This second movement of Gorecki´s third symphony, a classic of minimalist music, radiates a strange quality of dark and bright contrasts, a stillness, timelessness and simplicity that are not easy to express, not even to notice, despite inspiring a familiar flavour. An apparently anecdotic impression that may be telling us more than what the heavy mind can grasp.
An old proverb says the spiritual path is more difficult than walking on the edge of a knife. Yet, it is also said there´s nothing more natural and simple than "being on the Way". Anything can lead to Consciousness and Liberation; but anything can also lead to a trap.
Is this what makes the journey so complicated and treacherous?
Perhaps that is why human life is so erratic and contradictory, full of dark and bright contrasts, wonders and miseries that coexist.
Yet, which is the root of the human falls? Perhaps a distorted perception of Reality, a lack of discernment? Can inner conflicts, source of the outer ones, cease with a glimpse of that "ineffable and everpresent Something" which is the Source and Destiny of everything?
An old proverb says the spiritual path is more difficult than walking on the edge of a knife. Yet, it is also said there´s nothing more natural and simple than "being on the Way". Anything can lead to Consciousness and Liberation; but anything can also lead to a trap.
Is this what makes the journey so complicated and treacherous?
Perhaps that is why human life is so erratic and contradictory, full of dark and bright contrasts, wonders and miseries that coexist.
Yet, which is the root of the human falls? Perhaps a distorted perception of Reality, a lack of discernment? Can inner conflicts, source of the outer ones, cease with a glimpse of that "ineffable and everpresent Something" which is the Source and Destiny of everything?
Only so long as one considers oneself bound do thoughts of bondage and Liberation continue. When one enquires who is bound, the Self is realized, eternally attained, eternally free. When thought of bondage comes to an end, can thought of Liberation survive?
If it is said that Liberation is of three kinds: with form, without form, and both together, then let me tell you that the extinction of those three forms of Liberation is the only true Liberation.
(Ramana Maharshi, verses 39 & 40,
from Forty Verses on Reality)
from Forty Verses on Reality)
The composition is new to me, so is the composer. The quietness of mind that the music expresses requires a still mind to appreciate and get meaning from, it. I heard it like its a pray-er in devotion.
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