Rich 'N Roll

I apologize to, well, all three of my blog followers for not having written in a while. I’ve been pretty busy! And this entry will be pretty short because I have to go to work in 30 minutes.. but, this is an intriguing topic I want to share.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading out here (books, I know, crazy!). I like to read non-fiction books, on the philosophy of music and photography. But I find these books to delve into the deeper world of Creativity in general… and that all creative forms of expression are in fact related at their deepest philosophical core.

For example. My current read is The Listening Book: Discovering Your Own Music, by W.A. Mathieu.

Looks like a retarded children’s book, but it’s a series of collected short essays that simply have to do with discovering sound and the music inside you, and the music that’s all around you.  Which brings me to today’s thought.  Here’s what struck me this morning.

“There is a hearing meditation that has two parts: first you Unlisten; then, you Listen.   Unlistening means clearing sounds from their associations.”

This is almost EXACTLY a quote from another favorite book of mine, a philosophical exploration of Photography called The Tao of Photography, in which is stated:

“To see, we must forget the name of what we look at.”

Both of these approaches for Music and Photography involve removing the bias of the mind, and looking into the deep, plain-and-simple truth of what it is we are seeing and hearing.  Try it sometime.  Lie awake at night and just listen.  Don’t label a car outside as “a car,” but hear the vibrations and rhythm.  Let it enter you, feel it.  Same with sight – don’t see a tree and think “tree”.  See it’s shape, it’s energy, it’s texture and color.  Look at what it IS, and forget any prior knowledge or stigma associated with the objects and sounds.

I think of it as SEEING and HEARING for the first time!  It’s pure and true, fused directly with nature.  It’s not easy to leave this whole world we know… but it’s about getting in touch with a higher awareness, a simple world of stark yet beautiful reality. Try this with sound and sight, and I guarantee you’ll open new doors to creative ideas… I know I’m trying to! :)