Advancing With Cheerful Progress (K. Dennard)

Wow! The hits just keep on coming! :-)

What a joyful and historic experience I had at the Florida Nature Culture Center from 5/11/00 to 5/14/00. Woo hoo!

The FNCC for short is a great place in Fort Lauderdale area of Florida where people can go to study and experience Nichiren Buddhism with the Buddhist lay organization, SGI (Soka Gakkai International).

I went to the FNCC to attend the Buddhist conferences and to participate in a performance in a band with many wonderful musicians including Wayne Shorter on saxophone and Buster Williams on bass and Onaje Alan Gumbs on keyboards. To begin with, right off the bat, I was encouraged by my FNCC roommate, Onaje Alan Gumbs - a long time friend and well known pianist. They say a word to the wise is sufficient... well in the case of Onaje the word was.

"Do you have any music paper?"

"I don't need any", I said, "I can write music on any piece of blank paper."

"Oh REALLY!", came the response.

"Sure", I said, not making much of the banter.

"Then here! I have some music paper", he said.

I realized without literally confronting me, his life was challenging mine to be creative and to back up my words with action. I know Onaje was not asking me to act RIGHT AWAY, but nevertheless I said "Thank you!" and I took the paper and began writing immediately! I decided to create value right where I stood at that moment.
In the BATHROOM! :-)

Actually, I became engrossed in the writing and it took precedence over everything else at the time - and I do mean everything else. :-)

Well finally, after I had written the main body of the song and done what I needed to do, I came out for fresh air and completed the rest of the musical sketch and then rushed out for breakfast and spiritual practice and the scheduled Buddhist conferences.

After the first conference, I realized that there would not be sufficient time in the schedule for me to complete the composition. Because of my spiritual practice, I have begun to be familiar with my tendencies in life. Sometimes I do not finish things thoroughly. So I didn't want to neglect to finish the composition thoroughly, but I didn't want to miss any of the important and attractive conferences I had gone to Florida to see. (subjects: conquering self doubt, Overcoming obstacles, finding fulfillment in Career, etc.)

So what did I do? ... I carefully studied my schedule and found out I could still attend every conference and still compete the composition too. How? By doing one thing: Skipping a meal! ... So I did! In order to finish my piece and score it out thoroughly and professionally and make Xerox copies for each musician, I determined in this case to miss dinner...

Well during dinner time I set about furiously writing and I MADE it! :-)...but I knew the Xerox copies still had to get made and I was determined to overcome another tendency: LATENESS!

So I rode my bike furiously to the office in search of a Xerox machine... the woman in the office was sooo supportive and FAST! I really appreciated her joyful and helpful spirit. She even innovated a way to Xerox both pages of my composition on one page thereby saving me twenty minutes of scotch taping pages together.

Yaaay! I got to the rehearsal space on time! Yaaay! Somehow, music was just welling up inside me nonstop the entire time during the FNCC visit. I wound up with two pieces in two days: 1) "Victory over Violence" and 2) "Just Expanse".

I am determined to send Victory Over Violence to the musical director in preparation, hopefully, for performing it at my place of work and my alma mater, Berklee College of Music.

Well, the rehearsal was challenging and constructive. We learned lots of songs...but not my song (boo hoo). But I gained inconspicuous benefit of appreciating and supporting the activity with my whole heart. That is one of the things I have enjoyed most about my spiritual practice. As a musical artist and entertainer, I feel my practice has tremendously aided me in my ongoing efforts to keep my ego in perspective.

During the performance I was able to support, support, support! Then finally, BOOM! An explosion of expression of my deepest self! A climactic drum solo in a climactic composition by Nestor Torres. I was told later by many different audience members, "We kept shouting 'Give the drummer some'. When you finally soloed it was fantastic. You went crazy."

My determination to support, support, support, made me feel all the more appreciative when I received the spotlight for a moment. Leading up to that musical performance, which included Buster Williams bass, Wayne Shorter sax, Shunzo Ono trumpet, Nestor Torres, flute, Kenwood Dennard, drums, and Onaje Allan Gumbs, keyboards, were many challenges.

During the rehearsal, I was asking my self, "why is it that I struggled to complete my lead sheet, plus Xerox it, plus be on time, but yet there was time to rehearse every one else's compositions but my own?" "Why was I getting such grief from the musical director?" "Why was I feeling such intimidation from him?" "Why am I getting such pressure from him to prove myself" "Why am I feeling embarrassed about my hearing disability?" "Why am I feeling left out?"

During the concert, such concerns turned into passion and joy. During the concert, the "rocks" of such emotional challenges were changed into the pure gold of achievement and victory and a sense of accomplishment.

For me, part of the joy of life is answering philosophical questions, and so, my questions remained in the back of my mind "Why are all these challenges happening to me?"

Then I had later that night a milestone revelation at age 44 on May 13th, 2000 at 1:45 AM...

There I was sitting at this lonnng table after the show. Many of the audience members had lined up under the peaceful joyful light of the moon to express congratulations to the various performers and get autographs. I remember thinking "I promise myself to sit here and be cheerful and encouraging and sign every last t-shirt even though my hand is cramping up and I am tired. I will respond to the audience's joy and sincerity with reciprocal joy and sincerity! I was "nighttime day-dreaming" about Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali is my hero. I remember Muhammad Ali personally told me a story once while he was signing autograph after autograph after autograph:

Ali said:

"Sugar Ray Robinson was my hero, but he refused to give his autograph when I met him. He said: 'Cant you see I'm busy?' He had two beautiful ladies on his arms... I made a promise to myself if I ever become 1/2 as famous as Sugar Ray, I'll never treat nobody like that!" (of course, in the end, Muhammad Ali became 10 times more famous than Sugar Ray Robinson, and here he was keeping his promise as a human being.)

Tears were welling up in my eyes as I sat there moved by Ali and determined to continue signing for hours and hours if need be into the wee hours of the morning.

Suddenly at that moment, as I was gazing momentarily into the beautiful night sky, a bright and powerful celestial phenomena occurred. A beautiful shooting star appeared and shone it's spectacular light from left to right in the heavens.

For a brief moment I was in awe of this incredible example of nature's fireworks. I was dumbstruck. Then as the excitement of a child made its way up from my abdomen to chest and to my mouth, I screamed out loud "Wow! Did you see that shooting star? That was beeeauuutiful!"

Then I tapped the person nearest me and said "wow wasn't that a beautiful shooting star?" The person next to me (apparently busy with something else) said "Huh?"

"That shooting star was amazing wasn't it?"

"I didn't see any shooting star."

"Wow I just saw it. It was incredible!"

Then talking to my friend Donna, I said "Did you see that incredible shooting star?" "No, I didn't see it" came the response.

"Yo!" I shouted out loud, "Did anybody see that gorgeous shooting star?"

Silence...

Nobody saw it but me! Amazing that such an incredible cosmic phenomenon could go unnoticed. But that was the clear, simple and straightforward reality. So I continued signing my autographs and kept talking about my meteorite sighting to my friend Donna for a while.

It was as beautiful as the last one I saw 24 years ago on the beach at 361 Ocean Boulevard (1976). That shooting star (although I thought it was a UFO for years) heralded the beginning of a wonderful drumming career. What does this one herald, I wondered:

"FUTURE MUSICAL ENLIGHTENMENT", I thought to myself. What is the meaning of the fact that no one saw this but me? The clear message I got from this event in the sky was an answer to all the questions I had been asking earlier that day, and a clear guideline for my activities far into the future:

"Musically, you see things others don't see and you hear things others don't hear." A gentleman named Reverend Shina said almost exactly the same words to me as he was driving me with him in around 1989. My revelation now in the year 2000 was:

"You see things others don't see: Don't be overly enthralled or distracted by that. gettoverit! Get over yourself and do your homework!"

In other words I felt encouraged to do the steady hard work of human revolution. publishing my songs publishing my books records CDs, videos, floppy disks etc. Be on time, get organized clean pure etc etc do my homework!

That addresses the question 'why didn't my piece get performed': "Do you homework; prepare in advance. Geddit played next time! Make a tape of it send the tape and parts to the Musical director. Give him time to prepare and see if he likes it. Get many many record deals. Widely spread and declare this wonderful youthful vision."

'Why was I feeling embarrassed about my hearing disability?': "Do your homework and establish your worldwide reputation of encouraging human happiness. You will encourage the world. No need for embarrassment. Turn embarrassment into self esteem and pride and joy."

'How come others got away with coming late to rehearsal unprepared and not I?': "You see things others don't see. You take on responsibilities others do not. Continue to do your homework with pride and a sense of mission."

'Why was I getting such grief from the musical director?': "Do you homework and use the strict attitude as a wonderful training ground."

'Why was I feeling such intimidation from him?': "People have their own visions; Their own way of being. If you wish to establish kindness and camaraderie and cheerfulness and harmony, do your homework and influence your environment!"

'Why am I getting such pressure from the bandleader to prove myself?': "This pressure is a natural aspect of society. Why not go ahead and use it to show actual proof."

'Why am I feeling left out?': "Your composition was left out, but no one can leave YOU out... of what counts:
The human race!... with it's potential for the vision of Buddhahood and eternal happiness. Why not determine to share your vision with everybody and determine never to treat anybody the way you felt treated. Sharing your vision takes concrete practical homework. Do your homework.

'Why am I not performing with some of the wonderful musicians who I have worked with in the past?': "You see things musically that others don't see. Do your own homework and bring the joy of your vision to others. That is your dream since the age of nine... Do your homework.!"

Prepare for being a famous person in society... pave the way for lasting financial fortune not just a fast million. Do your homework. Be productive, capable, prolific. Be prepared for the harsh criticism the ostracism racism jealousy that abound in the world - the National Enquirers of world tabloid journalism. Be ever ready for religious persecution. Clean up your act dot your i's and cross your t's. Do your homework!

You already see a beautiful encouraging empowering sacred vision. Rather than ogle your own vision, do your homework! Reveal the subtleties of your vision. Inundate the world! Do your part to usher in an age of consideration for each other. An age of respect for women and minority races businesses rights people have to embrace their own personal sexual preferences opinions, political ideas religious beliefs philosophical stances etc. DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND ADVANCE WITH CHEERFUL PROGRESS.

'Why am I experiencing financial hardships?': "Do your homework and set the stage for fame and fortune. Fame and fortune are fleeting. Do your spiritual homework to prepare so you will not be buffeted by the spiritually dangerous waves of arrogance and egotistical attitude which come with the territory of fame and fortune. Do your homework."


And so here I sit doing my diary taking care of paperwork, working to create a frugal efficient lifestyle doing my homework... not just enjoying my life and enjoying my vision, but enjoying doing my homework as well! Calmly predicting the explosion of expression of my deepest vision that people are waiting for throughout global society. Yearning to affect society positively! One audience member later said "When you spoke you cleared up my head and it's been clear ever since."

For me the eternal aspect of faith and joy I am feeling is sacred: Happily, my "life is the text" within which I am "finding the revelation of the sacred" (Joseph Campbell).

At the same time, amazingly enough, my revelation at this time is: "You've been seeing this sacred revelation permeating music for 35 years already. Confidently accept it as a fact of your life and
do...
your...
homework!"
:-) ...

Peace! :-)