Tao Te Ching, Verse 12, Part I

“Colors blind people's eyes;
sounds deafen their ears;
flavors spoil people's palates,
the chase and the hunt craze people's minds;
goods hard to obtain make people's actions harmful.
Therefore sages work for the middle and not the eyes,
leaving the latter and taking the former.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 12, Thomas Cleary Translation)

I believe that Scripture teaches subjugation of the self to the perfect, transcendent will of God and that inasmuch as we are conformed to God’s will we will exhibit the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) – I believe these things and have believed them for a long time, but it was the Tao that made sense of them for me – taught me the why and how of my subjugation of self (I’m still not very good at it) – today, I heard a brief interview with Lorin Maazel on NPR – he’s a 78 year old conductor, violinist and composer – Maazel conducted the New York Philharmonic once again on their landmark visit to Pyongyang, North Korea in February – in the interview he was asked how he manages his schedule at his age (evidently, he’s something of a slave-driver in rehearsals, sometimes practicing for up to eight hours at a time) and he said something that caught my attention (especially in light of the way I’ve been feeling lately) – he said the key was to completely prepare oneself ahead of time mentally and physically – one must be completely relaxed and without tension if one is going to be able to maintain the intensity of focus that is required of a conductor – he said that his training as a violinist had been especially useful because violinists had to learn relaxation techniques in order to practice and perform – the interviewer asked if he could share an example of one of the techniques he uses and he described this breathing method that included intentionally going over every muscle in the body and relaxing it and then he said that after one has completely relaxed every muscle of the body one must say to oneself, “what I do is of no importance whatsoever – I am here as a servant – and if I’m nervous it’s because I think that what I’m doing is important, and that is an egocentricity which no interpreter can allow himself the luxury of – you’re there to serve the music and you have to be in the best position psychologically and physiologically to do so – which means no tension – no nerves – yes, exhilaration – yes enthusiasm – yes, focused energy, but no nervousness because that's counterproductive” – then the most amazing thing happened (at least to me) the interviewer asked, if he did these exercises backstage before the performance and he said that he doesn’t do any of it anymore because it’s become so much a part of who he is that he just breaths and is as a matter of course – I was filled with exhilaration – this, again is wei-wu-wie – he has practiced it so long that he has become it – I don’t know what he believes about the universe, but what he said is the most beautiful thing I’ve heard in a long time:

“what I do is of no importance whatsoever – I am here as a servant – and if I’m nervous it’s because I think that what I’m doing is important, and that is an egocentricity which no interpreter can allow himself the luxury of – you’re there to serve the music and you have to be in the best position psychologically and physiologically to do so – which means no tension – no nerves – yes, exhilaration – yes enthusiasm – yes, focused energy, but no nervousness, because that's counterproductive”

I’ll leave you, as always, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“Is a sunset beautiful to a blind man? Is a songbird harmonious to a deaf? Thoughts of this will weaken your mind. Be like a tree bending to the wind. Observe the world, but do not desire it.”