Holistic      Musician

Caravan of Souls - February 2015

Invocation:

Towards the One, the perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty. The ONLY being, united with ALL the illuminated souls who form, the embodiment of the master, the spirit of guidance!

When the artist loses himself in his art, then the art comes to life.

               Bowl of Saki, December 11, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

One must not only be an artist; one must become art itself. Then to the one who is so absorbed in his work that he forgets himself, that capacity, that intuition, that skill will come naturally. He begins to do wonders, and his art becomes a perfect expression of what he had in mind. ...  People think that it is the artist who has made it; in reality, it is God who has perfected it. As it is God's pleasure to create the world, so it is also God's pleasure to create through pen and brush and chisel, to give life to what is lifeless.

The artist who has arrived at some perfection in his art, whatever his art may be, will come to realize that it is not he who ever achieved anything; it is someone else who came forward every time. And when the artist produces a perfect thing, he finds it difficult to imagine that it has been produced by him. He can do nothing but bow his head in humility before that unseen power and wisdom which takes his body, his heart, his brain, and his eyes as its instrument. Whenever beauty is produced in art, be it music, or poetry, or painting, or writing, or anything else, one must never think that man produced it. It is through man that God completes His creation. Thus there is nothing that is done in this world or in heaven that is not divine immanence, which is not divine creation. ...

What is art? Art is the creation of beauty in whatever form it is created. As long as an artist thinks that whatever he creates in the form of art is his own creation, and as long as he is vain about his creation, he has not learned true art. True art can only come on one condition, and that is that the artist forgets himself -- that he forgets himself in the vision of beauty. ... We are vehicles or instruments that respond. If we respond to goodness, goodness becomes our property. If we respond to evil, then evil becomes our property. If we respond to love, then love becomes our possession.

Commentary by Pir O Murshid Inayat Khan

“Art is a domain in which inspiration manifests with great facility. In order to become spiritual, to attain inspiration, it is not necessary that a man should be very religious or especially good; what is necessary is love of beauty. What is art? Art is the creation of beauty in whatever form it is created. As long as an artist thinks that whatever he creates in the form of art is his own creation, and as long as he is vain about his creation, he has not learned true art. True art can only come on one condition, and that is that the artist forgets himself – that he forgets himself in the vision of beauty. There is one condition through which his art can be still more valuable, and that is when the artist begins to recognize the divine in his art. As long as the artist has not realized this, he has not touched the perfection of art. In reality, art is nature re-expressed, perfecting the beauty that is already there.”

“The artist, in the true sense of the word, is the king of a kingdom that is even greater than the kingdoms of the earth. There is a story told in the East of Farabi, the great singer, who was invited to the court of the Amir of Bokhara. The Amir welcomed him very warmly at the court, and as the singer entered the Amir went to the door to receive him. On coming into the throne-room, the Amir asked him to take a seat. 'But where shall I sit?' asked the singer. 'Sit,' said the Amir, 'in any place that may seem fitting to you.' On hearing this, Farabi took the seat of the king. No doubt this astonished the Amir very much; but after hearing the singer's art he felt that even his own seat was not fitting, for he understood that his kingdom had a certain limitation, whereas the kingdom of the artist is wherever beauty prevails. As beauty is everywhere, so the kingdom of the artist is everywhere.”

“We are vehicles or instruments that respond. If we respond to goodness, goodness becomes our property. If we respond to evil, then evil becomes our property. If we respond to love, then love becomes our possession. If we respond to hatred, hatred becomes our life. And if we respond to the things of the earth so much that our whole life becomes absorbed in worldly things, then it is quite natural that we should not respond to those riches which are within us, and yet so far removed from us. Intuition is not something that a person can learn by reading books, nor is it a thing that one can buy and sell. Intuition is the very self, and the deepest self of man; and it can be realized by that soberness which is so very desirable in life. Absence of intuition means absence of soberness.”

“In all art there are three stages, and especially in sculpture. The first stage is conception, the next stage is composition, and the third stage is production. If the artist is not capable of conceiving an idea, he cannot go any further. He may try hundreds of times, but he will not arrive at the desired result. The outer world may help to bring about such a conception, but it must actually spring from within. It depends upon the stage of the artist's evolution; according to his evolution he is able to catch, to sense, the rising stream of inspiration which comes from within.”

“Which is the most difficult stage? This cannot be determined, for one artist has talent but is without intuition; another artist can compose in his mind and yet is without skill in producing; and there is yet another who has intuition but is lacking in composition and production. In order to combine these three faculties, one must not only be an artist; one must become art itself. Then to the one who is so absorbed in his work that he forgets himself, that capacity, that intuition, that skill will come naturally. He begins to do wonders, and his art becomes a perfect expression of what he had in mind.”

“Besides, the direction of art today is not of the same nature as in ancient times. The direction of ancient art was towards spiritual realization. Love, harmony, and beauty were seen by the artist in their highest aspects. And when the artist loses that direction, then he comes down to earth; instead of going upward, he is going downward. “

“The motive behind the whole of creation is to put life into everything. That is its sole objective.”

Healing with Sound

“All the tragedy in the world; in the individual and in the multitude comes from lack of harmony. And harmony is best given by producing harmony in one’s own life.” Supplementary Papers, Art and Music. By Hazrat Inayat Khan

We become harmonious by becoming balanced and establishing a rhythm in our daily lives. “
The whole of life is as music and in order to study life we must study it as music. It is not only study, it is also practice which makes man perfect. If someone tells me that a certain person is miserable or wretched or distressed, my answer will be that he is out of tune.”
HIK

Murshid uses the language of music to describe illness. He teaches that all life is vibration and that it is vibration that manifests first as breath, then becomes audible as sound and then manifests as light. When we do practices and use sound as a means of healing we are changing the vibration of the person. We are bringing them into a vibration of health from one of illness. We are creating a new balance and rhythm to create a new harmony.

Healing with sound goes back for millennia and Pythagoras is credited with being the father of sound healing.  He discovered a balance in music which comes to us as the perfect fifth .

It is the notes C and G. If we translate the notes into the elements C is earth and G is ether. So when we change the vibration of a person we are aiming towards bringing them into the balance of the perfect fifth; the balance of earth and heaven, in harmony within themselves and the world, and in tune with the symphony of the spheres.

Modern science is catching up to mystics. We now know that sound permeates the brain and changes patterns. It also changes the patterns in the body as body and mind are one.  

When we do practices for healing we activate the chakras and the lataif that then opens us to vibrating in rhythm with the universe; a natural state of health. We place the ah in the heart, the u or oo in the throat, the I or high pitched ee in the third eye, the m in the crown and eh in the solar plexus. Vowels have been used for thousands of years to activate subtle center for healing and transformation.

Practices

Watch your breath and find the place where your breath turns to sound and express the sound. Breath is audible in us.

Then sound the ah in the heart,