Greetings to all y’all out here in cyberspace. In light of all the unimaginable tragedies that have taken place recently in Paris, Beirut, Baghdad, Egypt, Syria…I’d like to share this wisdom from the great Sufi, Hazrat Inayat Khan.
“With all the opposition to the Master at the time when the [chief priests] demanded his crucifixion, did those who were present sincerely think the Master was guilty? No, each one of them was more or less impressed by the truth of the message, yet torn by convention and custom, bound by laws, held fast by the religious authority that was in power. They could not express their sincere feelings, and so law governed instead of love. And this state of things has existed in all ages. Blinded by conventions and by the laws of his time and the customs of his people, man has ignored and opposed the truth. Yet at the same time the truth has never failed to make its impression upon the soul, because the soul of all is one soul, and truth is one truth under whatever religion it is hidden.
In reality there cannot be many religions; there is only one. There cannot be two truths; there cannot be two masters. As there is only one God and one religion, there is one master and there is one truth. And the weakness of man has been that only what he is accustomed to consider as truth he takes to be truth, and anything he has not been accustomed to hear or think frightens him. Just like a person in a strange land, away from home, the soul is a stranger to the nature of things it is not accustomed to. But the journey to perfection means rising above limitations, rising so high that not only the horizon of one country, of one continent, is seen, but that of the whole world. The higher we rise, the wider becomes the horizon of our view.
If we come face to face with truth, it is one and the same. One may look at it from the Christian, from the Buddhist, or from the Hindu point of view, but in reality it is one point of view. One can either be small or large, either be false or true, either not know or know. As long as a person says, ‘When I look at the horizon from the top of the mountain I become dizzy. This immensity of space frightens me,’ he should not look at it. But if it does not make one dizzy it is a great joy to look at life from above. And from that position a Christian, Jew, Muslim and Buddhist will all see the same immensity. It is not limited to those of any one faith or creed. Gradually, as they unfold themselves and give proof of their response to the immensity of the knowledge, they are asked to go forward, face to face with their Lord.”
What will save humanity from itself? Humans. Not necessarily leaders of religious sects or political institutions. Just regular people with compassion, gentleness and kindness in their hearts who willingly share it with those around them on a continuous basis for no other reason other than that’s what they feel inside. The challenge for us as individuals is in widening these circles of compassion. I firmly believe that the vast majority of the 7 billion people on this planet are inherently good in this way. Some are continuously led astray by religious dogma or charismatic/ruthless leaders who are driven by ulterior motives and use fear and greed to carry out their plans. We as people need to wake our asses up. Turn off/tune out the round-the-clock news (whether you think it’s crooked or not, you must admit that anything beyond a small dose starts to disturb your inner peace/present moment). Hey, it’s okay to interpret religious doctrine metaphorically! I’ve always liked what Coltrane once said about this, something along the lines of ‘I believe in all religions’. Anybody who has traveled extensively at home and abroad learns the valuable lesson…that there is one human brotherhood. We are all the same. United. One.
Speaking of gentleness and kindness, Allen Toussaint’s passing last week affected me very deeply. Saw him in concert for the first time in 2009. I’ll never forget it, or any of the subsequent times I saw him live. The show was at Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake. They did the classic introduction, you know where the band warms up the crowd for a few moments with a joyous groove?! (In this case it was “Yes We Can” the Lee Dorsey hit). One of the band members stepped up to a mic and exclaimed “Ladies and gentlemen, would you welcome please the High Priest of New Orleans…Allen Touissant!” Out comes Toussaint, dressed in a beautiful yellow suit, wearing sandals, twinkle in his eye. It really seemed like he was walking on air as he walked around the stage and waved at the crowd. I was blown away before he even played a note. He immediately struck me as some sort of royalty from another dimension. High Priest he was. As they say, ‘Music Heals’ and in that case Allen Toussaint was a true healer. He gave everybody in the audience that evening a soul healing. Everything you hear about this man is always the same: a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. Not to mention one of the greatest American songwriters–hands down. A towering legacy as a producer, a keyboardist with an incredibly masterful touch, delicate but always funky and soulful. For me, he truly embodies everything I love about New Orleans. His passing is a huge loss for the world.
This blog’s installment of musical recommendations:
Allen Toussaint, From A Whisper To A Scream
Adam Levy, Town & Country
Carole King, Tapestry
Paul McCartney, Driving Rain
Percy Hill, Color In Bloom
Ahmad Jamal, Jamal Plays Jamal
Milt Buckner & Jo Jones, Buck And Jo
Aaron Neville, The Minit Recordings
Big Joe Turner, Texas Style
The Subdudes, Behind The Levee
“To become a spectator of one’s own life is to escape the suffering of life.” -Oscar Wilde
Peace everybody,
TN