Tuesday, May 8, 2007

in the space of now

Last night I had my first rehearsal for the next concert series with the chorus. One of the chorus members was recently elected mayor of west hollywood so the chorus began our rehearsal by performing two songs at the mayor's inauguration event. We sang "Something to Live For" from the Billy Strayhorn concert we just completed, and an older song that some of the chorus members knew already, but I didn't because I was new. I wasn't going to sing that song and was prepared to just stand and listen after we finished our first song. But then a guy to my right handed me a copy of the music and I was able to sight sing well enough that I joined in. That song was called, "In the Space of Now" composed by our assistant conducter, Kevin Robison, and using words of Eckhart Tolle. Beautiful setting. Very powerful words. A prayer.

"I meet you in the now. I meet you in the still, still quiet of this moment. Now this very moment with no history or expectation. This moment knows no past, no future, only now. In the space of now there is no shame. In the space of now there is no fear. In the space of now there is no judgement of what has been, of all that is, of what will come. Like music this moment has no beginning. Like music this moment will go on. Like music this moment tells a truth that you and I and all that is are one. And so we sing in the space of now. We sing for speaking is not enough. We sing for music hath no judgement of who we've been, of who we are, who we'll become. Let us surrender to the now, to the suchness of this moment. Let us release our judgment of all that was and is to be. Then we, no longer prisoners of our thinking, in an instant, in this perfect moment, through our song, will have changed the world. Now, I meet you in the now."

This afternoon I met with a member of my congregation and in the coure of our conversation he said to me that he had been listening to a book on tape of, you guessed it, Eckhart Tolle. And, by the way, I have a copy of "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle on my bookshelf but I've never read it. Now I will. Now's the time.

No comments: