In a world fast losing all grip on meaning and purpose, racked by material comparisons, devoid of community and care, it becomes easy to lose oneself in feverish activity or despair – until old age and death cause us to ask, "Why?" By then it is too late. There are no magic tricks for finding truth in life. Deceived by snake-oil spirituality, it is time for serious-minded people to take the Hard Way to realisation and a quest worth one's life.
Spiritual Development the Hard Way carves a pragmatic map for those who seek answers to the oldest questions of humanity. Beginning with the basic foundations of our condition, which cause any intelligent person a sense of entrapment, it explains the mechanisms, the process, and the landscape of escape from this entrapment. Using both new and ancient methods and concepts, it presents countless insights into all aspects of this journey to freedom. The primary focus of this book is on a comprehensive, practical array of techniques to employ in every aspect of life, offering creative and visionary guidance with glimpses of the final purpose of spiritual attainment.
Spiritual Development the Hard Way is a manual for finding meaning in a modern world – a life worth living.
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Music is a pathway to other worlds. It bypasses our inner customs officials, and strikes through to heart and vision. Some music seeks to appeal to our conventional world, while other music speaks of worlds and moods that lie beyond. My music is a channel to places you have never been. It should be listened to in a specific way - take the time to stop what you are doing. Turn off the lights and silence the mind - prepare yourself and allow the music to carry you away.
Some music speaks of the stream, and some music is the stream. To understand the stream we have to enter into it fully. We stretch out our inner wings and fly on the currents of light and sound, to feelings and images that call from before our birth.
Music can transform us, because it echoes from our deepest core.
Some music speaks of the stream, and some music is the stream. To understand the stream we have to enter into it fully. We stretch out our inner wings and fly on the currents of light and sound, to feelings and images that call from before our birth.
Music can transform us, because it echoes from our deepest core.
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Vayu
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Audio CD: The Will to Survive
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From the Farther Shore
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Audio CD: Miles And Miles of Wind
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Audio CD: Meditations
Meditations is specifically designed to accompany meditational atmosphere. The key point of this music, is that it is not entertainment music - the listner is required to be in a mental and emotional space not requiring attention-demanding elements around them. Meditations will not provide that for you. Once you have settled yourself into a space of contentment with nothing, Meditations will help create an atmosphere in which you sit. It is not so much for active listening (though all pieces will receive the listner with interest, whenever they return to the music), but is for accompanying.
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Audio CD: Trance
Trance is what it says - trance music. But more than that, it is music for people who seek to explore the mysteries within themselves. I recommend those who do seek to explore these mysteries, to dance to this music such that the rhythms and sounds become absorbed physically.
Trance predominantly explores the various moods inherent in seven-cycle rhythms. This unusual beat cycle has been purported to have been a sacred dance rhythm that was a link between ancient schools of knowledge, such as the Sarman and the Essenes. I have not been impressed with the way some music systems utilise the seven beet cycle in slower tempos, such as in Indian ragas, as the slowness of the tempo does not create the necessary effect upon the body. The rhythm needs to cycle faster to give the body the unusual effect inherent within odd-beat cycles.
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Videos
I have been very interested in the interweaving of music and visuals. Ever since listening to music in a car as I was crossing Nullarbor Plain in South West Australia thirty years ago, when the endless changing sameness of scenery sent me into a trance as the music changed the landscape, and the landscape changed the music. I am fascinated by how the music and the images become different from what they are separately - a unique experience that draws from both, but adds so much more that was not there before.
Meditation Music:
This music was composed for a specific purpose. At the time, I had tired of making music that was similar in structure to what we all commonly hear. I wanted to make music for how I liked to listen. I dropped all the familiar methods of arrangement and playing. I did not want this music to be the focal point of attention, as entertainment. That kind of music, which demands attention, is fine, but I wanted some music that 'accompanied' me, in what I was doing, even if that was just sitting quietly doing nothing. That was how it began but soon it took a life of its own, and each piece became a unique journey.
When you listen to this music, do not be in a rush - it isn't going anywhere. It just is. Don't fight the music, and don't ask it to keep you entertained. If you are not able to feel comfortable in yourself, then this music will not help that - it is like sitting beside a stream, that bubbles and gurgles on forever, or sitting in a deep cavern with strange echoes that rumble endlessly. Sometimes it seems the sounds are carrying you, and sometimes they just follow their own way. You must be at peace first, then the music will work its magic.
Instrumentals:
I am especially drawn to instrumental music. As soon as I hear words in a song, a different part of my being engages - the part that thinks about things. That is fine, and I enjoy that also, as music can add much subtlety to the meaning of words. But wordless music has a unique quality to allow the sounds to build a visionary world without the distraction of our daytime existence. Thus it holds especially transportive power for the listener who is willing to allow the sounds to carry the soul away.
Songs:
Story Music:
Walking through some musical techniques.
Links:
Julie and Michael's India Blog Blog for a trip through India (2013)
Michael's YouTube Site Music videos
Michael's Home Page This is my old Home Page with links to poems and other places
Buried Shiva The weird entry point
Michael's YouTube Site Music videos
Michael's Home Page This is my old Home Page with links to poems and other places
Buried Shiva The weird entry point
