Today's DailyOM Offerings...
October 1, 2009
Monterey Mist
Dwight Dixon
2009
Dwight Dixon is an accomplished pianist and composer whose instrumental albums merge the wistful beauty of classical piano with healing washes of synthesizer strings and thick ocean-fog atmosphere. Monterey Mist, in other words, lives up to its name, conjuring a crisp sweater-weather morning in Northern California along the Pacific. You can feel the earthiness of the forests and the sting of salt spray, hear the splash of the sea against the rocky oceanfront paths of Monterey in the gentle touches of percussion, the big boots of the fishermen pounding on the wooden planks of the docks, and the smell of warm coffee coming from the mom-and-pop diner down at the docks. Dixon brings in a sweeping emotionality that recalls the delirious heights of romantic epic cinema, offset with a gentle, natural ambience of meditation and Reiki as might occur atop a hill in a national park surrounded by woods and overlooking the sea.
With just a simple tambourine and triangle keeping time for "Red Rope," Dixon smolders through a mellow guitar solo over quietly grandeur-laden string synths. "Tall Pines" moves to wistful chiming piano that accents the sweeping, romantic string-synth pads, conjuring the vastness of the forest and its aching romance. You can almost see a figure in a flowing white dress racing through the mist-enshrouded branches to meet her lover at the cliffs. It's a rendezvous that turns dangerous and shrouded with mood as the album reaches its climaxing penultimate track, "Night Sojourn," a hazy suspension of time with deep piano notes silhouetted against a darkening sky of synthesizers, strings, flutes, and chorale voice accents.
Never too distracting (if you want to take a nap or lose yourself in the feel of a lover's hands), Dixon's Monterey Mist still draws you in and holds a spell for close listening. No matter if it's scaling peaks above the clouds or moodily tossing rocks into the sea while waiting for one's true love to get out of his shift at the cannery, this music provides the perfect backdrop. Dixon's music forges a romantic connection with the natural world, which mirrors a connection with one’s self through his music. Dixon creates romantic contexts for unresolved inner longing, and it's as if dark hills and forests melt away to reveal a sunny day just over the next big orchestral-crescendo hill. All you need to do is keep going.
October 1, 2009
Support Through Selfless Service
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You could have a desire to provide support in your home environment today by doing various things around the house. This might make you feel good that you are engaging in something constructive that may make someone else’s life easier. Perhaps today would be a good time to work on developing the notion of seva, or selfless service, while you go about your tasks today. Seva means that you serve others from your heart without expecting anything in return. As you work you can remind yourself that your work comes from a desire to create a loving space for another person and not from a need to receive praise for the work you have done. You might want to focus on your heart center while working to help you do seva with a sincere and open heart.
Learning to give to others through seva teaches us to do things selflessly with no expectations. When we do something that is useful for another person, our ego can often get in the way. We might begin to feel that we are indispensable or that the other person should be grateful for what we have done. However, selfless service helps us work without expectations. We do things simply for the joy the act brings and not for any other reason. This makes what we do that much more valuable because we act from our heart. By supporting others selflessly today, you will discover that true generosity comes from the spirit in which you do your tasks.
October 1, 2009
Serving the Higher Self
The Ego
In most spiritual circles, the ego gets a pretty bad rap. The reason for this is that the ego, to some extent, is the principle in our psyches that separates us from one another, while spirit is the principle that shows us that no such separation exists. Sometimes the ego is depicted as an almost demonic figure that keeps us from realizing our true nature. But at its most basic, the ego is simply a tool that helps us organize the various aspects of our personality so that we can function in the world. In this sense, the ego is simply a way for us to understand and attend to ourselves at the same time as we understand and attend to the world around us. The ego is a tool that we use to navigate the world.
Perhaps the problem is that the ego sometimes gets out of control. This happens when the higher self loses control of the psyche. The psyche then falls under the leadership of the ego, an entity that was never meant to lead. The ego is meant to be definitively in the service of the higher self. When this relationship is functioning, the ego is a useful intermediary representing the whole self but not thinking that it is the whole self. Then, it is almost as if the ego is the self playfully pretending to be the separate entity called "I." Like an actor, the ego plays the roles that the world asks us to play in order to be part of the program. In this way, the ego can be a tool enabling us to be in the world but not of it.
As long as we are in touch with our higher selves, our egos are not a threat. They are simply useful tools in the service of spirit. We keep our egos in check when we continually nurture our awareness of who we really are. Then our egos are free to serve without trying ineffectually to rule. It is healthy to have ego, but like all things in life, ego functions best when it is in balance and harmony with your whole self.
Monterey Mist
Dwight Dixon
2009
Dwight Dixon is an accomplished pianist and composer whose instrumental albums merge the wistful beauty of classical piano with healing washes of synthesizer strings and thick ocean-fog atmosphere. Monterey Mist, in other words, lives up to its name, conjuring a crisp sweater-weather morning in Northern California along the Pacific. You can feel the earthiness of the forests and the sting of salt spray, hear the splash of the sea against the rocky oceanfront paths of Monterey in the gentle touches of percussion, the big boots of the fishermen pounding on the wooden planks of the docks, and the smell of warm coffee coming from the mom-and-pop diner down at the docks. Dixon brings in a sweeping emotionality that recalls the delirious heights of romantic epic cinema, offset with a gentle, natural ambience of meditation and Reiki as might occur atop a hill in a national park surrounded by woods and overlooking the sea.
With just a simple tambourine and triangle keeping time for "Red Rope," Dixon smolders through a mellow guitar solo over quietly grandeur-laden string synths. "Tall Pines" moves to wistful chiming piano that accents the sweeping, romantic string-synth pads, conjuring the vastness of the forest and its aching romance. You can almost see a figure in a flowing white dress racing through the mist-enshrouded branches to meet her lover at the cliffs. It's a rendezvous that turns dangerous and shrouded with mood as the album reaches its climaxing penultimate track, "Night Sojourn," a hazy suspension of time with deep piano notes silhouetted against a darkening sky of synthesizers, strings, flutes, and chorale voice accents.
Never too distracting (if you want to take a nap or lose yourself in the feel of a lover's hands), Dixon's Monterey Mist still draws you in and holds a spell for close listening. No matter if it's scaling peaks above the clouds or moodily tossing rocks into the sea while waiting for one's true love to get out of his shift at the cannery, this music provides the perfect backdrop. Dixon's music forges a romantic connection with the natural world, which mirrors a connection with one’s self through his music. Dixon creates romantic contexts for unresolved inner longing, and it's as if dark hills and forests melt away to reveal a sunny day just over the next big orchestral-crescendo hill. All you need to do is keep going.
October 1, 2009
Support Through Selfless Service
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You could have a desire to provide support in your home environment today by doing various things around the house. This might make you feel good that you are engaging in something constructive that may make someone else’s life easier. Perhaps today would be a good time to work on developing the notion of seva, or selfless service, while you go about your tasks today. Seva means that you serve others from your heart without expecting anything in return. As you work you can remind yourself that your work comes from a desire to create a loving space for another person and not from a need to receive praise for the work you have done. You might want to focus on your heart center while working to help you do seva with a sincere and open heart.
Learning to give to others through seva teaches us to do things selflessly with no expectations. When we do something that is useful for another person, our ego can often get in the way. We might begin to feel that we are indispensable or that the other person should be grateful for what we have done. However, selfless service helps us work without expectations. We do things simply for the joy the act brings and not for any other reason. This makes what we do that much more valuable because we act from our heart. By supporting others selflessly today, you will discover that true generosity comes from the spirit in which you do your tasks.
October 1, 2009
Serving the Higher Self
The Ego
In most spiritual circles, the ego gets a pretty bad rap. The reason for this is that the ego, to some extent, is the principle in our psyches that separates us from one another, while spirit is the principle that shows us that no such separation exists. Sometimes the ego is depicted as an almost demonic figure that keeps us from realizing our true nature. But at its most basic, the ego is simply a tool that helps us organize the various aspects of our personality so that we can function in the world. In this sense, the ego is simply a way for us to understand and attend to ourselves at the same time as we understand and attend to the world around us. The ego is a tool that we use to navigate the world.
Perhaps the problem is that the ego sometimes gets out of control. This happens when the higher self loses control of the psyche. The psyche then falls under the leadership of the ego, an entity that was never meant to lead. The ego is meant to be definitively in the service of the higher self. When this relationship is functioning, the ego is a useful intermediary representing the whole self but not thinking that it is the whole self. Then, it is almost as if the ego is the self playfully pretending to be the separate entity called "I." Like an actor, the ego plays the roles that the world asks us to play in order to be part of the program. In this way, the ego can be a tool enabling us to be in the world but not of it.
As long as we are in touch with our higher selves, our egos are not a threat. They are simply useful tools in the service of spirit. We keep our egos in check when we continually nurture our awareness of who we really are. Then our egos are free to serve without trying ineffectually to rule. It is healthy to have ego, but like all things in life, ego functions best when it is in balance and harmony with your whole self.