Author: william

It seems to me that the first essential step to expressing Love is to focus attention. To not focus attention is to ignore, and ignoring someone or something is certainly not an expression of Love. Focusing attention is of course not always enough — putting Love into action may be necessary. But action isn’t always…

“The Harmony of Flowers” Zeitler [PIANO] "Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise" Improvisation The title of this week’s prelude was inspired by poetry by Christopher Smart (1722-1771). Christopher Smart was born to a moderately well-to-do family in England. When he was 11 his father died, and their estate had to be sold to pay off debts…

One of the main challenges and purposes of meditation is addressing the ‘monkey mind’, that inner dialog that just yakkity yak goes on an on. As we’ve discussed in an earlier post, a problem with this inner monologue is that when we’re paying attention to it, when we’re internally talking to ourselves, our ability to…

As anyone who has tried meditation can tell you, or has paid attention to their own consciousness, we have an inner dialog that just won’t stop. We just talk talk talk to ourselves inside of our heads. This has its place — talking to ourselves is how we engage in discursive thinking, and talking in…

Near as I can tell, if you ask three people who meditate about their practice, you’ll get four different answers! So here’s a fifth point of view… If ‘prayer’ is ’me talking to God’, am I doing all the talking and not doing any listening? To me that’s where ‘meditation’ comes in – setting aside…

In traditional Judaism you’re not supposed to say the name of God ’YHWH’ because it is too sacred. When they read their Scriptures and come across “The Name” (that is, ’YHWH’), they say ’Adonai’ (’Master’) instead. Indeed, in their Scriptures they print YHWH without the vowel points — there’s no point! In some forms of…

Sarabande & Variations G. Handel (1685-1757) [HARPSICHORD] Recently I discussed meditation in a Music Box. This week I have another thought for you on that topic… As anyone who has tried meditation can tell you, or has paid attention to their own consciousness, we have an inner dialog that just won’t stop. We just talk…

Aria (Op. 51) Flor Peeters (1903-1986) [ORGAN] Improvisation [ORGAN] Flor Peeters, a Belgian, was a significant composer and performer for organ in the 20th century. After stellar organ studies he was appointed assistant organist at Cathedral of St. Rombout in Mechelen (age 20), and became head organist at age 22. His long career was evenly…

"Of Foreign Lands & Places"     R. Schumann (1810-1856) [PIANO] "In Christ There Is No East or West"  Improvisation John Oxenham is one of the pen names for businessman William J. Dunkerly (1852-1941). He trained for his career in business at Victoria University, Manchester, and traveled extensively to Europe, the United States and South America,…

Concerto in C         Prince Johann Ernst of Weimar (1696-1715, arr. J.S.Bach) "God of Grace and God of Glory" Improvisation In 1703 a 17-year-old Bach was ready to make his own way in the world. He already had quite a reputation as an organist, but he needed a ‘temp job’ to feed…