The Analects of Music, supplementary: Musical Greatness

All musical greatness is devoid of self-consciousness. All freedom is perfect when seen as a means to an end, and not an end itself. Mastery is devoid of vagueness. Artistic skill is not perfection. It is the medium and reflection of a step in the process of psychic development. Art is not art: it is a process of reality.

Art must project an inner vision into the world. The statement of aesthetic creation is the deepest and most profound experience of human action. Art reveals a psychic understanding of the nature of the absolute. It is an expression of life transcending space and time. It is a work of enlightenment and a technique acquiring liberation.

In Carnatic music, classifications of ragas are called “chakras,” and correspond to the main and secondary chakras of the body. In Persian / Arabic music, scale modes and called “maqam;” the word also used to describe spiritual stations. Transcending beyond the separation between theoretical and spiritual concepts is more than mere poetry or ornamentation.

Musical genius is manifest in the capacity to musically describe a world view and a set of values from an inner and exterior perspective simultaneously.