A moment of reflection along my doctoral journey. “I can touch the sky.”
I was like a person in the valley, stuck in an emptiness, and I needed to move forward. A musician’s documentary held an important message for me to pull up to the next spot.
Late on Monday night, October 23, 2017, I submitted my final paper for the course in Research Design and Statistics (RES/710). After two months in this course, I felt drained and disoriented inside of me. Two days later, my wife departed for Washington DC to be at her office for a week. Also, my son left for California to visit his friends. Each departure demanded my careful attention.
For my son’s journey, I was responsible for making sure his vehicle was roadworthy. I worked tirelessly through the last few days to achieve that. When he finally drove off, I was pleased; I saw him off and prayed for safety on the road. For my wife, I was responsible for the bookings for air travel and hotel accommodation in Washington DC.
The departure of my wife and son did something for me: it exposed an emptiness. I did not fully comprehend this until much later in the week.
After submitting the doctoral paper, I was looking back at what I wrote in that paper. I was no longer sure that I answered all the questions well enough to earn the mark I was aiming for. Doubt and self-humiliation took hold of me. I started thinking I could have done better; I should have done better! Why did I not work hard enough to do better? What prevented me? I was condemning myself for not doing the right thing that I should have known to do. As I waited for the results of that paper to come out, I had this battle going on in my mind.
Another point of pressure was exerting questions on me. I was scheduled to travel to Phoenix, Arizona for my second doctoral residency. I attended my first residency earlier in the year (April). There was an assignment for my second residency. The assignment involved writing about my dissertation topic. The assignment sheet required a comprehensive description of my dissertation. Until this point, I was not sure what my project would be. I tried two ideas that seemed to resonate with me. The first idea was to compare Online and Traditional graduates of the master's degree in health administration (MHA). Although I liked the idea and there was plenty of research to base the study on, there was a part of me that said No to the idea. The only other well-developed idea was to work with the Healthcare system of an African country to improve laboratory performance.
Under ordinary circumstances, I would combine prayer and good music to pull through some emotional bottlenecks to the place where I would have assurance in the face of challenging situations like the one I faced, of feeling empty within and judged by my actions of not attacking the paper as I should have done. This time, however, none of those actions of praying and finding good music could soothe my heart. By good music, I mean inspiring pieces that would touch my heart. Many sacred pieces and some classical pieces such as some parts of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and the Magic Flute always me.
Also, I cherish the moments when I can create my own music behind the piano. This time, however, none of these strategies came close to what I yearned for. Nevertheless, I continued to press in through prayer and fellowship to hear the voice of God in the situation I found myself.
Five days after my wife departed for Washington DC, I was still in limbo. Attending church did not resolve my situation. I was in church earlier than usual on Sunday. I discovered in church that I could not find a quiet, sweet spot for meditation. In church, later as the day went on, I found sweet fellowship and good teaching; but I did not find my heart’s yearning for the moment. I did not hear the voice of God for my unique situation. The emptiness and self-condemnation did not go away.
That Sunday afternoon I came home, opened my emails and found that my school report for RES/710 was out; I got a score of 92.5% (A-). I was very grateful to the Lord for the result; however, I knew that I dropped some important points that could have put my score above 96% (A). Nevertheless, I breathed a deep sigh of relief and thanked the Lord for His intervention. I promised not to let what happened in RES/710 happen again. Whereas my score was settled, my sense of guilt lingered on and was not resolved at this point.
On Sunday evening I went to the Internet and logged into Netflix looking for something that might grab my attention. Upon opening Netflix, I found the movie Introduction, featuring a musician, Seymour Burnstein. The background notes to the documentary caught my attention, so I opened the movie to see the rest of it. I quickly found what I had been searching for the whole week. In the following few paragraphs, I summarize what I heard and how it applied to me. I will paraphrase the words of the people I heard in the documentary to avoid reproducing the documentary.
Talent. The essence of who we are as humans, dwells in our talent. When we discover our talent, we uncover who we essentially are. To find out why I do what I do, I need to dig deep within. I will find something that is authentic; something to build upon. Music and musicians hold many lessons for us. Music requires practice. It is not a science; it is an art. As such, the rules are written down; musical notes are written down. Breaking those rules can produce undesired results; musicians do all they can to obey the rules of making music.
Practicing. Musicians must put a lot of time into practising their pieces. Through much practice, a musician achieves a degree of perfection. Practice produces harmony; harmony is the basis for life. The cycle of practising and making harmony is a never-ending cycle of fulfilment. This cycle blends the musical and personal self. These two selves then intertwine in the never-ending cycle of fulfilment. The pulse of fulfilment is so deep and strikes a chord that cannot be touched by other things in life. The pulse is a clear understanding of the reason for practising. The musician has a clear reason for practising.
Music has a purpose. Furthermore, people make music for a reason. That reason is to inspire and encourage an emotional response for all aspects of life. As a young musician, Burnstein was uncomfortable with the spotlight; he was shy of public display as though it was some form of seduction through commercialization. Within the idea of a musician selling his art form, Burnstein felt there was a monster. The monster that rejects unbelievable attainment of the arts against the unpredictability of the social life world. Some musicians may be eccentric or even neurotic in their behaviour because of this force of contrasts.
Solitude. Many musicians thrive on solitude away from the social world because the social world is unpredictable. The music world has a sense of order that the social world lacks; a sense of harmony and predictability that the musician can control. In practising a piece of music, no intellectual input or historical context is necessary for the musician to know about. In fact, according to Burnstein, in practising music, the musician should avoid analysis. Only allow the music to reveal its innocence and beauty; beauty that is answered by something deep within you. Burnstein quotes a Buddhist philosopher who said if you would paint a chrysanthemum, look at one for ten years until you have become one with it, then paint it.
Feminine character of music. Craft is what makes art; without craft, there isn’t real artistry. Many men try to subdue the feminine in them. Music is tender, like the feminine character of life. The mother touch of nature as we know nature. That should inform the mindset of the musician. Music is a language; it is a universal language of feeling. It is a portrayal of life. Life has conflicts and pleasures; harmonies and dissonances; so also, in music, they are the same. Music is ideal for resolving those conflicts within the human being. We would not know the solutions without the resolutions that music provides. There are notes within a composition that tell of conflict and tension, and there are notes that help to resolve the tension.
Distractions. The mature musician builds a ring of fire around himself through which nothing can penetrate to touch him. The distractions of life cannot touch him. The things around the ring of fire are all distractions. Their purpose is to make the musician fail in his or her project. Their reasons for blocking success are built within themselves; they are selfish reasons. The sacred role of the art of music is to get in contact with the deepest of ‘ourselves’ where the “compassions” reside.
Four Quadrants. The Greek tradition defines four contexts of education without which a human could not develop to the full. The four quadrants are mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy. Without music, the children are only half developed. The Greek philosophers saw these four parts of the education system as vital to developing fully rounded humans.
Like God, music is invisible; you can’t see it. It is intangible although penetrating; the direct reflection and transcendent beauty of the beloved. Whereas religion requires faith, music has a written language by which it is known. You can read music on a sheet of paper. People are searching for answers to provide stability in their lives. They are searching for answers to bring about precision, love, and other emotions. To be a good musician requires some solitude and no distractions; no television and no computers. Those who play music should also know how to create music.
When Burnstein became a mature musician, he understood that musical instruments are not the same. No two pianos are the same; they are made from different woods. Men spend their lives trying to gain material stuff. As Burnstein searched to understand what his future entailed and what might give him the most pleasure, he realized it was by pouring himself into others.
True happiness is achieved through sharing with others what we have gathered in this life. Music is the oral manifestation of the created world; music speaks to a troubled world about another universe, another dimension of which we can only truly enter through the language of music. There are no exceptions to music; music must be precise. That speaks to the fact that we are made for perfection and no pretention can achieve that. No shortcuts can achieve that. Burnstein concludes with this phrase, that finally, he realized through music, “I can touch the sky.”
What this meant for me.
I heard the voice of God in the words of Burnstein. God’s Spirit used the presentation to address some fundamental issues in my life. First, that the Lord is with me, and that I can tell when I am listening to His voice speaking to me. When Burstein says the essence of who we are resides in our talent, I quickly recognized this to be what the Bible speaks of when it says we are all made for specific purposes in the mind of God. Therefore, if there is one thing that is important above all, it is to find out who I am in Christ and what talent the Lord has given to me.
Secondly, when he says the musician puts in a lot of time in practice; I know exactly what he is saying. I am a musician and I know that if I want to excel in playing a musical instrument I must practice, practice, and practice until I am one with the instrument. I also know that I struggle with keeping a focus on one musical instrument. In perfecting my playing I enter the cycle of fulfillment.
Finally, I recognize the centrality of God in everything Burnstein says although he seems to lean on Buddhism and other Eastern religions and meditation. Music plays a vital role in the worship of the God of Creation. No wonder one of God’s most perfect creations was Lucifer who later tried to be God and to place his seat above God’s. The reason Lucifer was created was to worship and to lead in worship.
That tells me that God values worship and music very much. Those who have had an out-of-body experience and of touching heaven tell of the music in glory. In heaven there is music. Everything sings. There is music in everything in heaven. The atmosphere is filled with music; the beings are singing, day and night. Music is heavenly; not only does the language of music speak to us, but to God too. While music inspires and encourages us to get in touch with our deepest selves within, through music Creation says to God, “We return our gratitude for all You are to us.”
These are thoughts I longed to hear. The doctoral journey was taking its toll; I was feeling empty, needing to be lifted up and filled. I felt uplifted by the thoughts shared in the documentary. I found myself comparing my life’s struggles with Burnstein’s. Whereas Burnstein's successes as a musician far diminish mine, in my scale of life, I have achieved a great deal, and I am grateful to the Lord for everything. I was thus enabled to move forward having received those lessons.
A moment of reflection along my doctoral journey. “I can touch the sky.”
I was like a person in the valley, stuck in an emptiness, and I needed to move forward. A musician’s documentary held an important message for me to pull up to the next spot.
Late on Monday night, October 23, 2017, I submitted my final paper for the course in Research Design and Statistics (RES/710). After two months in this course, I felt drained and disoriented inside of me. Two days later, my wife departed for Washington DC to be at her office for a week. Also, my son left for California to visit his friends. Each departure demanded my careful attention.
For my son’s journey, I was responsible for making sure his vehicle was roadworthy. I worked tirelessly through the last few days to achieve that. When he finally drove off, I was pleased; I saw him off and prayed for safety on the road. For my wife, I was responsible for the bookings for air travel and hotel accommodation in Washington DC.
The departure of my wife and son did something for me: it exposed an emptiness. I did not fully comprehend this until much later in the week.
After submitting the doctoral paper, I was looking back at what I wrote in that paper. I was no longer sure that I answered all the questions well enough to earn the mark I was aiming for. Doubt and self-humiliation took hold of me. I started thinking I could have done better; I should have done better! Why did I not work hard enough to do better? What prevented me? I was condemning myself for not doing the right thing that I should have known to do. As I waited for the results of that paper to come out, I had this battle going on in my mind.
Another point of pressure was exerting questions on me. I was scheduled to travel to Phoenix, Arizona for my second doctoral residency. I attended my first residency earlier in the year (April). There was an assignment for my second residency. The assignment involved writing about my dissertation topic. The assignment sheet required a comprehensive description of my dissertation. Until this point, I was not sure what my project would be. I tried two ideas that seemed to resonate with me. The first idea was to compare Online and Traditional graduates of the master's degree in health administration (MHA). Although I liked the idea and there was plenty of research to base the study on, there was a part of me that said No to the idea. The only other well-developed idea was to work with the Healthcare system of an African country to improve laboratory performance.
Under ordinary circumstances, I would combine prayer and good music to pull through some emotional bottlenecks to the place where I would have assurance in the face of challenging situations like the one I faced, of feeling empty within and judged by my actions of not attacking the paper as I should have done. This time, however, none of those actions of praying and finding good music could soothe my heart. By good music, I mean inspiring pieces that would touch my heart. Many sacred pieces and some classical pieces such as some parts of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and the Magic Flute always me.
Also, I cherish the moments when I can create my own music behind the piano. This time, however, none of these strategies came close to what I yearned for. Nevertheless, I continued to press in through prayer and fellowship to hear the voice of God in the situation I found myself.
Five days after my wife departed for Washington DC, I was still in limbo. Attending church did not resolve my situation. I was in church earlier than usual on Sunday. I discovered in church that I could not find a quiet, sweet spot for meditation. In church, later as the day went on, I found sweet fellowship and good teaching; but I did not find my heart’s yearning for the moment. I did not hear the voice of God for my unique situation. The emptiness and self-condemnation did not go away.
That Sunday afternoon I came home, opened my emails and found that my school report for RES/710 was out; I got a score of 92.5% (A-). I was very grateful to the Lord for the result; however, I knew that I dropped some important points that could have put my score above 96% (A). Nevertheless, I breathed a deep sigh of relief and thanked the Lord for His intervention. I promised not to let what happened in RES/710 happen again. Whereas my score was settled, my sense of guilt lingered on and was not resolved at this point.
On Sunday evening I went to the Internet and logged into Netflix looking for something that might grab my attention. Upon opening Netflix, I found the movie Introduction, featuring a musician, Seymour Burnstein. The background notes to the documentary caught my attention, so I opened the movie to see the rest of it. I quickly found what I had been searching for the whole week. In the following few paragraphs, I summarize what I heard and how it applied to me. I will paraphrase the words of the people I heard in the documentary to avoid reproducing the documentary.
Talent. The essence of who we are as humans, dwells in our talent. When we discover our talent, we uncover who we essentially are. To find out why I do what I do, I need to dig deep within. I will find something that is authentic; something to build upon. Music and musicians hold many lessons for us. Music requires practice. It is not a science; it is an art. As such, the rules are written down; musical notes are written down. Breaking those rules can produce undesired results; musicians do all they can to obey the rules of making music.
Practicing. Musicians must put a lot of time into practising their pieces. Through much practice, a musician achieves a degree of perfection. Practice produces harmony; harmony is the basis for life. The cycle of practising and making harmony is a never-ending cycle of fulfilment. This cycle blends the musical and personal self. These two selves then intertwine in the never-ending cycle of fulfilment. The pulse of fulfilment is so deep and strikes a chord that cannot be touched by other things in life. The pulse is a clear understanding of the reason for practising. The musician has a clear reason for practising.
Music has a purpose. Furthermore, people make music for a reason. That reason is to inspire and encourage an emotional response for all aspects of life. As a young musician, Burnstein was uncomfortable with the spotlight; he was shy of public display as though it was some form of seduction through commercialization. Within the idea of a musician selling his art form, Burnstein felt there was a monster. The monster that rejects unbelievable attainment of the arts against the unpredictability of the social life world. Some musicians may be eccentric or even neurotic in their behaviour because of this force of contrasts.
Solitude. Many musicians thrive on solitude away from the social world because the social world is unpredictable. The music world has a sense of order that the social world lacks; a sense of harmony and predictability that the musician can control. In practising a piece of music, no intellectual input or historical context is necessary for the musician to know about. In fact, according to Burnstein, in practising music, the musician should avoid analysis. Only allow the music to reveal its innocence and beauty; beauty that is answered by something deep within you. Burnstein quotes a Buddhist philosopher who said if you would paint a chrysanthemum, look at one for ten years until you have become one with it, then paint it.
Feminine character of music. Craft is what makes art; without craft, there isn’t real artistry. Many men try to subdue the feminine in them. Music is tender, like the feminine character of life. The mother touch of nature as we know nature. That should inform the mindset of the musician. Music is a language; it is a universal language of feeling. It is a portrayal of life. Life has conflicts and pleasures; harmonies and dissonances; so also, in music, they are the same. Music is ideal for resolving those conflicts within the human being. We would not know the solutions without the resolutions that music provides. There are notes within a composition that tell of conflict and tension, and there are notes that help to resolve the tension.
Distractions. The mature musician builds a ring of fire around himself through which nothing can penetrate to touch him. The distractions of life cannot touch him. The things around the ring of fire are all distractions. Their purpose is to make the musician fail in his or her project. Their reasons for blocking success are built within themselves; they are selfish reasons. The sacred role of the art of music is to get in contact with the deepest of ‘ourselves’ where the “compassions” reside.
Four Quadrants. The Greek tradition defines four contexts of education without which a human could not develop to the full. The four quadrants are mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy. Without music, the children are only half developed. The Greek philosophers saw these four parts of the education system as vital to developing fully rounded humans.
Like God, music is invisible; you can’t see it. It is intangible although penetrating; the direct reflection and transcendent beauty of the beloved. Whereas religion requires faith, music has a written language by which it is known. You can read music on a sheet of paper. People are searching for answers to provide stability in their lives. They are searching for answers to bring about precision, love, and other emotions. To be a good musician requires some solitude and no distractions; no television and no computers. Those who play music should also know how to create music.
When Burnstein became a mature musician, he understood that musical instruments are not the same. No two pianos are the same; they are made from different woods. Men spend their lives trying to gain material stuff. As Burnstein searched to understand what his future entailed and what might give him the most pleasure, he realized it was by pouring himself into others.
True happiness is achieved through sharing with others what we have gathered in this life. Music is the oral manifestation of the created world; music speaks to a troubled world about another universe, another dimension of which we can only truly enter through the language of music. There are no exceptions to music; music must be precise. That speaks to the fact that we are made for perfection and no pretention can achieve that. No shortcuts can achieve that. Burnstein concludes with this phrase, that finally, he realized through music, “I can touch the sky.”
What this meant for me.
I heard the voice of God in the words of Burnstein. God’s Spirit used the presentation to address some fundamental issues in my life. First, that the Lord is with me, and that I can tell when I am listening to His voice speaking to me. When Burstein says the essence of who we are resides in our talent, I quickly recognized this to be what the Bible speaks of when it says we are all made for specific purposes in the mind of God. Therefore, if there is one thing that is important above all, it is to find out who I am in Christ and what talent the Lord has given to me.
Secondly, when he says the musician puts in a lot of time in practice; I know exactly what he is saying. I am a musician and I know that if I want to excel in playing a musical instrument I must practice, practice, and practice until I am one with the instrument. I also know that I struggle with keeping a focus on one musical instrument. In perfecting my playing I enter the cycle of fulfillment.
Finally, I recognize the centrality of God in everything Burnstein says although he seems to lean on Buddhism and other Eastern religions and meditation. Music plays a vital role in the worship of the God of Creation. No wonder one of God’s most perfect creations was Lucifer who later tried to be God and to place his seat above God’s. The reason Lucifer was created was to worship and to lead in worship.
That tells me that God values worship and music very much. Those who have had an out-of-body experience and of touching heaven tell of the music in glory. In heaven there is music. Everything sings. There is music in everything in heaven. The atmosphere is filled with music; the beings are singing, day and night. Music is heavenly; not only does the language of music speak to us, but to God too. While music inspires and encourages us to get in touch with our deepest selves within, through music Creation says to God, “We return our gratitude for all You are to us.”
These are thoughts I longed to hear. The doctoral journey was taking its toll; I was feeling empty, needing to be lifted up and filled. I felt uplifted by the thoughts shared in the documentary. I found myself comparing my life’s struggles with Burnstein’s. Whereas Burnstein's successes as a musician far diminish mine, in my scale of life, I have achieved a great deal, and I am grateful to the Lord for everything. I was thus enabled to move forward having received those lessons.
Late on Monday night, October 23, 2017, I submitted my final paper for the course in Research Design and Statistics (RES/710). After two months in this course, I felt drained and disoriented inside of me. Two days later, my wife departed for Washington DC to be at her office for a week. Also, my son left for California to visit his friends. Each departure demanded my careful attention.
For my son’s journey, I was responsible for making sure his vehicle was roadworthy. I worked tirelessly through the last few days to achieve that. When he finally drove off, I was pleased; I saw him off and prayed for safety on the road. For my wife, I was responsible for the bookings for air travel and hotel accommodation in Washington DC.
The departure of my wife and son did something for me: it exposed an emptiness. I did not fully comprehend this until much later in the week.
After submitting the doctoral paper, I was looking back at what I wrote in that paper. I was no longer sure that I answered all the questions well enough to earn the mark I was aiming for. Doubt and self-humiliation took hold of me. I started thinking I could have done better; I should have done better! Why did I not work hard enough to do better? What prevented me? I was condemning myself for not doing the right thing that I should have known to do. As I waited for the results of that paper to come out, I had this battle going on in my mind.
Another point of pressure was exerting questions on me. I was scheduled to travel to Phoenix, Arizona for my second doctoral residency. I attended my first residency earlier in the year (April). There was an assignment for my second residency. The assignment involved writing about my dissertation topic. The assignment sheet required a comprehensive description of my dissertation. Until this point, I was not sure what my project would be. I tried two ideas that seemed to resonate with me. The first idea was to compare Online and Traditional graduates of the master's degree in health administration (MHA). Although I liked the idea and there was plenty of research to base the study on, there was a part of me that said No to the idea. The only other well-developed idea was to work with the Healthcare system of an African country to improve laboratory performance.
Under ordinary circumstances, I would combine prayer and good music to pull through some emotional bottlenecks to the place where I would have assurance in the face of challenging situations like the one I faced, of feeling empty within and judged by my actions of not attacking the paper as I should have done. This time, however, none of those actions of praying and finding good music could soothe my heart. By good music, I mean inspiring pieces that would touch my heart. Many sacred pieces and some classical pieces such as some parts of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and the Magic Flute always me.
Also, I cherish the moments when I can create my own music behind the piano. This time, however, none of these strategies came close to what I yearned for. Nevertheless, I continued to press in through prayer and fellowship to hear the voice of God in the situation I found myself.
Five days after my wife departed for Washington DC, I was still in limbo. Attending church did not resolve my situation. I was in church earlier than usual on Sunday. I discovered in church that I could not find a quiet, sweet spot for meditation. In church, later as the day went on, I found sweet fellowship and good teaching; but I did not find my heart’s yearning for the moment. I did not hear the voice of God for my unique situation. The emptiness and self-condemnation did not go away.
That Sunday afternoon I came home, opened my emails and found that my school report for RES/710 was out; I got a score of 92.5% (A-). I was very grateful to the Lord for the result; however, I knew that I dropped some important points that could have put my score above 96% (A). Nevertheless, I breathed a deep sigh of relief and thanked the Lord for His intervention. I promised not to let what happened in RES/710 happen again. Whereas my score was settled, my sense of guilt lingered on and was not resolved at this point.
On Sunday evening I went to the Internet and logged into Netflix looking for something that might grab my attention. Upon opening Netflix, I found the movie Introduction, featuring a musician, Seymour Burnstein. The background notes to the documentary caught my attention, so I opened the movie to see the rest of it. I quickly found what I had been searching for the whole week. In the following few paragraphs, I summarize what I heard and how it applied to me. I will paraphrase the words of the people I heard in the documentary to avoid reproducing the documentary.
Talent. The essence of who we are as humans, dwells in our talent. When we discover our talent, we uncover who we essentially are. To find out why I do what I do, I need to dig deep within. I will find something that is authentic; something to build upon. Music and musicians hold many lessons for us. Music requires practice. It is not a science; it is an art. As such, the rules are written down; musical notes are written down. Breaking those rules can produce undesired results; musicians do all they can to obey the rules of making music.
Practicing. Musicians must put a lot of time into practising their pieces. Through much practice, a musician achieves a degree of perfection. Practice produces harmony; harmony is the basis for life. The cycle of practising and making harmony is a never-ending cycle of fulfilment. This cycle blends the musical and personal self. These two selves then intertwine in the never-ending cycle of fulfilment. The pulse of fulfilment is so deep and strikes a chord that cannot be touched by other things in life. The pulse is a clear understanding of the reason for practising. The musician has a clear reason for practising.
Music has a purpose. Furthermore, people make music for a reason. That reason is to inspire and encourage an emotional response for all aspects of life. As a young musician, Burnstein was uncomfortable with the spotlight; he was shy of public display as though it was some form of seduction through commercialization. Within the idea of a musician selling his art form, Burnstein felt there was a monster. The monster that rejects unbelievable attainment of the arts against the unpredictability of the social life world. Some musicians may be eccentric or even neurotic in their behaviour because of this force of contrasts.
Solitude. Many musicians thrive on solitude away from the social world because the social world is unpredictable. The music world has a sense of order that the social world lacks; a sense of harmony and predictability that the musician can control. In practising a piece of music, no intellectual input or historical context is necessary for the musician to know about. In fact, according to Burnstein, in practising music, the musician should avoid analysis. Only allow the music to reveal its innocence and beauty; beauty that is answered by something deep within you. Burnstein quotes a Buddhist philosopher who said if you would paint a chrysanthemum, look at one for ten years until you have become one with it, then paint it.
Feminine character of music. Craft is what makes art; without craft, there isn’t real artistry. Many men try to subdue the feminine in them. Music is tender, like the feminine character of life. The mother touch of nature as we know nature. That should inform the mindset of the musician. Music is a language; it is a universal language of feeling. It is a portrayal of life. Life has conflicts and pleasures; harmonies and dissonances; so also, in music, they are the same. Music is ideal for resolving those conflicts within the human being. We would not know the solutions without the resolutions that music provides. There are notes within a composition that tell of conflict and tension, and there are notes that help to resolve the tension.
Distractions. The mature musician builds a ring of fire around himself through which nothing can penetrate to touch him. The distractions of life cannot touch him. The things around the ring of fire are all distractions. Their purpose is to make the musician fail in his or her project. Their reasons for blocking success are built within themselves; they are selfish reasons. The sacred role of the art of music is to get in contact with the deepest of ‘ourselves’ where the “compassions” reside.
Four Quadrants. The Greek tradition defines four contexts of education without which a human could not develop to the full. The four quadrants are mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy. Without music, the children are only half developed. The Greek philosophers saw these four parts of the education system as vital to developing fully rounded humans.
Like God, music is invisible; you can’t see it. It is intangible although penetrating; the direct reflection and transcendent beauty of the beloved. Whereas religion requires faith, music has a written language by which it is known. You can read music on a sheet of paper. People are searching for answers to provide stability in their lives. They are searching for answers to bring about precision, love, and other emotions. To be a good musician requires some solitude and no distractions; no television and no computers. Those who play music should also know how to create music.
When Burnstein became a mature musician, he understood that musical instruments are not the same. No two pianos are the same; they are made from different woods. Men spend their lives trying to gain material stuff. As Burnstein searched to understand what his future entailed and what might give him the most pleasure, he realized it was by pouring himself into others.
True happiness is achieved through sharing with others what we have gathered in this life. Music is the oral manifestation of the created world; music speaks to a troubled world about another universe, another dimension of which we can only truly enter through the language of music. There are no exceptions to music; music must be precise. That speaks to the fact that we are made for perfection and no pretention can achieve that. No shortcuts can achieve that. Burnstein concludes with this phrase, that finally, he realized through music, “I can touch the sky.”
What this meant for me.
I heard the voice of God in the words of Burnstein. God’s Spirit used the presentation to address some fundamental issues in my life. First, that the Lord is with me, and that I can tell when I am listening to His voice speaking to me. When Burstein says the essence of who we are resides in our talent, I quickly recognized this to be what the Bible speaks of when it says we are all made for specific purposes in the mind of God. Therefore, if there is one thing that is important above all, it is to find out who I am in Christ and what talent the Lord has given to me.
Secondly, when he says the musician puts in a lot of time in practice; I know exactly what he is saying. I am a musician and I know that if I want to excel in playing a musical instrument I must practice, practice, and practice until I am one with the instrument. I also know that I struggle with keeping a focus on one musical instrument. In perfecting my playing I enter the cycle of fulfillment.
Finally, I recognize the centrality of God in everything Burnstein says although he seems to lean on Buddhism and other Eastern religions and meditation. Music plays a vital role in the worship of the God of Creation. No wonder one of God’s most perfect creations was Lucifer who later tried to be God and to place his seat above God’s. The reason Lucifer was created was to worship and to lead in worship.
That tells me that God values worship and music very much. Those who have had an out-of-body experience and of touching heaven tell of the music in glory. In heaven there is music. Everything sings. There is music in everything in heaven. The atmosphere is filled with music; the beings are singing, day and night. Music is heavenly; not only does the language of music speak to us, but to God too. While music inspires and encourages us to get in touch with our deepest selves within, through music Creation says to God, “We return our gratitude for all You are to us.”
These are thoughts I longed to hear. The doctoral journey was taking its toll; I was feeling empty, needing to be lifted up and filled. I felt uplifted by the thoughts shared in the documentary. I found myself comparing my life’s struggles with Burnstein’s. Whereas Burnstein's successes as a musician far diminish mine, in my scale of life, I have achieved a great deal, and I am grateful to the Lord for everything. I was thus enabled to move forward having received those lessons.
