ for that shout from the crowd.!! (Turn it up.) Waitin’ for that shout from the crowd.! (Turn it up.) !Waitin’ for that shout from the crowd.! (Turn it up.) !Waitin’ for that shout from the crowd.!! (Turn it up.) Waitin’ for that shout from the crowd.!!
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up !! turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, turn it up.!!
Meet me at Mary’s Place. We’re gonna have a party.!! Meet me at Mary’s Place. We’re gonna have a party.!! Tell me, how do we get this thing started?
!!Meet me at Mary’s Place.!!
Meet me at Mary’s Place.!!
Meet me at Mary’s Place.!
185 Let Me Catch Your Tears
If I were to pick just one of Bruce’s songs to best represent the relationship between Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Congregation, I offer the following:
Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart
You got your book, baby, with all your Fears.!! Let me honey and I’ll catch your tears.!
!I’ll take your sorrow if you want me to.!! Come tomorrow,!! that’s what I’ll do.!
!Listen to me,!!
Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.!!
Well you say you got no new dreams to touch.! !You feel like a stranger, babe, who knows too much.!! You come home late and get undressed,!! you lie in bed and feel this emptiness.!!
Listen to me,!!
Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.!! !! Till every river it runs dry.!! Until the sun’s torn from the sky.! !Till every Fear you’ve felt burst free,!! gone tumblin’ down into the sea.!!
Listen to me,!!
Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.! !Janey, don’t you lose heart.!!
186 You Can’t Get There By Yourself
If Bruce Springsteen had a mission statement, I am confident it would include the idea that wherever we want to Geaux, we can’t get there by ourselves.
Music requires Communal Consciousness. The power of a “Band” (and I say this from the perspective of a professional Wind Band Conductor) is discovered through Communal Consciousness. The power of performance is awakened when that Communal Consciousness expands to include the audience.
---
Below is an excerpt from a sermon Bruce gave during a (I / vi) vamp in his legendary song Tenth Avenue Freeze Out:
“Is there any body alive out there? Is there anybody really alive out there? (You got to let them hear you in Jersey.) Is there anybody truly alive out there?
---
“It’s alright to have a good time. Yeah, it’s alright to have a good time. Oh take me to the river. Wash me in the water. Take me to the river. Wash me in the water. Take me to the river. Wash me in the waters. Take me to the river. Wash me in the waters.
I said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Take me to the river tonight.
I said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Take me to the river tonight.
I said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Take me to the river tonight.
That’s right. That’s where I where I wanna geaux tonight. I want to geaux to that riverside.I want to find that river of life. I want to find that river of Love. I want to find that river of Faith and that river of Hope.
187 Tonight, I want to geaux to that river of transformation, where you can geaux and be changed, but you have to Work at it. That’s right. I want to geaux to that river of sanctification where all life’s graces and blessings can fall down upon you like rain. But you’ve got to Work at it.
I want to geaux to that river of resurrection where everybody gets a second chance!!! But you’ve got to Work at it.
Tonight I want to geaux to that river of sexual healing and companionship.
I want to find that river of joy and that river of happiness.
I’m not bullshitting back here!!!
But you just don’t stumble upon those things. You don’t find those things by accident, you’ve got to seek them out and search after them.
And that’s why we’re here night, after night, after night, after night. Because you can’t get to those things by yourself. You’ve got to have help.
But that’s where I want to geaux tonight, and I want you to geaux with me—because I need to geaux with you. That’s why I’m here.
Tonight I want to throw a Rock & Roll exorcism, a Rock & Roll Baptism, and a Rock & Roll Bah Mitzvah. That’s right, we’re going to do it all tonight…everything.
I want them waters to fall down on me and set me free, set you free. --- I stood one evening as a young man before a dark grove of trees, And I was frightened to pass through those trees even though I knew that on the other side the river of life was waiting.
And there was cold beer at a Reasonable price. And there were no fucking cell phones either!!! Pizza for everybody.
But I stood paralyzed by my own Fears. And then a Gypsy Lady called me onward and she said: “Son come here, let me help you.” She asked me what I needed. I told her what I did for a living and she said: “Well, what you need is…you need a band.”
188 Roll Call: The E Street Band
“The heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love- making, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, justifying, death-defying, legendary E Street Band”
~~~
Bruce Springsteen—Lead Vocals / Guitar / Piano
Clarence “Big Man” Clemmons—Saxophone / Percussion
“Little Steven” Van Zant—Guitar / Vocals
“Might Max” Weinberg—Drums
Gary W. Talent—Bass
“The Professor” Roy Bittan—Piano / Keyboards
Patti Scialfa—Vocals / Guitar
Danny Federici—Keyboard / Accordion
Soozie Tyrell—Violin / Vocals
Nils Lofgren—Guitar / Vocals
---
featuring
The E Street Congregational Choir—Audience
189 Cover Me
One of Bruce’s greatest attributes is the homage he often pays to his influences. Resultantly, and often over-looked by music critics, is how fantastic a “cover band” The E Street Band really is.
In this next song, Bruce sings a traditional Rock Spiritual that expresses the essence of his message.
---
N.B.
When it comes to the greatest cover bands of all time, The E Street Band is the Rock & Roll equivalent of The Cleveland Orchestra!!! And that, my friends, is really saying something special.
190 Your Love Keeps On Lifting Me Higher
Your Love keeps lifting me higher, than I ever been lifted before. So give me Love, which is my desire, honey. I'm gonna be at your side forever more.
Now, you know your Love, keeps lifting me higher, than I ever been lifted before. So give me Love, oh, which is my desire. I'm gonna be at your side forever more.
Now once, down and broken hearted and disappointment, was my closest friend. And then you, you came and he departed, and you know he never, showed his face again.
Now, you know your Love, keeps lifting me higher, than I ever been lifted before. So give me Love, oh, which is my desire. I'm gonna be at your side forever more.
Know your Love, Keeps lifting me higher, than I ever been lifted before. So give me Love, which is my desire. I'm gonna be at your side forever more.
Now, you know your Love, keeps lifting me higher, than I ever been lifted before. So give me Love, oh, which is my desire, oh, honey. I'm gonna be at your side forever more.
191 Communal Conscious: Generation X Style
My Empathy and understanding of others grows as I tried to place myself in their shoes. Accordingly, my compassion and patience arises out of this Awareness of Universal Perception. Through Universal Perception, we can all increase our compassion by understanding where others might be in their Spiritual journey.
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
—Jesus Christ
---
We are among the first generation in human history in which Enlightenment can be attained through watching television.
TV can be addictive, unhealthy and mind numbing. However, TV can also be enlightening. I would like to recommend the Oprah Winfrey Network’s (OWN) Sunday programming for anyone who seeks to continue the Evolution of your Consciousness. Oprah’s show, Super Soul Sunday, has been a primary catalyst for the Evolution of my Consciousness and I strongly believe it can help you along your journey as well.
In this, the ninth track of the Gypsy Radio CD, I wink to Oprah Winfrey in humble gratitude and collaborative flirtation. ;)
The song Gypsy Radio is modeled after my Uncle Danny who was a truck driver. I grew up imagining his daily drives across this great country. I always thought that his freedom must feel liberating, yet lonely.
I imagined how much he must look forward to visiting a late 24-hour diner for some food and some conversation. I further imagined how these conversations must fulfill a desired Communal Consciousness for truck drivers (at least, a Communal Consciousness that went beyond “CB Radio”). I imagine this level of Communal Consciousness as Gypsy Radio.
It doesn’t much matter what they would talk about. It matters more that they are able to talk to someone, to have a connection and experience a glimpse of Communal Consciousness.
I often dreamed about the conversations they might have. I imagined most of them to be some kind of gossip-based conversation about the weather, Jennifer Anniston or how strong this year’s recruiting class is going to be for LSU Football.
Then it dawned on me, we are all seeking Communal Consciousness when, where and how we can. Actually, it ends up being essential to our survival as a species.
192 Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!
My wife is from Odessa, Ukraine. Her name is Luda and she is my beautiful Red-Headed Woman.
For a songwriter, it is so awesome to be married to someone for whom English is her second language. (Actually, her third language, but who’s counting?)
The Reason it is great having an ESL person as a spouse is that sometimes she literally translates Russian euphemisms and brings them into English conversations. Often times these translations are eloquent, poetic and sometime hilarious.
For example, if I am struggling with a task that my wife knows I am not very good at in the first place, she says:
“Well, if you’re a bad dancer, your balls will always get in the way.”
Or when there is no food in the refrigerator, Luda proclaims:
“Honey, the mouse hanged himself again!”
Well, one day Luda was telling me some gossip about something I can no longer remember. After telling me all the juicy details, she says:
“Oh well, I shouldn’t gossip. It’s all just Gypsy Radio anyhow!”
I stopped and asked her about “Gypsy Radio.”
She told me that in Russian speaking countries, if you want to literally translate their euphemism for gossip, it is Gypsy Radio.
As a songwriter, I just had to jump on this.
193 My Good Friend, Puck
Early in my life I discovered Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, I did not discover this play through the theatre. Nor did I discover it through the Kevin Kline / Calista Flockhart film-version either. No, I discovered A Midsummer Night’s Dream through Duke Ellington.
In Duke’s “Shakespearian Suite” entitled, Such Sweet Thunder, I found two gems. The first was Star Crossed Lovers—Ellington’s setting of Romeo And Juliet. (I later got to play trumpet on this song with the jazz legend Wes Anderson on alto saxophone! Very cool, indeed.)
The second tune I fell in Love with in Ellington’s Shakespearian Suite was his setting of Midsummer Night’s Dream in a song entitled, Up and Down, Up and Down (I Will Lead Them Up and Down). In it, Clark Terry plays the role of Puck, who at the end blithely proclaims,
“Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
I later went on to discover the play and I, like everyone else in the world, fell madly in Love with it. My favorite part of the play is Puck’s final Epilogue:
“If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: if you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.”
194 Think Of This But As A Dream, (Although…)
I acknowledge that this text espouses some fairly lofty assertions. When thinking about how to begin to conclude Gypsy Radio, I wanted to express the sentiment,
“At least, I hope this is correct. I don’t really know. Because, ultimately, it’s all just gossip.”
In other words, this song is my attempt to reflect Puck’s Epilogue. Put yet another way, I quote Victor Wooten in his disclaimer at the very beginning of his fantastic book, The Music Teacher, when he says,
“If it isn’t all right, it’s alright.”
—Victor Wooten
Sonic Contemplation 9—Recessional: Gypsy Radio
--- N.B.
This song includes an instrumental break preceded by the sound of the band clapping. In life performances, audience and band express time together through a shared sense of time. Once we find our proverbial groove, I introduce the artists.
The Gypsy Radio Project does not have specific membership. Rather, the band typically changes slightly with every performance. Membership is not exclusive in any way, as it includes everyone (band and audience) who is participating in the Communal Consciousness of shared time in that moment. To this end, you, the listener, are an essential part of The Gypsy Radio Project.
In addition to those specifically recognized throughout this book, members of The Gypsy Radio Project who were involved with this recording include: David Story, bass; David Hastings, saxophone; Jeannie Hill, tap dancer / vocals; Randal Harrison, violin; Patrick Lawrence, trombone; Brent Turney, trumpet; Kelvin Kaspar, guitar; Lana Albright, vocals; Joshua Smith, melodeon; Jeffrey Wohlbach, trumpet; Ted Weigl, guitar; Alex Genova, banjo; Mike Zirkel, recording engineer; Heidi Oberstadt, photographer; and Steve Gotcher, producer, recording engineer and Spiritual brother.
And last, but not least:
Jenny (Harkness) Vanden Heuvel, graphic designer, artistic partner & Soul Sister.
195 Summarizing Contemplations: Chapter Nine
Q: What are the various ways you find Communal Consciousness?
Q: How does Communal Consciousness help with the Evolution of your Empathy?
Q: How can identifying with a given tribe both help and limit the Evolution of your Consciousness?
(Music Geek Stuff)
The arc of the harmonic tonal centers in the Gypsy Radio song-cycle is intended to be reflective of our Spiritual journey. It represents a descent beneath Dirty-hood and a Rising through the Tunnel of Love into The Promised Land of Bb Major: God’s key.
The opening song starts in G. The second track descends to G’s relative minor—e minor. (The story of John Wilkes Booth seeks to illustrate what it might feel like to be seen as the “relative minor.”) The third track tries to elevate back to G, but is yet, unready. Accordingly the third track can only ascend to f# minor. The fourth track surrenders to E and listens. The fifth track descends to the core of D Major (the relative dominant to the tonic of G Major.) Slowly, track 6 ascends chromatically to Eb minor. Track 7 arrives again at E Major (the same key as “Born to Run”). Track 8 arrives again at f# minor. (This harmony gets stuck there, waiting in a circular fashion.) Track 9 arrives back at the Tonic of Concert G. But then the band modulates into A Major. This modulation from G to A represents the equation G = A (God equals Awareness). This modulation occurs while the band quotes, “This Land is Your Land.”
Track 10 is an encore that descends to F Major. This piece serves as the ultimate dominant relationship with the fundamental frequency of the universe: Bb!!! The fundamental frequency of the universe is Bb, 64 octaves beneath Middle C. (All good band directors know that Bb Major is a very special key center.) Track 11 is a celebration in Bb. After Track 11, the intention is that someone could proceed back to Track 1, imagining the entire album to be circular. The overall harmonic pathway:
Bb Major!!!
G Major G Major (! A Major) f # minor f# minor F Major e minor E Major E Major Eb minor D Major --- N.B. ! Bold, underlined = Tonal centers /Italics = Dominant keys to the tonal centers.
196 Coda: Encore
As the form of this book is intended to be reflective of a Springsteen show, I thought it fitting to have an encore portion of the journey.
You could also conceive the rest of this book as “The Hero’s Return,” if you were to be examining this journey through the eyes of Joseph Campbell and/or The Wizard of Oz.
---
“We shall not cease from exploration, and at the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Elliot
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If you are thinking literarily, perhaps this encore section might be perceived as The Denouement.
One might also think of the encore section as the Catholic Benediction.
Or perhaps the encore is the addict’s “Ben Addiction.”
---
N. B.
Again, because this journey is about discovering Formlessness, I hope you have enjoyed the interplay between all the types of contrasting forms to which I have alluded. Hopefully, this approach has helped to point toward the commonalities that they all share. And by doing so, I hope this approach effectively (and playfully) points toward Formlessness.
197
“Everything in the entire universe has a single source. Your inner-most Being is that source. When your Awareness is un-blocked and free, God is not difficult to find. In fact, God is impossible to avoid. The Divine is within.”
—Deepak Chopra
198 Chapter X—The Will of the Universe: An Examination of Cosmic Consciousness
Throughout my teaching career, I have learned so much from my students. I am blessed to work with amazingly insightful student-colleagues who both teach and inspire me on a daily basis.
One day after a seminar on Consciousness and the art of conducting, a student left a bible verse on my door. At first I reacted in Fear, taking the Christian bible reference as a tacit denouncement of the Buddhist ideas I had previously offered. Only later (when I expanded to her level of Consciousness) could I see that she was beautifully connecting two faith traditions through one profound biblical verse.
“Be still and know that I am God.”
—Psalm 46:10 ---
Q: What does this biblical verse mean to you?
---
I have come to interpret this verse to mean that if you go deep enough into your Personal Consciousness, you will discover Cosmic Consciousness.
Resonating with this idea, Deepak Chopra says:
“If you go deep enough into your own mind, you will experience the Cosmic Mind.”
It helps me to imagine Consciousness as existing in concentric circles. In one circle lies our own Personal Consciousness. As we elevate our perception, we begin to discover the increasingly larger circles of Communal Consciousness. Likewise, as we elevate our perception even further, we discover that these concentric circles are all imprinted on a sphere, within which infinite circles exist. This sphere is Cosmic Consciousness.
God is Cosmic Consciousness.
Our Personal Consciousness arises from Cosmic Consciousness. When the bible says that humankind is “made in the image and likeness of God,” I take it to mean that we are made in the image and likeness of Cosmic Consciousness.
As we evolve into the “image and likeness” of Cosmic Consciousness, we simultaneously evolve into the image and likeness of God.
199 I Am That I Am
Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they will say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”
God said to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM;” and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.”
—Exodus 3:14
---
Consciousness is “I Am.”
God is “I Am That I Am.”
God is Consciousness of Consciousness.
Cosmic Consciousness is Consciousness squared.
God = Cosmic Consciousness
Cosmic Consciousness ! C2
{Literally, Consciousness times Consciousness ! C x C = C2}
C2 arises from being Conscious of your true “Self” as Consciousness.
Your true Self is Consciousness.
Your true Self is God.
200 The God Equation: First Draft
G = C2
--- N.B.
This equation translates to:
“I Am This I Am.”
201 Blown Away The Lies That Leave You Lost And Broken-Hearted
Anyone who has ever experienced a “Crisis of Consciousness” (also known as a Spiritual Crisis, Mid-life Crisis, Emotional Breakdown or Rock Bottom) knows what it feels like to have everything fall apart. The Acceptance that all things fall apart is embedded in Entropy and so, because Entropy is a law of the universe, we must all learn Acceptance.
In the epic song, The Promised Land, Bruce places the listener right on the precipice where things are falling apart. He propels the listener through this traumatic transition by helping us keep a vision for The Promised Land, which guides all Spiritual journeys.
The Promised Land of Consciousness is the experience of Peace through Integrity.
202 The Promised Land
On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert,!! I pick up my money and head back into town.!! Driving cross the Waynesboro County line,!! I got the radio on and I’m just killing time.!
!Working all day in my daddy’s garage.! !Driving all night chasing some mirage.! !Pretty soon little girl, I’m gonna take charge.!!
The dogs on Main Street howl!, ‘cause they understand,! !if I could take one moment into my hands.!! Mister, I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man,! !and I believe in a promised land.
!!I’ve done my best to live the right way.! !I get up every morning and go to Work each day.!! But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold.! !Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode.!
!Explode, and tear this whole town apart.!! Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart.! !Find somebody itching for something to start.!!
The dogs on Main Street howl!, ‘cause they understand,! !if I could take one moment into my hands.!! Mister I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man,! !and I believe in a promised land.
There’s a dark cloud rising from the desert floor,! !I packed my bags and I’m heading straight into the storm.!! Gonna be a twister to blow everything down,!! that ain’t got the faith to stand its ground.!
!Blow away the dreams that tear you apart.!! Blow away the dreams that break your heart.!! Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted.!
The dogs on Main Street howl!, ‘cause they understand,! !if I could take one moment into my hands.!! Mister I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man,! !and I believe in a promised land.
203 Our Love Is Real
I have a sad thought for you: someday Bruce will no longer be with us.
More accurately, in form, someday Bruce will no longer be with us. But in Formlessness, Bruce will be with us for all time.
Sometimes I imagine who will speak at the funeral of Bruce Springsteen. (And moreover, what would they say?)
---
If I were asked what song I think would best befit Bruce’s eventual eulogy, I would submit the song This Is Your Sword. In it, Bruce answers the decades-old question Bruce first posed in Born to Run:
“I want to know if Love is wild and I want to know if Love is Real.”
Bruce affirms this question in a song written thirty-three years later when he sings:
“Do not despair, our Love is Real.”
204 This Is Your Sword
Now brothers and sisters, listen to me.! These are the few things that I leave to thee.! The sword of our fathers with lessons hard taught.! The shield strong and sturdy from battles well fought.!!
Well, this is your sword, this is your shield,! this is the power of Love revealed. !Carry them with you wherever you go!, and give all the Love that you have in your Soul.!!
At times there are dark, dark must cover the earth.! This world's filled with the beauty of God's Work. !Hold tight to your brawn, stay righteous, stay strong,! when the days of miracles will come along.!
! Well, this is your sword, this is your shield,! this is the power of Love revealed. !Carry them with you wherever you go!, and give all the Love that you have in your Soul.!!
!In the days of despair you can grow hard, !till you close your mind and empty your heart. !If you find yourself staring in the abyss,! hold tight to your Loved ones and remember this:!!
This shield will protect your secret heart.! The sword will defend from what comes in the dark.! Should you grow weary on the battle field, !well, do not despair, our Love is real.!!
Well, this is your sword, this is your shield,! this is the power of Love revealed. !Carry them with you wherever you go!, and give all the Love that you have in your Soul.!!
And give all the Love that you have in your Soul.!!
205 Three Bruce Blessings
1) Every thing dies, baby that’s a fact. But maybe everything that dies, someday comes back.
2) You’ve got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above.
3) In the end what you don’t surrender, well, the world just strips away.
~
When we awaken to the reality that our Consciousness is of Cosmic Consciousness, we discover we are of God. Accordingly, all Conscious Beings are likewise of God. Thus, we are all connected.
The journey to this Awareness and Acceptance is the Evolution of Consciousness. In The Ties That Bind, Bruce poetically captures this journey:
“It's a long dark highway and a thin white line, connecting baby, your heart to mine.”
---
Q; How do you differentiate between your “smaller” self and your “higher” Self?
Q: How does your higher “Self” equate with all other Conscious Beings?
Q: How can Communal Consciousness be conceived as the social “ties that bind” us together?
---
206 The Ties That Bind
You been hurt and you're all cried out, you say, you walk down the street pushin' people outta your way. You packed your bags and all alone you wanna ride, you don't want nothin', don't need no one by your side. You're walkin' tough, baby, but you're walkin' blind to the ties that bind.
The ties that bind. Now you can't break the ties that bind.
Cheap romance, it's all just a crutch. You don't want nothin' that anybody can touch. You're so afraid of being somebody's fool, not walkin' tough, baby, not walkin' cool. You walk cool, but darlin', can you walk the line and face the ties that bind? The ties that bind. Now you can't break the ties that bind.
I would rather feel the hurt inside, yes I would darlin', than know the emptiness your heart must hide. Yes I would darlin', yes I would darlin', yes I would, baby.
You sit and wonder, “Just who's gonna stop the rain? Who'll ease the Sadness, who's gonna quiet the pain?” It's a long dark highway and a thin white line, connecting baby, your heart to mine. We're runnin' now but darlin' we will stand in time, to face the ties that bind. The ties that bind. Now you can't break the ties that bind. You can't forsake the ties that bind.
207 Advance Always
Through The Gypsy Radio Project, I have learned how to dream big. What I have learned about creating a dream is that you cannot wait for anyone to bestow it upon you. You must earn it through Work and Love.
I first learned this lesson through my Catholic upbringing. Like Bruce, I too had a very positive experience being taught by priests and nuns.
My first interaction with excellent teaching took place at St. James Catholic Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia. The nuns were disciples of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They were strict, but very cool. (I still distinctly remember one of them waving a Philadelphia Eagles jersey at the end of a school mass, gloating over a Washington Redskins defeat.)
At Bishop Ireton High School, I was taught by priests who were disciples of St. Francis de Sales. They were great teachers, great people and great role models. I wanted to become one. I even had an extended meeting about joining their order. (Then I discovered New Orleans!!!)
In high school, we would begin every morning with a quotation from St. Francis de Sales. For the first few years, I never paid any attention. But as I grew up (and my hormones settled down…a bit…) I started finding patterns in the quotations.
“Advance Always in Love through God.”
—Saint Francis de Sales
This book is an attempt to make good on a promise I made to Father Edwin Fitzpatrick, Mr. Mike Hutton, Dr. Maria Guitart, Mr. Kevin Clancy and Dr. Garwood Whaley, some twenty-five years ago.
--- N.B.
My English teacher Kevin Clancy got The Gypsy Radio Project started my junior year in high school when he voluntarily analyzed Don McLean’s American Pie as a gift. It was the first time I recognized Rock & Roll as having the potential to convey deep Spiritual meaning. I wink to Mr. Clancy in Tonight, Tonight – the opening track of Gypsy Radio when I make a reference to Don McLean in the second verse.
208 Commencement Address
May God bless you with Discomfort… at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with Anger… at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly Work for justice, freedom, and Peace among all people.
May God bless you with Tears… to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.
May God bless you with Foolishness… to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done:
To bring justice and kindness to all in need.
—Francisan Benediction ---
As a Wind Ensemble conductor, part of my job has included conducting bands during graduation ceremonies. Sometimes it’s great; sometime it’s a drag. The best part is that every school year I get to hear a really cool guest speaker. I always think, “I could do that.” But who would ever think to ask me to do so?
I decided I could not wait to be asked, I needed to write the speech and have it ready. That way, when the universe came knocking, I’d be rocking. (Actually, because of my addictive personality, I have actually written dozens of different commencement addresses. But who’s counting?)
In one version of my commencement address arsenal I decided to put the speech in song form. The result was this chapter’s Sonic Contemplation.
I wrote this song in “High Hopes” to one day be asked to give a commencement speech. This song encourages the listener to re-cognize the nature of their true Self. In reading the lyrics contained in the CD booklet, please note that I use the smaller “self” throughout the entire song, until the very last statement—right before the “Amen Cadence.” I hope this song elicits an Awareness and Acceptance that our true Self is Love (or Consciousness). The more we Love, the more we see our Self as that Love.
Sonic Contemplation 10—Ben Addiction: The Art Living
209
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and the gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of Love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
210 Chapter XI—We're Having a Party: The Joy of Non-Duality
The music of Bruce Springsteen is like a Rock & Roll Tent Revival coming to a town year you, trying to save your Soul. But before you can fully experience the joy of Non-Duality, you must first confront your greatest Fear.
Every Spiritual journey must ultimately confront a Moment of Truth. This is the moment that your greatest Fear is given full Awareness and complete Acceptance. In Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, this moment is called The Dark Night of the Soul.
“The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.”
—Joseph Campbell
How can we transcend our greatest Fear?
One way to help with transcending one’s greatest Fear is to simply pour water on it. In other words, imagine what your Fear looks like wet. After all, it proved successful for Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
When Dorothy poured water on the Wicked Witch, the witch evaporated. And remember what The Fish Parable taught us at the very beginning of this journey— Water can represent Awareness. If water represents Awareness and Awareness is synonymous with Love, then the best way to transcend our greatest Fear might just be to Love it. The soothing water that evaporates Fear is the Awareness and Acceptance of Love.
The Only Thing We Have To Love Is Fear Itself.
---
Q: How can we Love our Fear?
---
When I am trying to Love my Fear, I try to focus on the following three practices—I can experience these practices either sequentially or simultaneously. I hope these three practices help you with the practice of learning to Love your Fear.
a) Learn the Lesson.
b) See the Beauty.
c) Get the Joke.
211 Other Ways To Perceive The Love / Fear Continuum
There are countless ways in which we already perceive and describe the experience of our Consciousness. I define Spirituality as the innate compulsion that leads our Consciousness to evolve. Inversely, I perceive religion to be human-made institutions seeking to facilitate that Evolution. In this way, I imagine religion to be like a set of training wheels that we can use until our Consciousness evolves into a more mature Awareness and Acceptance of our innate Spirituality.
The Evolution of Consciousness follows a universal arc. This arc is not linear and the context of each person’s journey seems unique. However, upon further examination, I have come to perceive all Spiritual arcs to be part of a universal journey of Evolution. The Love / Fear Continuum (LFC) seeks to reflect that journey.
---
While each of our journeys might appear separate, we do tend to use similar words to describe it. The similarity of these descriptions offers us an opportunity to awaken from the illusion of separateness and discover the universal journey that is shared by all.
Below are some other descriptions we use to describe the arc of Conscious Evolution.
Mid-Life Crisis: Having ! Doing ! Being
As you look at the LFC, you will notice that the lower four levels identify your self through what you have or do not have. The next higher four levels identify your self through what you do or do not do. The highest two levels identify your Self through your Being.
I have discovered this discernment to be extremely useful in the Evolution of my Consciousness. Whatever level (Having, Doing, Being) I focus on, I tend to hover along those stages of the LFC. For example, when I focus my Awareness on having wealth—or, more commonly, on not having enough wealth—I discover that I quickly descend down the LFC. Likewise, when I focus my attention on my doing, I tend to elevate along the LFC.
Through an examination of this discernment, I have discovered an astounding insight: Whichever level I focus on (Having, Doing or Being) the levels beneath it tend to take care of themselves. In other words, when I am focused on having, sometime I will have and sometimes I won’t have. If my happiness depends on having, I will tend not to be happy.
Similarly, when I focus on doing, sometimes I will do and sometimes I won’t do. However, as I focus on my doing, my having tends to take care of itself.
212 Similarly, as I focus on my Being, sometimes I will be present and sometimes I will not be present. (“To Be or not to Be. That is the question.”) However, as I focus on my Being, both my doing and my having inevitably take care of themselves.
This has proven to be a transformational insight in my life. So often, my internal suffering arises through my focus being directed at my having or my doing. When I focus on my Being, everything else seems to somehow fall into place.
“Ego says, ‘Once everything falls into place, I’ll find Peace.’ Spirit says, ‘Find your Peace, and things will fall into place’.”
—Marianne Williamson
I am not suggesting that we simply sit in a lotus position and await the world to bring us riches. Rather, I am pointing to the Awareness that our having will always flow from our doing. And our doing will always flow from our Being. This is true whether or not we are intentional with how we chose to focus our attention.
Remember one of the central rules of Consciousness: whatever we give our attention to will inevitably expand. Accordingly, if we give all of our attention to what we do not have, our Awareness will focus on possessions. Resultantly, we could lose focus on the “doing-ness” and “Being-ness” that would bring us those possessions in the first place. Focusing on our Being-ness allows our “doing-ness” and “having-ness” to naturally flow.
I believe that a “mid-life crisis” arises out of trying to define our life through what we have and/or what we do—only to discover that these two levels have limitations that keep us from fulfillment. These lower two self-definitions are less fulfilling because they are inherently transient.
One’s Being is eternal.
---
Q: How do I most often self-identify?
A) Through my Being.
B) Through my Doing.
C) Through my Having.
---
213 Object / Subject Relationship
Great Spiritual teachers continue to teach us that the ego arises out of objectification. The more we see our selves and others as objects, the more we are caught in a world of form. Furthermore, as we objectify our selves and others, we lose the capacity for Empathy. For, as we increasingly objectify, we fail to see humans as part of a shared Consciousness. This objectification lies at the heart of evil, because it is much easier to commit atrocities toward others if we perceive them as mere objects lacking a Soul. But of course, it is not the victims who lack Soul, rather, it is the perpetrator whose Soul has not yet evolved to the point of Awareness or Acceptance of our shared Consciousness.
We objectify women. We objectify men. We objectify our self. Transforming an objective perspective into a subjective experience arises through the expansion of Empathy, and thus, the expansion of Consciousness.
Love is the mutual expansion of Consciousness. Accordingly, Love is the practice of expanding beyond an objective perspective of the universe into a subjective experience of universal Consciousness.
E Pluribus Unum
Just as we can point to the Evolution of Consciousness through examining the journey from an objective perspective to a subjective perception, we can likewise examine the Evolution of Consciousness through our grammar. Grammatically speaking, the words “me” and “us” are object pronouns (usually connected to a preposition), and the word “I” and “We” are subject pronouns (usually connected to a verb.). Only “subject pronouns” can represent a subjective experience.
---
Q: Which pronoun do you most often use to describe your experience?
a) Me (first person—object, defined in opposition to “you.”)
b) Us (third person—object, defined in opposition to “them.”)
c) I (first person—subject, personal subjective experience.)
d) We (third person—subject, communal subjective experience.)
Q: How universally do you define the words “we,” “perfect,” and “union” in the following:
“We the People, in order to form a more perfect union.”
—Constitution (written in The Age of Enlightenment)
214 Highway to Hell
One can also perceive The Love/Fear Continuum as a continuum of agitation on one side and stillness on the other.
I have come to believe that the concepts of Hell and Heaven are meant to represent states of agitation and stillness in our Souls. Our Soul, of course, is simply another name for our Consciousness. In this way, The Love / Fear Continuum (LFC) not only shows us the journey of the Evolution of Consciousness, it also shows us the Highway to Heaven and the Highway to Hell.
The two middle stages of Consciousness (Fear-Mode Purgatory and Love-Mode Purgatory) offer us names for intermediate stages between Hell and Heaven. These stages are incrementally more comfortable as you ascend the LFC, but are all ultimately unsustainable and transient.
The pain and suffering from the lower three levels of Consciousness are gifts that inform us that we are presently out of alignment with the universe. If we adjust accordingly to the order of the universe, we will inevitably ascend to the stillness of Heaven.
---
Heaven
Love-Mode Purgatory
Fear-Mode Purgatory
Hell
---
“Through humility, Soul searching, and prayerful contemplation we have gained a new understanding of certain dogmas. The church no longer believes in a literal hell where people suffer. This doctrine is incompatible with the infinite Love of God. God is not a judge but a friend and a lover of humanity. God seeks not to condemn but only to embrace. Like the fable of Adam and Eve, we see hell as a literary device. Hell is merely a metaphor for the isolated Soul, which like all Souls ultimately will be united in Love with God.”
—Pope Francis
215 The Pointers and The Moon
Many of the ideas explored within this journey were discovered through my twenty years as a conductor and teacher. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone who assisted with my Spiritual Evolution – especially my students.
The above title pays tribute to the astonishing colleagues that I have at the schools at which I have taught, especially the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point and the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. . Without them, this journey would not have been possible.
While in Stevens Point, I discovered this cool bar and grill in town called The Hilltop Grill. All the Artists at UWSP would go to Hilltop after performances. Whenever I sing Bruce in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, I change the words of Ramrod from “out on top of the hill,” to “at The Hilltop Grill.”
Likewise, I pay homage to my Louisiana family by changing “Bluebird Street” to “Bourbon Street.”
---
Ramrod is a Spiritual song that invites the audience to go out with Bruce and the Band to sing, dance and simply have fun!
Any song that brings about Love through fun is Spiritual in my book.
And this is, after all, my book.
216 Ramrod
Hey, little dolly with the blue jeans on,! !I wanna ramrod with you honey, till half-past dawn.!! Let your hair down mama and pick up this beat,! !come on and meet me tonight down on Bourbon Street.*!
!I’ve been Working all week, I’m up to my neck in hock.!! Come Saturday night I let my ramrod rock.!!
She’s a hot stepping hemi with a four on the floor.!! She’s a roadrunner engine in a ‘32 Ford.! !Late at night when I’m dead on the line, !!I think of your pretty face when I let her unwind.!! Well look over yonder see them city lights.!! Come on little dolly lets go ramroddin’ tonight.!
!Come on, come on, come on little baby.!! Come on, come on let’s shake it tonight.! !Come on, come, come on little sugar,!! Dance with your daddy and we’ll go ramroddin’ tonight.!!
Hey, little dolly won`t you say you will,! !meet me tonight at The Hilltop Grill.* Well just a few miles cross the county line,!! There’s a cute little chapel nestled down in the pines.!! Say you’ll be mine little girl I’ll put my foot to the floor,!! give me the word now sugar will go ramroddin forever more.
--- * N.B.
;)
217 Is There Anybody Really Alive Out There?
The E Street Band has a lot of great “back-up singers,” but the audience is the choir.
Performance practice has developed over Bruce’s fifty-plus years of touring. Any new participant learns quickly that this experience is “all in” for everyone, if it is to really Work.
The E Street Congregational Choir (the audience) takes this event as an opportunity for collective salvation through Communal Consciousness expressed as the magic and ministry of Rock & Roll.
---
So if you ever attend a Bruce Springsteen concert, please know that you will have to get off your ass and sing:
“Sha la la, la la la la la la… Sh la la, la la la laaa.
Sha la la, la la la la la la… Sh la la, la la la laaa.”
—Darlington County
--- N.B.
The characters in Springsteen’s songs are not all faced with epic life or death choices. Sometimes they are faced with choices to dance, party and have a good time. But, as anyone who has felt the resistance to dance or sing knows, sometimes seemingly simple decisions to let loose can feel like epic struggles between Love and Fear.
218 Darlington County
Driving in to Darlington County!!, me and Wayne on the Fourth of July!!. Driving in to Darlington County!!, looking for some Work on the county line!!.
We drove down from New York City!!, where the girls are pretty but they just want to know your name.! !Driving in to Darlington City,!! got a union connection with an uncle of Wayne’s.!!
We drove eight hundred miles without seeing a cop!!, we got Rock & Roll music blasting off the T-top. Singing:
Sha la la, la la la la la la. Sha la la, la la la la!!.
Hey little girl standing on the corner,!! Today’s your lucky day for sure all right!!. Me and my buddy we’re from New York City,!! we got two hundred dollars we want to rock all night.!!
Girl, you’re looking at two big spenders!!, why the world don’t know what me and Wayne might do!!. Our pa’s each own one of the World Trade Centers!, !for a kiss and a smile I’ll give mine all to you!.
!Come on baby take a seat on my fender,! !it’s a long night and tell me what else were you gonna do!!? Just me and you, we could:!
Sha la la, la la la la la la. Sha la la, la la la la!!.
!Little girl, sitting in the window,!! ain’t seen my buddy in seven days!!. County man tells me the same thing,!! he don’t Work and he don’t get paid!!.
Little girl, you’re so young and pretty!!, walk with me and you can have your way!!. And we’ll leave this Darlington City!, !for a ride down that Dixie Highway!!.
Driving out of Darlington County!!, I seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.!! Driving out of Darlington County,! !seen Wayne handcuffed to the bumper of a state trooper’s Ford.
Sha la la, la la la la la la. Sha la la, la la la la!!.
219 A Rock & Roll Exorcism
Dancing and singing offer avenues to release agitation. This is why The Beatles’ anthem Twist and Shout served a necessary function in the Evolution of our Consciousness: they gave us a national exorcism. We had to sing and dance out of our communal membrane of Fear.
To witness a Rock & Roll exorcism, simply watch the teenagers in the 1960’s experience a live Beatles concert.
~
“When you move your ass, your Spirit will follow.”
—Bruce Springsteen
~
“You must first move someone physically before you can move someone emotionally.”
—Bud Beyer
~
“You cannot think your self into a new way of acting, you must act yourself into a new way of thinking.”
—Craig Kirchhoff
~
“Always keep your heart in front of your head.”
—Allan McMurray
220 Twist and Shout
Well, shake it up, baby, now. (Shake it up, baby.) Twist and shout. (Twist and shout.) C'mon c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now. (Come on, baby.) Come on and Work it on out. (Work it on out.)
Well, Work it on out, honey. (Work it on out.) You know you look so good. (Look so good.) You know you got me goin', now. (Got me goin'.) Just like I knew you would. (Like I knew you would.)
Well, shake it up, baby, now. (Shake it up, baby.) Twist and shout. (Twist and shout.) C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now. (Come on, baby.) Come on and Work it on out. (Work it on out.)
You know you twist your little girl (Twist, little girl.) You know you twist so fine. (Twist so fine.) Come on and twist a little closer, now. (Twist a little closer.) And let me know that you're mine. (Let me know you're mine.)
Well, shake it up, baby, now. (Shake it up, baby.) Twist and shout. (Twist and shout.) C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now. (Come on, baby.) Come on and Work it on out. (Work it on out.)
You know you twist your little girl. (Twist, little girl.) You know you twist so fine. (Twist so fine.) Come on and twist a little closer, now. (Twist a little closer.) And let me know that you're mine. (Let me know you're mine.)
Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now. (Shake it up baby.) Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now. (Shake it up baby.) Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now. (Shake it up baby.)
221
“One Love. One heart. Let’s get together and so it will feel alright.”
—Bob Marley
222 Lagniappe’s Lament
Groove is experienced through a deeply shared sense of time.
To have a good sense of “musical time” and to have “a good time” both require precisely the same sense of inner stillness amidst outward movement.
A deepening of the groove occurs through playing as late as possible, without being late.
~
In a subsequent book, The Conscious Conduit: Singing, Conducting and the Art of Creation, we will explore Consciousness through Music Performance, Music Education and Music Advocacy.
I hope you will consider taking that journey as well—because frankly, too many books on the importance of music education are only being read by music educators. That needs to change if music is to ever fully serve its purpose in the Evolution of our species.
In the next chapter, you will be invited to go back through the entire Gypsy Radio CD and listen to all of the tracks in uninterrupted sequence. When doing so, please consider tapping along with each track’s unique feel and experience the various expressions of time. Feel it as deeply as you can. In other words, feel it as late as possible without being late. Notice if that experience deepens your sense of time.
All music is sculpted time. Deepening your perception of time deepens your listening experience. As you deepen your perception of time, your body will inevitably start to move. For those who have never been able to dance, I posit that your inhibition to movement arises out of not feeling time as deeply as you can. Once you feel time in a deep manner, your movements will naturally and spontaneously occur.
Sonic Contemplation 11—Lagniappe: Gratitude's Groove
--- N.B.
Finally, I would like to introduce you to the keyboardist for The Gypsy Radio Project, Mathew Buchman, who plays accordion, piano and Hammond B-3 Organ. In addition to being an astonishing jazz pianist, teacher and colleague, he is simply the most authentic person I have ever known. Throughout my journey, I always keep “Matty B” in my heart as a shining example of musical, personal and Spiritual Integrity.
223
“God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.”
—The Serenity Prayer
224 Chapter XII – The Land of Hope and Dreams: The Twelfth Step
Every 12-Step Program is Spiritual. All 12-Step Programs are Spiritual because they all require a surrendering to God—as each participant knows God. Steps two through five directly address the role that God has in the Spiritual act of Recovery.
---
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our Will and our lives over to the care of God—as we understood God.
4. Made a searching and Fearless inventory of our selves.
5. Admitted to God, to our selves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
—The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
The word “God” scares a lot of people and I understand why. For centuries, people have been killing each other over slightly different variations in their definition of God. Although defining God can be a treacherous endeavor, this book is my attempt to express my understanding of God—as I have come to know God.
Throughout this journey, I have followed a convenient modern custom among writers of metaphysical books in capitalizing certain words that signify aspects or attributes of God. I hope you re-cognize that I do not limit this capitalization to “Love-mode” words; rather, I also capitalize “Fear-mode” words. This is important because if God is everywhere, God must also be revealed in our Fear.
The Love / Fear Continuum represents the entire range of Consciousness, and thus, the entire range of our “Conscious Contact” with God. And while the entire range of Consciousness offers us contact with God, we can distinguish between comfortable contact and uncomfortable contact.
Fear-mode attitudes represent progressively uncomfortable contact, while Love- mode attitudes represent progressively comfortable contact. When an addict is brought into “the rooms” of a 12-Step Program, they often say that God brought them there, but they rarely express God through comfortable terms. Rather, it is usually only after Spiritual Evolution facilitated by the 12-Step Program that an addict’s contact with God becomes increasingly comfortable.
We can never loose contact with God. We can, however, choose attitudes and actions that make our contact with God increasingly comfortable. This discernment and practice is Spiritual progress.
225 Don’t Leave Before The Miracle Happens
“There can be no learning without transfer.”
—Robert Duke
For this journey to mean anything, you must transfer its insights into your own life. The process of applying these insights to your “self “will reveal your higher “Self.” If you fail to do so, this journey will simply have been a list of intellectual insights that will do little to transform your self or assist in the Evolution of our Consciousness.
In this chapter, I use words familiar to alcoholics and addicts. If you are not an addict, you might feel that these insights do not apply to you. I assert that everyone yet to experience the complete Enlightenment of Non-Duality suffers from a type of addiction. This addiction most probably takes the form of hyper-attachment and/or hyper-identification with patterns of thought, cycles of behavior and habits of perception.
To attain the Enlightenment of Non-Duality, we must transcend all addictions – physical, emotional, intellectual and Spiritual. To transcend these addictions, we must transcend our ego through the examination of our habits of perception.
The following sequenced examination entitled 57 Channels to Recovery is offered as a tool to help you transcend your ego. The questions invite you to explore each level of The Love / Fear Continuum. Through this examination, the questions seek to offer perceptual pathways for those looking to expand their Consciousness.
Please take your time through these questions. This is not a race. You will not be given a reward for finishing quickly. You might, however, be rewarded if you are patient, make a Fearlessly inventory and deeply explore your own previously unexamined habits of perception.
“We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder. We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder. We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder. We are brothers and sisters, all.”
—Jacob’s Ladder
226 Jacob’s Ladder: 57 Channels to Recovery
1) What are your highest dreams and aspirations?
2) What is inhibiting you from achieving those dreams?
3) How can you overcome those inhibitions?
4) What is a current or recent experience of Shame?
5) What was the root cause of the Shame?
6) Is the root somehow connected to a perception of you not being “good enough”?
7) In what way is your Shame isolating?
8) What can you surrender to transcend that Shame?
9) How does Compassion relate to transcending Shame?
10) What is a current or recent experience of Guilt?
11) In what way was that Guilt indulging?
12) How does Guilt stifle long-term gratification through short-term gratification?
13) How is Guilt a more Loving frequency than Shame?
14) How does Forgiveness relate to transcending Guilt?
15) What is the current or recent experience of Sadness?
16) In what way is that Grief founded upon an illusion of separateness?
17) Can you imagine a radical sense of equality in which all things are equal?
18) Can you perceive Death as being equal to Life?
19) How does Non-Duality relate to transcending Sadness?
20) What is a current or recent experience of Anger?
21) In what way is the expression of this Anger useful?
22) In what way is the expression of this Anger limiting?
227 23) What is the root of this Anger?
24) How and when is Patience appropriate regarding this Anger?
25) How and when is Patience inappropriate regarding this Anger?
26) What is a current or recent experience of Pride?
27) How is Pride more Loving than Shame, Guilt, Grief and Anger?
28) How is Pride more Fearful than Courage, Will, Reason, Integrity and Peace?
29) What is the relationship between Pride and Shame?
30) How does Humility relate to transcending Pride?
~~~ The Empathic Shift ~~~
31) What is a current or recent experience of Courage?
32) Was the risk ultimately worth it?
33) Would you do it again?
34) How is Courage related to Empathy?
35) In what way does the past perception of Courage reveal that you never walk alone?
36) What is a current or recent experience of Will?
37) What is the relationship between short-term and long-term gratification with respect to Will?
38) From where do you believe your “Will Power” comes?
39) What is the primary resistance to Will Power?
40) Is that resistance aimed in an exact opposition direction to a specific dream or Conscious intention?
41) What is that Conscious dream or intention?
228 41) What is a current or recent experience of Reason?
42) What is the relationship between rhetorical tropes, transfer of learning, metaphorical imagery and triangulation with the intellect?
A=B, B=C, Hence A=C
True or False:
43) God is Love?
44) Love is Blind?
45) Ray Charles is God?
46) What is the limitation of Reason?
47) What is a current or recent experience with Integrity?
48) What about Integrity requires Integration?
49) In what precise way are you currently lacking—keeping you from a sense of completion and perfection?
50) What about Integrity is Perfect in its Being?
51) What about Integrity yields Power?
52) What is a current or recent experience with Peace?
53) When experiencing non-Peace, are you trying to avoid it?
54) When experiencing Peace, are you trying to hold on to it?
55) What about Peace is distinct from having and doing?
56) What about Peace is the Heaven of Being?
--- N.B.
57) What is being channeled from the great beyond?
(Answer: 57 Channels and nothing on.)
229 I’m Sick: Of Sitting ‘Round Here, Tryin’ To Write This Book
Whenever I was really down or really tired while writing this book, Dancing in the Dark would always seem to find its way into my life. Ironically, Dancing in the Dark was one of the very few Bruce songs I did not like upon first listening. But now I Love the song, because it feels like it was written especially for me, to assist in the process of writing this book—a process that has always felt like dancing through the darkness of my Fear.
As the journey of writing this book nears completion, a new challenge has revealed itself: finishing the book.
My process for writing this has been exhausting. I write a version, spend months and months editing and perfecting it, then—once I feel the book is complete and perfect—I put the book on a shelf, never to look at it again, then I start again from scratch. Each version only having one thing in common: they all start with the sentence, “I would like to invite you on a journey.”
I currently have ten completely different versions of this book, each with its own title, approach and voice—nine of which remain on a shelf. I figured that I would remember whatever was most powerful from previous versions when writing the subsequent draft. Therefore, the twelve-year process of writing has really been a process of distillation—seeking to find the book’s essence.
While this process might seem noble in its Work ethic, the thought processes embedded within these rituals have become addictive.
As I am now a father, and trying to become a better daddy, partner, son, brother, friend, teacher, conductor and artist, I realize that I must stop thinking about this book. And stopping this habitual thinking has proven much more challenging than I ever previously…well…thought.
As I confront my addiction to thinking, I simultaneously experience the Fear of losing the connection to the Cosmic Consciousness that this indulgent thinking process has enabled.
And so, as I am “sick of sitting round here, trying to write this book,” I must also admit that I am sick and that I have an addiction to thinking and I must learn to stop.
I thank Bruce for being the spark that lit the fire for this quest. Throughout the twelve-year process I have spent writing the book and CD, I have listened deeply to his music as a means to expand my Consciousness. I intuitively knew that Bruce’s music was powerful enough to facilitate this process.
I now call upon the insights contained herein to help me continue the Spiritual practice of recovery.
230 Dancing in the Dark
I get up in the evening, and I ain't got nothing to say. I come home in the morning, I go to bed feeling the same way. I ain't nothing but tired. Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself. Hey there baby, I could use just a little help.
You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a spark. This gun's for hire, even if we're just dancing in the dark.
Message keeps getting clearer, radio's on and I'm moving 'round the place. I check my look in the mirror, I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face. Man, I ain't getting nowhere, I'm just living in a dump like this. There's something happening somewhere, baby, I just know that there is.
You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a spark. This gun's for hire, even if we're just dancing in the dark.
You sit around getting older. There's a joke, here some wine, and it's on me. I'll shake this world off my shoulders, come on baby, the laugh's on me.
~
231 Stay on the streets of “this town,” and they'll be carving you up alright. They say, “You gotta stay hungry.” Hey baby, I'm just about starving tonight. I'm dying for some action. I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book. I need a Love reaction. Come on now, babe, gimme just one look.
You can't start a fire, sitting ‘round crying over a broken heart. This gun’s for hire, even if we're just dancing in the dark.
You can't start a fire, worrying about your little world falling apart. This gun's for hire,
Even if we're just dancing in the dark. Even if we're just dancing in the dark. Even if we're just dancing in the dark. Even if we're just dancing in the dark.
Hey baby!
232 Dream On, Baby
I have experienced Non-Duality. I would not say that I live in a perpetual state of it, but I often experience moments in which my individuality dissolves into a large Consciousness. For me, these moments most often occur through music. Whether I am performing with The Gypsy Radio Project or conducting, my sense of an individual self evaporates into the Communal Consciousness of a “shared Self.”
However, I do not want to imply that my experiences of Non-Duality are all limited to high energy, public performances. Because if my Non-Dual experiences were limited to public performances, one would correctly wonder if I might be confusing Non-Duality with the buzz that often accompanies public expression. In addition to my life as a performing musician, I also experience more personal expressions of Non-Duality almost every evening, right before bed.
As I lay me down to sleep, I pray. I physically get on my knees, close my eyes and pray. I used to feel that my practice of mediation was my form of prayer, but I no longer believe that. I have come to experience prayer as distinct from meditation. In meditation, I listen; in prayer, I speak. But what do I speak about?
In Non-Duality, there is no difference between giving and receiving. So, when I pray, I never ask for anything for myself. Instead, I pray for others. Specifically I pray for others who might be suffering in a similar way that I am suffering.
When I do this, a funny thing happens. As I pray for others, I feel increasingly blessed. As I send positive intentions into the universe for another Being, my Being seems to expand. When dreaming for others, the illusion between giving and receiving dissolves. In this way, prayer is my most visceral reminder of Non-Duality.
One might suggest that my prayers for others are ultimately selfish, because I feel the blessing come back unto me. I agree, but I would spell it: Selfish—in that this form of prayer helps me to re-discover my Universal Self.
---
The single most Spiritual moment I ever experienced at a Springsteen concert came on the same evening in Minneapolis when I passed talking to Bruce in lieu of allowing a very sick man to have his turn.
On that same one-man, acoustical show, Bruce ended the concert with a cover from a punk band named Suicide. The setting of the song was solo voice accompanied by a pump organ. The arrangement got louder and louder as it progressed. Eventually, a recorded track joined in. The orchestration got thicker and thicker until his solo act was transformed into a band. Audience singing. Spiritual climax achieved. Life changed…forever!!! The song was Dream, Baby Dream.
233 Dream Baby, Dream
Dream baby, dream!. Dream baby, dream. !Dream baby, dream!. Come on and dream baby, dream.! Come on and dream baby, dream.!!
We gotta keep the light burning!. Come on, we gotta keep the light burning.! Come on, we gotta keep the light burning.! Come on, we gotta keep the light burning. !Come on and dream baby, dream. !! We gotta keep the fire burning!. Come on, we gotta keep the fire burning.! Come on, we gotta keep the fire burning.! Come on and dream baby, dream!.
!Come open up your heart!. Come on and open up your heart.! Come on and open up your heart. !Come on dream on, dream baby, dream. !! Come on and open up your hearts!. Come on and open up your hearts. !Come on and open up your hearts. !Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.!!
Come on, we gotta keep on dreaming!. Come on, we gotta keep on dreaming!. Come on, we gotta keep on dreaming!. Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.!!
~
234 Come on, darling, and dry your eyes!. Come on, baby, and dry your eyes!. Come on, baby, and dry your eyes. !Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.!!
Yeah, I just wanna see you smile!. Now I just wanna see you smile!. Yeah, I just wanna see you smile!. Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.!!
Come on and open up your hearts!. Come on and open up your hearts!. Come on and open up your hearts!. Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.
Yeah, I just wanna see you smile!. Now I just wanna see you smile!. Yeah, I just wanna see you smile!. Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.!!
Yeah, I just wanna see you smile!. Yeah, I just wanna see you smile!. Yeah, I just wanna see you smile!. Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.!!
Come on and open up your heart!. Come on and open up your heart!. Come on and open up your heart!. Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.!!
Come on dream on, dream on baby!. Come on dream on, dream on baby. !Come on dream on, dream on baby. !Come on dream on, dream baby, dream.
235 This Train Is Bound For Glory, This Train
---
Q: What does the Evolution of our Communal Consciousness have to do with the survival and Enlightenment of our species?
---
The final Bruce song I offer for your Journey is The Land of Hopes and Dreams.
I hope, by this time in our journey, the song speaks for itself.
236 Land of Hope and Dreams
Grab your ticket and your suitcase.! Thunder's rolling down the tracks.! You don't know where you're goin’, but you know you won't be back!.
Darlin’ if you're weary!, lay your head upon my chest!. We'll take what we can carry!, and we'll leave the rest.!!
Big wheels rolling through fields! where sunlight streams.! Meet me in a land of hope and dreams.!
!I will provide for you!. And I'll stand by your side.! You'll need a good companion for !this part of the ride.!
Leave behind your sorrows!, let this day be the last.! Tomorrow there'll be sunshine!, and all this darkness past!!.
Big wheels roll through fields! where sunlight streams.! Meet me in a land of hope and dreams!!.
This train, !carries saints and sinners!. This train, carries losers and winners!. This train, carries whores and gamblers!. This train, carries lost souls.
!This train!, dreams will not be thwarted. !This train!, faith will be rewarded!. This train!, hear the steel wheels singin'.! This train!, bells of freedom ringin'.
!This train!, carries broken-hearted. !This train!, thieves and sweet souls departed!. This train!, carries fools and kings!. This train!, all aboard!!. This train!, dreams will not be thwarted.! This train!, faith will be rewarded!. This train, hear the steel wheels singin'.! This train!, bells of freedom ringin'.
237 Sonic Contemplation ! Completing The Circle
Throughout this journey, I have offered Sonic Contemplations from Gypsy Radio and the Rock & Roll Consecration to accompany each chapter. The contemplations are intended to convert the Spiritual concepts contained in each chapter into Spiritual experiences.
For this, the final leg of our journey, I invite you to experience the Sonic Contemplations as they were originally intended: sequentially, without interruption.
I invite you to find a quiet, secluded listening space—one in which you will not be disturbed for about 75 minutes.
Next, before beginning your listening, I invite you to consider an intention you wish to bring into your life. It could be a habit you wish to surrender, a situation you wish to examine, or perhaps a dream you wish to make manifest. Whatever your intention is, please hold it quietly in your Consciousness for about three minutes before beginning.
Once you have done so, I invite you to listen to the entire CD uninterrupted. If you want to get the entire meditative experience, please listen in a dark room, using good earphones, with your eyes closed the entire time. Keeping your eyes closed for 75 minutes of listening is a far greater challenge than most realize. If you happen to open your eyes for any Reason, simply acknowledge what you feel compelled to acknowledge, close your eyes and continue on.
Lastly, the journey of the CD does not always need to begin with the first track and end with the last track. You can imagine track 11 connecting back to track 1. If you do so, you can experience the complete listening journey, noticing that the arc of the journey folds back unto itself—thus, forming the circle of completion—with no beginning and no end.
Sonic Contemplation—Gypsy Radio and the Rock & Roll Consecration
--- N.B.
Please keep listening again and again to Gypsy Radio until your dreams come into existence. In other words:
“Don’t leave before the miracle happens.”
The miracle of Recovery from any Spiritual crisis comes through the Love of Awareness and the Work of Acceptance.
238 The Sacred Syllogism
All that has form must come to an end.
Eternity can only exist within a state of Formlessness.
All that ends must not be eternal.
What is eternal must not have form.
~
If something is universally true, it is true everywhere.
If something is universally true, it is true for all time.
Any “thing” that ceases to exist must not be universally true.
Our form must not be our universally truest existence.
Our universally truest existence must be Formless.
Our illusion is rooted to our attachment to form.
That which has form is illusion.
~
Our universally truest existence is God.
We already are Love.
We already are God.
239 “This is the ineffable secret, the ultimate illumination, the key to Peace and Power:
YOU ARE GOD.
If you accept this towering truth and dare to stand atop this magnificent pinnacle, universal Consciousness will be revealed to you from within. God is there. It is He who peers from behind your eyes, who is your own Consciousness, who is your very Self. You are not just a part of God, you are all together God and God is all together you.
—Uell S. Anderson (from his book, “Three Magic Words”)
---
The ultimate equation to be discovered by mankind (enabling us to transcend The Age of Reason and enter The Age of Integrity) is:
God is a Conscious re-cognition of your Self as Consciousness.
(God = Consciousness x Consciousness)
G = C2
(I Am This I Am.)
240 The Namable God Is Not The Eternal God
“In all of creation, in all of eternity, in all the realms of your infinite Being, the most wonderful fact is: You are God.
You are the ‘I am that I am.’ You are Consciousness. You are the Creator. This is the great mystery, this is the great secret known by the seers and prophets and mystics throughout the ages. This is the truth that you can never know intellectually.
If you want to understand something intellectually, what you must do is analyze it, come up with a formula for it, study it, look to other experts about it, and come to a conclusion.
If you want to understand something Spiritually, you must first experience it. You must come to know this within.”
—Neville Godard (from his book, “The Power of Awareness”)
---
The equation G = C2 is not meant to be anything more than a proverbial finger, pointing us toward the wisdom of experience.
Any attempt to give form to that which is Formlessness will inevitably fall short of what it is trying to express. The Chinese holy book Tao Te Ching, written by Lao Tzu in the 6th Century BC, states this truth as its very first sentence:
“The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.”
—Tao Te Ching
The best definition of God is not a definition at all.
---
Q: How could one ever define that which is, by definition, un-definable?
Q: How can any finite form come to represent that which is Formless and Infinite?
Q: Is it possible to have form successfully point toward Formlessness?
---
241 The God Equation: Revised Draft
After all of the Reason I have used to get us to the equation G = C2, I realize that this equation must fall short of the Formless essence it is intended to point toward.
So, I offer you a final equation:
G = C3
The Reason I offer this revision is that any definition of God must fall short. So perhaps, if instead of squaring Consciousness in the original equation, we cube Consciousness, this additional multiplier could account for all that we yet know.
Put another way, the additional multiplier is intended to honor the perfection and divinity of The Trinity while pointing us toward all the aspects of Consciousness that we have yet to conceive.
We can never define the indefinable. Accordingly, we can never define God. But perhaps the additional power of multiplication can account for the shortcomings of our understanding and the inherent limitation of its form.
---
The best expression of God is to allow your Being-ness to awaken the Being-ness of others. If my attempt to express the God of my understanding does not resonate with you, I offer an experiential equivalent to the above equation.
I invite you to choose the holiest person you can imagine, look into their eyes and use your experience of their Being-ness (or Consciousness) as the purest expression of God.
For me, this person is Mother Theresa.
When I was in the eighth grade, my mother allowed me to skip school just once to attend a ceremony in which Mother Theresa initiated novitiates into her order: Little Sisters of the Poor. Following the ceremony, I was able to meet Mother Theresa and receive from her a Miraculous Medal. To this day, I still remember how her Being-ness awakened the Being-ness in me.
Mother Theresa was Christ-like. I experienced Love through her Being. It was in Mother Theresa’s eyes that I first saw the face of God.
242
“The Supreme Lord reveals that He manifests as the immortal Soul within each and every living entity.”
—Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 10, Verse 10)
243
Jesus said:
“I showed you many good Works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?"
They answered Him, "For a good Work we do not stone you but for blasphemy; and because you, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.
Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, I said, you are Gods”
—John 10:33-35
244 Arrival: The Promised Land
Be Still
And Know That
G = C3
--- N.B.
The translation for this equation is:
Be still my Fear and awaken to the knowingness that I Am the experience and expression of God—a power that is beyond my understanding, yet the source of my Being.
245 Post Script
“So I say to the Lama, I say, ‘Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know’?"
And he says,
‘Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total Consciousness.’
So I got that goin' for me…
…which is nice.”
—Bill Murray (Caddyshack)
---
The process of writing this book has been the process of dreaming as big as I could possibly imagine. Accordingly, I would like to send five dreams into the universe:
1) I wish to use this experience to meet the love of my life.
2) I would like to guest conduct The E Street Band in concert with Bruce Springsteen on two tunes—one tune of his and another tune of mine.
3) I would like to host an extended curated show on the Sirius XM channel, E Street Radio. Over the course of multiple shows, listeners would call in to express their relationship with Bruce’s music and their own Spirituality— each caller would be encouraged to use their own words to describe their experience. Our collective goal would be to discover “Spiritual Synonyms”— different words meant to represent the very same thing.
4) The Gypsy Radio Project would like to be an ensemble-in-residence intended to shape Communal Consciousness through listening and musical expression.
a. Brendan Caldwell (Conducting / Vocals & Guitar / Improvisation) b. Steven Banks (Saxophone / Chamber Music / Improvisation) c. Graham Breedlove (Trumpet & Frottior / Jazz / Improvisation) d. Josh Ryan (Percussion / West African / Improvisation) e. Ryan Korb (Percussion / Jazz / Improvisation)
The overall experience of a residency with The Gypsy Radio Project can be put into three umbrellas of experiences:
246 a) The Conscious Conduit
1. Conceptual nurturing of the hidden order of the universe.
b) The Buddha and Bruce Springsteen
1. Experiential Rock and Roll leadership as a means to FEELING and SHAPING the “hidden order of the universe.”
c) Ben Stein of Bernstein?
1. An instrumental conducting experience designed to similarly FEEL and SHAPE the “hidden order of the universe.” ---
And the final dream that I wish to send into the universe is…
5) The Gypsy Radio Project seeks to build The LEAF through Baldwin Wallace University’s Center for Innovation and Growth and the Cleveland Metroparks. Together, our intention is to commemorate the musical Consciousness of Bruce Springsteen by dedicating a “Tent Revival” themed Concert Hall in his honor.
Baldwin Wallace University and the Cleveland Metroparks present:
The Frederick Fennell Concert Stage @ The Bruce Springsteen Concert Hall @ The LEAF
To learn more about The Bruce Springsteen Concert Hall @ The LEAF please visit:
Liveattheleaf.com
~ ~ ~
“Thanks, Boss.”
—John Cusack (High Fidelity)
247 “I fully realize we have not succeeded in answering all of our questions. Indeed, we might feel that we have not answered any of them completely. The answers we have found may only serve to raise a whole new set of questions.
And though we are probably as confused as ever, hopefully we are confused on a higher level about more important things.”
—Unknown
Love and Light,
Brendan
I, Brendan Caldwell, submit The Gypsy Radio Project with an inner sense of Peace.
248 Dedication
I most especially dedicate The Gypsy Radio Project to:
Luda Pirog
&
Alexander Patrick Caldwell
&
Gypsy Rose
--- N.B.
My Red-Headed Woman, my Living Proof, and My Beautiful Reward.
249 D.C. al Fine
If I could ask Bruce Springsteen five questions they would be:
Five Questions for Bruce
1) Do you experience the expression of your music as Spiritual?
2) Do you intent the listening experience of your audience to be Spiritual?
3) Do you believe that the Spiritual practice of communal listening facilitates the evolution of our species?
4) Do you believe that a book can build a leaf?
5) Can you please help The Gypsy Radio Project build The LEAF in your honor?
---
I, Brendan Caldwell, believe that if we deeply listen, experience, and follow the music of Bruce Springsteen, we can become creator of dreams.
My dream:
I dream that this book can build The LEAF.
LiveatTheLEAF.com
---
It is finished.
LEAF Day 5.22.18 Cleveland
250 Navigatio Brendani
Prayer of Saint Brendan “The Navigator” of Clonfert
Help me to journey beyond the familiar and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways and break fresh ground with you.
Christ of the mysteries, I trust you to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know that my times, even now, are in your hands.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven, and somehow, make my obedience count for You.
---
Slainte
---
Art Leafman…
…Obedient Channel of Saint Brendan Clonfert, Ireland 6.2.16 (11:11 am)
251