DGM HQ Beginning sun has
10.12
DGM HQ.
Beginning sun has moved into morning grey.
The street I…
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12.45 Today’s contribution to the Guitar Craft History Project…
Letters to the Second Guitar Craft (US) Level Three
Claymont Court, Charles Town, West Virginia.
V
Fifth Letter
November 22nd. 1989
The action of craft is mysterious. How does it appear, where does it comes from, and why does it call to me? Much of this is hidden from us. That is, much of this hidden from us in our normal condition. When our state changes, we find that our normal condition is actually quite abnormal. When we are alert, less is hidden. What seems hidden is often in full view, concealed only by our blindness. If our eyes are open, we may see or not. If our ears are open, we may hear or not.
Last week I was in London, pursuing the concerns of the professional musician - money and business. While on the telephone in my little wife's studio apartment, I looked up. In front of me was a well kept secret: the budding flowers of a winter blossoming cactus. Out of each tip of this little creature the delicate white of emerging flowers were appearing. This beautiful, living creature spoke to me across the room, shaming my absorption in the morass of business, giving me hope. Before I noticed them, they were invisible. Then, noticing appeared.
Our blindness and deafness are a measure of our dullness and our blunt acuities. Much of our blindness and deafness is a result of holding opinions. Opinions trap our attention in a world where perception is impossible. Opinion is not experience. A real question comes from experience. I may have a profound question about the power of koans to distress the mind, but have I spent a night in meditation on a koan? A question which comes from opinion limits its answer to a world where real answers are hard to find.
In Guitar Craft we are becoming vehicles for the creative impulse to express itself through music. We are training ourselves to respond to the promptings of music. For this we must be both reliable and responsible. This implies a measure of freedom in our capacity to respond. Three of the primary freedoms in establishing reliability in our lives are these:
1. freedom from like and dislike;
2. freedom from our opinions;
3. freedom from the opinions of others.
This does not mean we have no opinions, likes and dislikes. Neither does it mean that we should have no opinions, likes and dislikes. Nor does it mean that we should deny their presence in our lives. It simply means that we must have freedom from their hold over us. But before this, we must know them.
We begin by looking at our opinions and prejudices. It is important that we do not try to change them. Three of the primary knowings are these:
1. the knowledge of our ignorance;
2. the poverty of our knowledge;
3. the recognition of necessary knowledge.
Our lives are too short to acquire these three knowings by accident. During our Level Three we must experience at least the first two of these: the knowledge of our ignorance, and the poverty of our knowledge. Hopefully we will also begin to recognise, and acquire, necessary knowledge.
At Level Three we share a house with a number of other people. Some of these I will like and some I will dislike. Probably, all of them will irritate me at some time. Almost certainly I will irritate all of them at some time. But why should we live together in this unlikely and irritating manner? It is easy to believe we are making pioneering attempts at community living, and that this has some intrinsic merit. This may or may not be so, but it is not our main reason. The aim is to acquire a large amount of information about ourselves, and this creature we inhabit, within a relatively short period of time. The intensive manner of living with others which we practice is a sure and effective way of discovering what we are. It is not necessary for us to live in a house with a lot of people for the rest of our lives. But, it is necessary that we undertake this for a period of time.
Necessary knowledge is very easy to find. We already have enough necessary knowledge to guide and direct us for the rest of our lives. Guitar Craft principles are all instructions in qualitative endeavour. Necessary knowledge is very little, but to recognise it as such needs discrimination. Our problem is that we acquire both necessary knowledge and huge amounts of unnecessary knowledge.
The recognition of necessary knowledge is direct. It is not the everyday part of us which recognises necessary knowledge. The acquisition of necessary knowledge occurs when knowing moves from what we are, and speaks to who we are. This knowing carries with it a charge, an energy, upon which we may draw. This is because the knowledge comes from a world other than the everyday.
When we begin to have some sense of the difference between necessary and unnecessary knowledge, we begin to recognise the difference between necessary and unnecessary questions. A true question comes from our experience, not our opinions, and contains its own answer. If we have been present within an action, it is within our experience. If we are present within our experience, our experience is present within us. If this is so, we may re-enter our experience and question it. Necessary questions are practical.
Here is an example of a practical question which may arise on a Level Three: how may I behave in the kitchen when the person in charge knows less than I do? This is a question which can arise easily in many areas of our activities, whether kitchen, office, or performance circle. So, it is an everyday question. It is also a very sophisticated question.
The first principle in accepting instruction is this: honor the role. A role is a necessary point within an archetypical pattern. If the role is discharged, an eternal pattern is given an opportunity to unfold within our world. One point within a pattern has access to all other points within the pattern. In other words, access to one point brings access to the whole. When a person plays a role, their initiative moves to that part of them which resonates in conformity to the role. Their everyday self acts on behalf of that part of them which is eternal. This everyday self is an instrument which responds to the direction of an eternal action. Within role, a person has access to the larger pattern, and the pattern may speak directly through the person. In this state one may experience insights and knowings which are hidden from our everyday eyes.
The second principle in accepting instruction is this: respect the person. A role is part of the whole, and in a sense is the whole. The person is partial. Anyone who undertakes to fulfil a role, knowing what is involved, undertakes to suffer. The distance between the worlds of potential and actual is never so wide as when one is between them. If we are accepting direction, we are ourselves fulfilling a role. On a personal level, the instructor may have less knowledge than us. On the level of role, the instructor has access to the complete picture. If the pattern is to emerge, we accept direction. From our position in role we allow the pattern to emerge, and in this sense also have access to the whole.
The third principle in accepting instruction is this: discharge the function. Eating is necessary. If we are to honour the eternal event of communion, that is, the sacrificing of life that life may continue, we need a kitchen. If we need a kitchen, we need a kitchen supervisor. This is because at least one person must have a complete picture of what is involved in our temple of life and death. The kitchen supervisor accepts the responsibility of holding an overview of all that occurs within the kitchen. This is a role. This does not imply omniscience, and one discharges the role as best one may. The assistant cook has the job of discharging the task which is given to them by the supervisor. This task is partial, but contributes to the whole. If all the parts are discharged, the whole is honoured. The responsibility of the supervisor is to discharge the whole. The responsibility of the assistant is to discharge the whole of their part. If the assistant is acting in role, they will have a sense of the whole to which they are contributing.
Let us restate our question: how may I behave in the kitchen when the person in charge knows less than I do? I ask myself these questions:
1. Is my knowing knowledge, or is it opinion? My opinions on food are called a "food trip". This is a knowing which comes from personality, and not our essential nature. This kind of knowing has its value and its place, but its place is subordinate. The instinctive perception by animals of food which is healthy for them is a direct knowing of the body. We are the only animals that override this recognition of good food and replace it by opinion.
2. In what area is my knowing superior? Is the supervisor instructing me in what to do, how to do, or why to do my task? Only a supervisor at Level Ten and above will be able to instruct me in all three. So far our kitchen supervisors in Guitar Craft have given instructions in what to do, and occasionally how to do. How to do is a matter of technique, and an incompetent assistant would be wise to ask for help from someone with more experience.
Expertise in a particular school of diet, for example macrobiotic, involves the whole of the person. The way the expert eats is inseparable from how they live. When this is so, the supervisor is able to organise the kitchen as a microcosm. This is more than holding an overview of the functions of the kitchen. It involves knowing what the functions represent in the pattern of the kitchen, and what the kitchen represents in the pattern of living. Then, the supervisor may give instruction in the whys of the kitchen. In the normal unfolding of process, this level of expertise takes twenty-one years to acquire.
3. Is the kitchen at variance with my honouring the strictures of a particular diet? A vegetarian kitchen is a common denominator among diets, in the sense that everyone eats vegetables (with the possible exception of eskimos).
4. Is the operation of the kitchen at variance with my moral or ethical beliefs? This is unlikely.
5. Does the operation of the kitchen violate commonsense? Here are two Guitar Craft principles which apply:
i) Honour necessity;
ii) If the spirit moves, follow.
If during my work in the kitchen I notice something which is obviously wrong, I bring this to the attention of the supervisor. In an emergency, I act immediately. If I notice that food is rotten, I tell the supervisor. If I am warming up yesterday's soup, I notice that the soup is not fresh. If this does not meet with my approval, I may draw this to the attention of the supervisor. If I am instructed to continue, I have three principles to follow:
i) Honour the role;
ii) Respect the person;
iii) Discharge the function.
If I am prepared to follow these principles, unless I have expert knowledge, a specific diet, or a belief system which is being violated, I shall:
i) Acknowledge the authority of the role of supervisor;
ii) Accept that the person in the role is doing the best they can in balancing all the different factors involved in maintaining the kitchen, including keeping a budget and the Rule of Quantity: honor sufficiency;
iii) Warm up the soup.
Otherwise, I state cleanly, clearly and directly, that I am unable to follow the instructions of the kitchen supervisor and I leave the kitchen.
If I have expert knowledge and am aware that an operation in the kitchen is less that it might be, but not prejudicial to general well being, I may draw this to the attention of the kitchen supervisor. Often the best way to do this is outside of role, outside the kitchen, and on a personal basis. This is action outside role, that role may be more fully discharged. Where one of us has a level of experience or expertise, this will generally be recognised and called upon. Where one of us has a level of self-opinionation, this will generally be recognised and overridden.
Three primaries of necessary knowing in the matter of food are these:
1. Knowing what to eat;
2. Knowing how to eat;
3. Knowing why to eat. That is, do I know the results of my eating? The repercussions of this one are considerable.
A question: how much do we know about food, its cooking and eating?
My very best wishes to gourmets and gourmands all.
VI
Sixth Letter
November 27th. 1989
This is my final letter to the course. Our final day is December 5th. and on this evening The League of Crafty Guitarists and myself are playing at the Whiskey A GoGo in Los Angeles. Twenty years ago this week I was playing this same club as a member of King Crimson. Eric Burdon was in the audience, and he booed us. Actually, I didn't hear him. I was told of this afterwards. On the 6th. our course in Los Angeles will complete. Please send to us your best wishes. On the 7th.I shall fly to London, en route for Italy where some of us will meet again.
After three months of living together, we will probably have dropped some illusions of community life and our personal capacities. We may be happy, even enthusiastic, about the prospect of changing the world. But are we able every morning to practise sitting for 30 minutes, doing nothing? It is necessary, although exceptionally painful, to see what we are. Our motivations are unpleasant, selfish, unkind, our minds a windfill of prattle, and our capacity for action uncertain at best. When we meet ourselves face to face, it is an unpleasant surprise. Probably the most difficult personal work I have ever undertaken is to bear what I am. If I am able to find forgivingness for others, I may find forgiveness of myself. If I am able to find forgiveness for myself, I may find forgivingness of others. The two are inseparable.
The first moment in which I was present to myself in this life was very early, probably about 6 to 9 months old. I remember the experience of being in my pram when a 'plane went overhead and made a noise. The Fripp baby was disturbed, moving in the pram to try and cover itself. At this point, there was a clear separation between who I am, and the little creature I was living in. I had no fear, but the Fripp baby was disturbed and sucked me into its concerns. This clear experience of being apart from the human animal, with a sense of both who I am and what I am, and then the two merging, was my debut in the world. This experience has remained with me since. I know that I am not my body, but live inside this human animal. I also know how easy it is for my animal matters to involve me in its concerns. This is a limitation and restriction upon my freedom of action. Is it possible for us to maintain a clear sense of who we are, and what we are, and to separate the two?
Some 28 years later, pursuing similar concerns, I spent ten months at Mr. Bennett's school in England, Sherborne House. A considerable cause of personal distress was the degree to which the whirring noise of my mind caught and held my attention. One day, while in the tape store which had become my responsibility, I realised that I was not my thinking. Neither was I my feeling, nor my doing. In a sense, this was a great relief. Nevertheless, I had a relationship with these instruments that operated and functioned, nominally upon my behalf.
A little time later, in the bitter cold of February 1976, while pushing a wheelbarrow of compost past the woodworking shop, in a flash, I saw that Robert Fripp did not exist. This insight probably lasted about half a second, if one measured it on a clock. It was a terrifying and frightening experience. Fripp was disturbed to see that he did not exist. So, I know that whoever I am it is not this creature I inhabit, neither is it the accretion of habitual behaviours called Robert Fripp. But, who I am has a relationship with what I am, and what I think, feel and do. That is, who I am should have a relationship with what I am, and what I think, feel and do. And this is where we find pain and suffering. The relationship is distant and unreliable. I see the distance between myself and Robert Fripp and his concerns.
If this distance is of real concern to us, we develop the relationship. The Guitar Craft principle is this: we begin where we are. But, we have to know where we are. So, we do nothing and while we're doing nothing, we look. Perhaps we can do nothing and look, while having a left hand. If we can do nothing with a left hand, we are on the way to doing something with a left hand. After three months, perhaps we know where we are not. That is, we have dropped some illusions. We have a clearer sense of our reliabilities, impulses and capacity for action. Hope lies in this: music is possible, despite what we are.
In time, and with practice, our centre of gravity changes. Our everyday concerns and worries remain the same, but we no longer live in the same place as the concerns and worries. They live in the basement and the cellar, and I live on the (American) first floor (English ground floor). Here, my perspective is quite different. I see things in a different way. One day I visit the second floor, and have another perspective from the vantagepoint of being above, and looking down on the first floor and basement. This is a place where I would really like to live, but there isn't enough room for my baggage. So, I go back downstairs. While I lived in the basement and cellar I believed that I lived on ground level. This was an illusion. To move upstairs, I have to know where I am, without blame, excuse and apology. Then, I can visit upstairs.
Life in the cellar is dark, and because of this is lonely. In the dark we can't see other people. When we visit upstairs there is more light, and we can see other people. Perhaps they can help me? This is true, but only to the degree that I am able to help myself. The degree to which I am able to help myself, is the degree to which I am able to help them. The degree to which I can help them, is the degree to which I can help myself. When I visit the second floor, I see that these other people are members of my own family. Members of a family are the family. That is, in a sense, they are the same person.
It is a common error to believe that we are on our own. This is an aspect of egotism, of failing to see beyond our nose. Help is always available, but we are not. The one greatest lesson of Guitar Craft, for me, is the inexpressible benevolence of the Creative Impulse. Despite who we are, help is always available. Despite what we are, redemption is always possible. But, this does not occur by accident. It involves our co-operation. It is necessary that the creative impulse enters the world. So, our co-operation is also necessary. When we make a commitment to enter this sphere of co-operation, all the rules change. We enter a privileged situation.
In my view, this course has been operating under an umbrella of protection. This is also true of Guitar Craft as a whole.
In the creative world, processes are simultaneous. In our everyday world, they unfold in time. A creative event is eternal. That is, every moment which we experience as different and sequential actually occurs at once. That is, in one moment. The eternal event is simultaneous, but in potential. The actualisation of this potential event is governed and restricted by the necessary rules of operation of the everyday world. The world of the eternal moment and the world of sequential time can and do come together. When we experience this interface, we experience the presence of the eternal event. This implies that it is possible for us to experience and access the complete Guitar Craft event. In a way, the future reaches back to invent the present and repair the past. If we recall the performance by The LCG on the Level Two weekend, we may recall the visit by a substantial presence.
But, there is no security as we generally understand it. There are no guarantees that Guitar Craft will stay on course, or survive at all. If Guitar Craft is to become what, in potential, it already is, our co-operation is necessary. These three months have only been a small indication of what is involved. There are exercises which we can practise to develop our capacity for co-operation with the eternal moment. When necessary, and when we are ready for them, they will be made available to us. But, until we have some idea of what it means to be alive within our left hand, little else is possible.
At the present moment we are struggling. The office is underfunded, we don't have a home, we are unable to meet the requests for help which are made of us. This will continue throughout next year, and change in the Spring of 1991. Then, a new current will appear and carry us with it, if we are ready. Of those among us, who is able to make a commitment to this next year of preparation?
My very best wishes to you all.
18.12 An afternoon visit to Salisbury, to repair the spectacles that WillyFred made me sit on. While this was underway, and a spare pair of reading glasses being prepared, off to the
Music Room where I acquired various accessories & attended to by two very helpful young men…
… both players themselves.
Assistant Manager
Hamlet Peter…
… plays a Strat. Hamlet helped me develop a working relationship with a
Line 6 Backtrack; and whose helpful attitude eased me into buying the new
Line 6 floor unit.
James Hamer…
… is also a luthier & considering a return to college, moving from the life of a working player into academia. James was also wondering why he couldn’t get Discipline from i-Tunes & (above) is browsing the DGM Live site, at the behest of the RHVL.
From Hamlet & James onto Salisbury Health Store where, for the first time since 1988, I was served by a man. Loaded up with bean slices from the Health Store, and cakes acquired for tomorrow’s visit to Aunt Vivien in Lewes, specs collected, back to DGM HQ to find David pulling out some of his remaining hair on The Endless Project.
20.41 David has left…
He found a solution to setting a vocal in a mix: setting it outside the mix.
The street I…
II...
20.45 E-flurrying.
To two members of a GC Special Study Group…
firstly, establish the overall pattern of the piece so it can be put on display in the mind's eye. to begin, this can be drawn on a board.
then, when the Circle is playing it, everyone knows exactly where they are at any time (even if they are not playing).
whatever note they are playing, it is connected to all the other notes.
that is, whatever note is being struck, it is connected to all the other notes & is being struck on behalf of all the notes.
in a sense, there is no separation, only connection.
this a practical & musical example of an Expanded Present Moment.
this piece is also an example of spontaneous composition...
spontaneous composition
extemporisation improvisation
riffs & licks
secondly, it is useful to learn each of the parts.
the thirdly, fourthly, fifthly, sixthly & seventhly may come later! perhaps we can begin this october.
there are two morning exercises that support this. one is not too far away. the (other) exercise itself requires much preparatory work, and is a worthy aim.
there are probably c. 10,000 around the world seriously practising what Mr. Gurdjieff brought, and the morning exercises are an important & valuable part of his legacy. if they are not practiced, they wither away.
21.23 on one of the early courses at claymont, in a one-on-one for the right hand, i invited the student to enter my experiencing of my own right arm & hand. they left me with small warts which, in time, disappeared.
if how we hold our pick is how we live our life, how we hold our pick is how we behave in accordance with our worldview. so, to 'change" the picking, the worldview needs to change. meanwhile, two entirely different & incompatible value systems come together.
for the alexander person, this is far worse than dealing with one small part of the body. but even one small part of the body can be very smelly.
forgive me - you know all of this already, better than i do!
22.11 we only have what we give away.
so, if we find a way to give it away, it comes back to us, as ours.
in practice, this coming-back is a deepening of understanding, our three-legged stool.
we can do more with less. but this is only a very small part of the process.
the term i prefer is Instructor. a Teacher is a big thing.
the key point, which i don't recall seeing mentioned or discussed, is that the Teaching (of whatever bona fide line) so wishes to be given & made available that it sometimes calls on unlikely people to help give it away. so, when there is a half-way decent chance of acting through someone (the instructor) the juice turns on. it never goes away. what goes away, is the instructor's attention & sense of personal presence. our practical work is being relaxed & alert, supported by a sufficient level of competency in our subject.
the Teaching speaks to us directly. it shows itself to us. cross-picking was obvious to me, as a 13-14 year old, practising dick sadleir's study in 3/4 - it was clear what needed to be done. the NST flying by in the sauna of the apple health spa on bleeker & thompson in september 1983; in the Circle at the claymont barn in 1985, during a circulation - not quite a Circulation then - i saw how it is that transmission takes place; how a quality is passed from one person to another; what happens when a line breaks down & may be restored. this was the beginning of Circulations as we know them today. more properly, the Transmission of Qualities.
how this works through us is mysterious. it's Third Force, to which we are (as Mr. G tells us) blind. but in time, we learn to trust it, to allow ourselves the flexibility to follow a prompting, and follow where it leads. in practice, the greater the relaxation, the less concerns we hold, the less interest we have in the "results", the more Third Force can act through us.
one of the requirements of mastery is, to learn to recognise the actions of Grace (Third Force) in all things, including small things. Third Force is all over the place, all the time. sometimes it's rather more obvious than others, but all the time: things go better than they should, and certainly better than we deserve, if we allow them to.
i have no faith in myself; but i trust the inexpressible benevolence of the Creative Impulse.
23.31 The floor…
