I realise with amazement that the whole universe is a colourfully woven tapestry of innumerable vibrations; and every creature has its place in it and, through its reactions, affects the whole carpet.
One would like to become a sound
and unite in a song from heaven.
Friedrich Hölderlin
It seems to me that the whole path and goal of our human existence are already contained in this longing cry.
When I listen deeply I hear my tone. I am a sound in the immeasurable orchestra of this earth – a sound all my own, unique in its expression. A colourful bouquet of vibrations that go into resonance or dissonance with other people, with nature, with the circumstances in which I find myself.
World Inner Space
Then chords emerge, sometimes beautifully harmonious, sometimes painfully discordant. I realise that I am connected with everyone and everything, as Rainer Maria Rilke says in one of his poems:
Through all beings reaches the one space:
World Inner Space. The birds fly silently
through us. O, who wants to grow,
I look out and within me the tree grows.[1]
In other words: everything that seems to be only on the outside is also at the same time in a common inner space that is formed by the creative spiritual forces. Yes, there it is above all, there it is in its original state, in its original power.
But the fullness of the spiritual world wants to show itself, wants to appear. I too am one of its manifestations. In me, too, a whole spectrum of forces reveals itself. It has given rise to sense organs. Through them I see the peculiarities of things and forces from the outside. The inner, the intrinsic, the original experiences itself from the outside, and even allows the outside in us humans to become seemingly independent.
I experience the sun. It is outside of me. My eyes create its image in my brain. I feel its energy acting on me through my skin, its light brightening my psyche. I feel how it penetrates my material body. Researchers say it forms vitamin D and much more. But now, at the same time, I feel urged inwardly, as Rilke did, to consciously look twice at the sun, the moon and the stars. Then they are as areas of vibration, as spiritual-soul beings in me from the outset. I consist of them and many other beings and the same applies to them. I am also in them from the outset. They consist of me and many other things.
An overwhelming feeling takes hold of me. Everything that flows into me through my eyes, ears, smell, taste and touch is part of me from the beginning. And now, through my outer senses, it reveals itself. Through me the qualities that are interwoven in the inner space of the world experience themselves, through the human being, all things that are actually one in the inner spheres confronts each other.
I realise with amazement that the whole universe is a colourfully woven tapestry of innumerable vibrations; and every creature has its place in it and, through its reactions, affects the whole carpet.
The self-made Dungeon
And this is where my task begins. The task of awakening to what is. What do I do with all that flows in? In the vast majority of cases I immediately sort everything into my numerous drawers, which have been created by my conditioning and my beliefs.
On the drawers are words like: “Good for me”, “Bad for me”, “Worth knowing”, “Rubbish”, “Pleasant”, “Unpleasant”, “Painful”, “Important”, and on one drawer it says: “Forget it now!”.
What I put where is determined by the law of resonance. Vibrations that are the same end up in the same drawer, dissonant vibrations are sorted out or end up in the corresponding drawer. In this way, I create an electromagnetic field of vibration around me that forces me to perceive and act in a certain way.
Only what fits this field attracts my interest. Only that to which my attention is directed do I perceive. Everything else is faded out. So I build and maintain my own prison. Even the most beautiful sound that I can produce doesn’t change anything. It simply beautifies my dungeon.
There is a video on youtube that affected me very much, because it so clearly declares our blindness. The viewer is asked to count the rallies of a basketball team. At the end of the video, the viewer is asked if they saw the bear that ran across the court. The vast majority of
viewers have not seen the bear. Only when the video is replayed and attention is directed to the bear can you see it walking leisurely across the pitch.[2]
This proves that we only perceive what our attention is focused on.
Lao Tse also talks about this prison in the 12th chapter of the Tao te King.
The five colours blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five tastes spoil the taste.
Riding and hunting in a frenzy confuses the human heart.
Goods that are hard to attain lead man to corrupt deeds.That is why the wise man deals with his inner self
and not with his eyes. […]
He rejects everything that comes from without and desires that which is within in the kingdom of the heart. In this way he breaks the chain of causes and effects.
Longing for the Universe
A great longing seizes me. I know that there are still much more powerful vibrations, beautiful, light and sublime above all material things. Rays from a spiritual, eternal order. I can feel them when I dive deep within myself. They come from that kingdom of the heart of which Lao Tse speaks.
The German poet Gertrud von le Fort describes it like this:
I have such powerful dreams.
I know well their desire:
at night through wide spaces
every spring seeks the sea.[3]
I am a drop that is seeking this sea. When the drop flows out of the spring into the light of day, it has a long journey through sand, earth and stone behind it. But once it has surrendered to the stream, there is no stopping it. It has always been a part of the sea, and so its resonance draws it inexorably across river and stream towards the sea, towards union with its source.
The journey of the water through the darkness of the earth is like my experiences in the material world. They purify me, remove all dirt and everything that prevents me from ascending and abandoning myself to the source that draw me to the light and hands me over to the divine stream that unites me with my origin.
In the Corpus Hermeticum in the 2nd volume, Pymander speaks to Hermes about this process:
- If thou dost not make thyself like God, you cannot comprehend him, for only the same comprehends the same.
- Grow up to an immeasurable greatness, arise from all bodies, rise above all time, become eternity! Then you will comprehend God.
- Let the thought permeate you that nothing is impossible to you, consider yourself immortal and able to understand everything, all art, all science, the nature of all that lives.
- Become higher than all heights and deeper than all depths.
- Gather in yourself all the sensations of all that is created: of fire and water, dry and wet, and think thyself to be everywhere at the same time; on the earth, in the sea, in the air, that you are still completely uncreated, that you are in the womb, are young man, old man, that you have died, that you are on that side of death. If you can grasp all this at the same time in your consciousness: times, places, events, qualities and quantities, then you can understand God.
- But if you keep your soul imprisoned, if you always push it down and always say, “I don’t understand anything, I can’t do anything, I’m afraid of the sea; I am not able to go up to heaven; I do not know what I once was, nor what I shall be”, what have you to do with God then? [4]
This is an incredible and powerful message that Pymander addresses to Hermes here. But at the same time it is also very discouraging. “Arise from all bodies, rise above all time, become eternity!” And: “If you can grasp all this at the same time in your consciousness: times, places, events, qualities and quantities, then you can understand God.“
Instrument for the Divine Being
Who can say something like this about himself? What an endless, laborious process lies ahead of us! And yet this is our mission and we all possess the possibilities and qualities that can realise this path in our innermost being.
It means that we attune ourselves like an instrument to the divine being. Our vibrations must surrender to the sound of the spirit that flows from our innermost heart and be transformed.
We can only do this by ourselves to a limited extent. Our task is to be a good instrument. But we are not the ones who play it.
The violin maker Martin Schleske expresses this in the following way:
We are played by God and given to this world. It is like music that gives itself to the instrument, although it is the instrument that plays it.
The musician does not become the violin and yet he becomes one with it. In playing it, the one common sound arises that cannot be dissected. No one would think of saying: “This half of the sound belongs to the instrument, that half to the musician.“ […]
The instrument gives itself into the hand of the musician, and the musician is completely in the sound of the instrument.[5]
Everything earthly lives from the radiation of the material sun. Everything eternal-spiritual lives from the radiation of the eternal spirit. This spirit flows into our spiritual being and transforms us. He creates an instrument out of us, through which he can let his music flow into this world, in order to make it audible to all.
Only when this transformation is complete, have we become a sound that fits into a heavenly song. Then we also realise that every sound, even a dissonance, is needed in the great composition that the heavenly forces are creating anew every moment. What could be greater than to be absorbed in such a divine symphony!
There is a beautiful story about the founder of the International Sufi Order, Hazrat Inayat Khan, who was also a well-known musician.
One day Hazrat Inayat Khan put away his vina forever. About this poignant sacrifice he himself reports:
I gave up my music because I had received from it everything that I should receive. If you want to serve God, you have to sacrifice what you love most. And so I sacrificed my music.
I had composed songs, I sang and played the vina and in the practice of this music I reached a level where I touched the music of the of the spheres.
Then every soul became a musical note for me, and all life became music. […] And when I do something now, it is that instead of the instruments I am tuning souls, harmonising people instead of notes. If anything is in my philosophy, it is the law of harmony, according to which one must get in harmony with oneself and with others. […]
I played the vina until my own heart became that instrument. Then I offered this instrument to the Divine Musician, the only musician there is. Since then, I became his flute. And if he wants, he plays his music.[6]
My deepest longing is reflected in this story: to become a music that the Divine Musician plays through me, to give it to the world, which has never needed it more than now.
[1] Durch alle Wesen reicht der eine Raum:
Weltinnenraum. Die Vögel fliegen still
durch uns hindurch. O, der wachsen will,
ich seh hinaus und in mir wächst der Baum.
[2] TFL Viral – Awareness Test (Moonwalking Bear) (youtube.com)
[3] Ich hab so mächtige Träume.
Ich weiß wohl ihr Begehr:
bei Nacht durch weite Räume
sucht jeder Quell das Meer.
[4] In: Jan van Rijckenborgh, The Egyptian Archgnosis Vol 1,
Book 2: Pymander to Hermes
[5] Martin Schleske, Der Klang (The Sound), Kösel Verlag, 2013, p. 32.
[6] Hazrat Inayat Khan, Musik und kosmische Harmonie (Music and Cosmic Harmony), Verlag Heilbronn, 2004, p.11
