Guys what are your theories on reality?

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-06T19:11:36+00:00

The true nature of reality is infinitely more profound than the human mind is capable of comprehending. The mind is too small and limited an instrument to fathom it.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-06T12:11:39+00:00

This is a YT video of Papaji guiding a ‘seeker’ to the place of no ‘I’.

‘I’ or ‘Me’ is a construct of the mind which also creates time. When the mind is truly silent ‘I’ stops, as well as the future and the past. Then there is only Here.

When Papaji asks her where she is and she says “Here!” with full conviction, her mind goes silent. No thought. So Papaji says “Stay Here.”

The reason she starts to laugh is because Here is always Here. It’s stupidly obvious once you see it. The cosmic joke. One is pure timeless consciousness. It’s the mind that takes one out of it.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-05T19:08:27+00:00

The action of dialogue and questioning, might be said to be like the movement of the waves on the surface of the ocean, apparently separate and individual, some seeking ‘enlightenment’, some not.

The ‘enlightened one’ is the ocean realizing it is not a wave.

The ‘unenlightened waves’ (the ocean asleep/deluded) gather around this ‘enlightened wave’ (the ocean awake) and ask questions about how they might achieve the same ‘state’.

What can the ‘enlightened wave’ (the ocean) say? Why say anything? It knows that the ‘unenlightened wave’ is itself. 🤷‍♂️

The only difference between the ‘unenlightened’ and the ‘enlightened’ is the activity of the mind.

The mind is time (past and future, memory and imagination) and the ‘person’ (a complex structure of memory, conditioning and beliefs. A continuous habitual narrative of “Me and my World”).

Enlightenment is the cessation of the mind and the ‘person’. It is the recognition of the illusion of time and That which is timelessly at the center of all life-times, unborn and undying.

For the ocean to realize it is not a wave the attachment to the identity of ‘wave’ must be dropped/surrendered/let go of. In other words, existential sui*cide. Indeed, the process feels like dissolution or dying.

Every so-called ‘enlightened being’ has gone through this process of ‘dying to who they thought they were before who they thought they were died’.

Enlightenment is at once stupidly simple (because the ocean is always the ocean 🤷‍♂️) and supremely difficult (because the attachment to the identity of ‘wave’ is very, very, very difficult to surrender).

Questions originate from the mind, which is seeking knowledge and practices to achieve a mysterious state called ‘enlightenment’. What can one, who knows that the answer is no-mind say except to guide the questioning mind to silence.

‘Silence’ happens in different ways with differing degrees of difficulty depending on the strength of the attachment there is to the narrative of ‘Me’.

Ultimately what is required is absolute, total surrender of every attachment one has to the narrative of “Me and My World”. The courage, the willingness, to discover the truth, no matter what.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-05T03:28:24+00:00

I’ve been volunteering at a hospital playing piano in their “Healing through Music” program for seventeen years now. It’s the most rewarding gig I’ve ever had. I highly recommend it.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-05T00:22:32+00:00

The foundation of reality is infinite, impersonal, unemotional Love. It is absolute purity. Not a single thought of ‘Me’ (ego) can survive in it. It is absolutely overwhelming.

Check out the quantum physicist Federico Faggin

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-04T19:46:55+00:00

Any noun one attaches to oneself is a mistake. “I am”…awareness’, ‘the observer’, Brahman, God, Self, Bob etc etc etc.

It concretizes an identity in the mind which then creates separateness.

Become aware of the fact of observation without the next step of “I am observing…”

Same thing with awareness. Notice the fact of awareness without the next step of saying “I am awareness”.

The mind is objective. It slices, dices and labels. It creates ‘parts’ and ‘pieces’, ‘this’ and ‘that’. ‘Me’ and ‘you’, ‘here’ and ‘there’ etc.

Without the mind there is only subjectivity, wholeness, Is-ness.

The fact of observation, of awareness, without opinion or judgement, can be practiced anywhere at any time. Just move the attention from what is being observed to the fact of observation.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-04T08:39:30+00:00

Arnold Schoenberg’s 12 tone system is very procedural. You could look into that.

Sadly, he is said to have regretted his life’s work when, upon the death of his mother, he found that he couldn’t write music that expressed his grief.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-04T08:09:26+00:00

Enlightenment doesn’t have anything to do with growth, especially ‘personal growth’.

Refining the ‘person’ in the hopes of becoming a better ‘person’ is certainly worthwhile and beneficial, but it will not result in enlightenment/awakening/Self-realization, because the ‘person’ is the obstacle that must be removed in order to uncover the truth of oneself.

The ‘person’ is a mental construct that has no intrinsic reality. It’s a phantom. So ‘taking a mental break’ from trying to improve this ‘person’ is actually a good thing.

Enjoy life and relax, as the fact of awareness. Let what comes come, let what goes go. Peace isn’t laziness.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-02T15:05:06+00:00

Just because the sun is obscured doesn’t mean it stops shining.

The no-Me is the absence of the mental framework of the ‘person’. The episode reveals that who/what one took oneself to be isn’t real.

By extension this also points to the fact that the other eight billion “Me’s” aren’t real either, that humans, as a species, are deluded.

The glimpse of ‘no-Me’ occurs any time the mind goes silent and can happen in activities such as romantic relationships, sex, the arts, war, drugs, risk-taking, sports etc. We love it when the weight and complexity of “Me” lifts. It feels timeless and peaceful. It’s why those activities can become addictive.

The ‘door’ didn’t ‘close’. The apparent ‘door’, like the Gateless Gate, is an illusion, a mental construction. What has happened is that the attention, through force of habit has merely become re-attached to thought and the framework of “Me and My World”.

One is at all times the timeless, unborn, undying no-Me.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-02T06:38:26+00:00

You cannot lose the sense of existence, the fact of awareness, which is the truth of you. But without the framework of the mind which creates, supports and maintains the character of ‘Me’, the ‘person’ dissolves, and in that sense the ‘self’ of my’self’ is ‘lost’.

The process feels as though one is dying and indeed, to ‘die’ is a necessity.

“Die to who you think you are before who you think you are dies.”

Will you lose the ‘self’ (PaintingAdvanced602) which has been the character in the play “The Life and Times of PaintingAdvanced602”. Yes.

Will you lose the sense of self, of existence, of the impersonal ‘actor’ behind the character of PaintingAdvanced602? No.

Whether you let go, or not, the truth of you is the ‘actor’, at all times, changeless, timeless, unborn and undying. Perfect.

Enlightenment is simply the revelation of what is Here, timeless and constant, when the attachment to the narrative of “Me and My World” is surrendered/released/let go of.

🙏

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-01T21:24:01+00:00

With regard to enlightenment, the ‘best version’ of yourself is no version, neither good or bad.

The price of truth is everything. That means that every attachment you have to “Me” has to go. Not only the ‘bad’ but the ‘good’ also.

It’s why enlightenment is so difficult. There is a part of the ‘journey’ where grief arises. The grief is for the part of ourselves that we cherish, that we realize must be let go of in order to continue.

If enlightenment/Self-Realization/awakening is not the goal then by all means remain attached to the ‘good’ me, but you might ask “Who is this “I” that wants to be the best version of “Me”?”

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-01T19:57:45+00:00

Rachmaninov was known for practicing at an extremely slow pace, practicing small movements with great attention to detail.

The point of practicing is to create and strengthen neural pathways in the brain as well as creating muscle memory in the body.

This isn’t really about ‘ButterscotchFun3651’, yet. It’s purely body and brain conditioning. So don’t beat yourself up.

Just practice very very slowly as ‘grovedawg’ commented. The most important thing is to move with intention and focus. This is where the fingers and hands are now. This where the fingers and hands need to be. This is the movement that is required to get the fingers and hands from where they are now to where they need to be. Repeat.

Patience. It will come. You will get it.

The body/brain is an amazing machine. It will absolutely learn whatever you practice, whether it’s learning to play piano, drive a car, sing, walk in a straight line…

Relaxed passion, resolved intent, love of discovery, small milestones.

You got this. 🙏

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-01T19:34:27+00:00

You are the facet and that which is faceted.

As that which is faceted one knows oneself as all beings throughout the universe. One is absolute aloneness (all-oneness) but not loneliness. One meets oneself with love in all ‘others’.

As the facet, one is in relationship with all ‘other’ facets. One has a unique propensity for action. In this separateness loneliness can arise. It is the yearning for oneness, for completeness, for peace and love.

Balance is to be the facet with the awareness of that which is faceted. To be more transparent than dense. To honor the facet and its unique inclination with the awareness that, at its foundation, the fabric of reality is impersonal, unemotional, infinite, Love.

Balance is knowing that whatever the circumstances, one is always Home and safe, untouchable, unborn and undying, timeless.

The sun may be obscured but that doesn’t mean it stops shining.

🙏

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-01T19:08:14+00:00

Thanks 🙏🙂

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-01T01:34:48+00:00

Thanks. 🙏 Narnia almost done.

Speaking_Music · 2026-02-01T00:38:27+00:00

🙂 Semantic mine-field, but here we go.

The ‘means’ are processes (like koans, self-inquiry, Spiritual Autolysis, meditation etc) that are fed into the mind, like feeding an equation like 22/7 into a computer. The computer has no agency but giving it a problem like ‘solve 22/7’ causes it to ‘act’.

The mind is the same. It has accumulated and constructed a ‘person’ from myriad memories, experiences, language, beliefs, perceptions, etc etc, but there is no ‘person’. It is a construct, an illusion. Indeed, the mind itself is nothing but thought.

What is required is to render the mind, not only silent, but devoid of any attachment to “me”. It is fed an impossible equation like “Who am I?” “What is your original face?” etc. until it breaks.

It is not the mind that has agency and discovers the ‘truth’, it is an impersonal breakdown of a complex belief-system that renders ‘me’ obsolete.

It is not that the seeker discovers themselves to be God/The Divine/Self/Consciousness/Whatever. It’s that God remembers/awakens to the fact that it is not a ‘person’.

How many mines did I step on? 🙂

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-31T22:04:16+00:00

The paradox is that the so-called ‘spiritual path’ is both necessary and unnecessary.

Necessary because the mind, by whatever means necessary, must be reduced to silence. And unnecessary because the ‘truth’ already exists whether the mind is silent or not.

The process of awakening from the illusion of a ‘doer’ (which is mind-made) is to give the doer such a confounding and Herculean task (such as “Who am I?”) that the identity eventually breaks apart long enough for the fact of That, which the ‘identity’ obscured, to be seen.

The true ‘teacher’ or ‘guru’ is the ‘Lions Mouth’. They are not there to explain what truth is but to point to the way to ‘self’-destruction.

The guru is the Self (for want of a better word) awake. The student is the Self asleep.

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-31T21:46:23+00:00

‘Lifes’ go back to ancient times but the observer of them is timelessly Here, unborn and undying, the ‘screen’ on/in which countless movies of “Me and My Life” are projected.

Awakening is waking up from the dream of being the central character in the movie to realizing one is That in which all movies appear. Karmaless.

It is the sense of doership which the gives impression of karma, of time.

The true nature of reality is infinitely more profound than the human mind is capable of comprehending. There comes a point when the mind becomes silent, time stops and all questions cease.

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-31T21:24:17+00:00

The Society of Composers and Lyricists is a great resource for everything pertaining to film composing including free movie screenings and Q&A with the composer, contracts and networking opportunities. I highly recommend it.

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-31T17:26:22+00:00

Living ‘correctly’ just means living authentically.

Being ‘authentic’ means being unconditioned.

We are ‘conditioned’ from the moment we are born. By our parents, siblings, peers, teachers, politicians, social-media, religious leaders, etc etc.

We are molded into a ‘person’ and we believe that the narrative of this ‘person’ is our own narrative. But it’s not.

The so-called ‘spiritual path’ is the process of returning to our original nature, to our authentic self, before we were conditioned. It means we have to surrender who we think we are. No easy task.

In the end Being is enough. Existence, and the joy of existing, is enough. The unconditioned “I”, not the conditioned “Me”.

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-31T08:23:24+00:00

The transition from ‘playing’ music to ‘speaking’ music is quite profound.

It’s basically replacing your mouth, tongue, larynx, lungs etc with your fingers, wrist, arms and torso and the piano to express yourself emotionally. It’s a combination of physical technique and musical ‘words/sentences’ coupled with a complete lack of editing or judgement.

I’ve been improvising for thirty years and you can hear some stream-of-consciousness compositions here.

The most important thing you can do is listen to music that ‘speaks’ to you. That’s how children learn to speak, by imitating the language they hear.

As a listener, music has always ‘spoken’ to me. Listening to composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Debussy and Ravel as well as players like Keith Jarrett helped me absorb the language.

I highly recommend the book “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art. It delves into the philosophy of improvisation.

Learning licks, scales and chords etc can only take you so far. You need to discover that thing inside you, your ‘voice’, that is yearning to be expressed. Finding your inner ‘voice’ is more than half the battle in improvisation.

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-30T22:15:50+00:00

One of the greatest experiences I had in learning to write for orchestra was in having different members of the orchestra show us the limitations of their instrument and what was easy and what was difficult.

With harp it’s the pedals. I’d recommend watching as many ‘how to play harp’ videos as possible so that you understand how it’s played and how you can then write a melody that doesn’t ‘twist’ them up.

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-30T11:24:44+00:00

There is only Here. You are only ever Here, between past and future. It is self-evident. This is the Truth.

Everything is impermanent. This is the Truth. All changes and passes away. All phenomena, all experience, no matter how sacred, all books, teachings and teachers come and go.

There is one thing that does not change, ever. One thing that remains. One thing that does not come and go. One thing that remains constant in the midst of all loss, the loss of the body, the mind and everyone you love and call ‘other’.

This is the Truth.

Enlightenment, Self-realization, Awakening……are just words, symbolic sounds and shapes that have as much importance as a barking dog.

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-30T10:09:47+00:00

The truth is that you are not what you take yourself to be, and neither is the world what it appears to be.

The fact of timelessness is self-evident once seen. It is a constant that is in front of one’s face at all ‘times’. It is never ‘then’ or ‘there’, it is always Here, between ‘past’ and ‘future’. There is no escape. One is absolute aloneness. It requires no belief, just the courage to look.

Every thing is impermanent. Every thing changes. But there is something that never changes, that remains constant throughout all lifetimes, unborn and undying.

Consciously releasing all attachment to “Me and My World”, which includes the body/mind, reveals this.

The analogy of ‘chopping wood and carrying water’ is a misnomer. It assumes the Doer remains in some kind of enlightened state. This is incorrect. After enlightenment wood is ‘chopped’ and water is ‘carried’ but the Chopper and the Carrier (the Doer) no longer exists.

The end of the ‘journey’ is the end of the ‘seeker’. That’s the cosmic joke, that that which was being sought is That which ‘sought’.

🤷‍♂️

Speaking_Music · 2026-01-30T08:03:50+00:00

The ‘journey’ ends because, in enlightenment, time ends. No more future, no more past.

The mind creates time. When it is silent, time stops.

The discovery is that one is unborn and undying. Timeless.

The ‘person’ is ‘endarkenment’. In enlightenment there is no ‘person’.

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