Healing Sights and Sounds of Japan 2 (HD)

Healing Sights and Sounds of Japan 1 (HD)

Nature at it's best. Spiritual and zen-like sights and sounds. This video was recorded on a cold and snowy winter afternoon in Iwate prefecture in the Tohoku region of northern Japan near Ishidoriya and Hanamaki.

Beginner's Mind

Armando Ghitalla came to WVU in 1979 to do a masterclass. That evening at a party I found myself sitting beside him on a sofa. I asked him for advice. Ghitalla said to me, "Every morning when I pick up the trumpet to start practicing, I'm a beginner."

July 5

Book
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Shunryu Suzuki
On Practice....

"You may think that if there is no purpose or no goal in our
practice, we will not know what to do. But there is a way.
The way to practice without having any goal is to limit your
activity, or to be concentrated on what you are doing in this
moment. Instead of having some particular object in mind,
you should limit your activity. When your mind is wandering
about elsewhere you have no chance to express yourself. But
if you limit your activity to what you can do just now, in this
moment, then you can express fully your true nature, which
is the universal Buddha nature. This is our way.

When we practice zazen we limit our activity to the small-
est extent. Just keeping the right posture and being concen-
trated on sitting is how we express the universal nature. Then
we become Buddha, and we express Buddha nature. So in-
stead of having some object of worship, we just concentrate
on the activity which we do in each moment. When you bow,
you should just bow; when you sit, you should just sit; when
you eat, you should just eat. If you do this, the universal
nature is there.

When you practice zazen you should not try to attain any-
thing. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your
mind and not rely on anything. Just keep your body straight
without leaning over or against something. To keep your body
straight means not to rely on anything. In this way, physically
and mentally, you will obtain complete calmness. But to rely
on something or to try to do something in zazen is dualistic
and not complete calmness.

In our everyday life we are usually trying to do something,
trying to change something into something else, or trying to
attain something. Just this trying is already in itself an ex-
pression of our true nature. The meaning lies in the effort
itself. We should find out the meaning of our effort before we
attain something. So Dogen said, "We should attain enlight-
enment before we attain enlightenment." It is not after at-
taining enlightenment that we find its true meaning. The
trying to do something in itself is enlightenment. When we
are in difficulty or distress, there we have enlightenment.
When we are in defilement, there we should have composure.
Usually we find it very difficult to live in the evanescence of
life, but it is only within the evanescence of life that we can
find the joy of eternal life.

By continuing your practice with this sort of understand-
ing, you can improve yourself. But if you try to attain some-
thing without this understanding you cannot work on it prop-
erly. You lose yourself in the struggle for your goal; you
achieve nothing; you just continue to suffer in your diffi-
culties. But with right understanding you can make some
progress. Then whatever you do, even though not perfect,
will be based on your inmost nature, and little by little some-
thing will be achieved."

June 29

Reading
Was taking a look (again) at "Zen in the Art of Archery" today. This is probably the most important book I've ever read relating to playing my instrument. I recommend this book to anyone in the arts. As I read this book, I just substitute the word trumpet every time Herrigel uses archery.

"What is to be done? How does skill become "spiritual," and how does sovereign control of technique turn into master swordplay? Only, so we are informed, by the pupil's becoming purposeless and egoless. He must be taught to be detached not only from his opponent but from himself. He must pass through the stage he is still at and leave it behind him for good, even at the risk of irretrievable failure. Does this sound as nonsensical as the demand that the archer should hit without taking aim, that he should completely lose sight of the goal and his intention to hit it? It is worth remembering, however, that the master swordmanship, whose essence Takuan describes has vindicated itself in a thousand contests."

Zen in the Art of Archery - Eugen Herrigel, pg 72

Art
Wassily Kandinsky
I'm a HUGE fan of Kandinsky's work. I started reading this book of Kandinsky's today. This is a follow-up to his first book, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art." In these two books, he outlines the dynamics involved in his painting regarding texture, time, and even drawing parallels between color and musical pitches and the emotional effects.

"Composition V" 1911 - Wassily Kandinsky

Music
Chet Baker Interview
In college I really got into a deep Chet "thing." Probably lasted from 1980 to 1983 when I had moved to Washington, D.C. I was never into the stuff Chet did in the early years. I was very attracted to his playing just before he died. He spent all that time in Europe after having new teeth put in. I thought his playing in the later years had really changed. To my ears, his sound had become darker and more soulful. He was always a person that had a good balance of space in his melodic lines. I think in the later years, he had really mastered the use of space. His improvisations really remind me of a painting. His use of space along with the harmonic color and his vocabulary was very much like a painter.


Chet Playing Cherokee in Antwerp
I included this video cause it's nice to hear Chet "fly." A lot of people would be surprised to hear him playing like this on Cherokee. A lot of people only associate Chet with My Funny Valentine and other moody ballads. That's something I like about his playing. He could play as fast as anyone but, he wasn't the kind of player that felt a need to have to show you that all the time. Maybe cause he had reached such a level of maturity and detachment, he didn't have to be "up in your face."

I remember reading something pianist Hal Galper mentioned in the liner notes of a recording I was listening to a lot in the early 80's. Galper was talking about his time working with Chet in Europe. Galper talked about how Chet was a master at not playing too much.

"Chet always knew how to leave the audience wanting more."
Hal Galper

Performance at OPCM

Free Rein, a performance at OPCM on April 3, 2009 from mxxx palmer on Vimeo.

Poetry Reading: Ted Kooser


Stevie Wonder wrote this tune for Michael Jackson
I Can't Help It (Live)


Edward Elgar
I started looking into Elgar's life and music today. Here is a rare clip of him conducting his own incredibly famous "Pomp and Circumstance."
k

June 19

" A student visited a Zen master to ask him about Zen. As is the custom, the master served tea. He poured the student's cup to the brim, and then kept on pouring. The student looked on with astonishment as the tea overflowed and finally he said, "The cup is full. No more will go in." The master stopped pouring, looked at the student, smiled, and said, "Like the cup, you are full of your own ideas, opinions, and speculations. How can I teach you until you empty your cup?"

Tom Wujec, "PUMPING IONS" pg 217

June 16

Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind - Suzuki
Started thinking about this book again last week. During that time, I was getting ahead on this blog and started entering words and/or phrases of things I might want to include in the near future and saving them as drafts. I listened to a LENSWORK podcast and read the Yoga Journal newsletter this morning and was surprised to find that both had mentioned Suzuki's "Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind." Then I opened this draft I'd been saving and I had "Zen Mind, Beginners Mind - Sukuki entered into today's blog. Wow, talking about serendipity!

Food
Blueberry/banana juice
Made a new juice this morning. Really getting into blueberries this week!

Interviews
Sonny Rollins Interview

Musician Sonny Rollins from Texas Monthly Talks on Vimeo.

Sonny Rollins' Videos

Newsletters
MAC/LIFE Newsletter

YOGA NEWSLETTER

NASA Science Newsletter for June 15, 2009
With NASA poised to launch the world's most famous treadmill (COLBERT) to the International Space Station, an astronaut describes what it's like to run in space where sweat floats and there is no gravity to hold your feet to the ground.



Grid
http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

Listening
http://www.lenswork.com/podcast/LW0535%20-%20Examining%20Our%20Habits.mp3
http://www.lenswork.com/podcast/LW0536%20-%20Repeat%20After%20Me%20-%20Spotting%20is%20Fun.mp3

United Nations TV


Water powered car

Websites
Marco Mancini's Magnet Jazz
Live at Time and Style

June 11

Are you right-handed? Left-handed? I'm very happy to say I'm a lefty. I know my 2nd grade teacher is still greatly disappointed. Sometime during that year, I fell and broke my wrist and had to wear a cast for a couple of months. She got me switched over to writing with my right hand. As soon as that cast came off, I went back to the left side.

Over the years, I've enjoyed reading a lot of things about left-brain, right-brain styles of thinking.
A book that comes to mind is Betty Edwards', "Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain." If you buy into the idea that the brain is split into the left hemisphere (logical thinking) and the right hemisphere (creative, spatial thinking), Betty's book will give you lot's of exercises and ideas for stimulating the right side of your brain.

Exercise sample

"You have two brains: a left and a right. Modern brain scientists now know that your left brain is your verbal and rational brain; it thinks serially and reduces its thoughts to numbers, letters and words… Your right brain is your nonverbal and intuitive brain; it thinks in patterns, or pictures, composed of ‘whole things,’ and does not comprehend reductions, either numbers, letters, or words."

From The Fabric of Mind, by the eminent scientist and neurosurgeon, Richard Bergland. Viking Penguin, Inc., New York 1985. pg.1

An exercise I've found fun and interesting is to use the opposite hand for a day. If you are right-handed, try eating, brushing your teeth, dribbling a basketball and other things with the left hand. Try writing with the opposite hand. Take out a piece of paper and sketch or doodle with the other hand. If you keep a diary, put an entry in your diary writing with the opposite hand. You might be very surprised to go back a few days later and look at what you wrote. I often times will practice certain exercises on the trumpet with the left hand. It's amazing how easy the same exercise is when I go back and use right-handed fingering.



"Dead In The Water - Sinking of the USS Liberty"
Documentary
I've known about this story for a couple of years. I know, it's unbelievable. Most won't believe it until they do their own research (which most won't do). Is this creative material? Maybe...maybe not. I think it is. I'm interested in how history shapes the world we live in. Or should I say, our perception of history. I really had no interest to study history in school. Now, I'm so interested in history. I'm very interested to see how history is rewritten (in an almost Orwellian fashion) and HOW THAT affects the world I live in, including the arts.

Books
I'm crazy about books. Went to Junkuro last night to look at a Photoshop book. When I got into the store, I realized they were having a 70% off sale on English books. Oh mannnn!!! Picked these up......











Energy
Read some articles today on a couple of sites I enjoy:
http://www.yogajournal.com/
http://www.qigonginstitute.org

Listening
Alan Watt's Cutting Through the Matrix - June 8 (mp3)

Movie
Went to see the new Star Trek movie. Unfortunately, I was pretty sleepy and missed a lot of the movie.

Practice
Chops are feeling good today.
Practice VERY slowly. Imagining my trumpet practice is like a taichi practice.
Playing with the left-hand a lot today.

Photography
Took a walk in Itabashi-ku today just before sunset. Happened to catch these shots of the sun.