In the last part of the performance,
I played notes which did not have an enervating effect.
I blended them with spontaneity.
Hence the sounds
came forth in dissonance,
like a cluster of plants growing
from one root,
or like the music of the forest
coming from no perceptible form.
The sounds spread in their movement
leaving no trace.

They seemed to rise from deep silence.
Their movement came from nowhere
and led to deep darkness.

Some would call this death,
and others life, some the fruit,
others the flower.
The sounds moving and flowing,
diverging and adjusting without a dominant theme
–the world might well be unclear about them
and refer to the discernment of the sage.

The sage comprehends the nature of this music
and considers it in the light of spontaneity.

When the power of spontaneity has not been called forth
and the five notes are well ordered
–this is what is called
the music of heaven,
entrancing to the mind without words.

Hence Shennong praised it: ‘You listen for it
but you do not hear its sound; you look for it
but you do not perceive its form.
It fills heaven and earth;
it encompasses all within the universe.’

You wished to hear it but could not comprehend it,
and therefore you were perplexed.

Zhuangzi, by Zhuang Zhou, trans. Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong, The Revolution of Heaven

“What is truth?”

That’s the question which Pontius Pilate asked of Jesus. Not waiting for any answer, Pilate turns on his heel to address the crowd, as the story is told.

Alleged gurus, wise men, philosophers have been addressed with ‘the question’ for as long as we have a written record. Diogenese of Sinope famously searched with his lantern in daylight for a man to tell him the truth. We yet are haunted by the question, as if the echo of a rifle shot, harbinger of death (or of life), rolling through a quiet forest.

The above quoted lines are a meditation upon the relationship between spontaneity/dissonance and meaning. Meaning in Taoist terminology is phrased “the music of heaven.” We seek meaning as our holy grail, the final desideratum of our life. The Zhuangzi says that meaning is all around us, we are enveloped by meaning, and despite our intentional listening and looking, we do not perceive it.

An analogy, – what occurs when I am exposed to music? At first sound strikes the mind as chaotic, – then resolves into a melody, with harmonies, and we are elevated into rhapsody…

Truth as we intend to mean, is exactly that sort of experience. Feel, experience the flow, wait for it, meaning and form resolves, life goes on…

The writer continues that music that perplexes is to allow the listener to become aware of his/her ignorance. This awareness leads to the Tao.

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Let’s not end the year without some music. This tune I have heard many times. This morning it was as if I heard it for the first time. Only You by Yazoo.