Changing Strings

I really love playing guitar. It’s like an extension of my soul. But to be honest, I wasn’t always a fan of changing my strings. It requires effort, risk and most of all tension. Of course, to sound my best I have to change the strings every so often, usually about every three months if it’s one of my well utilized axes.

After following the mindful path for the past few years, I now look at the process or replacing my strings as not only necessary but also fulfilling.  The change results in more harmony and brightness in tone and sound. Now, replacing my strings has become an active meditation that brings more energy and calmness into my life.

A couple of my swell GTRs.

Impressive Impermanence

Every day, I think about the fragility of my life and those around me that I love. I cherish every moment of contact with my family and friends whether it’s a Facebook chat, an email, phone call or best of all spending old-fashioned, 3-D moments in realtime with them. Truly, I don’t sweat the small stuff with people that I love and I only surround myself with people who can enrich my life. I can no longer make time for the psychic drainers.

I have no doubt that the more we focus on the impermanence in our worlds, the happier we can be. If we can help to convey this to people who do stress and suffer more than they should, we can in turn make this world a better place. So, I challenge you dear readers to spread the word. Help people realize that life is difficult but once you can shift your perspectives and live the impermanent dream we’ll all be better off.

Find Your Freedom & Cut The Chains That Bind You

one of the ultimate free souls. photo from store in Sarasota.

For many years as a kid and young adult, I kept my differences hidden in the proverbial closet. I followed a different drummer (mostly metal skin bashers) and pursued activities like ghost hunting in my friends’ old Victorian houses, keeping a worm farm, drawing weapons of war and superheroes, reading plenty of sci-fi, horror books and comics and being a KISSaholic. Not much has changed except that my illustrations are more creative, I burnt out on sci-fi book and comics and my musical tastes have expanded greatly.

When I finally got to American University, I started to become more comfortable with exposing my uniqueness. I made more friends who were also of the same ilk an we reveled in our differentness. As a psych major, I was a minority amongst the many international studies and political science majors. I worked at the school newspaper as a music and movie writer covering metal and extreme music shows and reviewing horror and sci-fi movies with the occasional drama thrown in for good measure.

Now, as a Buddhist with a general love of open spirituality and an artist and musician, I’m still in the minority and I’m happy about it. I realize that being a unique person has opened up many opportunities for me and enabled me to meet so many great people who are also free spirits.

So to all you dear readers out there, I say to you find what makes you different and revel in that. We are all unique but sometimes it takes more effort to get out of the comfort zones that can bind us. Pursue the activities that make you feel liberated. Spend time with the other free spirits out there. Meet new and interesting people. And, if you’re already doing this keep moving forward and help those who need to be liberated from the shackles of society.

OK now, enough reading. Get going y’all!

Zen Classical Magic

Somei Satoh: one of the preeminent if not the only true modern classical zen composers
http://www.newalbion.com/artists/satohs/

Perfect Impermanence

Everyday I think about the possibility of dying or losing people close to me. It may seem like a morbid preoccupation but it’s far from that. Living this way helps me to focus on the joys of my life and the serenity that exists in my world. Dealing with the impermanence of life inspires me to get going and not get caught up in the simpler stresses of my life like my bipolar condition or the temporary money issues that I’m currently dealing with.

What prompted to bring this up today is that an old friend that I grew up with from a very young age passed away last weekend. I hadn’t seen him in many years but we reconnected on Facebook for a time and it was nice to hear from him. He was only 43 and died in his sleep. I don’t know the details but I suspect he had some serious health problems that plagued him. Whatever the reason, he died way too young and his passing was a reminder to me about how fragile our lives can be.

While I’m mildly depressed from mourning my old friend, I know that I’ll get over his death and move on. But, when a death occurs in our lives, even if it is someone we may have lost contact with, it can bring up all sorts of feelings about past losses and the future losses of people we love that will occur. Obviously, no one wants to ponder a future where we will die, get old and possibly sick and wither away but it’s inevitable.

This certainly doesn’t mean we have to obsess over death or be fearless in the face of it, but to live a complete life we have to embrace the inevitability on some level. I personally don’t believe in an afterlife though I’m open to the possibility of my soul being reincarnated in the Buddhist tradition. Yes, I’m scared of dying; it’s a fear that’s healthy and built into our limbic systems but the more I cope with it, the less terrifying the concept becomes.

Making Money Can Help The World Go Around

I used to dread the concept of making money and believed in the delusion that the pursuit of money would lead to selfishness, greed and countered my Buddhist beliefs until I read Geshe Michael Roach’s Book “The Diamond Cutter: Managing Your Business and Your Life”. The book had a powerful effect on me as it merged Buddhist concepts of interconnection, financial health and helping people and our world. This was a mind-blowing revelation to me because now I could see money as an integral part of our lives and that it could not only make my life better but also my friends and loved ones.

The basic’s of Roach’s concepts are that by planting a seed in your mind for success in whatever endeavor you pursue, you can succeed if you also help a friend, family member or someone who has the same sort of goal for achievement. This takes the concept of thriving financially and materially to a new level where it’s not longer a selfish pursuit but one that can help people and the world around you.

Now I perceive making good money as a healthy and rewarding pursuit that will enable me to not only help those close to me but also aid me in growing my business. By making my wellness business thrive, I will in turn be able to help other people as well as being able to donate to great causes in the world.

For more info on Roach’s work, check out some Youtube videos and The Diamond Cutter Institute.

Update on The New Neurotransmitter

I posted before about a theoretical neurotransmitter that I made-up. I know what you’re thinking, “Paul, you’re not a neuroscientist and you don’t know anything about finding neurotransmitters in the brain!”. True, I’m not but I like to play one on the internet.

But not-so-seriously, I’ve changed the name of my new “discovery” to laffamine. The more you indulge in comedy and humor in your life, the more you’ll increase the rate of laffamine flow in your brain.

Check out Jim Gaffigan and see if you can up your laffamine…

Sound Advice – Have Some Sonic Backup

I’ve always recommended to my clients that they have music that they enjoy readily at hand. Music makes my life so much richer and enjoyable and I have music for every mood. Most importantly, I make sure that I have music that fills my soul and body with joy as well as music that transports me to vitual places of peace.

For pure joy, I indulge in music like hard rock (AC/DC, Aerosmith) big band and swing (Glenn Miller, Harry James) funk rock (P-Funk, Living Colour)  upbeat classical (Beethoven, Mozart) and international music (Gogol Bordello, Peter Gabriel). It’s important to have your joyful music at the ready for any situation.

I also collect ambient and electronic music that I use for meditation, stress relief or doing creative work that requires osme sonic peace. Steve Roach is one of the kings of ambient music (www.steveroach.com) as is Robert Rich (www.robertrich.com). I’m also passionate about retro-70s style electronic music like Jean Michel Jarre (www.jeanmicheljarre.com) and Ian Boddy (http://www.din.org.uk/din/node/310).

So, if you’re seeking suggestions, I’m full of ideas (my friends call me a music encyclopedia) so please let me know.

Sombient Rain: A new track I wrote

No Attachement 2 Dust