Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The Power of Music
Music is one of the most powerful stimulants of the emotions and the inner energies as well. Those who are going through K. awakening often experience music in a new way, as if it were literally being played inside the head, rather than entering from without. Whether the music is from a great symphonic orchestra or simple kirtans from someone like KrishnaDas, the effect can be quite powerful.
Today I received this description of a friend's response at a recent concert. As far as we know, she is not experiencing k. awakening, but the fact is her reactions to this and other experiences suggest deep spiritual transformation.
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 2 in C minor ... One never hears Rach since he's considered sentimental, etc. but this performance for whatever reason was magical. At the first bars of the tolling bass note and then the chords, felt I had been stabbed in the heart and all the way through the first two movements, tears ran down my cheeks as I became aware of sniffling and searching for kleenex noises around me .. a man two rows in front of me was sobbing noiselessly. Have never experienced that level of emotion before in a concert hall.
Her account reminded me of a poem I wrote recently about a similar experience of deep heart opening while I was listening at home:
Listening
(Alexander Borodin--String Quartet #2 in D)
Alexander Borodin,
go ahead,
tear my heart open
with this music of leaving.
This is the lovers’
final goodbye,
the deathbed sweet drifting
to some other world.
It is the farewell
to all that
we have known and been
in service of becoming.
It is the small presence
that sleeps
in my heart,
waking to say,
yes, I still love you,
come close and listen,
go where I am going.
Dorothy Walters
March 2, 2011
