Richard Franklin Morse: News/Journal

inspire
1. To breathe into; to fill with the breath; to animate.
2. To infuse by breathing, or as if by breathing.
3. To draw in by the operation of breathing; to inhale; -- opposed to expire.

This morning I was meditating, focusing on simply breathing, and I began to wonder why so many traditions teach this simple method. What is breath, I wondered, and why meditate on it? What I noticed is that breathing is a perfect model for how we live.
Breath is an elegant illustration of the phrase, ‘Ask and It is Given’. When one breathes in, the body is asking for oxygen, and the request is fulfilled, naturally. The atmosphere does not say, ‘work harder, become worthy and we’ll see’ or something like that, the fulfilment and the request are one event. It happens automatically and requires no effort - in fact it would require enormous effort to stop. It is deeply pleasurable: take a deep breath and feel the satisfaction of being alive. There is more than enough air for everyone, forever, you can have as much as you want, and the more you have the better you feel.
Breathing is the first thing we do as we begin this life, and the last thing we do as this life ends. With every breath we are subtly being told, ‘This is how life works – effortless, joyful, constant and plentiful.’

When I was a child I drank orange juice that had been concentrated, frozen, then mixed with water to resemble its’ original consistency. Reconstituted, they called it. That was what I called orange juice. Years later, I tried some freshly squeezed juice and I was astonished: it was so light, so alive, delightful, no comparison to the thick, heavy, dull, canned product.
I notice that life can be experienced that way: as fresh, immediate experience, direct as it occurs, or as canned, based on the past, on what one knows or thinks one knows. Sometimes when I am doing something ‘ordinary’ and find myself on auto-pilot I ask myself “Am I experiencing life as fresh or canned right now?” It helps to wake me up, and I notice that even in moments when nothing ‘interesting’ is happening, there is a fresh, sparkling aliveness, if I stay present for it.

I am blissfully insulated from most popular culture, I don’t watch TV or listen to music on the radio (I hope to give up the mass hypnosis/anasthesia called ‘news’ someday). I do, however, make my way daily to the fitness studio, where I get more pop culture in an hour than a sane human being should be subjected to. The TV in the fitness studio, rather all 12 of them, placed strategically so they can’t be avoided, is usually tuned to ‘music’ stations, so I am assaulted by ‘music’ by ‘artists’ like Eminem, 50 Cent and Britney Spears while I work my cardiovascular system. Last night I saw a video that was even worse than most: ‘My Humps’ by the Black-Eyed Peas. As near as I could make out while recoiling in horror and trying not to pay attention, the ‘song’ consisted of a woman extolling the desirability of her buttocks and/or breasts in a maddeningly mindless, repetitious manner. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very fond of breasts and buttocks myself, I’m a primate like everyone else, but do the corporate monsters that force-feed us swill like this think we are a race of robotic lizards or human beings? I think we deserve better, and it’s my mission to make music for human beings as widely available as I can.

We are pleased to welcome our first paying customer, Neil Jamieson of England. If I had a store I would frame his dollar, one of them anyway, and hang it on the wall behind the cash register. Thank you, Neil!

The rest of the world may not know it yet, but Hear2Eternity Records has just released my fabulous new CD, and I am as thrilled as a kid at Christmas! I want everyone to hear these songs, and, if I have my druthers, everyone will. The adventure continues...