One of the things you need to learn as a drummer is to play different things with each of your limbs. This is known as independance. I can play one pattern on the kick drum, another of the hi-hat or ride, another on the snare, and perhaps my left foot is playing another pattern with the hi-hat foot pedal. To someone starting out, this is usually quite difficult and you often find one limb trying to follow the other. A little way down the line this becomes quite easy and natural, and it's one of the things that can make a great rhythm.
The next challenge is polyrhythms. This is similar to what I've just spoken about except your playing two or more rhythms at the same time. For instance, you may be counting 1-2-3 on the base drum, but at the same you'll play 1-2-3-4 on the ride cymbal - on top of the first rhythm, or even 5 and 4 and so on. Played correctly, you get a really interesting and sometimes hypnotic rhythm.
What does this have to do with my point of view?
Well, some people act as if there is only one way of thinking. They acknowlege that there are other ways of looking at things, but they feel their way is perhaps better than other ways of looking at things. This is usually quite evident in a debate between science and religion, or in understanding concepts like energy, spirit, soul etc.
But, is it not possible to have different points of view at the same time - views that seem to contradict each other?
I have found that it can be quite helpful to entertain that possibility, and quite often there is something else that emerges when you do that. Something emerges that, I find, is more true to me and my experience of life.
I think that it goes back to the concept that theories and ideas can never fully map out the true experience of living. Real life is messy and there are always grey areas - areas of mystery that no theory will ever quite cover. Holding two conflicting ideas at the same time can push you into exploring these grey areas with more honesty.
Truth is often found in the balance between two opposites.
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Fate, destiny and the journey of life
Some words seem so final. Words like fate, words like destiny. And so we are often left with a decision as to whether we believe in these words, to believe in fate or destiny.
Most people I speak to like the idea of having free choice and so choose to reject the concept of fate or destiny. Perhaps it would be a good idea to define what we mean by the terms, but I don't think that solves the problem. The problem I'm talking about is the fact that we have words like fate, destiny, spirit, God or any of those words which it has become almost fashionable not to believe in. Where do they come from? Do we need to treat them as if the word itself contained an idea, and that idea was some kind of law, or reality that one can accept or reject?
Perhaps another way to look it is that words are signposts, pointing to what we experience in life. Sometimes it seems as if my life is being directed by an outside force. The word I could use to describe that experience could be the word 'fate'. Or sometimes it seems like everything fits together, so many meaningful coincidences it's like there's some providential hand guiding me and helping me along. Have you ever had the experience of doing something and your whole being resonates with what you're doing and you know intuitively that this is what you were made for - this is your destiny? And so once again a word fulfils the need for expression, the need to communicate the journey to others.
Some say that the realm of words and ideas is the true reality in that it is more perfect than the day-to-day, messy business of living. They say that the material world is the shadow of this archetypal realm. But I think that it's the words we use that are imperfect. The fact that we can communicate at all is miraculous in itself, but it is still only an imperfect representation of the journey of life, the experience of living.
The problem with religion is that it relies on words and ideas first, instead of recognising the context that formed the words and ideas, and so the words and ideas become law, seperated from the life that they were supposed to reflect.
I am, however, grateful for words, no matter how limiting they can sometimes be, because it is through words and ideas that I can communicate my journey, and connect with and learn from others, even if they lived two thousand years ago.
Most people I speak to like the idea of having free choice and so choose to reject the concept of fate or destiny. Perhaps it would be a good idea to define what we mean by the terms, but I don't think that solves the problem. The problem I'm talking about is the fact that we have words like fate, destiny, spirit, God or any of those words which it has become almost fashionable not to believe in. Where do they come from? Do we need to treat them as if the word itself contained an idea, and that idea was some kind of law, or reality that one can accept or reject?
Perhaps another way to look it is that words are signposts, pointing to what we experience in life. Sometimes it seems as if my life is being directed by an outside force. The word I could use to describe that experience could be the word 'fate'. Or sometimes it seems like everything fits together, so many meaningful coincidences it's like there's some providential hand guiding me and helping me along. Have you ever had the experience of doing something and your whole being resonates with what you're doing and you know intuitively that this is what you were made for - this is your destiny? And so once again a word fulfils the need for expression, the need to communicate the journey to others.
Some say that the realm of words and ideas is the true reality in that it is more perfect than the day-to-day, messy business of living. They say that the material world is the shadow of this archetypal realm. But I think that it's the words we use that are imperfect. The fact that we can communicate at all is miraculous in itself, but it is still only an imperfect representation of the journey of life, the experience of living.
The problem with religion is that it relies on words and ideas first, instead of recognising the context that formed the words and ideas, and so the words and ideas become law, seperated from the life that they were supposed to reflect.
I am, however, grateful for words, no matter how limiting they can sometimes be, because it is through words and ideas that I can communicate my journey, and connect with and learn from others, even if they lived two thousand years ago.
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