The task for the Level One today is the application of quality: to find one small part of what we do and discharge it superbly. This must very small, easily definable & (therefore) easily verifiable. Like, sitting on a chair. This is a frequent occurrence in the life of a course (at the least). Are we able to sit on a chair effortlessly & without unnecessary motion? Or, put the guitar on the body. Or learning the notes in A natural minor at the 7th. position.
12.06
A Parade of Hands for much of the past 2 hours.
12.52
Perceptive comments in the past hour of personal meetings.
16.27
Performances at lunchtime continued. The personal meetings this afternoon addressed the subtleties of practice more than how to hold a pick. Several perceptive comments. The New Jersey Guitar Circle is about to arrive for our meeting.
21.03
The Level One presented the results of The Application of Quality. This was mostly poor.
The tasks chosen were often too large. Like, playing a C major scale in the 7th. position but using our eyes to guide the hand to that part of the guitar neck. A more useful approach would have been to practise raising the hand to the 7th. position without using the eyes. Or, discharging an aim (itself a large one) within a group of people. We begin this exercise with ourselves: to move this to a group setting is a very large undertaking. Or to relax the shoulders, which is a good aim but, in the terms in which this exercise was presented, not a task which is easily available to external verification.
This is a powerful exercise, and its repercussions take place in several worlds. In the physical world of our hands, once we have established a small & particular part of a practice - like being able to place our hands on the guitar at certain points without being totally reliant on the eyes for guidance - this becomes a point of reliability and, in time, even of certainty. So, in the future very little attention need ever be lost to this simple yet frequent action - once it is established in our practice. Then, once this small action is reliable, we move to establishing reliability in another small part of our overall practice. These small "bricks" of reliability, once set in place, become foundation stones.
A quality is not governed by number. So, a "small" act of quality is as large as a "large" act of quality. To perform an act with quality is to juxtapose the worlds of the conditioned & the unconditioned. When quality is invited to enter an action, and enter the world of things, it then "spreads" & becomes available to others, to the extent that they are able to respond & accept.
"We also learn by osmosis."
