DGM HQ A grey day
08.54
DGM HQ.
A grey day.
The street I…
II...
11.12 Morning brew with Mr. Stormy & David in the DGM kitchen I…
II...
12.23 A contribution to the GC History Project…
Letters to the Second Guitar Craft (US) Level Three
Claymont Court, Charles Town, West Virginia.
I
Inaugural Letter
August 29th. 1989
Just below the surface of what we call our day-to-day world lie riches. The "surface" is how we see the world and believe it to be. If in a moment this overlay, this veneer of interpretation, lifts we find a new world. Not a new world of clever intentions, political theorising and utopian devising, but a new world - the real world. We may like it, or not, but it is not a fiction. If we dislike it, then we at least we have something real to dislike, if we may.
Probably, everyone here has experienced a lifting of the veil of everyday perception, and has some sense of what is behind it. Most of us have had some sense of this at a Level One course, and this is an aim of the Level One: to enable a direct experience of what is real within the musical life, and our individual lives.
An aim of the Level Three course is to establish a personal practice sufficient to bring ourselves and the real world into closer relationship and accord. Actually they are not apart, but in our normal state we are not present to it. Our work at Level Three is to practice the making of efforts. When we bring intention to bear upon an habitual or mechanical activity, our state changes. When our state changes, we have an opportunity. When we have an opportunity, we have another opportunity.
There are different kinds of efforts, and it is necessary that we learn to distinguish between them. Otherwise, we make the wrong kind of effort, and lose an opportunity. We are different kinds of people, and each of us finds greater ease or difficulty with a different kind of effort.
There are three areas within which we make these efforts of different kinds: physical, mental and emotional. This is what is meant by the expression that a musician has three disciplines, of the hands, the head and the heart. Each day we should place some demand upon each of these faculties. Each of us is unbalanced in our development of these faculties, and the harmony of their operation.
But, we begin by doing nothing. While we are doing nothing, we watch ourselves doing nothing. It is crucial that this observation of ourselves is impartial. We see ourselves as we would a well-loved friend. We make no judgements, we accept ourselves as we are, and no mistakes are made - save one: the failure to remain impartial. As long as we maintain our impartiality we are outside, and observing this creature within whom we live. Otherwise, we become enmeshed within the creature and its concerns.
As participants within this course, we have three areas of responsibility:
i) Ourselves, and our personal work;
ii) The house, the property and the community of which it is a part;
iii) Guitar Craft. Guitar Craft involves all the people that have a measure of commitment to this project, and the power behind Guitar Craft's appearance in the world. We may call this power the power of music, or the operation of the Muse. But when we stand face to face with music, we see for ourselves what lies behind this particular quality. When we have seen this for ourselves, in this finer sense, we also have a responsibility to what lies behind music.
When this is a real idea, and not just a bright idea, the three responsibilities are the same responsibility. In Guitar Craft we refer to this responsibility in the principle: honour necessity.
II
Second Letter
September 29th. 1989
Sunday All Over The World have changed their status from being a touring band to becoming a studio band. This frees up much of the time which I was holding for touring, and means that I have as much time for Guitar Craft as is likely to be needed. So, I am writing to our registrars around the world and asking them for their needs and requirements during the next two years, so that we can establish a medium term plan for courses.
The international nature of Guitar Craft is to be encouraged. The visit to New Zealand will involve Guitar Craft in a new hemisphere which will involve Australia and Japan.
A new factor which will arise is the presence of a strong European contingent, centered on Germany. This may well become the GC office in Europe, which can handle mail order and all the other excitements of office life. Also, the centre for a European League Of Crafty Guitarists undertaking regular performances, particularly from 1991 onwards. I am very happen to be closely involved with this. In time we may need a property in this area, for those who wish to work closely with me on an extended basis. This is probably outside the two year period we are considering, but if anyone really wanted to work with Robert they would buy a house in this village and not wait until he announces a new scheme. If Crafties wish to work together they will move together, and it is up to the Crafties who have that need to respond to it, or to begin to respond to it.
A new factor in America within the next two years will be the beginning of communities of Crafties. Perhaps one of these will become a permanent Guitar Craft centre. There are two kinds of Guitar Craft communities: the community where Crafties live and work together, and the Guitar Craft community, which is official. The second one may or may not happen in my lifetime, but the first can happen tomorrow. If serious Crafties wish to support each other, let them take the initiative and find the building. We make courses available to partners where possible, but we have yet not found a place for children in courses. At Red Lion House we did have young visitors occasionally, and there were problems and disruptions.
Guitar Craft works by inclusion, rather than exclusion. How may we design a situation which includes our families in Guitar Craft, if they wish to participate? The Claymont experiment provides a lot of information and experience of what is involved in community, and we have our own experience from three years at Red Lion House. There is no one way to organise a community, but there is one fundamental necessity: the commitment to a common aim. Those with greater commitment are the residents, those with lesser are the visitors. My sense is the answer will develop organically. It goes like this: there is a need, one recognises the need, one addresses the need.
My best wishes to the touring team for their performances, and to you all.
III
Third Letter
November 1st. 1989
Here is a question: what do you do when you have no enthusiasm, no interest, and no energy? The answer is simple. You cook lunch. And then you wash it up, clean the bathrooms, run the office, practice guitar, practice silence, and cook dinner.
Here is another question: what do you do when you can't do anything? The answer is simple. You do what has to be done. Like cook lunch, wash it up, clean the bathrooms, run the office, practice guitar, practice silence, and cook dinner.
The principle is this: suffer cheerfully. You are now being asked to deliver on your commitment to the course. Any fool can change the world, but it takes a real hero to cook lunch without demur, without complaint, and with a smile. This point of reliability is the basis of the spiritual life.
The one greatest single thing that I have learnt from Guitar Craft, this remarkable and unfolding action of which we are all privileged to be a part, is the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse. The Creation is creating itself all the time. This is not a finite event. It is ongoing. And we are part of this ongoing creation if we wish to be, and if we wish to place ourselves at the service of the creative impulse. Guitar Craft is only one example of the remarkable emergence of a major action of healing within our troubled world. The creative impulse, which invents Guitar Craft as it goes, is itself a vehicle for a far greater power, the power which maintains the Creation. In a word, love. The healing power, the power of making whole, of making holy that which is already holy but fragmented, acts through agents. Love does not exist, because it is not a power which can be constrained by existence. But, as we all know, love is quite real. To be present in the world it must be borne and carried by loving agents. The creative power is also a power which is beyond existence. To be present in the world it must be expressed through play, this creative action which is quite necessary. Play is spontaneous, in the moment and seeks no outcome, no result. The play of craftsmen and artists is in the moment, but moves from intention and seeks to generate repercussions.
I suggest that all of us have some sense of this, whatever words we may use to express it.
If we wish to participate within the loving, creative unfolding of our world, we place ourselves at the service of this unfolding. Because this is so much at variance with what we would call "a normal way of living", most of us need instruction, techniques, exercises and help. If we are clear that this is really what we wish, we test this wish.
The particular challenge of a Level Three course is crossing The Great Divide. The Great Divide is with us in many small processes throughout our day, but generally we can escape from it, for several reasons. But over a period of three months it hits hard. The Great Divide is a necessary and inevitable part of any and every process. It is where we are too far from the beginning to go back, and too far from the end to go forward. It is the point where processes break down and go off course.
If we wish to be vehicles for the creative impulse, it is no good falling apart en route. The passenger gets thrown out. Our friend love gets dumped in the mud, and our pal healing action gets helped into the ditch. So, we must introduce a small point of certainty. This is commitment. Commitment carries us through The Great Divide. Commitment comes from who we are, and exerts a demand upon what we are. I have just read again the aims declared at the beginning of the course. Consider them again for yourselves. Is this real for me or just fine words?
Commitment is to be practised daily. And here is a small beginning to this practice. It is an exercise called The Job For The Day. There are three areas in which jobs may be done:
1. for ouselves;
2. for the house;
3. for the community.
I suggest that for now you address jobs for the house. The practice is simple. During the day we notice something in the house which could be improved or remedied by a simple action. For example, there may be cobwebs around a window. Or the window may be dirty. Or the toilet may have run out of paper. Or the flower bed by the kitchen may need weeding. We will only notice these small things if we are alert. So, this is part of our practice in alertness and presence. Before we go to bed we consider tomorrow's job for the day. At the end of our morning sitting we remind ourselves of our job, and later in the day we discharge it. Then, before we go to bed we consider if we have executed our small task and consider the job for the following day. If this exercise is taken seriously, it can lead further.
The principle which I find helpful when confronting The Great Divide is this:
Establish the possible, and then move gradually towards the impossible.
So, when nothing seems possible, look and see one small action which is possible. And then discharge it. It may be as heroic as getting out of bed. And then cleaning your teeth.
The Level Three gives you a taste of what is actually involved in basing one's life on craft principles, whether we have any interest in playing guitar or not. Our rule of life is this: act on principle, move from intention. At Level Three we practice making a commitment for three months. Some of you have expressed interest in Level Four. At Level Four we say this:
In Guitar Craft we have three obligations:
1. the obligation to work;
2. the obligation to pay to work;
3. the obligation to accept the consequences of our work.
In Guitar Craft we have three rights:
1. the right to work;
2. the right to pay to work;
3. the right to inherit the consequences of our work.
But, we are not yet ready for this.
The situation is good.
My very best wishes to all you heroes.
IV
Fourth Letter
November 10th. 1989
Herewith several comments for your attention which may have some relevance to the courses. Please make these as available as you consider appropriate.
Firstly, the current Level Three course was set up in such a way that the Level Three and Six Projects would mutually support each other. The presence of the combined experience of the long-term Crafties was necessary given my physical absence. I am very happy that there are four of the L6 team available to respond to the needs of the Level Three as they arise.
Secondly, finding local performances for the Home Boys will not be easy, and probably not immediate. This should not be forced, but allowed to develop organically. In commerce there is a legitimate level of coercion which is accepted as fair and ongoing. This is because of the high level of dishonesty and wastage which is assumed by participants. My own way of working within commerce is to put my hat on something when I can deliver. In this way my personal wastage factor is at a minimum, and when I make a call to someone important they pick up the 'phone to me.
For example, Wayne Forte at ITG and the current plans for touring next Spring.
In the world of craft one presents oneself to the world, and is recognised and acknowledged, or not. The best example for us is the way in which Guitar Craft has grown and developed in nearly five years, having only minimal interface with the music business. Guitar Craft Services operates within both worlds. This is a very difficult position to be in. The local performance team is presenting itself to the world in a gentle way, because it lacks the particular kind of power which is necessary to coerce and force the commercial world. This means, in practice, that gigs will be slow in coming in. Two relevant guitar Craft aphorisms are:
Offer no violence;
Good time is being in step with ourselves.
Thirdly, life on the road is too hard to easily describe. It is not a life based on rationality. If anyone has been there for extended periods, they know the alienation and distress. Accepting the life is a measure of the musician's commitment to play music. Our failures in living up to our declared principles are generally forgivable, but rarely excusable. They are less rarely excusable on the road. But, they remain unacceptable. The performance team are acting on behalf of the League of Crafty Guitarists, and therefore Guitar Craft, and the standards are particularly high. This team needs our support and goodwill.
Fourthly, the Claymont community was damaged by gossip and carelessly made negative comments. We all have our own opinions and bright ideas, but they are subjective. Anyone within a role, which is objective, must leave their prejudices behind. It is not possible to gossip and be in a role. In this privileged position one is able to see and be with others in a clean, clear and direct relationship. But if subjective opinion is brought within a role, and the operations of that role, something is spoilt. The situation is redeemable, but at a price.
Disagreements and disputes are inevitable whenever people work together, and often need to be addressed. Guitar Craft is not an encounter group. My own recommendation is this: if we have emotional heat, let it go before addressing someone. Then, be clean and direct in what one has to say. It is unwise to dispute when one is caught in negative state: everything said is tainted.
If we have suffered umbrage, and been hurt by the carelessness of another person, particularly by a person with greater seeming experience, we have our part to play in redeeming the situation. Forgiveness is a major key in leaving our everyday prison. The Lord's Prayer is so commonplace that we overlook it as an unbelievably high instruction manual in the practicalities of how to get into the kingdom of heaven. Our capacity to forgive others is paramount. I believe that to really forgive the state we have to be in is considerable. What freedom when we let go of our legitimate-in-the-normal-world grievances! This is not the everyday person in us who is forgiving.
My very best wishes to you all.
12.35 DGM factoids:
913 loyal customers;
17 recouped downloads.
14.02 Organising sound files.
16.27 Afternoon reading: Dr. Dawe’s draft…
E-flurrying. To Andrew Keeling, in response to an e-letter addressing the early period of Crim…
the music of the Crimson undertaking, particularly this early period, is not something that i can accept personal credit for.
defining, protecting, organising & holding the space, yes. the music, no! music leant over & took us into its confidence. we provided the vehicle / instrument for music to play.
this is not a view that would be supported by all Crimson members…
18.49 More e-flurrying related to the Guitar Craft History Project.
David is in DGM SoundWorld I & continues with The Endless Project…
… although David also claims an end is in sight.
21.15 David has just walked into the night, a little later than usual…
22.46 An evening of computing & e-flurrying is moving towards an end.
The floor…
