The Sublime Mystery of J.S. Bach

I have been luxuriating in a very healing experience – an immersion in the music of J.S. Bach for the past week, as WQXR-FM, a classical music station in NYC (my home town) has been playing ALL of the master’s music 24/7, from March 21st (his birthday) till Easter Sunday.

Bach has always been my favorite – and I know I’m not alone.

I’ve been pondering today what it is about his music that affects us so deeply, placing it for many in a category all its own. And something became clear to me.

What I hear in Bach’s music is an insight into the workings of the Universe – or (as he would doubtless prefer to say) into the mind of God.

What I hear is perfection and power of Mind combined with fathomless depth of Heart, embodied in endlessly varied Form.I hear mathematical complexity, order, and fractal patterning infused with total Love. I hear each dimension expressed at full throttle, holding nothing back – with each new invention adding to the inexhaustible creative drive, energy, and resource of the Creator.

I hear infinite tenderness, passion, joy, freedom, power, playful delight, and serene detachment expressed in turn, personal and impersonal at the same time.

I hear vast structures and intricate particularity, macro and micro expressing with the same precision even to the cellular, or atomic level.

I hear fully released intensity and unstoppable forward propulsion – just as the relentless creativity of Great Mind hurtles ceaseleslly, unfolding itself through evolutionary space/time.

What is the mystery that allow a “mere” human being (he looks ordinary enough in the images passed down to us) to bring through such vast, interconnected perfection?

I bow to the mystery and accept the gift of music, as I accept the gift of life, of cosmos, of Mind, Heart, and Form.

 

What if your fear isn’t really yours?

I’m working on some themes around how to deal with fear.  This is part 1 – having to do with the idea of Collective Consciousness as a source of much of our fear.

With all the influx of intense new energies, deluge of information, instability of our familiar institutions and uncertainty of the future – to say nothing of the financial shakiness many are experiencing now – there’s a lot of fear and anxiety going around.

This week I’m starting a series of messages on the topic of fear, because it’s been up for me and I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

Here’s one radical conclusion I’ve come to: Most of the fear we experience is not really ours. It doesn’t even belong to us.

I know because I speak to lots of people – and because I’m not immune to it myself.We live in a sea of collective consciousness – though few of us realize that. And that field of consciousness is like a blanket surrounding the planet made up of accumulated energies and thought forms, mostly having to do with fear and discord.

It’s kind of like Eckhart Tolle’s concept of the Pain Body, but on a planetary scale.

We are influenced by it, of course through the media and those we talk to. And we’re influenced by it energetically – just as we in turn can have a positive influence on that collective field every time we raise our own consciousness.

But it is important to know that not everything we’re feeling is really ours. We tend to take it very personally, and this compounds our suffering.

Also, there are ways to deliberately disconnect from the collective thought field. This form of “mental hygiene” is as important as washing your hands when you’ve been out in public touching doorknobs and handrails.

I’ve gotten in the habit of noticing when that happens and protecting myself from germs. Lately I’ve also started to tell those collective thought forms to be gone, as well.

I talked about how I do that in last week’s Monday Morning Coffee. So if you want to know my method, you can listen to it right here.

Then make a habit of listening to the show every Monday by connecting HERE.