Play What You Know Then Play Above That

I wanted them to go beyond themselves. See, if you put a musician in a place where he has to do something different from what he does all the time, then he can do that—but he’s got to think differently in order to do it. He has to use his imagination, be more creative, more innovative; he’s got to take more risks. He’s got to play above what he knows—far above it—and what that might lead to might take him above the place where he’s been playing all along, to the new place where he finds himself right now—and to the next place he’s going and even above that! So then he’ll be freer, will expect things differently, will anticipate and know something different is coming down. I’ve always told the musicians in my band to play what the know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that’s where great art and music happens.

-Miles Davis

Stained Glass Window

Sometimes I sit in this chair in the morning and while watching the sun pour into the room like a gentle and strong river, I get a feeling that lines up all the pieces in life. I feel incomplete; just like a broken piece of a off a stained glass window. My luminescence is a beautiful shade of blue, perfectly fit to color my lens of life. I rise and fall each day at times with the rest of the world and often alone. I seek love and all the worldly attachments in the waking moments as my mind searches for wisdom as I sleep. Part of me inches towards these plants in front of me, wanting to cleaning their surroundings and erase the passage of time.

No that cant be true.

No that is just my impulses trying to fight death; the cessation of my actions and an ultimate end to my blue square. In spite of all my efforts for Godliness, the river that pours over the room reminds me I am part of the window. Nature finds solutions to her problems. In the flow all things balance will be found at midnight. Until then I will keep on flowing, letting myself rise and fall with the tide.

Shine on.
Live in the real world.

Knowledge of Self

Treat you better than me because that's the heavenly key
To unlock the inner strength where my essence will be
It's the knowledge of self, understanding of the things around me
That becomes the wisdom that I need
Living this life to the best of my ability
Channeling energy to my thoughts into your symmetry
Remember me because my clothes remain gold
I got the gift of gab like them pimps in Kangols

Feather - Modal Soul
- Nujabes, Cise Star, & Akin Yai -

Schools That Distinguish Depth and Surface

Been contemplative and have been creating space to dig into old thoughts to see how they have steeped with time. I was recently drawn back to Gorin no sho, commonly known as The Book of the Five Rings, and started thumbing through some of the pages I annotated and stumbled on this gem. Known as one of the greatest swordsmen of all time, Miyamoto Musashi’s writings give us insight into practicing a discipline through the zen frame of mind. He labels the fourth section of these writings Scroll of the Wind where he talks about other schools of thought. While he largely talks about swordsmanship, The Way is not fettered to one discipline. Let the ideas be a mirror into your own mind.

You cannot know with certainty the way of your own school without knowing the way of others.

In questions of strategy, what is meant by surface and what is meant by depth? In the different arts, there is a manner of distinguishing the depth from the entry that refers to the ultimate teaching or the secret transmission. But as to the principle that comes into play at the time of combat with an adversary, you cannot say that you fight him with techniques of the surface and cut him down with those of the depth.

In my school’s teaching of strategy, you teach techniques that are easy to assimilate for those who are beginning in the study of the way, giving them an explanation that they can understand right away. Observing the degree of their advancement, you progressively give them explanations that direct them toward more and more profound principles. However, in general you teach them things that correspond to situations they are really in; there is no need to distinguish between depth and entry in the teaching. This can be connected with the adage according to which if you continue to go deeper and deeper into the mountains, you will come out by a different entry.

In all the ways, it might turn out that the depth technique is effective or that the entry technique is.

With this principal of combat, why should you hide one thing in order to show another? That is why, in the transmission of my school. I do not have written oaths, accompanied by penalties.

Observing the student’s level of intelligence, you teach him the correct way and help him to free himself of the five or six bad ways of strategy. You cause him to enter naturally into the true way that conforms to the principles of the warriors, so that his mind will be free from doubt. Such is the way of teaching strategy in my school.

You should train well in this.

-Miyamoto Musashi

'Ukulele and Marcus Aurelius

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I have slowly been thumbing my way through Meditations by Marcus Aurelius to gain a deeper insight into stoicism. I love the perspective and have enjoyed reading his thoughts while thinking of the context of being a “good leader,” of such an influential culture. The parallels in naturalism, balance, and temperance to Daoism resonates with me as it was the first philosophical exploits as a teenager. I have found that reading short snippets of something like the Dao De Ching or Meditations are best served with time to contemplate and internalize. Not every idea is a good idea. Reflection can help us navigate what is essential to our beings and acknowledge what is not.

So here is the first thing I read when I opened up Meditations this morning. I found it to be relevant to the world’s current state of affairs and, by comparison, even something seemingly insignificant as learning to play an instrument. Oh how you have to love the paradox! It keeps us grounded yet grants us freedom from our own thoughts.

In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonor in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse, for it does not damage the intelligence either so far as the intelligence is rational or so far as it is social. Indeed in the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus aid you, that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting if you bear in mind that's has it’s limits, and if you add nothing to it in imagination: and remember this, too, that we do not perceive that many things that are disagreeable to us are the same as pain, such as excessive drowsiness, and being scorched by heat, and and having no appetite. When then you are discontetnted about any of these things say to yourself that you are yielding to pain.

This too shall pass.
Keep on walking.
(just 6ft apart)