Monasterio Nuestra Seora De Los
09.58
Monasterio Nuestra Señora De Los Angeles / Monjas Dominicas
Mare de Deu del Roser, 2.
Sant Cugat (08174),
Barcelona.
Rising at 06.10.
Morning Sitting at 07.30, spreading along the Boardroom to the Chapel; this because of the ballroom full of equipment.
09.58 It is a folly to expect an open door to remain open forever.
If we are content where we are, no worries.
If we are looking for something, or somewhere, other than where we are, better to have our eyes open.
If we see the door open, and the threshold available to crossing, better to move towards it as soon as we may.
But if we fall asleep while the door is open, and wake when the door has closed, tough.
Tears! Wailing! A gnashing of teeth!
I easily recall one long life that ended in regret, on a bed during a final illness, where one simple moment had been available, and the opportunity not seized, one day in 1936.
As the GC aphorism has it: tomorrow is the first lie of the Devil.
All in all, totally non-gnarly, dude. To the max.
10.54 Daily life provides us with opportunities to acquire a broad, liberal education. This is partly contingent upon the degree to which we are able to engage in life-activities while keeping part of us free inside the hurly-burly. That is, what we learn from what life provides is significantly determined by the quality of our volitional attention. If our attention is not, whatever life provides isn’t quite.
The educative possibilities are also, partly, contingent upon our personal aim in life. If our attitude is that life owes us, and this confers upon us rights to take whatever we want, the educative opportunities available are seen through a very narrow prism; mostly, these are opportunities to acquire food, housing & persons-we-don’t-know-but-are-about-to-get-to-know-much-better; and perhaps power over all three.
But, assuming daily life provides us with sufficient opportunities for appropriate & necessary learning, daily life does not provide the conditions for us to amplify & intensify educative arising-incidents, enabling us to better refine who & what we are. This refining only takes place intentionally and, usually, in carefully-designed environments. Life’s opportunities, by themselves, are too governed by chance & accidental arisings to provide reliable & repeatable situations where refining can take place.
Good to find a way that we may multiply, amplify & intensify our learning opportunities & experiencing, so we have what we need to support a satisfying & useful life, and meet the obligations that accompany it; all this while we are young enough to apply what we have learnt. That is, better to repay the gift of life while still living it.
But, even were enough educative-opportunities to accidentally occur, ordinary life does not provide suitable environments for amplifying & intensifying our process, necessary & sufficient to cook us to the required degree. Different traditions & ways refer to this cooking & refining in various ways, one of which is transformation, whatever we may understand by that.
12.05 Oh no! The first mosquito bite of this visit! While in the ballroom, firing up the Solar Voyager at 11.30 I…
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Everything seems to work, other than the guitarist who can’t remember which switch is for on & which for off. That everything works is a result of the honourable labour of others I…
The LCG…
View from a Ballroom …
12.25 There is an opportunity, in the liminal zone, before-we-have-quite-arrived but-have-certainly-left where we were. For a short time we are not yet sucked into the concerns of where-we-are, while we have mostly escaped the concerns of where-we-were. Good to seize the moment.
Is this a current leitmotif?
15.36 Lunch at 13.00 and performances from two groups, one a trio from the Extended Summer Project, the other The LCG. The trio had some difficulty attracting a fullness of attention from everyone in the dining room.
The LCG rocked out on Hard Times, probably the finest rendition of this I have heard. And, if my memory is faulty, then today it is as good as any I recall.
Meeting with Hernan after lunch, catching up with recent arisings.
On the board…
Six Principles of the Performance Event
A principle is universal, a rule is inflexible, a law is invariable.
Music so wishes to be heard that sometimes it calls on unlikely characters to give it voice, and ears. This wishing-to-be heard calls into existence the Performance Event; where music, musician & audience may come together as one, in communion.
This communion has six different forms of being & experiencing itself (plus an invisible seventh); and these forms, or principles, are simultaneously present within the Performance.
I
When people get together with music, something happens.
When people get together, something happens.
When people get together with music, something remarkable happens.
When musician, audience & music come together in a performance, this something remarkable has a quality of its own.
The something remarkable is Music taking on a life of its own.
The Creation continues being created.
II
In a performance, things come together, mysteriously; and go better than we might anticipate; and better than we deserve.
In a performance event, the Benevolence that gives rise to Music brings together musicians & audience.
Things come together, mysteriously; and go better than we deserve, or might expect them to.
III
A performance can take on a life & character of its own.
Any particular performance event - with these people, in this place, at this time - defines the conditions of the performance: the where, when & what of the event.
This is on the outside.
The conditions of time, place & persons do not govern the quality of our experiencing of this performance.
Our experiencing is on the inside.
That the event happens is a given.
How we participate, listen, respond, is open & available.
What happens within the performance, that is, whether the performance comes to life or not, is to be created & discovered.
If this is so, the performance can take on a life & character of its own.
IV
Any one performance is a multiplicity of performances.
The degree to which we act as one, as a whole person, is a measure of our integration; that is, a measure of our Being.
The degree to which the performance is a whole event, depends upon the extent to which Musician & Audience & Music are able to enter into Communion as One.
Until this point, the performance event is as many performances as participants.
Beyond this point, the Whole Performance is every Performance: it is eternal.
The distinction between both is less than we might believe it to be.
So, any one performance is a multiplicity of performances.
V
The possible is possible.
We are able to be with others only to the degree that we are able to be ourselves.
This being so, we can only be in the performance to the degree that we can be ourselves: to be who we are.
It is possible to be who we are.
So, the possible is possible.
We begin with the possible, and move gradually towards the impossible.
VI
The impossible is possible.
Normality is what we might achieve, given who we are, what we are, the conditions & limitations of the world we work within.
Our “norm” is what we “ought” to be.
This is what is asked of us: to be who we were born to be, and to do what we were born to do.
This is already asking too much: it is impossible
Nevertheless, we begin with the possible & move gradually towards the impossible; trusting that the Benevolence which gives rise to Music is never far away.
So, the impossible is possible.
The Seventh Principle resides within Silence.
The Six Principles assume a common aim, good will & a willingness to participate in good spirit within the event, and the capacity to do so.
In a sense the Six Principles are available when the highest in us comes together; in the knowledge that, essentially, we are the same person.
When the lowest takes charge, the performance event downgrades; and the possible becomes increasingly restricted.
The impossible becomes impossible.
The best is then, that the possible remains possible.
The worst is, that the possible becomes impossible.
This is the Null Event: nothing happens.
A Null Event has no life span, no persistence, no present moment of its own.
The event disappears, as if it never was; and, really, it wasn’t.
The Null Event is a complete waste of time &energy.
Something is lost.
But, it doesn’t have to be like that.
May we trust the inexpressible Benevolence of the Creative Impulse.
15.55 New strings on the gold Fernandes.
20.08 Tea at 16.00.
A mosquito died while seeking to develop a close relationship, its overtures swiftly declined, forever.
Comments of an alarming character were made on the continuing slamming of doors, which have caused some comment from the nuns. Two weeks ago doors were slamming. Upon my return, doors continue to slam. Why is this? The suggestion was made that this is a result of a lack of attention, insufficient awareness.
A question was asked: how to increase awareness? One response: Suffer more! Much more suffering! What might this mean, I wonder?
Rehearsal at 17.00 with The LCG, programming the Solar Voyager. Mr. Stormy did not send the spare Eventide 3000. The Eclipse pedal continues to have a life of its own.
T’ai Chi at 18.30 in the Mosquito Grove. Returning with an additional bite, the second of this course.
Dinner at 19.00 with alarming sounds making a re-appearance in the dining room, which sounds were ascribed to Baby Lucas.
A performance by the lunch trio, during which alarming sounds continued.
Horn Up Your Ass appeared & performed the Horn’s arrangement of Happy Birthday for Sergy the Good.
Comments & observations on the day presented.
A hit t-shirt, that will sell well in Republican Spain & certain communes in Italy, is in the works. The Gauchos will take this on & make a fortune.
Question: what is The Eye Of The Needle? Various good comments made on this. In respect of the piece of music,
Subtlety: how can we approach subtlety when we can’t play C major into 3 octaves? What is the difference in feeling tone, for example, between C & D flat major scales?
Comments on increasing awareness; the quantity & quality of the energy supply; fasting; breathing; The Man Who Eat Air; Sherborne House; No.17 for 4.5 hours; a one day-exeat every 6 weeks.
Fernando the Wise said nothing on all of this, but taught by his silence.
Meeting with The LCG at 21.00.
22.13 An honourable run-through with programme-confusion & slipping-tuning, a combination of new strings, climate & witlessness. When I have fully arrived, the tuning will also be fine.
Night views I…
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