Angels of the house, come! May the power of Heaven spread Through all the veins of life, ennobling and invigorating And dispensing joy! So that joyful angels attend upon Human goodness every hour of the day, and that Such joy as I experience now, when loved ones Are properly reunited, be suitably sanctified. When we bless the meal, upon whom shall I call, And when we rest after the day's activity, tell me, How will I offer thanks? Should I call the Highest by name? A god doesn't like what is inappropriate. Maybe our joy Isn't big enough to grasp him. We must often remain silent, A sacred language is missing — hearts are beating and yet Speech can't emerge? But the sound of string music Resonates hour by hour, and perhaps that pleases The approaching gods. Begin the music, and the worries Almost vanish which would have affected our joy. Willingly or not, poets must often concern themselves With such things, but not with others. by Friedrich Holderlin
Homecoming by Friedrich Holderlin
Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics
This creative activity of the Divine is called lila, the play of God, and the world is seen as the stage of the divine play. Like most of Hindu mythology, the myth of lila has a strong magical flavor. Brahman is the great magician who transforms himself into the world and then performs this feat with his "magic creative power", which is the original meaning of maya in the Rig Veda... From the might, or power, of the divine actor and magician, it came to signify the psychological state of anybody under the spell of the magic play. As long as we confuse the myriad forms of the divine lila with reality, without perceiving the unity of Brahman underlying all these forms, we are under the spell of maya. (...) In the Hindu view of nature, then, all forms are relative, fluid and ever-changing maya, conjured up by the great magician of the divine play. The world of maya changes continuously, because the divine lila is a rhythmic, dynamic play. The dynamic force of the play is karma, an important concept of Indian thought. Karma means "action". It is the active principle of the play, the total universe in action, where everything is dynamically connected with everything else. In the words of the Gita Karma is the force of creation, wherefrom all things have their life. Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics
The Unknowable, words of Sri Aurobindo
The Unknowable, words of Sri Aurobindo In one of his aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo has said that unknown is pursuing himself is like a game of hide and seek. There is only One, but this one supreme consciousness has divided himself into many, many individual beings: he hides himself in these forms and then in each form he is trying to find himself again. This is the mysterious play in which the Unknown pursues himself, running after himself as if in a game of hide and seek. He is looking for himself in all the forms of the universe. That One is of course eternal, but here in the manifestation he limits his eternity; he cuts it up into hours and minutes and seconds. Through all this game of hiding and seeking, some blind unconscious nothingness is trying to become conscious: ‘the blind Void struggles to live and see’. That is the mystery of the evolutionary process. From Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol by Sri Aurobindo
A world’s desire compelled her mortal birth. One in the front of the immemorial quest, Protagonist of the mysterious play In which the Unknown pursues himself through forms And limits his eternity by the hours And the blind Void struggles to live and see, A thinker and toiler in the ideal’s air, Brought down to earth’s dumb need her radiant power
Earth is ‘dumb,’ she cannot speak, she cannot express her need; but the need is there and it becomes more and more conscious in human beings. It is in answer to his aspiration on behalf of the whole world that Savitri is born. Sri Aurobindo's poetry, written "for the future", offers a "rewarding investigation into the connections between philosophy and aesthetics, literature and culture, spirituality and divinity, consciousness and spirit...".
In us is the thousandfold Spirit who is one, An eternal thinker calm and great and wise, A seer whose eye is an all-regarding sun, A poet of the cosmic mysteries. A critic Witness pieces everything And binds the fragments in his brilliant sheaf; A World-adventurer borne on Destiny’s wing Gambles with death and triumph, joy and grief. A king of greatness and a slave of love, Host of the stars and guest in Nature’s inn, A high spectator Spirit throned above, A pawn of passion in the game divine, One who has made in sport the suns and seas Mirrors in our being his immense caprice. Sri Aurobindo’s Lila
Sri Aurobindo’s Lila
Richard Strauss - Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Op. 30 inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's treatise of the same name.
Heidegger On “The Question Concerning Technology”
Heidegger On “The Question Concerning Technology” The essence of being human is being witness and, hence, aiding in creation. I do not simply walk through a field; rather, as I walk along a path, I am witness to the coming-to-presence of manifold beings. The essential nature of humans being in the world unites us with other beings. I make this a place by being witness to it and to everything united within it. More and more, though, the present tendency of technology is to remove me from the mode of witnessing beings and to place me in isolation. We see technology as a complex of contrivances and technical skills, put forth by human activity and developed as means to our ends. Technology, in this view, is an object, or a complex of objects and techniques, that seems passive itself; indeed, we conceive of it as activated by us only and that we manipulate as a means to our own ends. On the contrary, according to Heidegger, the essence of modern technology reveals it as something far from neutral or merely an instrument of human control; it is an autonomous organizing activity within which humans themselves are organized.
In this mode of technology, we order the world with things standing-in-reserve for our use. When we demand use of these things, we no longer witness them in the sense of understanding (learning about) their manifold potentials, but merely as that under which we have ordered them to be and we begin to order other human beings in the same way! We recognize in human beings around us their usefulness to us, not their genius. Thus, we witness them in artificially limited ways rather than enabling their coming-to-presence creatively as animated parts of our worlds. In other words, in this epoch of human experience, truth more-and-more emerges as something like "organized potential energy." In so far as we experience ourselves as the creators of this organization, we become inflated with the illusion that we meet ourselves - that is, our own handiwork - everywhere in experience. The result, of course, is a corruption of the essence of Being, that is, man finds himself farther removed from his true essence than at any other time in history. The grave danger of the present epoch of technology is, in that sense, the extreme alienation of Being from its essence. Nevertheless, Heidegger suggests that the realization of danger as such means that the saving power is already alive. In effect, realizing this situation as danger means that the path back to Being's essence is still understood, hence, available to us. What Heidegger suggests is a kind of awakening, or insight -- a flash -- that, if we were to witness that danger that is in fact over-taking us, that insight would already be at the point of turning back to an original appreciate of our essential being. Without yet appreciating that danger as such we are still not inclined, or motivated. In a way, it is the energy of our gravest disaster that can motivate us toward a more constructive path, or turning. Tad A. Beckman
Philosophy for Change One of Heidegger’s major insight is that human beings are ‘world disclosing’ entities. We disclose the world in different ways depending on how we engage with people and things. Technological enframing is a definitive feature of modern life and sometimes we need to enframe the world to get things done. It doesn’t follow, however that we should ignore the warning that it presents. we need to be mindful of the way that we engage with the world, assuming that we want to avoid treating people, living beings, and other natural phenomena as mere resources that can be moved about, manipulated and exploited. Treating reality as a field of abstract resources and raw material amenable to manipulation. This is precisely what Heidegger finds objectionable about enframing. To treat society in this way reflects an impoverished point of view, symptomatic of an alienated experience of the world. It diminishes human life. It may be where the money is, but it is no way to build a better world. Timothy Rayner
Philosophy for Change
Heidegger's genuine thinking
"For Heidegger, genuine thinking is not the assimilation of a series of gobbets of prespecified information and ideas, nor the acquisition and application of free-floating 'thinking skills,' but an exciting and demanding journey into the unknown. It is deeply rooted, being drawn forward by the pull of that which is somehow incipient in our awareness but has yet to reveal itself...the harmonies, the conflicts, and the mysteries." Michael Bonnett
Howard Thurman - "What Do You Want, Really?" “The years, the months, the days, and the hours have flown by my open window. Here and there an incident, a towering moment, a naked memory, an etched countenance, a whisper in the dark, a golden glow these and much more are the woven fabric of the time I have lived.”
Cleanse your own heart, cast out from your mind pain, fear, envy, ill will, avarice, cowardice and passion uncontrolled. These things you cannot cast out unless you look to God alone; on Him set your thoughts, and consecrate yourself to his commands. If you wish for anything else, you will forever be seeking peace outside you and never actually be at peace; for you seek it where it is not, and refuse to seek it where it is. Epictetus
Chopin Etude No.11 in A minor, Op.25 'Winter Wind' A clash between the acoustic expression of the diatonic song and the chromaticised figuration, agitated to the utmost.
The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes I imagine this midnight moment’s forest: Something else is alive Beside the clock’s loneliness And this blank page where my fingers move...
Joanna Macy's World as Lover World as Self
A new beginning for the environment must start with a new spiritual outlook: Engaged Spirituality, how can I make a change in the world we live in?
The sutras, or scriptures, tell us that we are all bodhisattvas, and our fundamental interconnections are portrayed in the beautiful image of the jeweled net of Indra. It is similar to the holographic model of the universe we find emerging from contemporary science. In the cosmic canopy of Indra's Net, each of us, each jewel at each node of the net, reflects all the others and reflects the others reflecting back. That is what we find when we listen to the sounds of the Earth crying within us-that the tears that arise are not ours alone ... We find we are interwoven threads in the intricate tapestry of life, its deep ecology. From Joanna Macy's World as Lover World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal
The four bodily humors were part of Shakespearean cosmology, inherited from the ancient Greek philosophers. Organized around the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire; the four qualities of cold, hot, moist, and dry; and the four humors, these physical qualities determined the behavior of all created things including the human body. In the human body, the interaction of the four humors explained differences of age, gender, emotions, and disposition. The influence of the humors changed with the seasons and times of day and with the human life span. We were born with a certain temperament that was made up of a mixture of these humours.Ideally all of the humours had to be balanced, according to one`s temperament. When the body was thrown off-balance, it was in a state of dyskrasia (bad mixture), and that was when one was ill, unhappy or out-of- sorts.
Joaquin Rodrigo - El Concierto de Aranjuez
Joaquin Rodrigo - El Concierto de Aranjuez This music attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature. The second movement is marked by its slow pace and quiet melody, "represents a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments." A feeling of quiet regret permeates the piece. Ornamentation is added gradually to the melody in the beginning. An off-tonic trill in the guitar creates the first seeds of tension in the piece; they grow and take hold, but relax back to the melody periodically. Eventually, a climactic build-up starts. This breaks back into the main melody, molto appassionato, voiced by the strings with accompaniment from the woodwinds. In her autobiography, Victoria (Rodrigo's wife) declared that it was inspired by both an evocation of the happy days of their honeymoon and a response to Rodrigo's devastation at the miscarriage of their first pregnancy. And the whole second movement was his way of conversing with God. And you have the pulse that goes on the complete time and is taken by the orchestra—this pulse, it goes on and on, and that signifies life, and his connection and awareness of life. And the melody is all the different passions and feelings and emotions that he feels: the love for the baby, the love for his wife, asking God not to take her. Culminating in this tremendous tutti that at the end, when the guitar comes back, that is the accepting of God's will, and the feeling of peace, and the movement ends with the ascension of the soul of the baby.
Chopin music is the universal language of human communication and captures a universe of feeling and mood. There is a prelude for each major and minor key. Schumann thought them "eagle's feathers, all strangely intermingled. But in every piece we find his own hand-Frederic Chopin wrote it. One recognizes him in his pauses, in his impetuous respiration. He is the boldest, the proudest, poet-soul of his time." "There are among Chopin's preludes a few which breathe the spirit of contentment and grace, or of religious grandeur, but most of them are outbreaks of the wildest anguish and heart-rending pathos. If tears could be heard, they would sound like these preludes." Henry T. Finck
Chopin's last dynamic marking in this piece is smorzando, which means "dying away". By Chopin's request, this piece was played at his own funeral, along with Mozart's Requiem.
Chopin - Prelude in E minor Op. 28 No. 4
Kerença azul - Ernesto Dabo
The Adagio in G Minor for Organ and Strings by Tomaso Albinoni (Remo Giazotto); I want roses in My garden bower; dig?
Arvo Pärt Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten The heartrending strings and tolling bell is an early example of Pärt's tintinnabuli style, which he based on his reactions to early chant music. Its appeal is often ascribed to its relative simplicity; a single melodic motif dominates and it both begins and ends with scored silence. Pärt greatly admired Britten, whom he described as possessing the "unusual purity" that he himself sought as a composer. Pärt viewed the Englishman as a kindred spirit. "The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises — and everything that is unimportant falls away. Tintinnabulation is like this. Here I am alone with silence. I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me."
Arvo Pärt Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten
Samuel Barber AGNUS DEI (Adagio for Strings)
Samuel Barber AGNUS DEI (Adagio for Strings) "an uneasy, shifting suspension as the melody begins a stepwise motion, like the hesitant climbing of stairs." Johanna Keller "There's a kind of sadness and poetry about it. It has a melodic gesture that reaches an arch, like a big sigh... and then exhales and fades off into nothingness." Barbara Heyman "The work is a slow, minor-key lament, which evokes a deep sadness in those who hear it" Thomas Larson "The form of the piece is an arch, with the dynamic getting louder to the point of climax, then dying down to a sleepy resignation. It is perhaps reflective of the last two stages of grief cycle, from depression to acceptance. There may be some anger and bargaining in there as well, especially during the climax section. As the emotions get more intense, the music becomes louder, the strings change the direction of their bows more abruptly, and there is clearly a feeling of anger and asking “why?” Justin Mathis This kind of musical excellence and depth of expression I believe comes straight from God. With this piece, Samuel Barber expresses the profound depth of life on earth. Great tragedy and suffering coexisting along side such overwhelming beauty and joy.....from utter futility, darkness and despair to the deep rapture of God's beauty, hope.and love. S Kirk
Sir John Tavener view was that we live in an over-intellectualized society in which the strong emphasis placed on issues that feed the ego, such as academic success, money and achievement—all the things on which our society is based—has distanced us from who or what we really are, from the ‘essence’ of life. Just as each fragment of a broken holographic film creates the whole original visual image, so do Tavener's scores create micro/macroscopic resonances, fractals that replicate themselves on various levels. Eternity's Sunrise emphasized the eternal nature of the spirit rather than the passing of the mortal body. Tavener achieved this by taking two texts of William Blake, both of them on the subject of eternity, and converging them which had the effect of forcing the listener to rearrange chronology, to assemble the musical object rather than just watch the constituent parts pass by. Blake's texts themselves are rather holographic: a grain of sand contains an entire world and an hour holds eternity.
Sir John Tavener Music
Affrescu by A Filetta
The group A Filetta is an all-male singing group that performs traditional music from Corsica. We still do not know, if this was the dream of an outline or the outline of a dream. The sketch of a house that is always open, where intertwined souls can find refuge, who in their quest for eternity, weave and reweave the threads of this ancient way of sharing that is song. The dream of a ship without a port that has left nowhere to sail elsewhere, where immemorial lighthouses could perhaps, one day, tell it : “ it is there, among you, in the shared ephemeral, that vast stretches of eternal happiness are to be found.”
Rembetiko is a musical and cultural life of the folk music tradition of Greece, which emerged at the beginning of the 20th century when over one millions Greek people who were forced to leave Anatolia (Asia Minor) within the "population exchange" between Turkey and Greece in the 1920's. Longing for the lost homeland, unaccepted by mainstream Greek culture and society (refugees numbered almost one fourth of the population of Greece then, and there was no way to provide shelter, jobs and food for all of them). Asia Minor musicians found themselves close to the underworld of the rebetes, adopted in language and music also referred to as the "Greek blues", because the lyrics are similar to the Blues from everyday worries and experiences of ordinary people.
Rembetiko: a musical and cultural life of the folk music tradition of Greece
Misirlou "Egyptian". Music is a special way of communication between people and the easiest bridge between people, societies and cultures.
Chopin: Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise in E Flat, Op. 22
Jessika Kenney is a singer of Persian style of singing "Avaz". Jessika Kenney’s voice has been described as haunting, intimate, and otherworldly. It communicates with you on a primal level, like a musical instrument or the wind, bypassing your brain and speaking directly to your cells. The word that comes to mind for the performance experience is “attunement.” "You attune yourself to an atmosphere or the emotional needs of an audience...in the space through the sound. And other types of needs, too, maybe creative, intellectual, or spiritual needs."
Her "Anchor Zero" explores a practice of ‘emptying out’, a kind of wandering and sounding which deeply interiorizes the vocalization and in the same moment supports a heightened sense of external space with an auditory ontology...“My pulse fluttered in a panic, if we cannot know anything, how do we receive the embrace of unknowing? The mother’s intuition has many forms, many edges, and many swirling chambers that change their chirality opon obtrusion, entry, movement. Our centers have pantheistic inclinations, and our skin against skin moments monastic.”
Transformation of Zalman Shneor Poem "Yad Anuga” (Tender Hand) where Eastern Europe met the oriental east
Raze Khelghat(Secret of Creation) with Composer Anoushirvan Rohani on Piano and Moein , Lyrics by Moeini Kermanshahi
Franz Liszt and Marie d’Agoult I
“When fate has joined two people as different as we are in mind and temperament, the constant effort and sacrifices made on both sides only serve to deepen the abyss between. I ask for your forgiveness on Luise’s grave. Your name will never leave my lips except when uttered with the respect and esteem which your character deserves. As for me, I ask only for your silence in the face of the world which is going to overwhelm me with insults.” Marie d’Agoult II letter to Charles d’Agoult, following the tragic death of her daughter Louise, and founding herself pregnant with Franz Liszt’s child.
"Place of birth-Parnassus; Profession-Musician/Philosopher; Coming from-Doubt; Journeying towards-Truth.” Franz Liszt
"Occupation-Loafer, Date of Passport-Eternity; Issued by-Public Opinion." “galley-slaves of love who don’t know the value of any chain.” George Sand
The Victoria and Albert Museum in partnership with the National Theatre brought together five directors to work with the actress, Michelle Terry, playing Ophelia in the famous mad scene in Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which Ophelia interpreted dramatically through the lens of Constantin Stanislavski, Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook. What did they ask the actress to do and how did they ask the actress to behave? The films depict the increasing madness of Ophelia after discovering her father has been killed by her lover, which ultimately leads to her tragic drowning. Five Truths offers its spectators the chance to witness the styles of each of the directors through the notion of ‘truth’.
Five Truths - five interpretations of Ophelia's madness in Hamlet
