GENIUS FORUMS

It's hard to explain, but I think music is a very clear path to enlightenment. Always we fight to remove what masculinity or femininity that we have. But seems impossible when I thought about it, so I thought about how to blend the two, or acheive the only true neutrality, because to remove testosterone, or ferimone, is to remove humanity. I am a musician, and i always feel the need to rise above the whole
symphony, so that I can be truly respected. I think, if it's possible,that one could achieve true enlightenment when those instincts don't press, than that is true enlightenment, however far inbetween those moments are for me. Any comments, theories, or ,especially, criticisms.

Okey-dokey! What is the enlightenment that music is a very clear path to? Surely, it's not the Buddhist kind, is it? :)

I'm not a genius, nor do I consider myself above average. I could not tell you exactly what the different kind of "enlightenments" are, though I am sure each has its own significance and it would be nice to know, but I was using the word in a much more general sence.

Unfortunately without some idea of what you mean by "enlightenment" it's almost impossible from your post to get any idea of how music might relate to it. How does music bring us closer to Reality?


Dan Rowden

Think about this:
From what everything rises, and to what everything aims? Silence. Emptiness.
Before a piece of music begins, there is silence. The opus sings, manifests, silence CONTINUES always. Once the tension of the opus has reached its end, it disappears into silence once again. (Silence is ever present, and ever speaking, just like the great Sage Sri Ramana Maharshi said: "Silence is the highest form of communication, always speaking", something similar to that.)

Now, think about what is the purpose of pleasure, to reach climax. The purpose of Experience (all sensory experience, all mental experience) is to reach, tension and relaxation. The nature of Experience is impermanence, it is dependant on the identification with the body-mind (since experience occurs to someone: "I"). One eats a lot of food (I mean when it's for pleasure) until one is so full, so one wants to rest.

I am a pianist student, and that's my karma (until I get done with it, some more years left). To me, the real spiritual music is: "indian music" (Ravi Shankar,etc.) and minimalism (Philip Glass, Steve Reich) since the latter is so repetitive that makes the mind feel unity by repetition. All classical music is highly emotional (first hand experience) and I wouldn't call it spiritual. The feeling of perfection one experiences when listening to Bach, Mozart, is a form of Beauty yes, but is so full of emotion and human-ness that instead of quieting the mind, it makes it experience different sensations (greatness, or feeling small before such perfection, etc.). That's not to say that there isn't an harmonius order and great beauty. I just think that one gets overwhelmed by the beauty and emotions. In the case of lower music like Rock, etc., it's the "same" but in a significantly smaller meassure.

Ary

when i say enlightenment, i mean a state where thinking is not affected by anything physical or spiritual, where judgement is based on pure facts, with no bias. I could go on, but i think you get the picture.

Ary. The music i was talking is mostly early romantic period, where crescendos, half of the time take precedents over the note. But when one can willingly submerge in , and surface from, the intense emotion, without physical or emotional/spiritual effects I think that is a clear sign of enlightenment. But you do raise a good point, along with a night at my desk.