1 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:19,360 Good morning everybody. So some of you know that I'm now 2 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:23,480 going into the 4th week of doing a physical therapy for my 3 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:31,200 coronary artery disease and it requires me every morning to lay 4 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,680 on a table with my legs wrapped in these air bladders that 5 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:40,840 inflict to pump blood back to my heart, counter my heartbeat. 6 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:47,680 What that means is that I can't lay there and read because my 7 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:53,320 body is jumping like this for an hour, but I can lay there and 8 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:58,240 listen to music. So I've been listening to the 9 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:03,120 Bach Organ Works. Sorry for those of you who are 10 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:06,720 not into classical music, but this is going to be a baroque 11 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:12,920 music geek out. As I was laying there one day, 12 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:21,440 it hit me that truly listening to the Bach Organ Works is very 13 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:29,400 much like Zazen. By the way, one of the things I 14 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:33,160 love about now having the song go on my second floor is that 15 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:35,960 when I forget my coffee, I can run back down with stairs warm 16 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:37,640 enough is a microwave and bring it back up. 17 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:46,720 We talked last week about Zazen and about how what it is is 18 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:52,640 simply being present in the current moment in all of its 19 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:58,120 Infinity. Not focusing on any one thing, 20 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:03,280 not being trapped in the past or the future, not being trapped by 21 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:06,960 anyone thought and allowing it to consume our attention. 22 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,039 But simply sitting present in the moment. 23 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:18,200 Listening to Bach is very much the same. 24 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:24,200 And the reason I say that is if you're not familiar with the 25 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:27,000 organ works, I highly recommend them. 26 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:31,200 Cameron Carpenter is my current favorite organist. 27 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:37,560 But when you're listening to them, it's almost impossible to 28 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:41,720 believe that all of these sounds are being produced by 10 fingers 29 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:45,440 and two feet playing a single instrument. 30 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:57,520 The complexity, the the sheer beauty of what you're hearing is 31 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:01,560 so easy to get lost in. But that's not the parts that 32 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:05,640 saw Zen, because Zen is not getting lost in the moment, it's 33 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:13,960 being present in the moment. What is very zazen like about 34 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:22,920 listening to Bach is that you can't be distracted away from 35 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:28,480 the entirety of the piece. You can't allow yourself to get 36 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:34,440 caught listening for the melody, and especially with the organ 37 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:38,520 works because the melody is going to bounce from one voice 38 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:42,960 to another, and sometimes it's going to bounce to another voice 39 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,120 and be exactly the same as it was before. 40 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:50,360 Other times it's going to be transformed so you barely 41 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:56,480 recognize the melody, but if you allow yourself to sit there and 42 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:02,440 follow the melody, you lose all of the other stuff that's going 43 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:07,160 on That makes the peace itself a true whole. 44 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:13,640 You have to allow the melody simply to be part of what 45 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:21,880 exists, and I call that horizontal serving tea. 46 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:27,920 If you remember Suzuki Rashi's poem about zazen, open your 47 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:30,720 front door and your back door. Let thoughts come and go. 48 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,080 Just don't serve them tea. Well, if you're listening to 49 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:40,880 Bach and you follow the melody, you're serving tea horizontally. 50 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:44,520 Because if you're trying to follow one line throughout the 51 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:50,520 piece. The thing I love about Baroque 52 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:59,080 music is that it was prior to sorry I'm going to slightly geek 53 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:04,280 into music theory now, it was prior to chords becoming the way 54 00:05:04,280 --> 00:05:10,120 that music was composed. So in the classical and romantic 55 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:17,680 heroes, composers wrote chords, and the chords were generally, 56 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:22,320 well, they were rarely if ever dissonant. 57 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:30,560 So pieces were composed of chords that went through the 58 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:35,880 entire piece. In Baroque music, it's lines, 59 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:43,480 and the lines interact as they transfer through the piece, and 60 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:46,920 there are moments of real dissonance. 61 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:50,680 If you were able to break it down and stop at one particular 62 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:54,600 measure, you might hear beautiful harmony. 63 00:05:55,400 --> 00:06:01,440 You might also hear incredibly weird dissonance, and that's 64 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:07,480 because there wasn't a a feeling that every moment had to be 65 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:11,200 perfect in itself. Get where I'm going? 66 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:18,160 The same is true in life. We have dissonance that runs 67 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:25,760 through our lives, but they're moments and the common go. 68 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,440 And the thing about Baroque music is that if those very 69 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:38,720 moments of dissonance that give the beauty and complexity to the 70 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:45,040 peace, if you don't even notice the dissonance, you notice 71 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,600 something weird and then it comes back and then, oh, wow, 72 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:53,360 cool, that's those dissonances being resolved. 73 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:02,480 It's a lot like life, isn't it? If we concentrate on a moment, 74 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:12,240 yeah, that moment might be very dissonant, but it builds into 75 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:24,560 the beauty of life as a whole. If we're present in a moment and 76 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:28,640 that's what we're doing in zazen, that moment might be 77 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:33,360 dissonant. The thing to remember is that 78 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:38,520 moment passes and becomes another moment and becomes 79 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:45,560 another moment. Remember that the Sanskrit word 80 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:51,840 for mindfulness is sati, which literally translates as 81 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:55,080 remembrance of the present moment. 82 00:07:56,080 --> 00:08:00,000 And I love that translation because by the time you 83 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,400 recognize the present moment, it's gone. 84 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,320 So in essence, whenever you were living in the present moment, 85 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:09,840 you're actually living in your remembrance of the present 86 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:14,360 moment because you're now in the next moment and it just 87 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:24,120 continues on like that. And so if you get lost in a 88 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:29,160 particular present moment, I call that vertically serving 89 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:34,880 tea. Something has trapped you in 90 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:38,440 that present moment, and you're not allowing yourself to move on 91 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:40,720 from it into the next present moment. 92 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:50,760 Like all analogies, this obviously breaks down. 93 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:59,320 No analogy is is truth, but it's something that struck me while I 94 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:03,600 was laying there listening to to my music. 95 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:07,880 And then I started thinking about the other times we 96 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:14,600 experience or can experience the same sort of non zazen zazen. 97 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:23,360 And one is forest bathing. If you've never heard of it, 98 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:30,280 it's actually a an accepted therapy in Japan that can be 99 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:35,480 prescribed by your doctor and even paid for by your insurance. 100 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:41,200 To go out into the forest and experience the moment. 101 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:51,560 Well, that is the same as being immersed in Bach, in that you 102 00:09:51,560 --> 00:10:01,560 don't go there to look at a tree or notice the wind specifically, 103 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:09,720 or notice the bird saw. You go there to be immersed in 104 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:17,560 the totality of the forest. Again, it's zazen. 105 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:19,680 It's simply not sitting on a cushion. 106 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:29,880 It is allowing yourself the time to experience the present moment 107 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:35,720 without being trapped by the past, the future, or thoughts 108 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:44,960 that consume our minds. So I guess my the essence of 109 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:51,880 what I'm saying today is if you are in a period of your life 110 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:58,080 where you have trouble sitting Zaza and we all encounter those, 111 00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:04,320 choose another way of doing the same thing. 112 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:09,560 But remember the the essence of Zaza. 113 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:18,320 But it is to live in the present, to accept the reality 114 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:28,620 of the present, not to be lost in what we want it to be, and 115 00:11:28,620 --> 00:11:36,020 then to move from there into acting to make the future a 116 00:11:36,020 --> 00:11:44,680 better present for all beings. Before we can make that movement 117 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:49,960 into action, we have to 1st sit in the present moment, whether 118 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:58,200 it's on a cushion in the forest or listening to, for me, Bach. 119 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:06,560 Maybe you have another composer who does that for you, but find 120 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:13,040 a way. Oh, bringing yourself into the 121 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:19,240 present moment and out of all of the distractions that trap us. 122 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:22,480 Hey Glenn, thanks so much for a classical music talk. 123 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:26,880 You know, I'm a classical musician, so this one really 124 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:27,960 landed. Thank you. 125 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:33,120 It's interesting you brought up Bach specifically is working for 126 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:40,600 you in this way because Bach is a little bit unique in the well, 127 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,280 to talk about him, I have to talk about another guy who's a 128 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:49,760 monk named Johann Fuchs. He in like the early 1700s wrote 129 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:54,440 down rules of music theory that have become the basis for 130 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:59,480 Western music and ever since, and they're like 10 or 12 of 131 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:03,640 them, not a lot, but essentially what he was doing was listening 132 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,240 to music and saying this sounds right. 133 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:12,360 So it is the truth of music and this also sounds right. 134 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:17,240 And so it is the truth of music and that became very accepted by 135 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:21,120 Western musicians. And Bach is a little unique in 136 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:26,040 that he looked at Spooks rules and said, great, I have them, I 137 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:29,080 will operate within them and I will never deviate from them. 138 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:33,480 Other composers looked at them and said, great, I like them in 139 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:38,800 95% of all musical situations, but I will choose to deviate 140 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:43,720 from them as part of my unique composition and artistry. 141 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:48,320 What that means for us as Western listeners is that Bach 142 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:50,880 is very, very easy on our brains. 143 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,640 He operates within the rules that we want to hear as 144 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:59,160 Westerners. And to try and strengthen your 145 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:02,040 analogy a little bit, I think that's kind of like the 146 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:06,320 eightfold path, right? Where we have these things are 147 00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:09,480 not rules per SE, but they're, you know, certainly pretty 148 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:13,600 awesome guidelines. And we can use to adhere to 149 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:18,000 those as strictly as we want, or we can choose to deviate from 150 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:22,640 them situationally or whatever. But they are there, just like 151 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:27,360 these rules of music theory are. And yeah, I think that's about 152 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:29,400 all I can say about that. But again, thank you for the 153 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:31,040 classical music. That was wonderful. 154 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:37,400 Thanks, Maggie, and thanks for that Apple amplification though. 155 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:49,400 Yeah, I agree. Bach used the rules exactly. 156 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:54,680 And and you're right, that's that's what makes him, I think, 157 00:14:54,680 --> 00:15:02,960 so easy for us to listen to. But at the same time, he showed 158 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:08,680 that, and I think this actually applies to your continuation of 159 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:11,040 it, of the analogy to the fateful path. 160 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:18,800 He showed that adhering to the rules doesn't necessarily 161 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:26,640 require a a monolithic, in his case sound, or in the case of 162 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:30,240 the 8 fold path, a monolithic action. 163 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:37,880 Because if you go from the organ works to the coral works to 164 00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:48,880 other pieces, there's really nothing that necessarily. 165 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,680 Ties them together. There's there's not a common 166 00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:01,960 sound. So he was able to make all of 167 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:11,120 these different compositions, all following the rules, but all 168 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,920 totally different. I think the same is true of 169 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:19,760 following the eight fold path. And that's why Buddhism has 170 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:27,040 never gone the road of dogmatic Thou shalt and thou shalt not. 171 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:33,440 We have the Eightfold Path. But if your interpretation of 172 00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:40,400 appropriate livelihood is different than mine, so be it. 173 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:47,280 If you're truly are following the Eightfold path and choosing 174 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:53,000 this as appropriate livelihood, right? 175 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:59,400 Just because I would not have chosen that livelihood doesn't 176 00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:04,400 make it wrong. The same for meditation, 177 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:09,359 concentration, thoughts, actions, speech. 178 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:16,240 Just because I do things a certain way and feel that I am 179 00:17:17,079 --> 00:17:20,359 expressing the eightfold path and you do things a different 180 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,400 way and feel that you are expressing the full path. 181 00:17:24,079 --> 00:17:29,280 If we are honest, if we can turn that damned mirror rigorous self 182 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:34,080 honesty on ourselves than on our actions and thoughts and say 183 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:42,160 yes, I am following the full path, then it doesn't matter 184 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:47,000 that we do it differently. We're following the same 185 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:51,640 guidance. So thank you for that, Maggie. 186 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:54,360 It was a really nice amplification. 187 00:17:56,560 --> 00:17:59,560 This is just an observation. When you talk about music and 188 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:03,080 the rules, I think it's kind of funny that punk rock was born 189 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:08,640 out of breaking the rules and then that became a rule of being 190 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:16,680 a pump rocker. Yeah I always loved the non 191 00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:22,880 conformist too criticize freak people for being conformist but 192 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:27,320 if I was not conforming then I would be conforming to your non 193 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:32,120 conformity. So one of the things that came 194 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:39,480 to mind when you were talking about this force bathing and was 195 00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:42,880 interpretation of the DABE chain that I've read. 196 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,320 And I'm glad my students aren't here because they roll their 197 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:52,200 eyes right now, but that as human beings we get, we tend to 198 00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:58,800 focus on on one particular aspect of the thing. 199 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:02,200 Like, so in music, it's like, OK, well, what is the trumpet 200 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:05,920 sound like or what is the bass sound like or the vocalist sound 201 00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:10,440 like or whatever. And what's 1 of the things that 202 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:14,800 Buddhism and Zazen are really good at is being like, OK, well, 203 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:16,720 how does that fit into the field? 204 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:20,200 Like how can you where, where does that? 205 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:26,160 Because if you look at whatever punk or classical or whatever, 206 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:31,320 the magic doesn't happen in whatever individual piece that 207 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:34,640 you're trying to focus on. The magic happens when you step 208 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:37,720 back and look at it as a field. Same with like the forest. 209 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:42,240 It's if you focus on the chipmunks or this wind or the 210 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:48,840 thing, you're missing the field. And when you, when you can feel 211 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:55,760 work become with the field of things, then something happens 212 00:19:55,760 --> 00:20:00,200 that is different from the way that we normally operate in our 213 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,400 day-to-day lives. And so that that'd be able to 214 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:09,280 shift between the focus and the field and then doing both is, I 215 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:15,160 think something that is a vital component of what we do in Zasa. 216 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:20,080 In the way that we appreciate music or culture or society or 217 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:25,240 families, or I mean, how often Thanksgiving being a thing, how 218 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:27,840 often just one little thing happened and you're like, man, 219 00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:31,640 I'm just going to focus on that because that is what is, you 220 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,400 know, as opposed to being like, OK, well that thing happened, 221 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:35,800 but it's part of this greater thing. 222 00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:37,560 And this greater thing is pretty awesome. 223 00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:44,480 So don't let the dissidents. So let the dissonance rule the 224 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:47,080 field that the field inform the distance. 225 00:20:51,240 --> 00:21:00,800 Yeah, yeah, by the way, that really love Bach obviously I 226 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:05,360 actually have drawn even more and Maggie you'll know what I'm 227 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:15,400 talking about here to prior to him to Renaissance then press. 228 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:20,840 One of my favorite composers is Thomas Tallis, and they're in 229 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:26,000 that era, compositions were completely horizontal, so each 230 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:30,760 line was written as a complete line, but there were some 231 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:36,480 together. Prior to even Tallis, it was 232 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:45,640 simply a single line. But with Renaissance music, you 233 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:50,280 had all these multiple lines. And there you got even more 234 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:55,320 dissonance being resolved because when you compose by, OK, 235 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:59,440 here's the soprano line and here's the tenor line, and 236 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:04,200 here's the baseline, and you're not looking at it vertically, 237 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:06,080 then. Yeah, they're going to be 238 00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:08,560 sometimes that you listen to your. 239 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:11,120 Oh. Damn, that's bad. 240 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:17,160 But then it resolves, and it's so cool to hear those 241 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:24,280 resolutions. You can always see why the 242 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:31,360 church banned polyphonic singing for so long, because you did 243 00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:35,920 have those distances and the church wanted conformity and so 244 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:41,000 Remorian Chap was the way. And that is a single note that 245 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:46,200 all people say. And when oh phonic music came 246 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:51,760 along, they were like, oh, oh, oh, we can't have those 247 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:55,480 dissonances. Failing to hear that the beauty 248 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:58,800 of it was in the resolution of those dissonances. 249 00:23:04,590 --> 00:23:06,190 Hi, Glenn. It's great to see you. 250 00:23:06,190 --> 00:23:07,910 It's Joe in Philadelphia. Hi. 251 00:23:08,350 --> 00:23:09,760 Joe. How are you? 252 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:11,440 It's really wonderful to be here. 253 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,080 I'm, I'm actually retired on disability because of a bunch of 254 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,720 autoimmune stuff. So you may see more of me. 255 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:24,480 Lynn, I really appreciated your your talk and it was nice to sit 256 00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:27,400 with all of you. I'm going to put a picture on 257 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:31,120 here. Your discussion reminds me of my 258 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:34,240 sleep last night. I tracked my sleep and I finally 259 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:38,240 got, you know, more than 7 hours and that's there's my there are 260 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:41,480 my variations, which you vote. It's interesting that you know 261 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:44,600 people, you know, serendipity. My parents used to say what look 262 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:47,280 for yellow Volkswagens when you were driving to the short. 263 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:51,520 It sort of distract us. And someone said to me, when 264 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:55,160 you're present and you're open, you don't have to look. 265 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:58,400 They just appear. So you just appeared today and I 266 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,640 happen to just start reading the gold bug variations by Richard 267 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,600 Powers. And if you're not familiar with 268 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:10,440 it, based on all the recommendations and the, you 269 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:14,000 know, the praise it received, just, I'll just real quick give 270 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:19,280 one the central metaphor box Goldbug variations with its Aria 271 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:23,320 and 30 variations on a single theme serves it as a structural 272 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:26,760 conceptual model for the novel's exploration of patterns and 273 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:29,920 variations. And a lot of what you said. 274 00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:31,680 Do you have any other thoughts on that? 275 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,760 The 30 variations and and maybe my sleep. 276 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:38,800 It's great to be here with you. It's great to be here with you. 277 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:44,200 No, I think, I think that's, you know, it is. 278 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,720 I'll be honest, the Goldberg Variations are not one of my 279 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:57,600 favorite compositions of Bach, but I I get the I get the the 280 00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:04,280 way that they appeal to music theorists, and they do, they do 281 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:12,000 bring out in us some of that, that same thing that both Joe 282 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:17,800 and I were talking about, of not being stuck with a single 283 00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:24,600 interpretation. Yeah, you have the original 284 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:30,040 theme, but then all of these variations include that theme, 285 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:31,960 but they're different expressions of it. 286 00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:38,160 What more perfect analogy to Buddhism is there? 287 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:49,120 We follow the Dharma the same as our Tibetan siblings do, but the 288 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:51,960 expression of it is incredibly different. 289 00:25:55,600 --> 00:26:06,800 I was drawn this week with Pope Leo's trip to Turkey and his 290 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:12,400 meeting with the Orthodox patriarchs. 291 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:19,720 And the common theme there was, hey, we're all following the 292 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,920 same teachings. We're just doing it differently 293 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:28,640 to let us recognize the validity of each, interpret each other's 294 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:35,320 interpretation. And I think Buddhism has always 295 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:41,720 done that. I, I always tell people it'll be 296 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:45,600 an interesting experiment to travel the world and visit 297 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:48,040 different Christian congregations and different 298 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:54,600 Buddhist Congress. And if you go into churches in 299 00:26:55,720 --> 00:27:02,200 Korea or Japan or Armenia, or well, I mean, we've got the 300 00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:06,120 Orthodox cause, sorry there, we're not used to that in the 301 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:10,560 West. But India or wherever else you 302 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:14,560 go into a Christian Church, you're going to recognize the 303 00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,440 service. It's going to be in a different 304 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:21,600 language, but you're pretty much going to recognize what's going 305 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:25,760 on. If you'd make that same trip and 306 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:31,360 go into Buddhist temples or songhouse, your reaction is 307 00:27:31,360 --> 00:27:34,320 going to be what the fuck is this? 308 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,040 This is not Buddhism. No, what are they doing? 309 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,480 But we're all fine with each other because we accept the 310 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:55,120 variations in the practice and not only accept but recognize 311 00:27:55,760 --> 00:28:05,600 the beauty of those variations. I honestly love going to KTC 312 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:08,400 now. That and hearing the chanting 313 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:12,760 and the horns and the music and everything else. 314 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:19,120 It's great. I wouldn't do it here, but it's 315 00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:25,680 wonderful. So I do think that anything that 316 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:34,960 allows us to break away from believing that a central theme 317 00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:39,800 has to be expressed the same way in all cases is good. 318 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,120 And honestly, I'd say your your point started with sleep. 319 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:49,720 I would say the same about sleep trackers. 320 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:56,760 I hate sleep trackers. I've tried using them and 321 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:04,520 comparing my sleep pattern to what it's supposed to be, and 322 00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:07,440 I've come to the conclusion that the only definition of what 323 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:11,280 sleep is supposed to be is how I feel when I get up from it in 324 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,160 the morning. If I feel rested, then it 325 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:18,800 doesn't matter if my pattern was waking up 15 times during the 326 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,720 night or if my pattern was sleeping straight through. 327 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:29,080 If I feel rested, I feel rested. So thanks, Joe. 328 00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:31,960 Good to see you. Thank you, I actually woke up 329 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:36,680 feeling wonderful Even so all those varies and much meta to 330 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,600 you. Lots of love to you. 331 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:40,480 I appreciate you and everyone here. 332 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,520 The way you feel about sleep checkers is the way I feel about 333 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,560 exercise. We have friends that bike and 334 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:53,560 Dave and I bike. Dave and I get on our bikes and 335 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:58,280 go through the forest and enjoy the past and go until we're 336 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,600 tired and then we're done. Whereas my friends, you know, 337 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:04,480 how many miles and what did my heart rate get to? 338 00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:09,920 And and to me that that makes exercise work and I want it to 339 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:14,680 just be for pleasure. Well, thank you all for joining 340 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:16,800 us today. I hope everyone had a good 341 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:25,600 holiday and we will finish up the day with the Buddhist at the 342 00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:27,440 vowel and for ministrables.