Y’dig?

Let’s get it straight. Van Morrison ranks as one of the very top songwriters of the Rock ‘n Roll era. He’s right up there with Bob Dylan and the like. His Astral Weeks album alone guarantees him permanent access to any 20th Century Hall of Fame. He’s a one off, transcends musical genres and creates new ones of his own. His voice is utterly unique. But, it’s as a man, as a human being, that Van seems to fall short. And I’ll be the first to admit that maybe I’m just wrong, and indeed, would love to be too.

But just look at Van as a young man, and the Van he is today. With all the spiritual growth he’s subjected himself to, one might think that “being happy with yourself” might have him appearing nowadays as himself, certainly sans hat and shades, but not a bit of it. Maybe with his baldy head he feels the cold, even when he’s in LA and indoors. But the thought intrudes, is he hiding something, covering himself up the way he does?

Maybe we should just be pleased with what we’ve got and accept it for what it is? Do you know those before and after adverts? Before – a bald guy who can’t get a chick, and after, here he is now, beaming under  a mahogany colored toupé which looks more like a bird’s nest than hair, and guess what, now he’s either beating off the chicks, or, he’s with his wife, who’s salivating over him like he’s Brad Pitt on viagra? Well, maybe what we’re looking at in the case of Van, is the improved version, the ‘after’ part of the advert. If so, God help him.

Some years back, a friend of mine wrote a review for the Irish Times of a Van concert in Dublin, one in which Van was bad tempered, openly criticized the backing musicians and kept his back to the audience all night. The headline of the review in next day’s paper was “Van hits the shit”.

We don’t much care if our rock stars bite the heads of live snakes, dress in women’s clothes, or generally behave disgracefully, but there’s something a bit stomach-turning about someone who sings songs of spiritual insights and love, while being a complete asshole as a human being – even if it is the improved version we are looking at.

Maybe I’m just too hard on him. We’ve all heard of bad tempered gurus in India, living in caves and throwing rocks at people approaching to ask them about enlightenment, so what if he’s had a compassion by-pass? One Belfast guy said Van’s a songwriter who channels stuff — the greatest antenna Belfast has produced. Perhaps that’s it, and we should enjoy it for what it is.

I read once that Mrs Tolstoy said something to the effect that her old man writes about it so well, why can’t he practice some of it himself in his day to day life?

Maybe that’s it, and who am I to cast a stone at anyone, certainly someone like Van who’s touched the hearts of so many.

admin Awareness, Knowledge, Meditation, Understanding, ydig spirituality, Van Morrison

“Sahaja” doesn’t mean only that you get spontaneous Realization, it also means you get spontaneity, the whole nature gets spontaneity. All those subtle things that I have told you, they all get spontaneous and they work it out. Of course there are angels and there are ganas who are helping you. But you need not worry about them just now. Main thing is you must realize what you are, what you have got and how much you have faced it, you have got it and how it has worked out. I have seen every time I just have a little problem of something, immediately it works. It works in such quarters and such people that I never expected, just comes in. Everything works out. But whatever works out is for your good, is for your growth, for your understanding that you are a Sahaja Yogi; you have entered into the Kingdom of God, but this you have to develop. Also introspection can tell you that are you working out all those things, or not? If you take to introspection, you’ll be surprised to see, yes, you have these powers, and you can do wonders. So I bless you all. Please develop those subtle things within you. They are already there; you don’t have to do anything, only understand and locate.

(conclusion to: 1998-1216: Subtle Forms of Five Elements in us, Talk before music program, Delhi)

So I bless you all. Please develop those subtle things within you. They are already there; you don’t have to do anything, only understand and locate.

So like one pitcher which is in the River Ganges, you are like a cell in the body of the (primordial feminine energy) Adi Shakti. Your entity, your personality is preserved. Despite that you feel the (creative power of the primordial feminine energy) Brahmachaitanya through your senses and you can give realizations to others, but you are in the body of the Adi Shakti. As long as you are in the body of Adi Shakti you can do all that.                                            May 1987, Australia

Something special has happened to you that the whole of Brahmachaitanya, the whole ocean has taken the form of a cloud – that’s Adi Shakti – and has come on this Earth to shower the chaitanya (subtle energy/power) on you people, enrich you, nurture you, develop you, by manifesting the love in such a manner that you have entered into the body of the Adi Shakti.                                                                                                                                                                                              May 1987, Australia

This Mother Earth has to teach us …
Whatever is outside is also inside.
If you want to exploit your Mother inside
or if you want to trouble your Mother inside,
you can also trouble this Mother Earth.
Now what has replaced our understanding is very simple.
It is that we are paying more attention to money.
If you can cut a tree to get money, then it is hurting the Mother.
But if you are cutting a tree for beautifying Her, then She’s happy.
Her discretion is so great….
It’s very remarkable how nature is so much within us
and how this, whatever it is within us,
guides outside and receives the blessings.
We are not something separate.
This Mother Earth is our home.
We have a home in Her
and She has a home within us.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             September 1997

Every leaf, every branch tries to give a chance to another leaf and another branch, that they all get the sunlight. If you have to see collectivity, really you see it in a jungle, how they live together and with such happiness, with such unity.
5 April 1994

Every individual has to work it out for himself so that the whole can be all right.
16 January 1983, Vaiturna

The feeling is that the other is myself. Be kind and gentle. Try to improve and help in that manner.
“Mother Earth”

Without recognition, you cannot see the play. Without the play, you cannot have confidence within yourself. Without confidence, you cannot become a guru. Without becoming a guru, you cannot help others. And without helping others, you are not going to be in any way happy. So to break the chain is very easy, but to build the chain, one after another, is what you have to do.                                                                                                                                                                                           July 1979

This is the best way to bring non-violence: in violent places you go and stand steadily there, facing all the things that are happening and that witness state acts – acts and stops that kind of a violence that is going on. But the witness state is not a mental state. It is a state of a spiritual ascent where you become a witness. The best way to practice the witness state is not to criticize anyone.                                                                                                                                                                             August 1998

In thoughtless awareness nobody can touch you, that is your fortress.                                                                                                                                                                 August 1998

Your own attention is important, not the attention of others.                                                                                                                                                                                 August 1998

Don’t listen to those who say, “Mother said….”                                                                                                                                                                                                               August 1998

Either you lead a life which is luxurious on the material level or you lead a luxurious life of God’s blessings. One of the two you have to choose, the time has come. August 1998

If a lotus is there, it will open. But it must give fragrance. Even the lotus has a responsibility. Then what about you?
Christmas 2001

You must practise to see something without allowing any thought to rise. Then you start sucking through your spirit the beauty, the glory, the fragrance of a flower.
Every flower is poetry.
Easter 1984

This is the greatest joy-giving thing for Me, that one flower can enjoy the fragrance of another flower. It is real poetry.
5 October 1987

I don’t know if you people really are aware of your responsibilities. Sometimes you are only worried on “Where am I catching? What is happening to me? What is this?” So self-centered! Or, you are worried about others: “She should not have done this, he should not have done….” Nobody should think they love me more than anyone else. Nobody should think like that. Some people know more rituals, some people know more protocol, doesn’t matter, but I know who loves me. The one who loves others most loves me the most. I don’t care, your protocols and ritualistic things are nonsense for me. What does it matter to me? The ones who loves others really loves me. Take it from me, I’ve had all these rituals and all that and I have no care for these things. Makes no difference if you say good morning or good evening to me, is not important. What you say to your brothers and sisters is the most important.                                                                                                                                                                                                    05.24.1981 Chelsham Road, London

This criticizing nature comes from a terrible misunderstanding about oneself. What are we? Why should we judge anyone else? Are we paid for it? So why waste your energy in judging others, because in the realm of reality, it is all good, everything fine, everything first class. But if you are trying to see what is wrong with others, then you are not in reality.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           05.05.1996 Cabella, Italy

When you judge others, you should know that you are judged by God. If you are judging others, God has judged you also. So, in His judgment, whatever marks you have given to yourself and to others aren’t going to be consulted (ed. i.e. taken into account) at all.                                                                                                                                                  Bordi, India 01.27.1980

“You cannot know the meaning of your life until you are connected to the Power that created you.”
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

One should not be too attached to the body.  As it is we have too many wrestlers and archers. Now what we need are saints.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 V5.26 Mar.85.p41

He gave you freedom to know and this freedom has created all the problems you face, not God. God has not created any problems for you. No. He wanted to make a very smooth ascent. He has made your machine so beautifully.
V5.26 Mar.85.p36

Because of your habits, you may go down again, again you may ascend, again go down. It happens with some people, doesn’t matter. But, if you are steady, it is going to work out.                                                                                                                                                                        V5.26 Mar.85.p37

That is the most important thing, how many are going to be wise, to see to their own advantage, to their own ascent?  Is the only choice.
V5.26 Mar.85.p37

Darkness always disintegrates.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             V5.26 Mar.85.p32

When nobody is the other, where is compassion?  Because, supposing this finger is paining, and if I try to rub it, am I doing any compassion to this finger? Because it is a part and parcel of Me.
V5.26 Mar.85.p25

It is an erratic and funny heart which swells up in ego. Understand that what we lack is disciplining.  And that disciplining has to come, otherwise our caliber cannot improve.                                                                                                                                                                             V5.26 Mar.85.p6

Try to control your speech.  Whether you express temper in your speech or you express your compassion, or are you artificially compassionate?
V.4.21.May84.p11

With ego-oriented people it is more difficult, at the slightest pretext they topple down. And spirit, which is the source of joy, just doesn’t come, doesn’t show. The joy itself is beauty. But that is a state one has to achieve.
V.4.21.May84.p9

Enlightenment of your brain‚ means; the limited capacity of your brain to become unlimited in its capacity to realize God. I will not use the word understand. To realize God. How powerful He is, how miraculous He is, how great He is.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         V.4.21.May84.p7

One candle which is not enlightened can be enlightened by another enlightened candle. Now this candle doesn’t do anything except that; enlightens that candle, and that candle has to enlighten other candles. It’s as simple as that.
V.5.27.May85.p42

You have to run in the way of the roots, of the branches, of the leaves, of the flowers and of the fruits. You have to be the essence of the tree that nourishes and not just the outward leaves with wrong ideas about yourself.  Put the problems of the tree always ahead of the problems of the leaf.                                                                                                                                                                                                 V4.19.Jan84

Be joyful! The entire universe has to receive the bubbling streams of your love.
V.5.27.May85.p19

If there is no duality, what is the attachment?  If you are the light and you are the lamp, then where is the duality?  If you are the sun and you are the sunlight, you are the word and you are the meaning; then where is the duality?
V.4.21.May84.p10

Because there is a difference and a distance between you and yours, that’s why you get attached to it, but it’s Me, who is the other? The whole universe is Me.  Who is the other? Everything is Me. Who is the other?
V.4.21.May84.p10

Why didn’t He do it in our evolution, why did He make us so stupid? One can say to God, why did He create these problems?  But who are we to ask Him questions?  He does what He likes.                                                                                                                                                    V5.26 Mar.85.p37

How can you blame God for fanaticism?  I just can’t understand. He never created it. Actually he never created any difference between people, just a variety, just to make it look beautiful, that’s all.                                                                                                                                             V5.26 Mar.85.p37

Anything that creates such limitations within us, any kind of fanaticism, is dangerous, not only you, but to the whole society, and, if you support even this much, you are supporting that destruction.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               V5.26 Mar.85.p36

So religion is another way to disintegrate you.  You hate each other, fundamentalists fighting. For what?  Is there difference between the spirit of one and another?  Fundamentals are: that God is one.  He has created us.
V5.26 Mar.85.p36

Christ has said, ‘Thou shalt not have adulterous eyes‚, meaning your eyes should be clear and as you know, eyes represent both your ego and your superego so, when He said that about your eyes should be clear, He meant that your thoughts should be clear.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            V4. 19 Jan.84

This kind of myth exists among human being that when you look at something, or you think about something, then you solve the problem.  It’s not true; it’s a myth, because thinking is just an empty process of the mind.
V4. 19 Jan.84.p4

If in the heart there is no living force, then how can you progress?  You must know what to choose. You should grow mature to that point where you know what to choose. This is growth. Then you do not ask Mother, you do not ask anyone.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    V3.15 May.83.p15

The mastery of your attention will come when you start seeing that it is all a myth that upsets you. Just throw it away and understand that you are the eternal attention, that you are the eternal life.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       V4.20.Mar84.p24

The only thing that keeps you away from the eternal is ignorance, and ignorance is too simple to understand, that you have accepted myth as truth.
V4.20.Mar84.p24

Those who are on the emotional side see the egos of others, while those who are on the ego side see the emotional side of others.  So once criticizes another.  But they don’t see themselves, that they are falling into a trap, into one of the extremes.
V.5.27.May85.p22

People get confused with emotions, they think it is joy.  Joy can only be achieved through complete detachment.  The detachment which is egoless and superegoless.
V.5.27.May85.p22

Some will say that we’ll just go on being austere about it.  Then that will become again another obsession.  Some will say, alright Mother has said we should enjoy, so we will just enjoy.  How to strike the balance is a big problem.
V.5.27.May85.p21

Get out of that mental conception that you know already about it.  You do not know, because what you know is just mental.  That should be a part and parcel of your being.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                V.5.27.May85.p21

What can you give?  That is what one should understand. If you humble down, then it’s yours, is there, it’s just in your heart. There’s a saying that whenever I want to see my God I have to just bend my head towards my heart, that’s all.
V.5.27.May85

Why a complicated human being has been created and so beautifully it is organized within himself, that it is hard to believe that some juggler was not behind the show.                                                                                                                                                                            V.Jul80.p7

One candle which is not enlightened can be enlightened by another enlightened candle.  Now this candle doesn’t do anything except that; enlightens that candle, and that candle has to enlighten other candles.  It’s as simple as that.
V.5.27.May85.p42

There is no need to go through the suffering at all.   When Christ has done it for you – finished. You have to awaken Christ within you.  Just count your blessings one by one. It’s not such serious stuff.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 V.5.27.May85.p40

it is a very common attachment nowadays with all the people knowing about everything and having nothing.  This mental attachment is to be really attacked. Becoming is seeing, becoming is experiencing.
V.5.27.May85.p21

The divine play is not frivolous, it is joyful. And the joy does not have that duality.
V.5.27.May85.p19

(God) has created this universe and you, in a mood of play, you have to see His play. So a kind of mood that is cheerfulness should be really bubbling through you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         V.5.27.May85.p19

You have the authority of your spirit.  Those in authority never try to show off. Because they are in authority, what is to show off?  Only mad people show off, you see.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          V.5.27.May85.p17

We have to enjoy our bliss within. That is important. Perhaps you are not aware of the bliss that you have. Not at all aware.
V.5.27.May85.p17

People should see bliss working in us. People should feel there is bliss. If a person is blissful, he looks blissful. He emits bliss. He radiates it.
V.5.27.May85.p17

If you have no confidence in yourself, bliss cannot be. And the worst thing against confidence is: Then what should I do? Then how can I get it? Then why do I not have? That’s the worst. You are fighting yourself all the time.
V.5.27.May85.p17

Those who are vain people can never feel bliss. Vanity kills bliss. Ego kills bliss.
V.5.27.May85.p17

Bliss has so many dimensions that you go beyond the realm of cause and effect.  And all the angels are there to help you. When you know that. It works out.
V.5.27.May85.p17

Bliss can only come through gratitude. Only through enlarging your heart with gratitude. Bliss is the reward of gratitude, gratitude of the heart.
V.5.27.May85.p17

What good things others have done to you, what good things there are?  What are the beautiful moments you have had?  Count your blessings. Otherwise you cannot create peace.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     V.5.27.May85.p16

So, to have peace, the best way to put your mind right is to think of good things. Think of the flowers, not of the thorns.
V.5.27.May85.p16

And you must know that you are in one body, active. All the cells of the body are never active, but those who are active have to be at peace with each other, otherwise, what will happen to the poor body?
V.5.27.May85.p16

It is a very subtle enmity that you carry on in your hearts. That cannot be forgiven. If you say sarcastic things to others, you are not in the culture of Universal Religion. You should be respectful. The more respectful you are to each other, the better it will be.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            V.5.27 May 85. p14

Only the peace within can register whatever is auspicious, whatever is nourishing for your growth. So try to make peace with yourself. Do not fight with yourself.                                                                                                                                                                                                       V.5.27 May 85. p14

But it is not what’s wrong with you is the problem. What is right with you is the attitude. Whatever is right with you, put your foot on that and establish yourself on that point. And then develop yourself higher.
V.5.27 May 85. p14

That peace has to be within yourself. You have it. Your spirit is absolutely peaceful.  “Avyagra”‚ without restlessness. There is no restlessness in your spirit. Absolutely peaceful and steady. It is for you to feel it. It is not for anybody else to certify you.
V.5.27 May 85. p13

You have to be compassionate, beautiful, sensible people, who are highest things on this earth. Take out your attention from all nonsense that you have been busy with.  That is how you get possessed. That is how you get conditioned. Small, small things you see.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            V.5.27 May 85. p9

You don’t have to spend too much time on meditation. But, whatever time you spend, whatever you gain, has to be visible outside. How you radiate and how you give it to others.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 V.5.28.Jul 82. p41

In meditative mood you are alone. No one exists there. You alone. And once you enter into that ocean then the whole world becomes your family. The whole world is your own manifestation. All the children become your children. And you treat all the people with equal understanding.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   V.5.28.Jul 82. p41

You have to enjoy the power of love – that people see you as their protector, as their help, as their support, as their friend, than somebody who is a dominating personality.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         V.5.28.Jul 82. p40

All the beauty that is created by human beings as possessions is exposed before you. And you start enjoying all those things without possessing them. You understand the myth of possession.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           V.5.28.Jul 82. p40

She talks like you, sits like you, She will behave like you, everything will be just like you.  And you would not be able to make out the depth of this woman who is a Mahamaya (The Great Illusion) because She plays such tricks on you and such things in such a beautiful way, that you cannot make it out.                                                                                                                                                                                V.5.28.Jul 82. p34

The first quality of the Mother is that she takes away fear.  The second that She knows your faults and can correct them.  And the third quality of the Mother is that She is a Mahamaya.                                                                                                                                                                   V.5.28.Jul 82. p34

Because, in the West especially, people are over-intelligent and if enlightenment does not enter into their intelligence, they can never overcome their attachments.                                                                                                                                                                                        V.5.28.Jul 85. p26

Ekadesha Rudra (The energy/power of transformation) is extremely powerful, explosive, but it is not blind. It is discriminative and extremely delicately woven. It avoids all the good points and attacks the wrong things. And it hits at the right time
V.5.28.Jul 85. p25

If you are a child of the same Mother, how can you go higher than anybody else?  You will remain always the child of the Mother. How can you be higher than any other child in the eyes of the Mother? You cannot.
V.5.28.Jul 85. p32

In thoughtless awareness nobody can touch you.  That is your fortress.
V.5.28.Jul 85. p24

That relationship with yourself should be tyrannical.  You should lash it up.  You should absolutely make it clear to yourself that I have to perfect myself, if I have to give this, my being, to God, it has to be perfect.
V.5.28.Jul 85. p16

You only have a horrible time when you are not the spirit. If you can watch the whole thing as a drama that is played, then you are not having a horrible time, but the outside of you is having a horrible time and you are watching.
V.5.28.Jul 85. p17

Never fight your ego. The only way is to witness it.You see you should never fight the ego. If you try to fight it, it will sit more on your head. That is not the way to fight it. Never fight your ego. Only way is to see it.                                                                                                       V.5.28.Jul 85. p15

You all have a direct access to me. You all can know your spirits, nobody can dominate you. Everyone has complete freedom to know their spirit.  And the spirit is something cannot be dominated by anyone.
V.5.28.Jul 85. p13

“Now you have become a flower, you cannot suddenly become a leaf. Now you are a flower and you have to live like a flower.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                             V.5.28.Jul 85. p10

“Our compassion, if that is flowing, then only can we get compassion from Mother.  Better give it away, empty yourself a little bit, then I can give you more compassion.  The source cannot flow unless and until it expands the flow of it.”
V.5.28.Jul 85. p9

“I have seen people what want to have compassion from me; they want that I should love them.  But reflect it back; do they love others like that?”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     V.5.28.Jul 85. p9

“Holding on to your source of power, you have to stand firm, courageously, without any fear.  That is the truth you have to achieve the other side of it is, that when this source comes to you, you become the compassion.The truth and the compassion are one thing.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                             V.5.28.Jul 85. p8

‘Like the wick and the oil combine to form the light.  In the same way compassion gives you the truth.  There is no difference whatsoever, only the state is different.  That you cannot see the light which is oil and the oil which is burning.”                                                                V.5.28.Jul 85. p8

“You should not feel disgusted with yourself, nor dejected with yourself, nothing.  But treat yourself as a separate entity. And dedication is actually turning back to yourself and looking forward to the Divine personality in you.”
V.5.28.Jul 85. p6

“Whatever you do, it should be done with the faith that you have in worshiping, the zeal of a warrior and the sensitivity of an artist.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Y3.V14.Mar83.p11

“Be joyful! The entire universe has to receive the bubbling streams of your love.”
V.5.27.May85.p19

“What is surrendering? Is nothing, because when you are detached you are surrendered automatically.  When you are holding on to other things, you are not surrendered, that’s all.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        V.4.21.May84.p12

“Enlightenment of your brain‚ means; the limited capacity of your brain to become unlimited in its capacity to realize God. I will not use the word understand. To realize God. How powerful He is, how miraculous He is, how great he is.”                                                                V.4.21.May84.p7

“You only have a horrible time when you are not the Spirit. If you can watch the whole thing as a drama that is played, then you are not having a horrible time, but the outside of you is having a horrible time and you are watching.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                      V.5.28.Jul 85. p17

“So, once you start facing yourself you will like yourself, because that is your Self I am talking about – it is glorious, is beautiful, without any Kalanaka (blemish)  But first of all your attention has to accept it, that this detachment is my life.  I am a different personality.  Detachment is my nourishment.”
V.5.28.Jul 85. p6

“Now to blossom, to become fragrant, you have to give up rationality.  That is binding.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                              V.5.28.Jul 85. p6

“This is the mantra for you, for controlling your temper, you have to tell yourself, ‘Ya Devi Sarva-bhooteshu, Shanti Roopena Samsthita’  So Shanti (peace) is the point, the axis point is that, from where you witness everything.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                    V.5.28.Jul 85. p12

Peacefulness can never mean cowardice, nothing can transgress it, nothing can overpower it.  It is never, never possible that cowardice and peace can go together.”                                                                                                                                                                                           V.5.28.Jul 85. p12

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found this on Lauren Schoenberg’s site:http://www.lorenschoenberg.com/

Check him out. He teaches at Julliard, is head of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, a great guy.

LET THERE BE JAZZ – AND LIBERAL RELIGION, TOO
Richard S. Gilbert – Ithaca, NY – 9/19/04

“On the 13th day of creation, God made the heavens and earth. And after God had rested and after the world had worked for a week and came to that first real weekend, God said, ‘Let there be Jazz!!’ And there was Jazz, and God saw that Jazz was very good.

God saw that Jazz could lift hearts and gladden souls. God saw that Jazz caused people to clap their hands and shout for joy. And it was well pleasing in his sight!

Then God said, ‘Let there be saxophones and banjos and trumpets and drums.

Let there be clarinets and guitars, let there be trombones and big bass viols.

And let there be voices to sing lyrics and scat.

Let them jam together night after night, so that they might learn and experiment and change.

Let there be those with hands and hearts and breath and souls to play the music within them.

Let there be those who listen and respond from deep in their beings.

Let them come from the east and the west and north and south, and let them play and dance and shout and make festival.’

And God said, ‘Let the people feel the joy of the earth and the sky and the hills and the trees.

Let the whole creation clap its hands together to the beat of a song.

Let them be together and feel the goodness of life together.’

And God said, ‘Let it happen again and again, year after year.

And let them music play from the time the sun has risen in the sky until it goes down.

And let the music be around all of the night.

Let there be rest and sleep some other day.

For this is the time of Song.’

And God said, ‘This is the time for it to happen.

Let it happen now!! – - Let there be jazz!’”[i]

“Let there be jazz,” and liberal religion too. Jazz and faith have a long and intertwined history. Jazz emerged in the African-American community of New Orleans early in the 20th century. It had its real beginnings in the church. And while I am no jazz aficionado, I do enjoy it, and the more I come to enjoy it the more I note how much jazz and Unitarian Universalism have in common. Let me elaborate.

Explaining how he composed his music, Duke Ellington said that since his trumpet player could reach certain notes beautifully, but not other notes, and the same with his trombonist, he had to write his music within those limits. “It’s good to have limits,” he remarked.

We live within limits. Unitarian Universalism is at its heart a humble faith – and humility is in very short supply these days – culturally, politically, religiously. We dare to say we do not have the ultimate answers to religious questions: Why are we here? Where are we going? What is the meaning of it all? As a tradition rejecting creeds which claim to proclaim final religious truth, we pursue the answers to those questions with the same freedom within limits as does the jazz musician.

We live with the kind of curiosity which marks jazz players. There are times when they do not really know where they are going when they start a riff; they are curious as to where it will go. They discover that not only are they players, they are also composers – “the solos . . . require the same discipline as the written works of a composer.”[ii]

That is why I have made one of the cornerstones of my ministry the contention that each and every Unitarian Universalist is a kind of composer – in this case, a theologian. That is why I have developed the Building Your Own Theology adult education series – to harness our curiosity about ultimate questions and from that curiosity and our own experience create our own religious faith. As has been said, Unitarian Universalists “have open minds and big ears.”[iii]

“Jazz in an art form that depends on questioning, on challenging prevailing assumptions.”[iv] Jazz was not easily accepted in the conventional musical world, any more than liberal religion was accepted in the theological world. Any endeavor which encourages so much freedom of expression was suspect among those who believed they had a monopoly on the truth – musical or theological.

Furthermore, like jazz musicians, we are engaged in a “supremely collaborative effort.”[v] While it is tempting for contemporary spiritual seekers to have a “go it alone” mentality, we are wise enough to realize the need to be in community with other seekers. Otherwise, we will confidently gaze down into the well by ourselves, see our own image reflected there, and call it God.

“Jazz players all know the tune beforehand and the responsibilities of their chosen instruments. . . . Even when they are not soloing, members of a Jazz band have to be intimately attuned to the music at all times, because you never know what direction it might take. If you don’t, you may, as John Coltrane once put it, feel as though you stepped into an empty elevator shaft.”[vi]

In like manner there are not many of us who are so adept at life that we can go out there and do it all alone. We are not only individuals, we are members, members of a community, members of a religious community in which we each play our parts and play them better for enjoying the theological music with others. We play off each other, much as do jazz musicians. No one of us has a handle on the final life questions; no one of us knows it all, no one of us can make it alone. Like jazz, liberal religion is a collaborate effort.

There is in jazz an openness, a tolerance, a freedom that has its counterparts in our liberal faith. But there is in both a fundamental discipline, without which the freedom leads to anarchy. One musician compared free jazz to playing tennis without a net. That has been the charge against liberal religion – that in our freedom we have gone too far and there is no structure in what we do.

I am reminded of an article written many years ago by then-Director of the Eastman School of Music, composer Howard Hanson. He was bemoaning the huge salaries heaped upon pop and rock musicians whom he felt had only a modicum of musical knowledge and talent. These he compared with serious Eastman students who would play for a pittance in some orchestra or work as an underpaid music teacher. Then he suggested that popular jazz musician Chuck Mangione provided a useful model. Mangione, an Eastman school graduate, could explore jazz freely and creatively because he knew the fundamental principles of music. That grounding made his freedom in music meaningful and gave rise to his creativity.

Likewise, I believe Unitarian Universalists need to be grounded in fundamental religious knowledge and experience. We need to know our Bible, the history of religions, the basic issues, the core questions. Equipped with this knowledge, we are free to create our own faith. There are those religious fundamentalists who believe the Bible to be the word of God – absolute and unassailable. Then there are those among us who reject this surety – one who opined that he would believe anything so long as it was not in the Bible. Both are wrong-headed.

Unitarian Universalists are heretics – meaning those who have chosen their faith. We rebelled against Calvinism with its theological theories of trinitarianism and pre-destination. We contend that Jesus was man, not God. We hold that no sensible and compassionate God would condemn at birth some to heaven and others to hell. But we rebelled against Calvin for many reasons, not the least of which is musical. John “Calvin tied music to the sinful culture and restricted its use in worship to a unison line without polyphony or instruments.”[vii]

But Martin Luther, another redoubtable reformer, said:

“A person who does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.” I’m Lutheran here.

Music is a magnificent expression of who we are. This morning we have modeled our theological and musical diversity. We sang our own contemporary words to the tune of Old Hundreth, the doxology from the 1551 Genevan Psalter, recognizing our religious roots. Then we sang “Now Let Us Sing” by an anonymous writer to a tune named in honor of singer Paul Robeson. Both the text and tune of our Hymn of Healing, “Voice Still and Small,” were composed by my friend and colleague John Corrado. And what we shall sing for our Hymn of Dedication, “We’re Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table,” is a traditional tune which calls for spirited participation. And, of course, we have heard or will hear jazz from John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, among others, and will listen to Bach at Postlude time. An eclectic mix, but lively and interesting and indicative of the openness of our musical and spiritual taste.

Truth comes not only in propositions of logic and science, not only in words of prose and poetry. Truth can also be conveyed in stirring sound which cannot be put into words. The great jazz artist Louis Armstrong was once asked about the meaning of his music, to which Satchmo replied: “Lady, if I could say it, I wouldn’t have to blow it.” Sometimes we express our faith by words, sometimes it is simply too powerful for words and we need to sing and play it.

One intriguing form of jazz is the blues. Jazz evolved out of the daily experience of African Americans whose legacy was the brutality of slavery. Blues were created as a “medium of transcendence – one plays or sings the blues to vanquish them.”[viii] In the same way each Sunday we share both our joys and our sorrows in public – in this religious community – not that we can vanquish them by merely expressing them, but we can transcend them by sharing our burdens with others.

There is this rich sense of participation in jazz – certainly among performers, but also among auditors who have a hard time sitting still. Liberal religion, like jazz, is participatory.

Relaxing between sets in a 52nd Street bar, the blind jazz pianist Art Tatum sat at a table, drinking beer from a bottle. A missionary wandered in from the street and came over to talk to him.

She said, “Joining the flock is your only salvation.” Without answering, Tatum took another swig of beer.

“If you don’t join the flock, you’ll be a lost child of God,” she insisted. Art went on sipping his beer.

When the musician decided that the evangelist had pestered him long enough, he shrugged and answered softly:

“All God’s children are lost, but only a few can play the piano.”

“All God’s children are lost – but only a few can play the Piano.” I agree all God’s children are lost in the sense we are all spiritual seekers. But I have also read that “If you grow up in African culture, you have no concept of anyone not being a musician. Music is just joyful sound-making, celebration-like movement, and dance. It’s part of a ritual honoring life, honoring our parents, honoring the community. Every human being has the potential to be a musician.”[ix]

Translated into liberal religion it means that each of us is a celebrant – a theologian. In a church where the minister’s task is not handing out a theology to be regurgitated, but helping people build their own theology, everyone has primary responsibility. Just as everyone is responsible for singing hymns, everyone is responsible for their own faith.

Jazz critic Loren Schoenberg, whose NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Jazz has informed this sermon, said “Jazz swings . . . jazz is fun . . . (a) juggling act between the planned and the spontaneous.”[x] So it is with liberal religion. Despite the fact some say the Unitarian Universalist emotional range runs the gamut from A to B, “free from the taint of enthusiasm,” the “bland leading the bland,” a sense of “ordered inertia,”[xi] we are a feeling as well as a thinking people. We laugh in church! While we carefully plan the structure of the service, we are never quite sure exactly what will happen – what joys and sorrows will be spoken – what feelings will be evoked in response to spoken word or music.

Now, it is true that our hymns should not go through the eye and out the mouth without passing through the brain – and I should add – the soul. Of course, it has been said that our singing is weak because we are always reading ahead in the text to see if we agree with the words. However, one of my learnings about our faith is that there is nothing irrational or intellectually compromising about deep emotions and celebratory feelings. Religion is both of the head and of the heart. When we are at our best, we can also sing! We shall see – and hear.

Our religious premise is not a foreboding one, complete with “sinners in the hands of an angry God,” or replete with doomsday scenarios of Armageddon. We are an upbeat bunch who call worship a celebration of life; who believe meaning is created in this life, not deferred to an improbable future; who believe life is to be enjoyed to its fullest; who believe that one of our obligations is to extend that possibility of joy to all people no matter their religious orientation.

We are something like Duke Ellington who spoke of jazz and the terpsichorean urge, after Terpsichore, in mythology the muse for dancing and choral song. The Duke recognized that the urge to dance in life is fundamental, whether it be with the body or the mind and spirit. And, of course, the psalmist reminds us to celebrate with timbrel and dance.

These are tough times and many are discouraged and tempted to give up with the religious and political cacophony surrounding us. I think of the scene at the premier of one of 20th century composer George Antheil’s early avant garde pieces. His Ballet Mechanique, scored for automobile horns, airplane propeller, fire siren, ten grand pianos, and other instruments scored quite a sensation. When it was performed at Carnegie hall in 1924, a concertgoer near the orchestra could stand no more than a few minutes of the racket. Tying his handkerchief to his cane, he raised the white flag.

There are times we are tempted to raise the white flag ourselves – for life is too much with us. It is then that the soaring song of the spirit can be heard, out of the chaos, out of the cacophony, out of the irregular rhythms of life, transcending the dissonances, reminding us that life matters, we matter in the great celestial chorus of humanity.

And so I conclude that Jazz is a musical form especially suited to Unitarian Universalism. Within that disciplined musical structure jazz musicians are free to transcend it – to give the spirit play. Likewise Unitarian Universalists, within the rich structure of humanity’s faith traditions, are likewise free to transcend – to give the spirit play.

And so, “Let the people feel the joy of the earth and the sky and the hills and the trees.

Let the whole creation clap its hands together to the beat of a song.

Let them be together and feel the goodness of life together.

Let it happen again and again, year after year.

And let the music play from the time the sun has risen in the sky until it goes down.

And let the music be around all of the night.

Let there be rest and sleep some other day.

For this is the time of Song”

This is the time for it to happen.

Let it happen now!!

Let there be jazz!”

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