I’m really challenging myself by writing about this masterpiece. It’s entire essence is expressing and conveying the profound, and you grasp it not through thought and words, but by feeling.
There are really two ways to enjoy music. The first is through dancing, and letting your body express and move with the flow of the music – not acting from your own volition, but surrendering to the music.
A second, very different and more subtle way of feeling music is to sit entirely still, no movement at all. The mind becomes clear as the void of space – with light absolutely everywhere, but nowhere for the light to strike. Your breathing matches the rhythm and the flow of the music – you inhale at the chest as we reach the crescendo – you inhale at the stomach as the tone continues to build in tension – you relax muscles in your lower diaphragm as the melody comes in, all those tiny muscles you didn’t know you have, as you breath deeper and deeper, relaxing lower and lower in your abdomen. Your breathing cycle is very slow, but your breaths are so deep and complete, there is no room for thoughts to interfere, and the brilliant clarity of your mind’s eye can actually see the music. When you exhale, your breath is so fulfilled that you almost have no desire to inhale, for some time at least, and you just stay there until the music lets you know it’s time for more.
As your entire consciousness begins to see the dance of the truth captured in this song, your heart beat is actually matching the beat of the song. The muscles in your face relax. Those muscles you didn’t realize you had. All those beautifully intricate muscles in your body, from you face, to the back of the neck, to your throat, and to your feet – you notice they are contracting with the music. This is your entire body locking into the flow of the music. You aren’t simply seeing the music, you are feeling it in your muscles, in your face, in your heartbeat, in your heart-space. Why do the most beautiful moments in life, as well as the most painful, as well as the most profound, involve streams of tears running down your cheeks?
Your hands are so intricate in their movements. Your mind’s eye can no doubt help but relate this awe-inspiring experience to your own life. You find you can actually communicate with the music itself. As your hands relax, the message of the song enters even deeper. That message it has just for you – it goes deeper than your minds eye, it goes deeper than the current feelings in your body – it enters your very life – it enters your memory. The memory in your mind, and the memory stored in your body. Your hands can interact with the song, and the slightest movement of your fingers can ask a question. Your body will remember this experience. If you let it flower, this message can change the way your very body is animated.
I believe there is so much value in this particular song for virtually every human on earth, if they are open to accessing it. It goes beyond language and culture.
Time is of course the main theme song for the movie Inception. As such, there is a lot of meaning carried over from the film’s themes into the song itself. I think that this is an unavoidable aspect to consider, but we don’t have to look at the entire plot for a deeper insight into this musical piece. Literally the very last scene of the movie captures, at least in my experience, so precisely and accurately what this song is about. In a way that is universal to everyone hearing the song, but in a way that is uniquely applicable as precisely as you can imagine to every detail of your life.
It engages with the very deepest question in life. Other questions may tickle our fancy, but what goes into the deepest core of our experience, right now? Our deepest core of our experience at the moment we wake up tomorrow – the deepest core of our experience upon our wedding day – the deepest part of your experience as you lost your virginity – the deepest part of your experience as you sit on your front porch in the last week of your life.
Is this a dream?
And what is the purpose of this dream? We already know that it is a dream. Scientifically we know the brain is producing your reality from inputs, but the substance is no different than a dream. Spiritually, all the masters of the world have all told us that it is, ultimately, a dream. Deep inside our very cores we know it is a dream. But the dream will continue, and it will remain solid, seemingly at least.
(We veer into slightly gender asymmetrical territory here), but what is the purpose of our dream that we call life, as men. What really is the point? I would say there are many points for consciousness, but as the man, the human – what is it that makes Dom Cobb (the protagonist) release the search for ‘reality’ – release the search for anything, and actually be fulfilled by the dream. Consciousness, embodied in man – can it taste anything sweeter, more divine, than the love of your wife and children?
A love that strong, but directed at the entire universe, that goes beyond – it appears superhuman.
How silly are we to wake up the morning, and to laugh at how silly our dreams were last night! And then we arise to chase the next vanity that we already know will not make us happy. If this is a dream, how do we live our life, this crazy dream? It’s a difficult question. Love is amazing, love for you family is amazing, but is there more? When we achieve all we desire, what to do? When we love all we dream, what to do? Even when we have realized this dream as its true nature, as a dream, what to do then? Do we get lost in the dream once more? Do we re-engage the ouroboros? Do we continue the search for a higher truth, a deeper love?
Are we meant to accept the dream, or are we meant to see beyond it, through it, and to life the veil? Should we be accepting of our confusion, or should we be determined to break through? Or is it all of the above? Is life a paradox wound through by endless paradoxes? Is it really possible to really, actually ‘wake up?’ And would that even look like?
“Welcome home, Mr. Cobb”
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