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 30
Chapter Five
What is a thing?
This is a
question to exercise your mind at length. You will come
up with many ideas and descriptions. An object that
occupies space/time, for example. But, will you forgot
that a “thing” is also a “noun”? Do
you suppose it is possible that it may be only a
noun? Do things have reality only as grammatical
constructions? When you say, “It is raining,”
you don’t attach any actual reality to the word
“it,” do you? But you may be doing just exactly
that in a more generalized way in the great majority of
other cases that are basically equivalent even though in
them you do not use the abstract pronoun “it”
– and you may be doing this without even noticing.
Are we hypnotized
and tricked by language itself, the instrument of
thought, into seeing the world within the parameters of
purely verbal constraints? Since language is not the only
instrument of thought, can this help to explain how we
can see life differently through the lens of art and
music? These are questions that may lead to a revolution
in your patterns of thinking and feeling.
Grammar, per se,
has already come up in this inquiry with respect to
subjects and objects (the case of “I
am…”). We may note now that nouns can be both
subjects and objects. We think of things as subjects and
objects because things seem to be discreet and distinct
in some respect. This is why we are called to name them
individually. The act of naming is the active side of
consciousness, and, of course, we do it by way of making
sense of things, “so that each finds its
place.”
Obviously, this
is not only a western preoccupation. In every phase of
life, mature people of every culture are called upon to
make very clear distinctions between things. We quite
rightly make distinctions between the hours of the day,
and the weeks of the year. Some of us, anyway, know very
well the difference between being penny wise and pound
foolish. In order for things to be understood, they have
to be analyzed in terms of their differentiated parts. We
do have to cut up the chicken in order to eat it. And,
our information comes to us today in the form of little
“bytes.”
But, from the
point of view a baby, from your point of view before you
knew your name – in other words, from the point of
view of the void - all these things do not appear to be
discreet and distinct. It is surely a very interesting
fact, therefore, that leading spiritual traditions from
East to West pay honor to the undiscriminating innocence
of the child. Be as children, says Jesus – or like
babies, says Lao Tzu. The baby is supple and flexible,
instinctively right in action, unconditional in love, and
inherently lovable. It is always wise to carry one of
your own baby pictures with you at all times. When people
get mad at you, hold it up and say, “See.
That’s me!” It’s a way of saying that you
can easily be wrong and innocent at the same time. It is
a way of blurring the distinctions. (Next Page)
|
