Humor --- the unexpected juxtaposition of two different realities!

There is the musical reality of those who like to listen, watch, enjoy, appreciate, and talk about creating music, and there is the musical reality of those who are directly engaged in being the vehicle for that creation to be brought forth. These are distinct realities, though the second usually includes, illuminates, and deepens the first.

We may attend hundreds of concerts, listen to thousands of CDs, be inspired and moved to tears by the beauty, power, and magnificence of the music and the performances, but none of these actions will give us the ability of knowing directly the reality of BEING a generator of music or having even the slightest inkling of what it is actually like to BE a vehicle for that music's unfolding unless we are willing to embrace the instrument, experience it directly, and� practice.

In the domain of creation, mastery is a function of Being. Mastery may be mysterious, but it is not complex. In a composer, it is present when the composer moves into perfect resonance with the music waiting to be uniquely expressed, and remains open to receive it. It arises in a musician when the player becomes one with the instrument and the music. As a child, the late, great jazz pianist, Oscar Peterson, practiced playing scales and chords until the ability to do so flawlessly and effortlessly was as incorporated and transparent within him as breathing. Practice shifted from something he was "doing" to a natural expression of his "being." He once said, "When I sit down to play, there's no keyboard there. There's no piano there. There are no notes or chords there to be played. There are no hands there to play them. I just go to the address where the music is."

It is the same in the realm of what is called "being enlightened".

Millions read spiritual books, magazines, sacred texts, attend lectures, visit Gurus and sages, pray, meditate, go on retreats, and take seminars, all with the sincere intention to get better, improve, and reach a state where nothing will ever trouble them again. Through diligence and discipline, many may achieve relief from inner suffering and improvement in their outer effectiveness in life.

Yet, how many ultimately achieve the state that they desire?

How many of them reach the spiritual equivalent of "playing in Carnegie Hall"?

Here is where this analogy breaks down. Though everyone may not be designed to be a master musician playing in Carnegie Hall, EVERYONE is ALREADY their true nature. We are already the one standing on the center of the stage of our own lives, able to express our unique song, able to generate our original contribution in the world. Yet, most of us are asleep to that reality, and dream that we are sitting way up in the second balcony of the audience watching and reacting to what happens without much say about the way the concert of our life unfolds.

If you are already that which you yearn for (and I say that you are), then what makes realizing and living from that truth seem so difficult for so many to attain?

The answer? Mis-identification of what "I" is.

How can you compose, express, and fulfill your life if you don't even recognize your own "song"?

Your "song" is the expression of your true nature. It is your unique gift and contribution to life. If you don't know your true nature--- if you don't recognize and live from the infinite "I" that you are --- it cannot guide the mind and body to manifest your song in the world.

The finite self you've learned to identify as "me" is not your true nature, It is a fictitious construct consisting of a group of self-reinforcing thoughts, emotions, and images. This false "me" construction feels most secure and in charge of your life when it can make everything as familiar, predictable, and non-threatening as possible.

An Echo, not a Song

As long as the finite "me" is in charge, your original song is not available to be expressed and contributed to the world.. It's as if you were a pianist whose sole purpose was to play and contribute your unique music to the world with joy and passion, and you had unknowingly allowed your piano to be fitted with an infinitely long piano-roll which took over control of the keyboard, so that all that could be played when you sat down at the piano of your life were the automatic, prerecorded, inherited past songs of others.

What is left when generating your song is unavailable?

Your life becomes a constantly recurring echo of the stored thoughts, beliefs, feelings, memories, and behaviors that you misidentify as "me", and your ability to create and express the unique song you are is lost.

Self-improvement replaces creation. Rather than experiencing the joy, capacity and freedom to generate your song of life, the focus is put on replicating what is already on the piano-roll and trying to do it more, better, and different than before.

Self-improvement is the never-ending game of the conditioned mind, and is ultimately an illusion. Millions of people take this path. It is referred to as the "broad way" or "broad gate". It may give worldly success, approval, temporary relief, better coping skills, and even an incremental improvement in one's inner state, but it cannot take you 'home" to your true nature, and the world will never know your song.

Living Your Core Wisdom: The Three Practices of Being�

Three interrelated wisdom practices are at the core of returning "home" to your true nature and living your song in the world.

These Practices of Being are not a function of "doing." They are not a function of action or effort or struggle. They exist in and are a function of Intentional Awareness only.

The Practice of Being is the practice of living from your true nature as infinite Awareness---the "I" that you are---in every moment, and allowing it to guide and unfold life as a created work of art. When this practice is present, the other two aspects or practices naturally unfold.

The Practice of Dissolving begins with self-observation and results in self-dissolving. It focuses the light of Awareness on the beliefs, thoughts, unconscious counter-intentions, and negative patterns of conditioning (the inherited "piano-roll") so as to dis-identify from them and allow them to dissolve back to formlessness.

The Practice of Creating is the intentional manifestation of focused Awareness to unfold itself into form. It is the freedom to express the song you are in all aspects of life.

Core Wisdom's Three Practices of Being are expressions of the way of "the narrow gate." It is only for those who want freedom more than they want "the world" and its games. Few people take this path. It begins when we rigorously question the purpose of living, and discover directly what is at the Heart of "I".

When you are grounded in the unchanging truth of "I", you naturally live the three practices. You effortlessly manifest your purpose. You joyously express your song. You experience your life as an ongoing, unfolding, contributory, and creative work of art.

�and you realize that you are playing in the "Carnegie Hall of Being."

                -- Hal Isen

From Core Wisdom On-Line Number 87 - Aug. 29, 2008
� 2008 Hal Isen & Associates, Inc.