Bach had a doorway to God. Music came through it.
Many assume that doorway of Bach's was one in a million; a special case. On the face of it, it certainly seems like that: listen just once to the awesome power of a Bach concerto and you can easily see him as discrete and special -- one of a small tribe of souls gifted with rare capacities and thus remote from all others. A man blessed with a cantata-enhanced life.
And blessed he was. Yet Bach, although he had that doorway to God's music, endured the same human strivings and disappointments that befall all other beings on this planet. Throughout his life he was driven by ordinary dreams of advancement: he hustled to make a living, spent hours flattering potential patrons, and, to his despair, was often taken for granted by employers because he made writing music look so easy. Indeed, it was a human journey not unlike thousands of others. What made it different was the fact that he heard Divine Music: it rode alongside him from beginning to end, tumbling out a wealth of numinous sounds which eventually made Bach a name we can never forget.
And yet here's a surprise.
Bach's doorway is, in fact, quite commonplace. You don't have to be special to have one; we're all born with it. Yes, now and then come avatars and geniuses who are able to access it without raising a finger; but only a few enjoy this trouble-free route to inner splendor. The rest of us have to work our way towards it; salmons swimming upstream.
Still, the fact that each human comes packaged with a doorway to the Divine is grounds for hope. Not only do we each have the doorway; in addition, all beings come with their own potential for genius. Take a look around, and you will notice that we all have some area in which we hear or see with extraordinary clarity. Whatever your area is, that is the one which will respond most to Light from the doorway within.
It's a fact; you can bank on it. The doorway is here whether we're shallow or deep, whether our spiritual muscle is notable or non-existent. It's true that if we're totally unawake to the world of spirit we may be oblivious to our inner door, and thus unable to use it -- but it's there, nonetheless. Waiting. Poised. Ready.
Behind the door is unimaginable intelligence: a storehouse that serves each of us with its uncountable gifts, tailored specifically to our own unique wiring. Some doorways reveal visions of art, some poetry, some mathematical equasions, some inventions, some medical discoveries. Others open up to big insights, little insights, compassionate urges, hints, clues, bursts of knowing. All these bursts come from the same mysterious place: our Greater Self. And whatever form our particular revelation takes, we know it's larger than life because it feels so.......complete. All of its i's are dotted, all of its t's are crossed: it just feels right.
For instance, I know someone whose area of sanity is understanding animals. Actually, understanding is a weak word for it; this friend knows animals instinctively and deeply, past all expectation. His doorway opened while he was busy teaching himself about the world of creatures. He loved them, ping! the inner doorway opened, and now he knows animals like the back of his hand. When an animal is in trouble, a healing solution will "come" to him. It feels right.
It feels right because it's not man-made, it's divinity at work. We've all felt the thrill of a sudden inspiration from within -- there's nothing quite like it. Spiritual athletes report more of these mystical experiences than the rest of us, and for good reason. They are smart enough and disciplined enough to keep the doorway open all of the time; most of us open it only at random.
So that's how it is. Here you are, and here's your doorway. To use it, you have to refocus your sight away from the immediate external world and into the Nowhere from which it springs. You have to practise stillness to unlock its secrets. Do that, and it's yours.
But one word of warning: the inner doorway with its hidden wealth will never force itself upon you; mapping your way to its treasure is up to you. You can use silence to open the doorway and unfold amazingness, or you can ignore the doorway and stay pinned to your own limited talents.
Your life. Your adventure. Your choice.
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