Music and the Spiritual Life

Music, Silence and Spirituality. In the spiritual world, next to meditation is music, the breath of music.  Meditation is silence, energising and fulfilling.  Silence is the eloquent expression of the inexpressible.  Silence is the source of everything.  It is the source of music and it is music itself.  Silence is the deepest, most satisfying music of the Supreme. Music, Prayer and Meditation. Next to deep prayer or meditation, music is of paramount importance.  Meditation is like a direct route, or shortcut, to the goal.  Music is a road that is absolutely clear of obstacles.  If we can play soulful music, the power of our meditation increases.  Soulful music adds to our aspiration.  Similarly, if a spiritual seeker wants to be a musician, even if he does not have a musical background, he will be able to be a good musician because prayer and meditation contain all capacities. Prayer and meditation are the only way to increase our creativity.  Many people are not born poets or artists.  But by practising meditation, they bring into their system literary capacities, painting capacities, musical capacitites, beacues meditation means new life.  When new life enters into you, you become a new person. Music:  Extension of the Divine. You can make your music full of supreme beauty if you can remember constantly that your music is only an extension of your inner consciousness and that it is also an expression of the divine within that is crying for manifestation.  Always feel that the divine within you has accepted music as an expression oits reality for your own perfection in life. Playing Soulfully. [When I play music]  I most of the time concentrate on the soul of the particular piece that I am playing.  Each song has a soul, so I concentrate on the soul of each song.  Sometimes I concentrate on the soul of a particular melody that I feel is very haunting; and I try to reveal and manifest the divine beauty of that melody. (From The Source of Music)