December 8th is a sad day in music history. Two great musicians - John Lennon and "Dimebag" Darrell from Pantera - were both shot and killed on that day (in 1980 and 2004 respectively). Personal musical taste aside, both players were extremely skilled at their musical genres and had a huge influence on their followers.
Nothing is harder on beginner's mind than senseless tragedy. Why would anybody shoot a musician? Especially ones that were about making people feel good? Even tragedies that make sense, like the passing of a beloved grandparent, can derail our enthusiasm and make us feel like life is meaningless.
There were two specific losses in my community of friends and comrades this year. One was a dear little 4 year old girl who lost her battle with cancer, the daughter of one of the funniest, warmest friends of mine from college I can think of. The other was a peer (also from college), someone I sang with on stage, performed in various shows, wrote songs for, laughed with, drank with. Both losses were connected to a specific period in my life - college - a period I love to mourn in my bouts of self-pity (do not think this author is a master or guru - I am walking the path just like you).
What do we do in the face of death? When even tragedy that does not directly affect us reveals how sad life can be?
One thing to remember is Buddha's first Noble Truth - Life is suffering. After all, Beginner's Mind is a Zen concept and Zen is a Buddhist-based philosophy. Buddha meant by this that once we accept the TOTALITY of life in all of its horribleness, we can begin to transcend it. This is life. We have to deal. We can cry and hide, or we can stand up and play our guitars and write songs about what should change.
We can't change the fact that little children die sometimes, great musicians sometimes get shot by maniacs, genocide happens, and most of the world lives on $2 a day.
But we can change ourselves. And one of the ways that we can change ourselves is by being creative.
It is through being creative that we will find solutions. Maybe someday treatments will prevent cancer, maybe through mental health assistance and legislation insane people won't be able to purchase guns, maybe the human race will evolve past genocide, and maybe we will find a way to feed everyone. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but creativity is just that - creating anew. We can create the world we want, first by imagining it, and second by taking action.
The world we want may not materialize in our lifetime. But the only way it WON'T happen is if we stop creating. And we only need to take 5 minutes a day. We don't need to start creating any more than that, be it painting, writing, guitar playing, flute playing, or dancing.
So you see? Your 5 minutes of guitar practice helps the whole world! It's 5 minutes that somebody spent creating something beautiful and doing something creative that wasn't spent dropping a bomb or worrying about where the next paycheck went.
Practice Beginner's Mind. Sorry for the long post. Enjoy the video clips.
John Lennon - Beautiful Boy
Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (Live At Ozzfest) (might be offensive to some, guitar solo is 3:03)
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