Active use of music is the instrumentalist/singer and in some respects the dancer (a dancer uses both active and passive elements of music). For the moment, we will look at the active use of music as being the players with one point focus. The player can use the repetition, as in percussion, to foster reoccurring bursts of emptiness within him as he plays. First the musician must wait until each note is to occur, then they can use the repetition and the percussion to do the empty bursts and blanking; to work with it, to ride the notes, etc. It's best with well-known songs (songs they have worked with and practiced, as there is an established cognitive link). One point focus is on the music and the song, and in-between when there are no words, there is only an emptiness to be filled by the music... Nothing, no thoughts are in the mind.

As to the words, it may be helpful if the words can slip into some kind of spiritual parallel, to something that is in reference to the whole.

I remember reading about some famous musician who said that the notes to his music weren't as important as the rests, the quiet places in-between.

Right. Back to the Tao Te Ching, "The use of the clay determines the pot. The usefulness of the pot will determine where the clay is not." It is the combination of is and is not, that determines all form.⁵

With musical improvisation, in some ways, the player must be like their own instrument. Their instrument is empty and silent until the player plays it. The player must be as empty as their instrument. Whatever is coming out, is coming out. Many musicians have talked about surprising themselves, by letting go and entering this kind of state. It all depends on where their head goes and how they put the notes together.

Each note can almost float into the stillness of the Now; into the stillness of the Eternal moment of Creation that the note is coming out of. Because that Eternal Moment of Creation is happening all the time, and because music is from moment to moment, it is very useful for entering the Eternal Moment. There's only the music.

I've also heard arguments that the note is always there, it's Eternal, and we tune into it.

Right, it has been known as the music of the spheres, the lost chord, the Word, or the Song of God. It is the music that never stops:

"They're a band beyond description
Like Jehovah's favorite choir
People join hand in hand
While the music plays the band
Lord, they're setting us on fire." ⁶

Music is perceived as a vibration, that's all. It is very similar to any other physical law. Just because the individual does not see the law applying, it doesn't mean the law is not there. That perception of vibration has the ability to be applied at any moment in time, anywhere. A specific note has a specific frequency (vibration). The Music is perceived as particular frequencies or collections of vibrations.⁷

Whatever instrument the player uses, it takes practice to be proficient. Practice with the instrument and with working inside the head. A student has to work at it at first, as with everything else.

It is possible to enter a deeper state, with the passive aspect of listening to music, than the active. This is because the individual doesn't have to do any physical exertion at that point. Physical exertion can split the individual's focus. In passive listening, part of the mind is not set aside just to maintain physical balance.⁸ It is possible for the individual to let go, and dissolve -- so to speak -- into the music. When working with the passive aspect of music, the student should make himself or herself comfortable, but not too comfortable of a position. You don't want to go to sleep.

Whatever position is chosen it can be quite helpful to co-join the event with a slow, deep breathing. This will be asked of the student when we do a lab exercise. This information is leading up to the exercise that we're going to do.

Each note is with focus and blankness. The student rides the music out. All the individual is doing, is riding out each note, and existing quietly, being patient, until the song is done. No thought in the mind is appropriate until the music is done.

Figure 8.1 - Music and Blank Mind

I have mentioned how the student rides the notes and waits quietly. I also mentioned how each note is resounded in the empty mind. Next thing to mention is the drive-plateau concept. This is a time of intense driving music, with an intense moment of focus followed by a plateau of soft music, a release. The individual just sinks into the emptiness of the soft slow notes. With some music or songs, it is possible to do both several times.

The music leaves an intense drive and enters a plateau, then repeats. So the individual can go back and forth from this incredible moment of drive, to this stillness, to this drive, to this stillness. I first learned about this mechanism when using the record album, the Moody Blues' To Our Children's, Children's, Children.⁹ They did that a lot in the first half of that album.

Jerry used to do that a lot, too.¹⁰

Oh yeah, the 'Dead' were masters of this.

It would be almost like an orgasm to me when I reached over that plateau.

Right ... all of a sudden, every note is hanging in the air and in your mind at the same time.

The musician is (generally speaking) an active vessel (like their instrument), while the listener is (generally speaking) a passive vessel. Now we're going to cover a combination of both. You mentioned dance, which is an active and a passive use of music. The mind is completely passive, in the listening mode, being there. As this is occurring, the body is in an active mode, physically expressing the music, through the mind of the dancer. There's an emptiness and music throughout. The mind is passive and open, while the body is expressing what is passing through the mind. The music is coming all the way through to the tapping toes!

The deepest states tend to occur, though, when the individual is physically passive. The dance tends to be deeper the more passive it is, the more the dance is on the inside. Like doing the mantras, the most powerful mantra is the one done in stillness. This way the individual enters deeper consciousness.

The same is with dance. The deepest trance dance that can be done is done in the stillness. There is no physical exertion or focus. A person does not have to do anything. An individual does not have to worry about gravity, laws of motion. He/she can enter stellar states.

My personal preference is live music.¹¹ I prefer not to have words or hardly any words at all. This tends to be jazz, blues, improvisational rock or spacey stuff with the drums like the 'Dead', when they really got out there. If there are words, I prefer the lyrics to have some kind of spiritual parallel.

A reminder: whatever is being done -- maintain a disinterested interest in it and the outcome. Do it with the recognition that the outcome is an unknown. Why boggle your brain with something you don't know? Just work with the mechanics of it.

Using low emotional content is preferable. Maintain a balance between the head and the heart. Whatever metaphysical experiment is done, give it the K.I.S.S.¹² An empty mind and one point focus of desire is simple, simple-ness in the mind and simple-ness in the heart. This exercise can become a jumping board for the heart-song, such as the Psalms. Eventually the Psalms and all these heart-songs evolve into non-verbal communion. These devotional songs/prayers eventually go beyond words and become non-verbal communion between you and your Creator.

I use love songs as if I was talking to God or God is talking to me.

Yeah. St. John of the Cross talked about that too. He would take secular love songs and translate it in his mind to God. He used them as a very important spiritual vehicle for him.

So, when there are words, that's what I do with them.

That's why I mentioned that earlier. An individual can take the words and slip them into a spiritual parallel through manipulation of perceptions. A person can use secular love songs, and convert them to heart songs¹³ to God.