music will make you a buddha

enlightenment beyond imagining…

This post completes a threesome. The other two posts deal with how I enjoy music and how music affects us.

This post explains how music can lead us to Enlightenment, without even having to work very hard at it.

If you’ve read about the subtle body and channels, you know there’s more to understand… This sounds too easy.

Well, there is one catch: We must enjoy ourselves. If we turn it into work, it won’t work.

I know; that statement flies in the face of all our conceptions about how we must apply ourselves diligently to any effort if we desire success. I’ll describe the mechanics.

When we concentrate on something, that’s where our minds go.

Getting a successful career requires focusing intently on the tasks at hand (music may interfere with that). Getting good grades requires immersing oneself into the study material. Getting a “happy marriage” requires transforming a part of oneself into a part of a whole (rather than a single being).

For anything we wish to do well, we must focus.

Enlightenment realizes the state of Bliss mixed with Emptiness. If we’re working at it, we’re doomed to failure.

What hell am I talking about?

Different minds and bodies. Different minds and bodies accomplish different tasks.

Your gross physical body provides the basis of an athlete or a dancer. Your gross mind provides the basis for reason and study. Your subtle body provides the basis for dreaming. Your subtle mind provides the basis for intuition. Your very subtle mind provides the basis for Enlightenment. Your very subtle body carries your very subtle mind wherever you want to go.

If we try to take our physical bodies with us on a dream, we’ll enjoy a very short journey.

If we try to use our subtle mind to study, we’ll face challenges when we try to use words to describe what we’ve learned.

If we try to use our gross and subtle minds to meditate our way to full Enlightenment… we’ll fall asleep or get lost in dullness.

Only our very subtle body and very subtle minds can carry us to Enlightenment, and they can only carry us if our other bodies and minds release our sense of “self”. Holding onto anything holds us back.

Zazen and Mahamudra both offer methods for losing the sense of “self”. Zazen relies on spontaneity, serendipity, and intuition; Mahamudra culminates long years of study and practice. Fortunately, Enlightenment travels in various vehicles for people on various paths.

The very subtle mind and very subtle body defy distinction. As long as we’re using words, we might as well say they’re the same, because any words I use to describe the differences will offer a weak peek, and likely confuse everyone (including me!).

Dreaming, visioning, and trancing offer the closest cognitive experience of the very subtle body/mind. The process of letting go of what we think is “real” brings us into a very close approximation of a direct experience of the very subtle body/mind.

I remember sitting in Mahamudra Teachings and trying not to giggle aloud at the irony: We attain Mahamudra by stopping our gross minds (like hearing). However, if you don’t already know how to do that, you have to listen to the instructions.

So we go round and round, back and forth. We use our gross and subtle bodies and minds to receive hints and intimations. Then at some point, to really enjoy that mix of Bliss and Emptiness – Satori – Samadhi – we unplug it all.

We arrive back to music and Enlightenment. The simple instructions say:

Find a playlist that shifts your mind to a quietly awake place. Dive in, deeper and deeper, until you no longer hear. Repeat – repeatedly. The rest you will figure out with experience.

Enjoy.