"The Teaching Is All Around You"

                                                           I must call your Attention to what Shah has written :   

           "Another Sufi idea, producing a problem which may have found impossible to integrate in their minds, is the Sufi insistence that Sufism can be taught in many guises .   Sufis, in a word, do not stick to any one convention .   Some quite happily use a religious format, others romantic poetry, some deal in jokes, tales and legends, yet others rely on art-forms and the products of artisanship .   Now, a Sufi can tell from his experience that all these presentations are legitimate .   But the literalist outsider, however sincere he may be, will often testily demand to be told whether these Sufis are members of of guilds, religious maniacs, jokers, scientists--- or what .   This problem, while it may be special to Sufism, is by no means new .   Sufis have been judicially murdered, hounded out of their homes, or had their books burned, for using non-religious or locally unacceptable formulations .   Some of the greatest classical authors have been accused of heresy, even political crimes .   Even today [[1970]]  they come under fire from all kinds of committed circles, not just religious ones. "

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                                   Before he left for home, Zen-Master-To-Be, Jacob Perl, cautioned me, "Don't look for the Teaching, It is all around you [here, in the Temple] " .   

                         Zen Sword Master Chang Sik Kim Taught, "EVERYTHING IS YOUR TEACHER" .

                         "IT" isn't just 'Everything', "IT" is EVERY-BODY .

                          In the Anelects this Gem :   "Even Tsu Kung was not afraid to learn from his Inferiors" .

                                It's certainly hard to detect Humility in Tsu Kung, I assure you, "IT" 's There .

Some do some don't

                                                           This morning, when I viewed my numbers, I was delighted to find some 900 had read my blogs on Music .  Technically, they were NOT blogs at all, but transcriptions of quotes I thought relevant to my 'case' for Music Appreciation .  I KNOW there is dispute among Muslims, whether or not listening to Music is permissible or if is is "Haram", Arabic for ---> Forbidden [one of the Five Rulings], and many of the Countries that 'read' me have a large Muslim population, so THAT would definitely contribute to low numbers .   I suspect that 'Modern Times' have relaxed staunch Muslim Insistence that Music is NOT one of Allah's Fav's, but I am inclined to (b)elieve that Muslims do, indeed, 'Appreciate' Song , or at least TOLERATE it, since Music in all its Forms and Manifestations has Residence among the World's Every-Day Citizenry, and as such, CANNOT be truly Avoided .   

                              Some folks aren't 'into' Music, sad but True .  Does that disqualify them from entry into Planetarianism* ?  Most assuredly Not .  For MOST of Some-of-us, Music is "pleasing to the ear" and affords a 'comfort', where comfort is a Feeling of Connection, first with Time and Place, [Location] of Reality, and then with the general Human Condition that considers Loneliness a viable form of Suffering---Most folks do not want to be alone-- they NEED background Music because they Fear Silence, where Silence AMPLIFIES Alone-ness* .   

Music as Joy

                               "Here, then, Music terminates in Religion .    The two are intimately related, and Religion in a way elucidates the content of Music .  Logos descends from his heights, and sound---the Shriek--- is joined by Myth .  Myth unites men within the Symbol, it embraces men, and they are far more moved than they would have been by mere Sound, for Myth is the Music of Symbolism .   Therefore, it is clear that Myth is FULFILLMENT .  { > Whole-Ness < } ."

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                       "But even here, Harmony is the Core of the Spirit of Eastern Wisdom .    To be sure,, the deep origin of Western tragedy is not foreign to Eastern Wisdom either, but these depths are for it only partial, and not final in themselves .  Height and Depth are united in Logos, by TAO .  Joyousness, and surrender to joyousness as the final redemption of Myth, supply the energy necessary for Order among men .   Surrender to joyousness forms and shapes men :   force neither of arms nor of law, but joyousness alone makes it easy for men to follow .   Joyousness is garbed in beauty, showing itself pleasantly to men, so that from within they are compelled to submit easily and willingly to its regulations .   Ultimately, this is the greatest idea that came to life in China as the Sprit of Music and as the Spirit of Religion ."

---All quotes from LECTURES ON THE I CHING    CONSTANCY AND CHANGE by Richard Wilhelm Translated from the German by Irene Eber .

                          These two blogs must serve as my Introduction to Music .

MUSIC

                              "A person who surrenders to the moods of the day, who gives voice to the dissatisfaction of the masses, momentarily becomes the leader of the masses .  For one moment he is the man in whom the people recognize themselves . {Zen Master as "Empty MIRROR"} .   

                                                                          * * *

                             "The more on the surface a person is, and the more it is intended to draw the masses, the sooner it ends . "

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                            "Whatsoever lives in the heart is expressed in SOUND, and growing in intensity, is expressed by movement, so that each tone and each movement are the expression of internal animation."

                                                      

                                                                    The Most Important :

                              Man comes in contact with GOD, through the Spirit of MUSIC .

"Do you hear what I hear ?"

                                                           I promised you, my Gentle Readers, a Consideration of ---> Music .   The other day {week, month, year LIFETIME} I made note that Sufism has an Order Devoted to [the Study of]  Music and that I was instantly Exultant .   I must Confess that the Study of Music was a Some-Thing that I had long wished to include as part of "American Zen" .   The Late Great Zen Master Seung Sahn had opened Zen to America via his "Kwan Um" Zen School .  Kwan Um means "Perceive World Sound" and I was set to supplement it with "Perceive ---> Music" .   To me, "Perceive World Sound" meant Perceive World SUFFERING at the expense of  "Perceive Sound" which would include all the mellifluous harmonies of wild-life, the Industrial World, {house building, construction in general} and every day-to-day street `noise` .   It IS imperative to "Hear" the cries of the Sorrow-Stricken and Suffering, they DEMAND our "Attention", but this Reality exists on the surface of Conscious-Ness, and somehow belies the UNDERCURRENT of [literal] Music, the bee-bops and do-wah-diddies, of songs that IS not only the Undercurrent but the Back-Ground Music broadcast in almost all American Stores and Sales Locations that laden the world with Wares .   "IT" 's so common, we can't even hear "IT" and most consider "IT" "white noise" as I have just mentioned .   

                                Learning that Sufism is DEVOTED to Music THRILLED me, and it's sorta PROOF that my thinking was "on track", meaning, what I THOUGHT to be Questionable, was, in FACT,  REAL .

                                What follows are several passage that I will use as an Introduction .

Nixing Nixon

                                                           I find heartening the news that is being reported that there are cracks, fractures, breaks and fissures in the so-called maga-coalition that is the result of PUBLIC MALCONTENT .   Elected 'officials' {offal-icials} are responding to the expression of that Malcontent by trying to distance themselves from trump, and his GRAVITY .   This MUST-BE considered PROGRESS toward an "Awakening", rather a Neutralization,  that can and does exert Pressure on trump, that, as yet, he REFUSES to acknowledge in any MEANINGFUL way .  Trump still DENIES Reality .

                             Recently, Journalists have attempted to draw parallels between NIXON and his Resignation and the current "predicament" in which trump finds himself .   I personally would prefer that trump and his be HANDED-OVER to Iran to face charges of ASSASSINATION, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, and JUST-BEING-THE-BIGGEST-FUCKING-ASSHOLE-SINCE HITLER .   Ain't nevuh gonna happen I Know that but the SCENE pleases me without end . 

                            Nixon was told BY HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS that he was gonna be IMPEACHED if he refused to Resign and would face PRISON TIME as a result .   Nixon caved .

                            Oh WOULD that american republicans, what's remains of them, stand together, approach trump and DEMAND his Resignation !!!   

                                                             Tare Forward and Keep the Faith

Jesus the Destroyer

                                                           I don't know if Iran has already conceived of the Resignation Plan, to impose on trump as a Condition for opening Hormuz, establishing a REAL 'Cease Fire' and ENDING the WAR .   They, as in the Military Sanhedrin, [the IRGC], may --->NOT<--- want trump to be "gone" because NEVER in the Modern Time has Iran had SO MUCH POWER, where POWER means Leverage .   PLUS, they have Allies =  Russia and China, and americans have NONE .   A "Regime Change" in america, may not Suit Iran, like, AT ALL .  Iran has survived thus far, and has proven itself a FORMIDABLE Force which has exerted itself into the Arab Peninsula in Violent and Destructive manner .   ANCIENT Intra-Religion ANIMOSITY  is also "at work", Shia versus Sunni being its garrulous Manifestation .   Religion IS POWER, none can deny, and Iran is FULL of religious Zealotry, much to the DETRIMENT of Common and DECENT Muslims both in Iran and around the World in Muslim Populations .   "IT" is as "IT" was in Ancient Israel during the Time and Ministry of Jesus, where the Religious [Spiritual] Sanhedrin had NO "Beef" with Jesus and His Teaching, but where the Political Sanhedrin FEARED Jesus because He was, to them, a "Subversive Revolutionary" .  { I LOVE this Depiction of Jesus, it makes HIM  one of US .}

                                   But I digress ... .  Sorry .