Music

“The Primal Art”

In 1940 Stravinsky delivered the Charles Eliot Norton series of lectures at Harvard University. They were entitled “The Poetics of Music.” I feel certain that whoever came up with the title was not a musician. For it is backwards.

“Leaving a Little for the Viewer”

I used to finalize all my paintings, stopping when they appeared to be balanced.

Video: The Didgeridoo & Brain Patterns

The repetitive patterns that naturally arise in playing the didgeridoo are, Dr. Diamond suggests, brain patterns that need to be released.

“The Enlightened Musician”

The purpose of meditation, Zen master Dogen taught, was not to become the Buddha-Nature but to realize that we already are, that we always are.

“True Musicians Go Beyond the Notes’

Virtually all musicians strive to perform the composer's music note-perfect.

“We Never Hear the True Music of the Composer”

Within us, in our Deep Unconscious, there is only ever Pure, Pure Love: the God Within, the Soul, the Buddha-Nature, the Innate Perfection.

“Stagefright and the Mother’s Song”

So-called stagefright is audience fear. And, basically, the audience is always your mother. So it is to them as her that you sing.

Video: Healing and the Metaverbal

What art forms can most efficiently heal? Those that operate beyond words, or as Dr. Diamond calls it, are "metaverbal": above all music, but also the visual arts.

“Fascination and the Soul”

Our word fascination comes from the same root that gave us basket: a binding together, an interweaving, a oneness of the fibers, a union, a fusion – yoga. Today the word is debased, has lost its essential magic; we even proclaim we are fascinated by TV ads! But it is not so. We are not fascinated – only attracted, drawn, to them (from the Latin trahere, to draw). Attracted to, but not bound to, one with. Merely superficial, momentary, evanescent, with little deep or lasting worth.

“Singing the Undulations”

Arthur Waley writes that Roger Fry, the art critic, "thought verse ought to be printed in lines that undulated in a way to reinforce the rhythms." In essence, that’s what I try to do with my “compositions” – merely singing the undulations of the poet’s rhythms.