Deep Reflection
This review of Chuck Wild's Liquid Mind VII: Reflection presupposes that you’ve read the earlier reviews in this series. If you want to know more about the eighth, or cosmic-consciousness, center, then you might want to check out the review of Liquid Mind III. If you want to know more about the seventh, or expanded-consciousness, center, then check out the review for Liquid Mind IV.
1. “Gently Down” (14:14): The beginning of this track is poised right at the transition point between the seventh and eighth center. It alternates between the world weariness of the crisis point between these centers and the compassion of lower 8. The result is a meditation on human suffering that stretches the heart and opens it wider. In this respect, it reminds me of the slow movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106), which has a similar centering, and is also a moving meditation on human suffering (even though it’s not always played this way). By the end, the music has arrived at the acceptance of middle 8 grace.
2. “Into the Silence of My Being” (12:33): This track hovers at the boundary between lower 8 compassion and middle 8 grace. Most eighth center music carries a strong sense of entering human consciousness (that of the composer as well as the listener) from beyond the human sphere. This piece, however, seems more like the tentative reaching of a human being--modestly, humbly--into the upper reaches of meditative development. It’s very relaxing, but its surprising harmonic progressions are like a series of little spiritual openings. It ends firmly in the grace of middle 8.
3. “In the Stillness” (6:30): This little lullaby mostly targets the first (arousal) and second centers (sensual quality of sound), with occasional comforting whiffs of the eighth center. The result is a very relaxing trance state, ideal as background music for a massage. The message seems to be: “Let go. Relax. You’re completely safe. Sleep.”
4. “Finding My Way” (9:20): The centering for this track is similar to that of the first, except that it spends a little more time expressing world-weariness, the seventh center crisis point side, than the compassion of lower 8. The movement of consciousness in the first track is down into the crisis point and back up to lower 8. In the present track, it’s up from the crisis point into lower 8 and back. This is a perfect illustration in sound of the experience many of us have of tentative spiritual searching, doubts leading to discoveries, more doubts, more discoveries, and finally a sense of peace (middle 8 grace) at the very end.
5. “Reflection” (8:18): This track is similar to “In the Stillness.” Once again the first and second centers are strong, creating the sense of a relaxing trance, with whiffs of middle 8 grace. The message is: sleep/quiet/peace. At about the six-minute mark the eighth center becomes more present (middle 8 again). There seems to be a push to get into the union of upper 8, creating a sense of uplift. But the music doesn’t quite achieve this goal.
“My Orchid Spirit” (7:40): This is another deeply relaxing piece, in which the same kind of trance that occurs in tracks 3 and 5 is the aim. The emphasis is on the sensual beauty of sound, the lower second center, which I call relaxation. Attenuating the other centers (3, intensity; 4, expression; 5, well-being; and 6, analysis) is one way of truly quieting the mind. There are whiffs of hymn-like middle 7 devotion or nobility.
1 plus 2 plus 7 is one of the patterns for what I call transcendental longing. Yet the piece seems more human, secular, than spiritual in the sense of reaching for the divine. Instead, it seems to express a longing for a closer relationship with nature, or with natural beauty, as expressed in an orchid.
1. “Gently Down” (14:14): The beginning of this track is poised right at the transition point between the seventh and eighth center. It alternates between the world weariness of the crisis point between these centers and the compassion of lower 8. The result is a meditation on human suffering that stretches the heart and opens it wider. In this respect, it reminds me of the slow movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106), which has a similar centering, and is also a moving meditation on human suffering (even though it’s not always played this way). By the end, the music has arrived at the acceptance of middle 8 grace.
2. “Into the Silence of My Being” (12:33): This track hovers at the boundary between lower 8 compassion and middle 8 grace. Most eighth center music carries a strong sense of entering human consciousness (that of the composer as well as the listener) from beyond the human sphere. This piece, however, seems more like the tentative reaching of a human being--modestly, humbly--into the upper reaches of meditative development. It’s very relaxing, but its surprising harmonic progressions are like a series of little spiritual openings. It ends firmly in the grace of middle 8.
3. “In the Stillness” (6:30): This little lullaby mostly targets the first (arousal) and second centers (sensual quality of sound), with occasional comforting whiffs of the eighth center. The result is a very relaxing trance state, ideal as background music for a massage. The message seems to be: “Let go. Relax. You’re completely safe. Sleep.”
4. “Finding My Way” (9:20): The centering for this track is similar to that of the first, except that it spends a little more time expressing world-weariness, the seventh center crisis point side, than the compassion of lower 8. The movement of consciousness in the first track is down into the crisis point and back up to lower 8. In the present track, it’s up from the crisis point into lower 8 and back. This is a perfect illustration in sound of the experience many of us have of tentative spiritual searching, doubts leading to discoveries, more doubts, more discoveries, and finally a sense of peace (middle 8 grace) at the very end.
5. “Reflection” (8:18): This track is similar to “In the Stillness.” Once again the first and second centers are strong, creating the sense of a relaxing trance, with whiffs of middle 8 grace. The message is: sleep/quiet/peace. At about the six-minute mark the eighth center becomes more present (middle 8 again). There seems to be a push to get into the union of upper 8, creating a sense of uplift. But the music doesn’t quite achieve this goal.
“My Orchid Spirit” (7:40): This is another deeply relaxing piece, in which the same kind of trance that occurs in tracks 3 and 5 is the aim. The emphasis is on the sensual beauty of sound, the lower second center, which I call relaxation. Attenuating the other centers (3, intensity; 4, expression; 5, well-being; and 6, analysis) is one way of truly quieting the mind. There are whiffs of hymn-like middle 7 devotion or nobility.
1 plus 2 plus 7 is one of the patterns for what I call transcendental longing. Yet the piece seems more human, secular, than spiritual in the sense of reaching for the divine. Instead, it seems to express a longing for a closer relationship with nature, or with natural beauty, as expressed in an orchid.
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