The Music is the Point

Before going to sleep last night I heard a couple of minutes of a show on CBC radio that had someone saying, "the point of music isn't to get someplace, otherwise the orchestra would play one big chord and everyone would applaud. The point of dancing isn't to get somewhere - it's the dance." I was speaking out loud to myself, "Yes! Yes! That's it." And then I found out it was a repeat broadcast of something that had been on Ideas in the past, a story about Alan Watts.

Alan Watts left a load of teachings behind when he died. They're available here and many of them are recordings of his lectures. I love listening to recorded teachings.

I went to sleep feeling that, "yeah - it's the dance - my life is the point, not some achievement in the future, but as it is now," which of course I already KNOW, but to really FEEL it and GET that sense is such a treat because I don't walk around with that insight all the time. I think about a future place. When my house is clean. When my daughter is well-behaved. When I can take a vacation. When I get my running body back. When I'm successful. THEN I can begin living life again. Which is so besides the point!

To wake up and really LIVE that this is it. This is the point. All of my challenges and obstacles are the steps in my dance. All of the people I see each day are part of my concerto. That feels so close to living the way I am meant to live - that this is not my "practice life," but my REAL life.

Welcome to a Wonderful Wednesday!