human suffering

The path of meditation

Since about ten years I have been immersed in the buddhist way. That means a different way of life than the one I used to lead, and also in the field of writing music.

Meeting the master

When I turned 30 I was forced to deal with a lifetime of depressions and conflict with life. That sounds rather serious, doesn't it? Well, it was! I started studying Aikido, a japanese martial art. It deals very much with the idea that conflicts originate in your own mind. From there I stumbled onto readings by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa and I followed the path of the buddha. Unfortunately Trungpa had died in 1987 so I couldn't go and study with him in person but he left some rather detailed books on buddhism (which aren't exactly easy reading) which connects it to western psychology and philosophy.

So, can I tell you all about buddhism now? 'Fraid not. Far too complex stuff. But perhaps I can give you my summary........

Buddhism drastically summarized into two basic aspects

First one I would call: 'Freedom from Ego'. By 'ego' we mean a special mind-program that enables us to survive. It is used to 'solidify' our environment and concepts. Very helpful in itself, it also brings us lots of problems because at some stage in our development we start to 'identify' ourselves with this subprogram. So basically the first rule is to 'detach' ourselves from this program. That doesn't mean that ego disappears but that it is reduced to a program running in the background instead of the foreground.

The second aspect of my summary immediately deals with the problem how to overcome this dysfunctional behaviour of 'ego'. Answer: meditation. Perhaps some people will think that meditation is meant as a way to calm the mind but in this discipline of buddhism we want to become aware of the mind. During meditation we can start to learn how ego works and we can 'let go' of the thoughts and feelings that are involved.

And what has it got to do with music?

That seems a fair question. Actually it boils down to one thing: overcoming agression. I'll come back to that shortly.