Here Comes Treble: Knoweldge And Truth
"My flautist’s mind contains the theoretical knowledge of the techniques needed to play the flute: how to create a sound and its variations; how to control breathing; how to use the tongue to make interesting sound-textures; the fingering needed for each note and how to persuade the fingers to fly from one to another at any required speed; how to read and make sense of written music; how to listen to others in an ensemble...''
Isabel Bradley suggests that taking control of our own lives is essential if we are to be happy and healthy.
To read more of Isabel's wide-ranging and stimulating columns please click on Here Comes Treble in the menu on this page.
When learning to drive a car, one of the first pieces of information acquired is that the left foot must release the clutch while the right foot depresses the accelerator. The engine may be stalled many times before the first jerking pull-off is made; and numerous lessons and practice sessions experienced behind the wheel before mind, body and feet unite in effortless and smooth driving.
In this way, knowledge given to the mind needs to be experienced by the entire being before it can be applied to daily living. This process is the basis of all learning.
My flautist’s mind contains the theoretical knowledge of the techniques needed to play the flute: how to create a sound and its variations; how to control breathing; how to use the tongue to make interesting sound-textures; the fingering needed for each note and how to persuade the fingers to fly from one to another at any required speed; how to read and make sense of written music; how to listen to others in an ensemble and work together to make music that can be listened to with delight. After many years of studying, practising and performing, all these things come naturally to me; they are part of my inner truth.
As a flute teacher, I can tell a student how to perform any aspect of playing the instrument, I can demonstrate all the techniques; but until that student has translated the verbal knowledge into their own experience, nothing can make that student’s music flow. Days, weeks or months of trial and error, constant practice and continual thought about the process can pass before the moment of epiphany is experienced, that moment when knowledge becomes truth, when the student understands and believes in what they’re doing not only with their mind but with every cell in their body. From then on, that aspect no longer needs to be thought through every time they pick up the flute; it is ingrained in the fibre of their being.
Learning to deal with life’s more complex problems can be just as tedious:
In her deepest sub-conscious mind, the anorexic knows she is dangerously thin, that she is killing herself. Therapists talk to her, remove privileges when she refuses to eat, reward every small weight gain, and work with her until they are exhausted and discouraged. Until she becomes aware of the knowledge hiding in her mind and that which others are trying to impart, until she translates it into her own truth, thus rediscovering a need for life, no-one can help her.
At the other end of the ‘scale’, any obese person knows that the only way to lose weight is to eat less. Until that knowledge is translated by their entire being into an urgent and personal desire to lose weight, they will continue eating themselves into an early grave.
To live happily, healthily and comfortably, to enjoy all that we do to the fullest, we need to take control of as many aspects of our lives as possible.
The slow process of converting knowledge to personal truth is the first step on the long road to taking control of our lives.
Until next week, “here comes Treble”.
THE END
Copyright Reserved © 2006 by Isabel Bradley
