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Last night I had an experience that reminded me of the depths and heights to which we can expand our awareness. Really, not just our awareness but our inner being or soul or whatever you want to call the real you. After all, awareness is only one part of our inner being. It is the core, which assimilates our sensual and spiritual highs. An amazing guitarist, Donnie Jenkins, rents my upstairs and last night he did something he rarely does. He wanted to enjoy the music of David Cameron, his all-time favorite drummer, so he agreed to play at Pokey’s in nearby Cleveland with him and his band. Donnie burned out on nightclub gigs years ago but this one was different. David’s band is The Boogie Men. Each member of that group is just about as good at what they do as anyone you will ever find. By the third song I was completely hypnotized. No drug or drink can put me in a complete ecstatic trance like good music. It can be blues, country, gospel, bluegrass or a half dozen other genres. But last night it was rock ‘n roll. I love the old-time rock ala Lynrd Skynrd, Lonnie Mack, Credence Clearwater Revival, Doobie Brothers, Alman Brothers, Amazing Rhythm Aces and others. There is so little quality rock out there today that I had forgotten how much I love it. Expanding our awareness is a simple process of directed attention. I just sat there with complete attention on each song, appreciating the vocals at times, David’s drumming at other moments, Donnie sizzling slide guitar and even allowing my expanding awareness to tune into the crowd’s relishment of it all. I was seeking a total experience of those three hours of my life to be soaked up into my cork center and stored in a memory drawer for future replay. This expansion continued throughout the night, even as I slept and my mind replayed portions of the music. It continued this morning as I described to a friend in an early email: Coming home from breakfast this dark, foggy, drizzly morning the sun was trying so hard to shine through the clouds and it created a gorgeous light show on the horizon. I wanted to just pull off the road and watch it for a while. My soul got down on its knees and spoke in tongues. The realization came again that one experience of consciously expanding awareness can lead you right into other episodes. A night of savoring rock ‘n roll might seem to have nothing to do with getting lost in a sunrise but the fingers of one experience often reach out for new fingers to intertwine with. Our spiritual being is made that way and it is beautiful.Now I want to write a dozen rock ’n roll songs and record them with Donnie and the Boogie Men. I have written and recorded country, blues, gospel and a little bluegrass but my creative soul wants to rock ‘n roll.That’s another sweet thing about consciously expanding awareness. It puts your creativity in high gear. The fingers of a night at Pokey’s reach out and intertwine with your songwriting self and result in a new album.Can I give you a formula for learning to expand your inner being by expanding your awareness? No because everyone’s creative self works a little differently. I have a book where songwriters tell how they write songs. Each one does it differently. All anyone can share are tips. My tips are:1. Make quiet contemplation or meditation a sacred part of your daily practice even when you do it in a crowded, noisy nightclub. I have meditated so long that I can enter stillness in the noisiest places.2. Always be playful with it. To paraphrase Jesus, “Only those who become like little playful children can enter the kingdom of expanded awareness.”3. Completely lose yourself in the fun.
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