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By Tom Crenshaw, Tom@RockOm.net

Why is it that it most always takes a major crisis in our lives to bring about the wisdom and ultimate peace found in the act of surrendering? We come to find ourselves completely and utterly broken; a brokenness that forces us to our knees with a subsequent surrender to a higher power has precious, life changing lessons for us but only when we can learn to say "yes" to all things that come into our lives.

Deepak Chopra says of surrender, 

"The highest aim of any spiritual path is surrender. Although you may associate the word surrender with defeat or weakness, it is the most powerful spiritual action, offering you infinite freedom and possibilities. Surrender is trusting that God, the Universe, or a higher intelligence can accomplish anything, even when you can’t foresee the outcome of a situation.

"At the level of spirit, everything is always unfolding perfectly, and you don’t have to struggle or force situations to go your way. It is only your ego-mind that believes you are an isolated individual trying to survive in a hostile world. In truth, you are a spiritual being. By surrendering to Spirit, you end the struggle, freeing yourself from fear and doubt and releasing the obstacles your ego has created."

True surrender is being grateful for and learning to express heartfelt gratitude for whatever is currently going on in our lives, regardless of our current perception of what those events, conditions, and circumstances that we are experiencing may consist of.

Once we are able to effectively initiate this gratitude, we will find that those events, conditions, and circumstances that may appear to be unpleasant or working against our desired outcomes will, with almost magical certainty, cease to exist. We'll then begin to be able to see them change and begin turning into events, conditions, and circumstances that clearly are bringing us closer to our desired outcomes. Here are some songs that can help us open to the idea of surrender with new eyes, ears and hearts.

SONG: “Living Prayer” by Alison Krauss (listen)

EXCERPT: “In your love I find release/A haven from my unbelief/Take my life and let me be/A living prayer, my God to Thee.”

REFLECTION: The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians, “Lord, I believe. Help me with my disbelief.” Alison Krauss comes in a close second here evoking the same message as she relays that in God’s love we can find a “peace that passes all understanding” if we surrender our beliefs and life to a higher power. Surrendering does not mean we lose anything, it means we can let our lives, through surrender  be “living prayers” to God and all beings.

SONG: “Bad” by U2 (listen)

EXCERPT: “This desperation, dislocation, separation, condemnation, revelation, in temptation, isolation, desolation/Let it go/And so fade away…/Surrender.”

REFLECTION: Bono’s vague lyrics here are open to interpretation but are reportedly about a friend's heroin addiction. We can use these words to remind us whatever we are experiencing that is undesirable can be let go of, that we can let our experience, our story pass into the presence of that which accepts all our faults without judgment. In this song Bono's voice  soars into the realms of both pain and exasperation, as well as velvety consolation in an effort to convey the experience of moving aside and letting all things “fade away.”

SONG: “Mind Games” by John Lennon (listen)

EXCERPT: “Yes is the answer/And you know that for sure/Yes is surrender/You got to let it, you got to let it go.”

REFLECTION: John Lennon was inspired to write "Mind Games" from a book authored by Robert Masters and Jean Houston which accentuated the force of the human brain to induce various states of consciousness. The song's positive message reminds us that saying "yes" IS the key to surrender and allowing for answers to come. By expressing "yes" we move into a higher state of being and from this openness, a space for peace and healing expands and possibilities are endless.

YOUR TURN: What songs speak to you about surrendering and letting go of preconceived outcomes allowing for new possibilities and insight?

The dictionary definitions are not enough for those of us who are alive to the sense of the sacred which we find in so many unexpected places ... and are often disappointed not to find in so many expected places.

Perhaps a better question is: what is the sense of the sacred? What does this word mean to us in a universal sense, in the context of our contemporary world of pluralism and multiculturalism, a world in unprecedented evolutionary crisis?

It is my belief, based on travel, research, and the experience of performing sacred music for people of radically different worldviews and religions, that religious tolerance, like interfaith dialogue, is growing by leaps and bounds, far outstripping the old intolerances and insularities we are all too familiar with. The mass media might make it seem otherwise --- but as we know, they thrive on bad news, and are parsimonious in reporting the good news which is happening right under their noses.

The best short response to this question I've heard is from Pierre Rabhi, founder of agro-ecology, and author of the book As in the Heart, So in the Earth : "The sense of the sacred is a sense of humility, where gratitude, knowledge, wonder, respect, and mystery all come together to inspire and enlighten our actions."

This would have seemed pretty obvious to people of ancient times. Only in the last few centuries of modernism and postmodernism has it become fashionable to ignore and disdain the sacred, much as it has become fashionable to ignore and disdain beauty, and to revere irony.

But for those who will not allow this sense to wither in them, listening to sacred music can be a heart-opening experience, even when it comes from a tradition or a culture which is strange or bizarre to them, even if they disagree with certain doctrines of that tradition, even if they reject all religion, and even if the music itself has no formal connection to any sacred tradition.

The awakening of this sense, at least in listening to music, does not depend on having specific beliefs, or even on knowing the meaning of the texts that are being sung or chanted (though it can of course be infinitely deepened by knowing and studying their meaning).

Music can be an ambassador for peace where other embassies have failed. I first learned about this power of music over twenty-five years ago, when I participated in a two-day conference at an American university, which sought to bring Jewish, Christian, and Muslim (mostly Arab, but a few Persian) students together in dialogue concerning the Palestinian problem. This was in the days of the Carter administration, when such hopeful attempts were more common. I was part of a small student musical group (oud, santur, percussion, guitar, and a male and female vocalist) thrown together at the last minute, and our job was to offer a short concert of a mixture of Arab and Jewish songs at the close of each session. The first day was very difficult, because we had to play after a stormy session with several shouting matches, much anger in the air, and little if any real dialogue. On the second day, we asked the directors to let us open the program instead of closing it. We had to beg, then insist, and they reluctantly agreed. What a difference it made! Not only was there no shouting during that conference, people really listened to each other --- and there were even some friendships made! I can't attribute it to the quality of our music (my oud-playing was pretty amateurish in those days), but I did learn something important about the power of the intent of music. Whatever our shortcomings as an ad-hoc musical group with too little rehearsal together, our individual and collective intent was so strong on that second day, that it communicated a message of peace which words alone could not have done. Last, but far from least, our motivation, on that day at least, was for our music to serve --- to serve something higher than the usual desire to shine, to thrill, or entertain, that had previously motivated us.

This was also my first inkling that the influential modernist doctrine of l'art pour l'art --- art for art's sake --- is a fatuous dead end. From the earliest times of performance art, all the way back to its beginnings in shamanism, authentic performers have always known that they are at their best when their art serves something higher than art. Individually and collectively, we are beginning to rediscover this ancient truth, but in new and mysterious ways...

By Joseph Rowe
http://www.naturalchant.com

also, see my significant other's site:
http://www.myspace.com/catherinebraslavsky

and my memoir of my teacher, Hamza El Din:
http://www.naturalchant.com/hamza.htm

In this week's podcast episode (#66, "Stripping Away"), musicians Carly Simon and Heather Maloney share interviews with RockOm. Carly talks about stripping down her hits for the new album Never Been Gone and singer-songwriter Heather Maloney shares about the stripping away process that occurs in meditation.

CLICK HERE to visit our Podcast page to download this and other episodes of the RockOm Podcast. While you're there, be sure to hit the Subscribe link to get automatic downloads of episodes as they come available.

As it turns out, Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter Carly Simon has a mystical side that is rarely made public. She shares with RockOm this week about using music to connect with others, as prayer and as a way to heal the world in Carly Simon Hears the Voice of God. Also in this interview you can preview and find out details about her latest album, Never Been Gone.

Also be sure to check out our new Featured Track of the Week from indie-folk rocker Heather Maloney. Hear Heather's song "Let It Ache" - about realizing that pain is just part of the human experience - all week long in the right column of the home page.

By Trevor Harden, Trevor@RockOm.net

Modulation (mod-yoo-LAY-shun)
1. The process of changing from one key to another.
2. In electronic music, the term is applied to a change of frequency, amplitude, or other changes of similar nature possible through electronics.

(Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary)

Modulation, in music, is the act or process of changing from one key or tonal center to another. You can hear samples of various different kinds of classical music modulations - including Direct Modulation and Pivot Tone Modulation - HERE.

For a person with no music theory background this all most likely sounds like incomprehensible jargon. It's one of those things you have to hear to fully understand, but the truth is you've heard it many times.

Take this song for instance. Listen starting around the 3:00 mark; do you notice the upward shift at 3:17? That's modulation or a key change.

Well, Pir Vilayat Khan (1916-2004), the great Sufi master once said that "Meditation...could be defined as the art of modulating consciousness." The same could be said for prayer or other forms of spiritual discipline. Like a song that suddenly or gradually shifts one key higher, doing the work of spiritual discipline shifts our consciousness a notch or two closer to the "Divine Reality." As lay monk Brother Wayne Teasdale says in The Mystic Hours: A Daybook of Inspirational Wisdom and Devotion:

"To modulate our consciousness through meditation is to allow for its transformation, the change from self-preoccupation to God-realization, from ego-fixation to Divine Love... Gradually, as we learn to fine-tune our normally uncontrolled thoughts and preoccupations, we tune to the Divinity already ever-present in our consciousness."

If you have the ear to do so, as you hear modulations or key changes in the music you listen to this week, let it be a reminder to continue in your spiritual practice. Like tying a ribbon around your finger to help you remember, allow musical modulations to be "a reminder message from the universe" to stop and take a moment to pray or - in some other way - align yourself with Divine Love.

RockOm Round-up is a quick glance at what's going on around the world in the areas of music and spirituality...

• The ever-changing Thenewno2 - Son of Beatle George Harrison, Dhani dedicates his band's new album, You Are Here, to the yogis of the Himalayas. (chicagotribune.com)

• Gospel Music Association rumors and problems; where does GMA go from here? - "It started with whispers last week that the board of the Gospel Music Association might be closing its doors. Just whispers, that is, until someone with inside knowledge tweeted that GMA was considering closing its doors and asked if this was the end of Christian music." (blog.beliefnet.com)

• Blasting the US with punk Islam - "Punks from the left and right reject us, we're slammed for using Islamic ideas – but we don't care, this tour's a labour of love." (guardian.co.uk)

• Israeli Rock Group Chasidica mixes Metal with Spiritual - "Rock guitars clash with klezmer violins, clarinets and sometimes middle eastern darboukas when Chasidica, a new Israeli rock group takes the stage. Sagi and Idan Givol, two brothers raised as secular Israelis in Ramat Gan are using what they call Chutzpahdik Kedusha to help themselves and others identify with Jewish tradition." (israelinationalnews.com)

• Birmingham audiences to get preview of Yusuf Islam's new musical - "A long-held ambition by The Artist Formerly Known As Cat Stevens to write a stage musical has been realised – and Birmingham fans will be among the first to see a preview. The singer, who changed his name to Yusuf Islam after his conversion to Islam in 1979, will showcase Moonshadow during his show at Birmingham NIA on November 23." (israelinationalnews.com)

By Trevor Harden, Trevor@RockOm.net

Sixteen years ago to this very day, one of the cheesiest pop songs to ever reach #1 on pop radio topped the charts and remained there for five weeks.

The seven-minute, overdramatic epic was the foundation upon which one very... uh... beefy rock-God belted out the catchy hook that had people across the planet simultaneously singing along and scratching their heads...

"I would do anything for love.
Yes, I would do anything for love.
I would do anything for love,
But I won't do that."
[Meatloaf, "I'd Do Anything for Love"]

Wait, what? You won't do what, Mr. Meatloaf?

In a world yet to be saturated with the Almighty Google, blogs or online forums, we were left wondering what in the hell that one thing was. In one breath he proclaims love as the highest ideal, to which he gives the entirety of his heart, mind and soul; in the next, he is hung-up. The limits had been tested and the test came back negative. To misquote ESPN's Chris Berman, "He... could... [not]... go... all... the... way."

Most of us are also like this. We claim that love is both the road upon which to walk as well as the ultimate goal. Because of our spiritual convictions, we're first in line to say that because all people are sparks of or children of the divine, that unconditional love and compassion should be the foundation upon which we build our lives.

Then comes the application...

The truth is that most of us have limits. We're willing to be loving and compassionate - but to a point. I will do anything for love, but...

• ...that jerkwad just cut me off.
• ...I don't really deal with those kinds of people.
• ...you offended or hurt me in some way.

Remember these immortal words from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, "Everyone I know has a big 'but.' C'mon, Simone, let's talk about your big 'but.'" Indeed, we all have a big "but." Very few of us are spiritually developed enough to love completely and at all times.

Fortunately, in this life - at least as I experience it - there is a divine grace that blankets our shortcomings and there is therefore no need for guilt or shame, even when we blow it. And it's not even that love and compassion are required of us anyway. If we choose to not make either a priority, that's our prerogative. It's just that most of us who have chosen to pursue Truth have discovered that Love is indeed worthy of our entire heart, mind and soul.

Over the next few days watch for where you come up against your edge. Try to discover your "but" - that place where you reach the limits of your love. Don't beat yourself up about it; we all have a threshold. But see if you can lean in to your "but", your limit, just a little. Through love, attempt to see other people for who they really are, instead of what they have done to you or who they may appear to be through your projections.

We may never get to the point where saying "...but I won't do that" is truly absent from the way in which we love others, but through practice we can enjoy getting as close as we can.

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In this week's podcast episode (#66, "Through the Frame of Faith"), musicians Derek Webb and Josh Garrels share how their spiritual convictions inform how they write music. Other topics you will enjoy include how to understand the new face of the music industry, how music is impacted by the setting in which it is written, connecting to the divine through nature, understanding the role of the artist, and more.

CLICK HERE to visit our Podcast page to download this and other episodes of the RockOm Podcast. While you're there, be sure to hit the Subscribe link to get automatic downloads of episodes as they come available.

By Trevor Harden, Trevor@RockOm.net

You probably remember Venn diagrams from high school (or perhaps you're still using them in your classes or business). While each circle signifies a unique set, overlapping sections represent any common ground.

Since the beginning of known culture, religious traditions have remained mostly within their own circle, rarely choosing to overlap into its neighbor's territory. It's an egoic defense mechanism that shouldn't be blamed; in fact it makes perfect sense. Thankfully though, we're beginning to move into a postmodern era where the overlapping of circles is becoming more and more common. Doing this brings with it not necessarily a diminishing of each individual circle (as traditionalists would have you believe) but an attitude of acceptance and coexistence.

I'm reminded of the famous story by Thich Nhat Hahn:

Twenty years ago at a conference I attended of theologians, and professors of religion, an Indian Christian friend told the assembly, "We are going to hear about the beauties of several traditions, but that does not mean that we are going to make a fruit salad." When it came my turn to speak, I said, "Fruit salad can be delicious! I have shared the Eucharist with Father Daniel Berrigan, and our worship became possible because of the sufferings we Vietnamese and Americans shared over many years." [from Living Buddha, Living Christ]

Notice he didn't say fruit purée. A banana still remains a banana and the apple chunks are still apples. Similarly finding common ground between Islam and Hinduism, for example, and allowing their Venn circles to overlap doesn't necessarily mean the loss of either's unique identity.

What does all of this have to do with music?

As various bloggers, musicians and writers have said many, many times here throughout the pages of RockOm, music is one of the tools that allows people within different circles to begin the process of moving toward one another.

Take the old dichotomy of 'secular' vs. 'sacred'...

This week two very interesting articles piqued my interest. The New York Times reported about a church in Brooklyn that, because of dying church activities and attendance, opened its door for artists to use the building. Non-religious musical groups began rehearsing in a space that, in a previous era, may have been looked down upon because of their 'secular' bent. In a remarkably similar story, a blogger at musicthinktank.com shared last month a very cool story about overcoming reservations of performing 'secular' music in a church setting. She shares,

"I find it encouraging to see more mainstream Christian churches are also seeing that artists like myself are not off topic at all. For a few hours a month, they allow their house of God to also be a House of Blues, where secular artists entertain, educate, and inspire people to do good..."

So what do we make of all this and why do I even bring it up? For a couple of reasons...

1. Cease seeing other as other | Please be cautious of the times where your inclination is to draw a line in the sand, believing someone to be different than yourself. Their circle may overlap with yours more than you think. At least consider giving that person or group the respect to be who they are without requiring them to transform their circle into one that looks like your own.
2. Allow music to help you break down walls | Rarely are people as closed-minded about their musical tastes as they are about their religious belief systems. Get to know folks by asking them about their favorite music (everybody has a favorite!).  Or attend a concert and notice how 'different' everyone is from you, yet they're there as well, enjoying what you're enjoying.
3. It's all 'divine' | If you're a person of faith, consider allowing the lines to blur a bit between what you consider 'sacred' and 'secular'. From a musical angle, see if you can find God in a pop song or can connect to something larger through a rock concert experience. Or simply use whatever music is on - Jay-Z, Megadeth or Miley Cyrus - to help center you in the present moment.
4. You can still be you | Begin to understand that in finding common ground with others, your own beliefs and preferences aren't threatened or lessened in any way. There is a way in which we can drop our guard and find acceptance and understanding toward others while still standing firm and being rooted in our own tradition and convictions.

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