Now, on to the guitar. The body is together. The tap tone is great, although I hope it's not too responsive, or it may be a feedback monster. The f holes are my own design, but after I cut them in the top I came across a builder named Framus who's design is almost the same. I was trying to find a shape that flowed with the natural curve of the guitar, but also had a somewhat traditional look. I guess he was doing the same thing. I finished the binding on the top today and will do the binding on the back tomorrow. And I've cut the headstock shape out and started shaping the neck, so you can see what it will look like. I'm going to put black and white purfling on the fretboard on this guitar and I'm debating on whether to use bloodwood to bind the neck with. I have bloodwood veneer on the back of the neck and I think I'll use it and a black and white accent on the headstock, although the main wood will still be ebony on the headstock face. If I can find a nice piece of bloodwood for the butt seam I'll probably use it there also.
So, as far as my spiritual life goes, I'm wondering if this is all just a grand distraction. Is it good to be writing music, playing gigs, building guitars, along with being a husband and father and trying to make a living? Or, does this, in reality take me away from my primary goal of seeing the face of God? What do you think? The scriptures never mention art, unless it's tied together with music as worship, or craftsmen using their skills to build the temple, or the walls of Jerusalem. The Bagavad Gita and the Upanashads speak of God as creator, even singing creation into being (no this wasn't C.S. Lewis' own original idea), but relatively nothing about us following suit. And the Tao seems to say, no action is best if you can do that (hold uncarved wood). I haven't read the Koran yet, but it's on my to do list. In other words they all seem to say, "Seek first the Kingdom of God", but how do we do that without doing what seems to be so much a part of who we are? I feel closer to God than ever, but I also feel like I'm running out of time. I need to choose wisely. Would it be better to spend my last 30 years being an awesome guitar player, an incredible luthier, a brilliant songwriter, a mystic of old testament proportions, or is it possible to do it all?
I'd love to think I could do it all and I'd love to hear what you have to say. I'll close with my latest meditation passage.
O Great Spirit
whose voice I hear in the wind
and whose breath gives life to the world,
hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty
and let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears grow sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength not to be greater than my brother or sister, but to fight my greatest enemy, myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes
so, when life fades as the fading sunset my spirit may come to you without shame.
3 comments:
Learning to use you ears and nose. That is so cool. I totally agree with hearing, playing a part in working with your hands ie. setting a nail.
The question you asked about earthly desires and responsibility vs. basically a monastic life in pursuit of God has been becoming an increasingly more important and difficult question as I ponder it. It is pretty much the ultimate question. I could write on and on about what each tradition says about responsiblity and the search for truth but I would probably not say anything that you haven't thought about already. (as we have had this conversation before)
I would gage my ability to pursue God and other passions by how much it affects the loved ones around me. At this point, I am not able to believe in a God requires total imbalance in my life in order for me to fully know him(or her or it). Maybe that is why all of the mystics throughout history were single, or became single (Buddha). If I left everything to seek God, that would result in heartbreak and misunderstanding for my family and friends. Thus, not allowing me to be fully complete in my relationship with God. How can one be "whole" if their actions to get there caused grief and abandonment. That is my main problem with the path that Buddha took. Perhaps it is a single man's quest.
I say try and do the best with what you have been given and the choices you have made... or is it seek ye first the kingdom of God? Who does that? very very few people. And what does that look like? Is it possible that choosing to get married and have children completely closes the path to fully realizing God? That sounds crazy as well. Who knows?! I am going to put that one on the shelf and not deal with it until I am good and ready. Probably around the time that "I feel like I am running out of time."
I think you may have somewhat misunderstood my question. I don't mean choosing God or nothing. I mean choosing God, or 40 hrs a week playing music and 20 hrs working on the guitar, and 10 hrs. writing songs, and most of the rest of the time thinking about these things. In other words, still going to work and being a family man, but giving the majority of my time to other things than God. Is that good? Our culture values it, and so do I, but am I justified? Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss and doors will open." I've found that to be true, but are these doors opening,because I'm using my gifts that God gave me and by doing so fulfilling what he put me here to do, or is this just a distraction from the real thing? Hard questions and I value all the opinions I can get. By the way, the Buddha left his wife with her blessings so that he could find the way. After he achieved nirvana she started the women's sect of the disciples of Buddha and his son became his youngest disciple. This is a family restored, although not like most of us would choose, but what does the kingdom of God really look like anyway?
I have no idea... Maybe that is why some cultures believe in reincarnation. It is just too dificult to figure all this out in one lifetime. Or maybe it is really simple and this way of thinking just over-complicates things. I think balance is important. I have seen people get so consumed in their spiritual life that they neglect relationships and don't have time for the people they care about and when you are on the outside being affected it is frustrating and annoying but when you are the one consumed by God everything else seems trivial.
I remember you talking about how so many people never quite get out of the "honeymoon" stage in their relationship with God. They have an amazing breathtaking experience and are on a high and then burn out. They never cultivate the relationship and let it steady out or deepen. Perhaps getting beyond that stage would produce some answers.
I have probably gone off on another tangent but this question you ask just opens up so many ways of thinking about how to live and how to spend one's time.
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