☀️ Book Club of The Music of Life, July 31th 2022
The Music of Life by Hazrat Inayat Khan has been changing my perception of life. And maybe it can change yours too.
Here’s something I journaled about the book last week, starting and ending with some quotes that arrested me:
"To speak more plainly, the word uttered by the lips can only reach the ears of the hearer, but the thought proceeding from the mind reaches far, shooting mind to mind. The vibrations of mind are much stronger than those of words. The earnest feelings of one heart can pierce the heart of another; they speak in silence, spreading out into the sphere, so that the very atmosphere of a person's presence proclaims his thought and emotions. The vibrations of the soul are the most powerful and far-reaching; they run like an electric current from soul to soul."
I read a chapter of the Music of Life this morning. He talked about vibrations in people. How we communicate through the subtle field in vibrations, that these vibrations reach each other through expanses. Can you feel me now?
I think about the moments that communication holds the most meaning to me: when I feel vulnerable, voice to voice or body to body, and across long thoughts. I hate texting because it's so fragmented, and those fragments elicit more piecing. It's a mistake to think that once you break something, it can't shatter into more pieces. We can always break further. Fragment further. How do you develop deep relationships when we're all in pieces?
“In the silent life there is no joy but only peace. The soul’s orginal being is peace and its nature is joy, both of which work against each other. This is the hidden cause of all life’s tragedy. The soul originally is without any experience; it experiences all when it opens its eyes to the exterior plane and keeps them open, enjoying the life on the surface until satisfied. The soul then begins to close its eyes to the exterior plane, and constantly seeks peace, the original state of its being.”
I've been collecting pieces of broken pottery I've loved whole, in the hopes to learn kintsugi: the japanese art of reparation with lacquered gold. Before I left for London, I did the first half, which consisted of making the adhesive, and binding the broken fragments together. Then the pieces had to sit for 10 days. A practice of patience, a long format goal. I left them, sitting in self repair, altered forms of their old selves, settling into their new old shapes.
I've never been really great at that, at waiting; patience. I like to send people to the David Foster Wallace commencement speech on Youtube, share how he talked about the value of a liberal arts education, that you learn how to wait in line at grocery stores or sit in traffic better, because you understand the agency you have to choose what you get to think about instead of sitting in frustration. A liberal arts education teaches you patience, mindfulness, and agency. I like to tell people that, without being so sure I gleaned it myself.
I'm addicted to micro-accomplishments, making monthly and daily lists to reward myself with gold stars at the end of short spans of time. But applying that to long term goals is harder, seeing the bigger picture and breaking it down into manageable pieces. Inverse kintsugi-ing my life, when I just want to get to the lacquered gold part already; the joy.
"The saints and sages spread their peace not only in the place where they sit, but even in the neighborhood where they dwell; the town or the country where they live is at peace in accordance with the power of the vibrations they send out from their soul."
To join the IN PERSON meeting July 31st, become a member below.
If you are a member and intend to come on the 31st, please reserve your spot by Venmo-ing @secularsabbath $10 - our in-person meeting is limited to 30 people so that everyone has a chance to speak and listen.
Location to be disclosed to members in our weekly Inner Circle Newsletter.