Putting Fingers To The Keyboard

My wife, Jeneth, forwarded the invitation to provide something for The Vital Force. “It’s that time again: please put fingers to the keyboard to contribute your strong, clear voice to the next issue of The Vital Force.”

I couldn’t help noticing the phrase, “please put fingers to the keyboard to contribute” because this describes my endeavor of late for the T’ai Chi Chih group that meets with Lisa Otero at the UU Church in Ventura once or twice a month for Silent Circle Practice. The church has a decent grand piano, and whenever I am able, I “put fingers to the keyboard” to provide accompaniment to each of the 19 movements and Cosmic Consciousness pose.

It began as an experiment and allowing that the response from Lisa and many of the practitioners are veridical, it has been successful as an adjunct that conduces to a deepening of practice. This is only what I gather from my fellow students, and I enjoy the sense of mutuality. My own “inperience” of the Chi guiding a vehicle (my body, as pre-instrumental to the music that emanates) produces an intuition that verifies this accompanied practice not only in my own being, but in the Chi consciousness enveloping the environment.

I’m trying to say that “I feel this body and no other,” but not by way of solipsism, but by way of a remarkable sense of the gestalt of Chi balancing and amplifying itself through the remarkable beings in the room with me. “I” am alone with All of them, and the Chi gently moves the music through my body, into all bodies vibrating along with the glad musical tidings. I am only extending what I heard so many times while practicing to the sounds of Justin’s keyboard ruminations, which I understand and love.

All that I’ve done with music is brought to bear in this ultimate opportunity to serve the community – for my unique approach to playing to pour forth into the peace of a Chi that both moves in the cosmic dance and remains empty in the stillness and purity of consciousness only.

I am grateful to Lisa for this opportunity. I came to the piano as a college student. I am a victim of violent atrocity, including a severe bullet wound to my dominant hand. A doctor suggested I try playing the piano as a form of physical therapy. That was decades ago. Yet, while much of the damage was “permanent,” the healing force works both on the level of impermanence with respect to the hand as a form, but also, the Chi vibrates beyond any consideration of time/space…and to dance with the music in that reveals a perfection that dissolves residues of evil which may continue to haunt the circuits and circus of my brain to an extent, even as I open to allowing the healing Chi to wash me clean of those violent influences.

Brain-washing of a sort can be bliss itself. For those of you who have expressed your gratitude to me at the event, you may be certain that it is my honor to serve that which is highest and best in all of us. Namaste.