I am reading a book by the great martial artist and samurai Miyamoto Musashi and the above quotation caught my eye.
Disciplines like music, martial arts or
sport have a similarity in that one needs to surrender oneself to the spirit of
the art and by putting your ego aside and getting down to the hard work you can
develop the skill. As you get better and more accomplished you begin to see that
you can influence the way of things, this in turn opens the possibility of you
considering the value of what you are doing; if not there can be some nasty
surprises in store.
Whether this neglect of the value is using
performance enhancing drugs as an athlete or using your martial arts skills to
'throw your weight around' or having a message in your music that vilify others,
all these aspects can lead to a Faustian pact that will result in a great fall
in the future.
One of Musashi's perspectives is that one
should not fear death instead consider yourself already dead and in that way
you can be in the moment without considering the ego. I find this an intriguing
idea especially in this day and age when what you look like, what you opinion
is and whether others 'like' your opinion is so greatly regarded.
Great music comes from deep feelings based
on experience and can be made by a few notes, in the words of John Lee Hooker
feel 'chills' in yourself and others will feel them. I personal think that this
requires a great degree of selflessness to achieve.
Remember we don't own anything we are only
custodians of our talents so consider deeply how your musical energy can add to
the song of the Earth.
Vic
