I had a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a Jesse Cook concert with some good friends. It was an outstanding performance by a guitar genius. He was tickling our ears with beautiful guitar music, but also moving everyone into a deeper place with his incredibly masterful level of musicianship.
He is playing the guitar, but you can see in the clip here that “something” is playing through him. His hands and fingers seem like they are operating beyond conscious control. He seems to be stepping aside in some way and allowing himself to be used as the instrument, thus making space for a sublime performance, which never would have been possible if he had really been trying hard. He is literally becoming the music and inviting us, through our ears, to join him. A sublime form of Ear Yoga!
This experience was a wonderful reminder of how we literally become our Yoga practice on our mat. We step aside in some way to drop the mind-chatter with the lists, plans, and worries to become one with the breath, to become one with the pose, everything around us dropping away and we surrender into a sublime experience on our mat. We are listening to the breath and listening to the heart beating, as these sounds create our own unique symphony inside.
Celine Dion sings “I’ve Got The Music In Me”, and it is a great line because we all have it in us!
Everyone attending the concert felt compelled to sway and dance with Jesse Cook’s music, the chords resonating in deep places that only music can reach, getting lost in the sounds, allowing ourselves to be moved by the melodies.
It reminded me of watching young children dance to music, seeing how they naturally allow themselves the freedom of expression to move, without inner criticism, without inner judgment. It is beautiful to witness how this freedom comes through when they practice Yoga. It is a wonderful experience to practice Yoga with children as they haven’t yet developed a strong ego that needs to step aside in order to have something express through them. They effortlessly become the pose, without any self consciousness, as Jesse Cook effortlessly becomes the music. Through this concert Jesse transported us back to that child-like experience.
After the concert, there was a feeling of elation, of an experience that was special and exciting and transcendent. It was an encounter that really was beyond words, and yet we spent the rest of the night searching for the right expression to describe how we were feeling. This is exactly what happens after a great Yoga practice!
But for all the sophisticated expressions of delight we can come up with to describe a fantastic experience, the best one is from one of the children in my class, who said with bright eyes and a wide smile, “Janet that was so much FUN!”
Jesse that was so much FUN! Thank you!