The thought I have for you today is this application of the idea of music.
Music is such a powerful basic thing that seems to connect in such a basic way with us and with the world, and there’s something very fundamental about it.
And I think that it can be useful to kind of use that metaphor and that frame of thinking and applying to our lives.
So I look at ways of looking at the elements of music.
You see rhythm, harmony, melody.
And of course thythm: we can see that in time.
And music, of course, itself is something that exists in the dimension of time, just like our lives are in this dimension of time.
And the rhythm is how everything fits in time.
The pacing, the speed, the elements that repeat, and the sections that change.
All of these things are part of the rhythm.
Following the most basic rhythm of the heartbeat, the breath, up to the day, most basic rhythm of waking and sleeping.
And then we go around the year, rhythm of the year, and ultimately can look at entire life as being like one kind of circuit or circle or one particular unit of rhythm somehow.
And so I really like getting to feel that thythm, getting to feel all the different cycles within cycles.
Heartbeat, breath, one session of effort, one day, season, lifetime, so on.
And really feel all those different cycles within cycles.
And we can kind of feel where we are with each of them, and like really make use of those cycles and that timing to the best that we can.
I mean, timing is such a fundamental thing for good action and a good life.
It’s almost like it’s like magic.
You could do the most perfect thing at the wrong time, and it would be disaster.
But you can do even very simple, small things, but if you do them at just the right time, it’s like magic.
So the rhythm and timing is just such a good thing to plug into.
And then I think about harmony.
So the idea of harmony, that we’re not alone.
Like it’s more like life is maybe more like a symphony than it is just like a solo a cappella song.
It’s like we’re always…
we’re surrounded by other music, and there’s the music in everything around us, from other people, and in nature, and everything going on.
And so there’s this idea of tuning, that we can’t just be living entirely doing whatever we want.
Of course, in a way, we can.
Like we do have the freedom to make any note we want.
So it’s not to say we’re not “allowed” to make any note we want.
Just like, you know, someone in the orchestra, like OK, they’re not allowed to have a different tuning than everybody else.
Well, OK, you can say we have the freedom to have any note we want, but it’s just good to have tuning that lines up. […]
Like there’s certain things we can do that it feels like dissonance.
The the metaphor of being dissonant.
Like we can do something that just like sounds…
it gives people the same feeling that like one of those screech notes gives, or that somebody’s out of tune, out of key.
We can do actions that have that effect.
Or we can do actions that just like fit in.
If we hit the tuning right, if we hit the right harmony, then it’s like this resonance effect, where what we do becomes magnified, and it becomes more powerful, because it just hits the right resonance where it combines with others.
And so through this idea of harmony, we can make our actions part of this sort of bigger picture, this sort of symphony of the universe, and make everything better.
And then melody: that’s where I think there’s the most freedom.
So melody operates within…
it fits with the rhythm.
It fits with the harmony.
It operates within that.
And yet with the melody, there’s now this chance to be more playful, free, experimental.
The melody can do so many different things.
And the melody can be very instinctive, can be kind of just doing what feels naturally, letting the melody flow.
And we can also be creative with melody and do things that are different.
And we can choose to keep things minimal, or we can add more notes and ornaments, and kind of shape the melody exactly as we wish.
So this is where I think it’s almost like the most fun.
It’s like the icing on the cake.
It’s the most fun part, where we’re feeling the rhythm, we’re tuned in harmony, and then we can give our unique melody.
It’s like the most individual aspect of it, where we can really express ourselves and live the life that we want to live, in our own way, in our own style.
Like it’s where we can really give an expression of style and taste and what we like.
So these three combined, rhythm, harmony, melody: I think this is a fun metaphor to apply to life.
So I’d be curious to hear: how do you apply this? Or I’m sure there’s many other ways that this idea of music, the music of life, that this can be applied.
So I’d be curious to hear how you do it.
And I hope you enjoy it.