One Hand
Clapping:
The Taoe of Music
WholeArts and
The Psychic Internet is proud to present the
"Preface" and "Part One" of this
remarkable book by Daniel d'Quincy. "One Hand
Clapping: The Tao of Music," originally published by
WholeArts in 1991, is a book-length essay on the
performance of music from the perspective of Eastern
philosophy and religion. Mr. d'Quincy is a noted
composer, musician, author, inventor, educator, speaker,
and photographer. Please visit his unique music sites at WholeArts: syNThony, and the WholeArts Online Music Conservatory.
Page 26
Chapter Four
"In the
beginning of creation…the earth was without form,
and void." Thus, even in the Bible, which proposes
to tell all, there is mute respect for the boundary
between this Universe and whatever did or did not precede
it. It begins, as it were, not quite at the beginning.
When the scene of Creation opens, the “earth”
already exists, but in a condition that is “without
form, and void.”
The coupling of
the idea of the “void” with the idea of being
“without form” is odd, appearing as it does at
such an early date, for it is prescient of current
physical theories based on experimental research in the
laboratory. Our most advanced physics is even now trying
to define more precisely its concept of the
“void,” which it calls the “vacuum,”
and there are many theoretical problems in the way of
settling the issue. Nevertheless, it is already clear
that the idea of space as an empty region where nothing
exists is untenable.
Science liked
previously to view the vacuum as a place where not even
one single infinitesimal particle of matter is left to
reflect or perturb even one single solitary ray of light.
But this has presented something of a problem, because
new developments are leading us to conclude that there
are things called “virtual particles” in the
emptiness of space. These particles appear, however, in a
pattern of random fluctuations that are literally without
recognizable form. Many researchers despair of every
capturing these virtual particles in the laboratory,
since the vibratory energies involved would be so
unimaginably intense. They come into and out of existence
at a pace that renders them in effect invisible and
intangible, just as the arms of a propeller seem to
disappear as it gets to revolving faster and faster. (But
don’t stick your hand in there!)
The idea of the
void also pervades the religious thought of all the great
cultures of the East. In fact, it is central to the
general orientation of eastern religion, and philosophy,
and it plays a role that goes far beyond the glancing nod
that is given it in Genesis. But since different eastern
religions and philosophical systems describe the void in
different ways, there is bound to be a great deal of
misunderstanding among westerners about what it means
exactly.
First we may
reiterate what it does not mean. As in the West
(where, as noted above, religious and scientific thinking
may now be in vague agreement in this minor respect), the
void is not a dimension of literal emptiness in
which nothing exists. It can best be described not as a
place, but as a condition. The condition of the void is
defined as being, not empty, but rather “without
form.” Have you ever seen a color without a shape? A
shape without a color? Imagine one of these and you will
have captured a snapshot of the void.
Thus, when the
words empty and emptiness are used in the East with
reference to spiritual goals, one should not suppose that
this implies any sort of expunging of the Universe. It
has nothing to do with self-annihilation, physical
obliteration, or mental dissolution. The Taoist phrase, empty
the mind and fill the belly, refers to a condition
that reconciles every existing thing with the formless
void. We shall see how this may be possible in the course
of this book. But in principle it ought not to strike us
as implausible at all, for that reconciliation is just
exactly what Nature accomplishes effortlessly and
flawlessly as a matter of course. In a way that we cannot
begin to fathom, Nature takes the mere “quanta”
of physical reality, which are collectively the void, and
transforms them into fish and flowers, trees and
transistors. For Her this is no problem. (Next Page)
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