Day 35 – One Teaching – Tuning Souls

There is a great similarity between music and spiritual enlightenment.  When we talk about the ways of the world, the physical, scientific world, there seems to be so much that is explainable from gravity to atoms to the airplane wing.  But why does music touch us so?  Perhaps the vibrations of music are felt in our skin producing chemicals that give us a feeling of joy, happiness and pleasure.  Even sad music can give us an emotional response that feels good.  It is amazing how sound can seem to touch the soul, particularly when the right notes are played together.  The experience happens unconsciously.  My lifelong friend, Matt, has an incredible way with music.  He knows the experience I’m writing about here.  Sometimes, the music touches you so deeply it makes the hairs on your arms stand up and gives you goosebumps.  He calls these “good song goosebumps.”

Music has always been a great outlet for him and the best way he has found for getting in touch with his soul.  And because music bypasses thought, he may be touching his own soul, through music, without even being consciously aware that’s what he’s doing.  Since I’ve known him, he’s always been able to pick up an instrument and just figure out how to play it.  He is very musically talented.  That along with a great sense of humor are his gifts to the world. 

Over the course of my lifetime, I have been searching for answers, searching for truth.  Trying to figure out my own gifts to the world.  My journey is about the search itself while also knowing that I’ve already found what I’m looking for.  This both/and may be challenging or frustrating for those around me.  Sometimes I wonder if they see a confused and hopeless man who is constantly searching for something he’s never going to find even though it’s right under his nose.  Both/And -> both of these things are true.  The question and the answer.  It’s no longer an elusive, long awaited “aha!” that will someday appear.  As Eckhart Tolle says, “there is and always has been only one spiritual teaching.”  Yes, I know this is true!  So why do I keep searching? 

Acceptance does not mean it’s time to sit under a tree until physical death, at least not for me.  While I think and feel I’m headed on the right path, there is still much to learn and practice.  The journey is only beginning but I also realize I’m already whole just the way I am.  The goal becomes a daily practice of reconciliation of all parts of our inner and outer being.  An alignment of mind, body, heart and soul.

In his profession, my friend Matt, has dedicated his life to helping others “get in tune.”  We haven’t really spoken about this so I don’t know if he sees his profession this way or thinks about it as a spiritual encounter.  But in my own ongoing awakening, I can see that he has been guided whether or not he is conscious of it.  When a note is played in tune, there is a feeling of wholeness, peace and joy that follows.  Being in tune bypasses thought and touches the soul.  My friend Matt, the piano tuner, helps people find that feeling of wholeness, peace and joy every day.  Many of his clients are still asleep, unaware, to consciously realize what he is really doing for them.  Someday however, they will wake up in gratitude, just as I have.  Every six months or so, when Matt arrives to tune their piano, they will know that he is really there to tune their souls.

Note:  The first draft of this post was written in June 2020.  Sadly, my friend and the subject of this post passed away this past week.  I am so thankful that I was able to share the first draft with him back in June.  RIP Matt.

Photo by Markus Gjengaar on Unsplash

1 thought on “Day 35 – One Teaching – Tuning Souls”

  1. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Immortality is, indeed, our True nature, as we are reminded by A Course in Miracles, The Upanishads, The Zohar, among other timeless teachings. May your dear friend live on, as expected.

    And thank you for honoring him in your writing. Quite a great morning process, as well.

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