Phenomenology of Enlightened Experience

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David, please someday read "Consciousness Explained" by Daniel Dennett. I would love to hear your reaction to that book

"

First the question about "empathic doctors" and now this? You're deliberately trying to provoke a rant, aren't you?
;^)

You can always just ignore me. Some people do!

Thanks for sharing this, David.

Really listening is possible when you dare to feel the music with your heart. Completely vulnerable, that's how I felt when I first truly listened. And yes, I ended up wounded. But not suffering Those are the moments where surrender was most complete.

There's a short poem from Joseph von Eichendorff, it's originally written in German, but I want to share it nevertheless. Here's one translation by Walter A. Aue:

Joseph von Eichendorff

Magic Wand

Songs repose in things abounding
that keep dreaming to be heard,
and the world shall start resounding
if you hit her magic word.

This translation, a second and third one and the original can be found at myweb.dal.ca/waue/Trans/Eichendorff-Wuenschelrute.html

Nice poem Julius!

Thank you for sharing that. Would you like to talk some about your experiences?

David

I was in a concert for violin. I wanted to concentrate and first did it the usual way: listening + thinking (and maybe finding flaws and getting a little angry because I was always finding some unintentionally). Then I changed from listening with my ear to listening with my heart, feeling the music, grooving with the musician as if I was playing myself. Then I felt sadness when the music was sad, joy when it was joyful and so on, with an unknown intensity. It wasn't that new, but this intensity I had only experiencd in rare cases, and mostly when playing myself. This directness I had overlooked for many years, and it's still challenging to do this because there is this learned resistance to feeling others' emotions. I can understand why it seemed to be a good idea not to feel others' emotions. I am looking forward to reexperiencing it and I fear it also a little as it's so ... hot it can burn you. So that's what came to my mind when reading your description of empathy and groove.

(Btw, with thoughts it works the same: If you're listening, you can pretend someone else's words are your thoughts spoken out loud, or that your thoughts are nature's whispers and hints for your benefit).

When musicians are singing some funny texts, it's hard to groove with them though, but it helps to not listen to the words and focus on the rhythm, but you'll obviously miss some jokes. And there are those "musicians" where the text is funny, but the voice and emotion behind are so-so ...

And then there are the times when I am playing myself .... Well, much I need to learn here w/r/t sensitivity and listening and keeping the rhythm when on my own on the piano or clarinet. It's still a habit not to groove with myself. When singing it's better, because your voice doesn't hide a lack of intention or a lack of honesty.

The most important lesson I've learned, for music and all other things: It's not important what you do, but how you do it.

Yep. The ol' empathy on steroids