Music practice is to share light, spirit, & beauty while behind an instrument; whether playing solo, with a band, in any genre.

Spiritual practice is training the heart and mind. The innocent ego loves all the things in this world, the beauty, the indulgences. You can train the mind to ride in accordance with love and angelic duties 100% of the time, just like you can play beautiful music 100% of the time: it’s all just getting into the nonjudgmental headspace, the mindset that doesn’t hear or see wrongs with anything, the mind that just digs everything exactly as it is, the heart that loves unconditionally.

Whatever you are practicing, know that love is the ending, heaven is the ending. Let’s just start there: whatever you’re practicing, whatever you’re doing, set love as the intention. You don’t have to succeed or achieve anything, but just set that highest intention; then watch this holographic planet explode into 3 trillion points of light; watch & fully participate in the transformation of 3-dimensional reality.

This to me, right now, is the meaning of life.  Dig it: the treasure chest is open, and there’s nothing in it.  We don’t need a key to get inside, and there’s no treasure inside anyway.  Emptiness!  Bliss! Laughter!  Insanity!  I’m off my rocker.

But what if: Happiness in life comes from being alive.  You don’t have to have friends, watch movies, eat pudding, or go ice-skating.  You just gotta be alive, and conscious of that miracle.  Then, all the activities are the most blissful possible things in every given moment…The secret to happiness is that you already have it, and that you lose it by trying to get it.  Once you start working or doing something, you’re chasing happiness, and therefore frivolously trying to find a key for the empty treasure chest.

No one has the key: there is no key: you don’t need a key!  It’s open: there’s no secrets!  There’s nothing to find or learn!  Laughter, bliss, insanity.

Now what?  The universe is very well balanced: nature has sustained itself for much longer than humans have been a part of it.  When we return to being humans, earthly organisms not bound by egos and the tyranny of our rational minds, we can remember that we are actually a soul – something indivisible, infinite, and undying.  That infinite, undying thing could careless about pudding.  It is eternal bliss and happiness: and we distance ourselves from it all the fucking time by “working,” & “doing” & “desiring things to be different than the way that they are.”

It takes faith in something other than your rational mind,or a worldly form: you gotta taste the delight of your soul first-hand; and then dig that the tastiness is only from being here and now, regardless of the forms in your environment.  The challenge is to practice not giving in to desires, and not feeding those habits that allow you to think, “oh, yeah, now that I’ve had my cigarette, I’m ready to start my day…” What?  You are alive and awake, is that not good enough?  “Yeah, man, now that we got these huge bowls of ice cream, life’s good.”  What?  Is the power of sharing vibrations with another human being not good enough?  Words!  Singing!  Laughter! “If only I had a man/woman next my side to snuggle with…”  Take 14 deep breaths, all the desires pass, and you return to the bliss of the present moment, regardless of the forms in your environment.  You don’t need anything to enhance the present moment – if! you can reside from your soul instead of the puny pleasure-seeking ego.

But no  guilt  –   

         No worries     –     

       It’s  all  good   –         

   there’s  never  anything   you’ve            

            ever   done   wrong;

This soul is a love supreme.  It is the only unconditional love: it will not turn you away if you cheat on it, it won’t require you to hang out with it every Tuesday.  It won’t even say “no” to you if commit the most heinous crime.  It’s eternally welcoming you and your ego home exactly as you are, right here and right now, no matter how pure or putrid. The soul is undying light, not bound by time and space.  So it is to be found in this eternally changing present that isn’t measured by our rational minds (“why, it’s 4:00 in the afternoon!”).

You’ve got it: just keep relaxing, keep releasing.  Heaven is here and now in the present moment, just keep releasing.  The ego will always think in terms of space and time: just keep releasing.  You’ll always have desires: just keep releasing.  Your ticket to freedom is here and now.  The ticket is like the key: you don’t need it, and no one else has it: the chest is already open.  And there’s nothing more to it than your breath; that is your life.

How do we delude ourselves into thinking that living is supposed to be about something other than breathing?

Stevenson Valentor is dedicated to uplifting the vibration of the planet through Music. Drums, Composition, Improvisation, Tabla, Piano, Kundalini Yoga and Tarot among other gifts he shares with the world.  He performs with the band Gramps the Vamp and teaches drumming at School of Rock. Stevenson has directed numerous concerts of his jazz compositions at Life Force Arts Center with his rotating group of very talented musicians.