Zen of Steve Vai

1 Zen of Steve Vai Music, Art and Spirituality Free e-book by Acharya Babananda Copyright Kim Katami 2012. First edition. This e-book may be freely shared. Published with Steve's kind permission. Cover photo: Pawel Glogowski, http://glogowski.art.pl/ Other photographers mentioned with each picture, if known. Cover art (Zen Circle painted with black ink) and design: Kim Katami Contact the author: Acharya Babananda via email: [email protected] or call +358-(0)44-3045435 (Finland). 2 Contents Preface & Dedication, page 4 Chapter I Introduction, page 6 − What is spirituality? − Spiritual training − What is spiritual art? Traditional Zen arts, page 11 Traditional definition of Zen Art, page 12 Quotes from important Zen art masters of China and Japan: − Wang Xi Zhi − Omori Sogen − Terayama Tanchu − Yamaoka Tesshu From the Orient to the Boundless Universe, page 16 Chapter II Steve Vai, page 17 − Steve's story in short − Early training − Solo career Steve's spiritual background, page 20 − Sant Thakar Sing and Sant Mat − 4 States of consciousness Steve's own words, page 23 − On creative process − Musical meditation − Particular and universal approach − Listening and communication − Spirituality and art Epilogue, page 33 Author's story, page 34 3 Preface & Dedication ”Whenever we go into that creative element of our brain, we always gravitate to the thing that interests us the most. Some people are very passionate about politics, about love affairs, about fast cars, most of the time we are thinking about sex... Right? But for some reason, ever since I was very young, I've been a seeker, after truth or reality. And through the years, I've studied, even more than guitar, more than anything, I've studied various religions, spiritual thoughts and truths. You know, that's a personal journey, we all can have. And when I go to write my music, many times I immediately just gravitate to that core. Then my brain has all the technical information and ability so it mixes it all up. That's how I get the music that I write.” - Steve Vai The idea for this book came to me several years ago. By that time I had long ago left the field of music, in the professional sense, and had spent many years in the field of spirituality and meditation practices. Based on this background, from both music and meditation, and having studied with the greatest Zen masters of Zen art in Japan, I began to perceive the flavour of spirituality in some of the present day popular artists and artforms as well, though it is rare to meet in the most essential sense. Almost a decade earlier I had consciously stopped pursuing the path of guitar because I came to understand that it wasn't the path to perfection for me and that I could never become as great as Steve Vai. I've always considered him to be the greatest of this instrument. I knew I could never understand Steve's greatness by only practicing and studying the guitar, so I took a conscious turn in my life and stopped playing, though at the time I didn't know where my pursuit of perfection was going to take me. After several years of dedicating my time fully to meditation and traditional Zen arts of calligraphy (jap. shodo) and martial arts (jap. budo), I came to understand the uniqueness of Steve Vai and since that insight, I've been planning to write this book, Zen of Steve Vai. This book is not about Zen Buddhism, nor Japan, nor the Orient. Zen Buddhism is a meditation-oriented form of Buddhism and the traditional Zen arts in Japan and China have developed close to it. But to say that spiritual arts and Zen art masterpieces didn't exist in other countries would be a misperception. It does, for example in India and Tibet and in glimpses, elsewhere too. In this book, I take a broader view of Zen as practical spirituality and Zen arts as artistic expression of deep meditation and self-realized mind. This is the way my late Japanese master, Terayama Sensei, viewed Zen art, studying both Eastern and Western art, including all kinds of artforms. If deep understanding of truth is there, it doesn't matter what kind of art or artpiece is concerned. Zen art is universal, alike to all people and cultures. I hope that this little book will bring artists and musicians to spirituality and meditators may gain inspiration in how to express their spirituality. 4 Steve Vai is a very famous person. He has won 3 Grammys and sold over 15 million albums worldwide. Sometimes he has been titulated as ”God of the Guitar”. If you know what a guitar is, there is a good chance you know who Steve Vai is, too. He is very well known. I've been one of his number one fans for about 20 years, since Passion and Warfare came out in the early 90's. His music has meant a lot to me both as a musician and as a spiritually oriented person. Steve's Zen art, his music, hasn't been seen or valued but very rarely as something having distinctly spiritual qualities, though I think that, that exactly is the root and cornerstone of his music. Because of his musical abilities as well as extended spiritual experience, gained through years of ongoing meditation and inner seeking, it probably wouldn't matter if you took the guitar away from him and gave him an accordion or a banjo. He'd probably be able to touch the listeners heart and blow everyone off anyway. Though this book in most part is about Steve, his spiritual views and his spiritual art, please be aware that the author has never met or interviewed Steve in person. I have written this book from my perspective of him and his music. I do not claim to know his mind or his persona but as you read the book, you will see the identicality of his views and method of music and that of an age-old spiritual art tradition. I want to dedicate this book to my late Zen Calligraphy (jap. hitsuzendo, lit. ”Way of the Zen Brush”) master Terayama Tanchu Sensei (1938-2007) with whom I studied in Japan. Though my study with him was brief, he made deep and life long impression on me as a True Man of the Way. He was kind-hearted, had broad knowledge and had unfettered perception. He was truly someone from whom many could learn about life and arts. In addition to being a dharma heir to one of the greatest Rinzai Zen Buddhist masters of the 20th century Japan, Omori Sogen Roshi, he was a professor and a family man. I am always gratetul to Terayama Sensei for his kindness and warmth towards me. My humble gratitude and sincere bow to him. Thank you, Sensei. Also, my gratitude beyond measure belongs to the masters of my spiritual kriya yoga- lineage. Without the help and blessings of my Satgurus, surely I wouldn't have been able to write this book. Thank you Thirumoolar. Thank you Babaji and thank you for all the masters in this lineage. I'm not an academic person but a simple fellow, so please excuse me for not being able to write a more detailed and long book on this subject. The book is simple and short, yet hopefully, profound. I hope this book can serve as a source of study and inspiration for people from many fields. I hope it will bring inspiration to many. Many thanks to Steve himself who has read the book and has given his kind permission for it to be openly distributed. Thank you, − Acharya Babananda 1st October 2012 Helsinki, Finland 5 Chapter I Introduction The title of the book include the words Zen and art. Together we get Zen art or spiritual art. It is from this perspective that I will be looking at Steve Vai's music and it's unique character and him as a Zen artist, as a spiritual musician. The 1st Chapter is about spirituality and traditional Zen art, mostly through Zen Calligraphy (jap. zenshodo). The 2nd Chapter is about Steve and his music. What is spirituality? Spirituality can mean many different things to different people but here we look spirituality that has to do with man's consciousness and which can be sought in meditation, simply by being aware. There is a wonderfully descriptive story, where a student goes to meet a spiritual master and asks what meditation is and how spirituality can be found. The old master answers, ”You know that in your mind there is first one thought... And after a brief moment there is another thought... In between, there is a short gap. Remain in that gap and you will be in meditation... And by living being aware of that which is revealed from this gap, is spirituality.” This classic story sums it up. Usually man's mind is filled with thoughts and ideas, dreams and memories from morning until night. Only in deep sleep, ordinary man gets a break of the constant stream of uncontrolled mental and emotional impulses, though in sleep he is unaware of this because he is unconscious or semiconscious. Cultivating and rooting oneself into this gap is the art of meditation. Various spiritual methods such as yoga offer tools and methods in how to expand and deepen this short gap between the two thoughts. Throughout this book, when the word yoga is used, it means yoga in the traditional sense.

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