Jazz is music that evokes a vast range of emotions in its listeners. Music built on individualism and compromise, independence and cooperation. What does it mean to you? What great names come to mind? Scott Joplin. Louis Armstrong. Count Basie. Stan Kenton. Miles Davis. What about the instruments - piano, bass, trumpet and saxophone. Loose-boundaried improvisation. Smoke-filled clubs in New Orleans, Chicago and New York. Ever-evolving styles including the smooth-jazz saxaphonists of more recent times like Grover Washington Jr. and Kenny G.

A few years ago Reese Helmondollar received a dramatic wake up call in the form of a heart attack. After recovering, he decided life was too precious to be doing anything less than that which he truly loved-to play and perform jazz saxaphone. Join Reese here on Odeo.com as he chats with John about his roots in the Appalachians through life around the jazz clubs of New York City to selling organic vegetables from the back of a truck on an island in Greece.

Listen as Reese shares music associated with the various stages in his life and plays several genres with three different saxaphones and a clarinet. This laid back Voices from the North interview is sure to touch and perhaps ignite the music in your soul.

I don't know if George Michael's wonderful song, Careless Whisper, rates as jazz but I can't resist posting this great video of Careless Whisper.

One of the delightful surprises about life is that no matter how long one's been around there is always something new and beautiful around the corner.

When our dear friend, Roselyn, visited in December from Australia, she brought along some music that was new to us and unquestionably beautiful. Deva Premal and Miten have been creating evocative music for many years. I'm posting this on the off chance that someone reading may, like us, have spent their life to this point missing the awesome voices and music of these two consummate musicians.

Being a radio man myself (see Voices from the North), I always appreciate a good interview. Roselyn brought along a recording of Deva Premal and Miten on Australian National Radio during a tour they made of the sunburnt land. They told a story I hope I do justice to now.

When Deva was born in Germany to her German parents, her father sung her into this world with the well known Gayatri Mantra (Om Buur Buva Swaha, Tat Savituur Varaynium, Bargo Devasya Dimahi DiyoYonah Prachodayat. Please excuse the spelling. I've made it up on the fly, phonetically). When her father recently died, Deva and Miten managed just enough time off from their musical touring to be at her father's bedside in Germany and sung him out of this world, also with the Gayatri Mantra. I wonder how much more peaceful this world would be if this kind of conscious musical attention was given to more births and deaths.

You may have heard of the Mozart Effect. There is documented evidence that children's learning, memory and studies improve when accompanied by certain of Mozart's music. We recently heard the story of a young woman who is considered quite remarkable in many ways including the fact that she is fluent in eight languages. Her parents played specific classical music all during the pregnancy and during the birth of this girl. I wouldn't discount the power and impact the music had on the development of her brain and body.

Do enjoy the power and impact of the music of Deva Premal and Miten.

When we wake up; when we gain the realization of Reality; when we experience the Absolute we experience the Stillness, we experience ourselves, we know who we are. In the Stillness there is no limitation, there is no space or time, no thought and no mind, nothing ever existed; there are no problems, no distinctions between you and me or us and them; there is only unity.

This experience of Reality may be gifted to you, as it was to me, or it may be something you find through true meditation, through the deliberate creation of stillness. When you accept everything as it is; when you neither accept nor reject anything that occurs; when you make no distinctions even though the mind continues to make distinctions; when you assume no relationship to what you are experiencing, there is a great and profound liberation; there is an understanding of the Absolute.

Absolute is not spelled with a capital for nothing. It is unlimited. It is immense. It is unimaginable. It is unknowable. Yet when it is experienced there is a profound feeling of peace.

So this waking up is important. Finding out who we are is one of the great reasons for being here. But, there is more to the equation of being fully human. Life is not just Stillness. There is also volition, there is activity. The art of living is bringing the awareness of Stillness, of the Absolute, of who we are, into our lives.

How do we bring this experience of reality into our lives? How do we bring the awareness of unlimitedness, of the realization that there are no distinctions, into this world of distinctions, into this world of light and dark, of hot and cold, of you and me?

This truly is the art of living, of being fully human.

Suggested reading:

The Yoga of the Christ, Murdo MacDonald-Bayne

The Challenge of Enlightenment, Andrew Cohen

The Divine Possibilities in Man, Gopi Krishna

You could say that my special guest, Michael Venner on Voices from the North is a classic case of Kiwi boy done good - he's lived overseas and now returned to enrich us with his experiences obtained abroad. But I believe Michael Venner is more than that. The new proprietor of Coopers Café has had his considerable culinary skills forged in the heat of European kitchens. And at Oxford he's honed his knowledge and appreciation of the world of hospitality. In recent years we've seen the emergence of a growing body of World Music. Michael Venner presents a refreshing, philosophical and often poetic voice of World Cuisine.

I finished the interview with one of my favourite Mullah Nasruddin stories:

Many years ago Mullah Nasrudin was the advisor to a great king. Unfortunately the king died and when the new king was installed he couldn't stand the Mullah. He called him into his palace and sentenced him to death. Mullah Nasrudin told the king that if he were to give him but one year the Mullah could teach the new king's horse to fly. The king realised he had little to lose in accepting this request, (a year's worth of meals and little more) and he thought it would be wonderful to have a flying horse. So he agreed, but advised Nasrudin that at the end of the year he would be executed if the horse couldn't fly.

Nasrudin was imprisoned. One of his students came to visit him and asked him why he had made such a ridiculous offer. Nasrudin replied "In the course of a year, anything can happen. The king could change his mind, he could be overthrown, he could get sick and die, he could pardon all the prisoners. And worse come to worse, I could teach that damn horse to fly!"

Listen to the Michael Venner interview here.

Authors On The Net is an association for authors interested in building a business around their book. The key to selling books, either to a publisher or directly to your audience, is building a strong ‘Author Platform.' The free information on this site and it's online coaching program shows writers how to create a conversation about their book and connect with their key market influencers. Oprah is not the only persuasive presence out there. There are literally hundreds of other influencers including bloggers who attract huge numbers of readers every day. As an author, it is paramount to make the appropriate connections for your target audience.

It has been my great pleasure to get to know Phil Davis, developer of Authors on the Net this last while. Listen to the two interviews I did recently with Phil. Please don't misinterpret what I just wrote. Phil interviewed me, not visa versa.

In the first 30 minute interview, I speak on my book, In Search of Simplicity, and about living simply in a seemingly complex world.

In the second 30 minute instalment, I elaborate on the journey I've made to get the book published and the experiences I've had with promoting the book and developing an author platform so far.

In Search of Simplicity was only released in November 2008, but I've been humbled and touched by the feedback of readers in these early days of my baby. When one self publishes one initiates a process in conversation creation that builds over the years. This is not a short term journey.

I left my homeland, Canada, more or less for good 25 years ago. One of the unexpected bonuses of this process of publishing and creating an author profile on the net is that old friends are finding me in our remote New Zealand home. Yesterday afternoon I received a call out of the blue from an old best friend I haven't had contact with since we each headed off to university (yikes) nearly 33 years ago. He was calling from Kazakhstan, of all places, where he is working as Director of Studies at a college. He and I have each come a long way from the days of hamming it up together in the back of Miss Grabowski's French class. As he said, "I don't think she ever recovered."

In late 2003 I joined a friend at a packed hall in Amsterdam to see a tiny man with white hair in his 80s speak about world affairs and the coming of a new world teacher, Maitreya.

Benjamin Crème, a British artist, has been travelling the world since 1974, spreading this message. He has been interviewed hundreds of times and authored many books. He is a successor to Alice Bailey who collaborated with Master of Wisdom Djwhal Khul in creating a vast amount of information for the world between 1919 and 1949. This Ageless Wisdom Teaching was first made public around 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in her visionary books: The Secret Doctrine and Isis Unveiled. Madame Blavatsky was the founder of the Theosophical Society.

The following Invocation is one I use almost daily, often when walking before dawn. I then sing a tune similar to the one written by that same friend whom I accompanied to the packed hall in Amsterdam in 2003. I also use it in a triangle with two distant friends, one in Qatar and the other in Michigan. These triangles, participated in by compassionate people all over the world, increase the ability of we humans to act as suitable conductors of healing energy for this planet.

For what it's worth, here's my slant on the coming of Maitreya. I believe the Christ energy every Manifestation, every Prophet, has embodied is available to each and every one of us. The only thing keeping it away is a feeling of unworthiness, of inferiority We've created separation between teachers and students for too long. We're all masters and weavers of this world. Accept that and we're free.

Enjoy,

John  http://www.insearchofsimplicity.com/

THE GREAT INVOCATION

From the point of Light within the Mind of God

Let light stream forth into the minds of men.

Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God

Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.

May Christ return to Earth.

From the center where the Will of God is known

Let purpose guide the little wills of men -

The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the center which we call the race of men

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.

And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

The Christ himself used this great mantram for the first time in June 1945, when he announced to his Brothers, the Masters of Wisdom, that he was ready to return to the world at the earliest possible moment, as soon as humanity took the first steps towards sharing and cooperation for the general good.

If the Purpose of God, invoked through this universal prayer, guides "the little wills of men," then the little separate wills of men and women will come at last into correct alignment with the Divine Will, and the Plan of Love and Light will work out. All that we do as a race is in response (adequate or inadequate) to the Divine energies of Will (or Purpose), Love and Light released into the world by the Spiritual Hierarchy of Masters. 

The Great Invocation was given to humanity by Maitreya the Christ as a potent technique of invoking the energies which would transform the world and prepare for his coming. We urge you to use it daily and encourage others to do so on behalf of humanity.

From Share International www.share-international.org/

I wrote in a recent blog of the possibility of creating Triangles and using the Great Invocation to stimulate and heal the consciousness of humanity. The following words, extracted from the pamphlet, Triangles, of Lucis Trust, explain how to go about setting up Triangles and how to use just a few minutes each day to benefit yourself and the world.

Enjoy,

John

The Work of Triangles

     The service of Triangles is aiding the development of right human relations throughout the world. A knowledge and understanding of the relationship between energy and thought is of definite value in this work. The work of Triangles is directing energy by the power of thought. In Triangles we use the focused power of thought to invoke and direct into humanity the energies of light and goodwill-energies desperately needed in our world today. It is a deeply scientific work, but fundamentally simple. Invocation, prayer or aspiration, meditation-it matters not which word you use-by means of these three methods, spiritual energies are tapped and brought into activity.

     The steady impact of right thought, thought qualified by the energy of goodwill, is having a definite stimulating and healing effect upon the consciousness of humanity. In addition a vast reservoir or pool of goodwill energy is being created which is drawn upon by workers for humanity all over the planet.

     Any individual can join with two others who believe in the power of creative thought to form a triangle. This triangle, when linked in with the worldwide Network of Light and Goodwill, can be a practical expression of the potency of thought and a contribution to the effort to develop right relations among all humanity.

How to Create a Triangle

     Find two other people to link with you each day in thought, for a few moments of creative meditation. There is a unique potency in this triple relationship. According to all the World Scriptures, God works as a Trinity, and you can do the same in your own sphere, finding two other people of like mind to form a triangle of light and spiritual interplay. Each of the two can also, in their turn, do the same and thus a great network of light and spiritual power can spread over the world. Through it the Forces of Light will be able to work and you, in your own place, will have aided and helped.

How to do the Work

     The Triangles work is simple. It need take only a few minutes to perform and can be fitted into the most crowded program. Each day members sit quietly for a few moments, in whatever part of the world they each may be, and link mentally with the other members of their triangle, or triangles. They invoke the energies of light and goodwill, visualize these energies as circulating through the three focal points and pouring outward through the network of triangles that envelops the world. At the same time they undertake to repeat the Great Invocation, thus helping to form a channel for the down pouring of light and love into the body of humanity. It is not necessary to synchronize the time at which the work is done, for once triangles are built in mental substance, they can be ‘brought alive' when any one member does the work.

For more information on Triangles work:

*Triangles, pamphlet available from:
Lucis Trust
113 University Place
11th Floor
New York, NY
10003
or through Lucis Trust

*Books by the Master Djwhal Khul through Alice A. Bailey, Lucis Trust.
Lucis Trust

Oriah Mountain Dreamer wrote ‘The Invitation' late one night after returning from a party. She was unsettled and disappointed with an evening that had been full of the usual social conversation. Her words from the book, The Invitation, describe the experience she had: "Restless, I sat down at my desk in the darkness and listened to the sounds around me diminish as the city settled into sleep. There in the quiet, with a street lamp casting a pale light into the room, I picked up my pen and wrote what I really wanted to say to the people I had met that evening, patterned on a writing exercise I had learned on a David Whyte workshop."

These words have touched and inspired countless people around the world to look at their lives and see if they are truly living from the source. I encourage you to do the same. Words like this are worth repeating.

With love and respect,

John

http://insearchofsimplicity.com/

The Invitation

"IT DOESN'T INTEREST ME WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow; if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from the fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, if you can bear the accusations of betrayal and not betray your own soul; I want to know if you can be faithless and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

 I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "YES".

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It has been a great pleasure for our family to get to know Russ and Gina Garcia in the last years. I wrote of them in a previous blog. This amazing couple have been married for 56 years. Out of respect for the love they have shared and obviously continue to share for each other, I decided to read out a poem at the end of the Voices from the North interview I did with them in 2007. The poem was the famous one of Khalil Gibran's, On Marriage, from The Prophet.

Afterwards, Gina and Russ told me of how they had read two poems out loud at their wedding all those years before. The two poems were both from The Prophet, On Marriage and On Love. I was more than somewhat taken aback because those were the very two poems read out loud during the simple wedding ceremony Lucia and I had at our home in the hinterlands of New Mexico in 1990. (Can you hear the theme song from Close Encounters of the Third Kind?)

The Garcias went on to explain that they remarry each year by renewing their wedding vows with each other.

Today, February 25, 2009 is a new moon and it is Lucia's and my 19^th anniversary. For the second straight year we have honoured each other and our relationship by reading out loud just a few words from our wedding and the two poems from The Prophet that featured so prominently at our simple winter new moon wedding ceremony in New Mexico 19 years before.  The words are:

Marriage is an act of faith and a personal commitment, as well as a moral and physical union between two human beings. It involves the construction of the love and trust of those two individuals into a single growing energy of spiritual life. Marriage should be a life-long consecration to the ideal of loving kindness, backed with the will to make it last.

We read in The Prophet:

True love gives nothing but of itself

And takes nothing but from itself.

Love does not possess, nor would it be possessed

For love is sufficient unto love.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself,

To awake at dawn with a winged heart and

Give thanks for another day of loving.

To rest at noon and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude,

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart

And a song of praise upon your lips.

I've just checked and I can see that the friend who put the words of our ceremony together and who legally presided over the wedding had taken the liberty of altering Gibran's original words to suit the occasion. I trust that you receive succour from their beauty nonetheless. I can honestly say that these words are more meaningful to Lucia and me with each turning of this beautiful planet around the sun.

Marriage remains a sacred commitment to us. For a previous blog I wrote on marriage which contains Gibran's words on the same subject click here.

Love and blessings,
John
http://www.insearchofsimplicity.com/

In the November, 2001 National Geographic Magazine I read the following words:

How many cell phones is a gorilla worth? In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, eastern lowland gorillas are being killed for food by miners searching for coltan, a mineral in demand for making capacitors used in high-tech electronics. Each gorilla lost diminishes the country's potential to attract ecotourists.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is home to 80% of the world's coltan reserves.

Here's what Helen Vesperini reported for the BBC a few months earlier:

In the yard of the Shenimed sorting house, young men are busy sorting and cleaning colombo-tantalite ore, or coltan, as it is known in this part of the world.

Regional analysts say the international demand for coltan is one of the driving forces behind the war in the DRC, and the presence of rival militias in the country.

First the young men toss it up into the air as if they were winnowing rice.

Then they sort it with magnetic tweezers to eliminate any particles of iron ore.

It is then washed, crushed manually in a big pestle and mortar and tested again for iron ore before being fed into a photospectrometer to test its tantalum content.

The men concentrate calmly on their work or joke among themselves.

Blood tantalum

It is a far cry from the drama of the "No blood on my cell phone" campaign that a group of NGOs and religious communities have launched in Europe to lobby for an embargo on so called "blood tantalum", the colombo-tantalite ore that comes from the war zones in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tantalum is essential in the manufacture of electrical components known as pinhead capacitors.

These regulate voltage and store energy in mobile phones, tens of millions of which have been sold in the past few years.

The European lobby groups, like the regional analysts, say that coltan production is fuelling the war in Congo.

I was so touched by this story, with its shades of ‘Blood Diamonds' that I wrote a song questioning our relentless need for more and better high-tech goods like cell phones. Once again, it is worth being aware of the implications of every purchase we make. By the way, I still don't own a cell phone and I don't feel I'm missing a thing.

The song is called Lookin' and if you click here you'll get to a page where there's a link to it.