Spirituality

Adam Rafferty On the Road: April 2008 Europe Tour Review

Greetings Friends!!!

It’s 4am and in feels like 10am and I am back in NYC after a long commute back from Linz, Austria – you know, one of those good ol’ 14 hour treks.

Well all I can say is THANK YOU to those that helped, hired, drove and hung out with me overseas. The tour was an absolute success, and ridiculous fun. I am on Weiner schnitzel overload, but some NYC chinese food and Starbucks will balance out my body’s PH.

I did want to do some road blog entries, but time was too short, and I was in “tour zone”. It ain’t like sittin’ at home with my ibook! Here is a quickie video greeting, and an in depth review follows…

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXzkjwl0Azw&hl=en]

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ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES
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I have only toured Europe with a band, and going solo I must say – there were certain aspects that were MUCH easier (sorry guys, I still love you!). Coming and going when I wanted and less overall managerial functions made it easier. Also, no one to egg me on to stay out until the birds chirped kept me in better shape physically 🙂 Fitting in a taxi also made things comfy. (Yes, I have done a whole jazz trio with upright bass in a German taxi….that’s a good way to practice swear words in a foreign language)

Oh, and did I mention one plane ticket, train pass and hotel room on off nights instead of 3?

Hey – that’s just gravy though…the music is what led me to solo playing, but it is a nice perk to have lower expenses. 🙂

I did miss having some other musicians to “lean on” sometimes, and the intensity of playing solo was, well…intense! Of course I will play with bands, but this is what is happening now!

Fortunately I had more than enough material to do 2 long (1 hour plus) sets. That’s with pretty much no improvising, so it’s quite a lot of music.

I really re-learned an aspect of practicing music, which is “practice the tune you think you know” because just when you think you’ve got it covered – that’s where a brain fart can happen!!! I was shocked at where mistakes happened. I knew, and I am sure no one else did.

As well, I found that early in the tour I had concentration problems and difficulty being “present” while performing. I was concerned with the show’s flow and often thought about “what tune will I play next” while playing a tune.

That’s ok – a few musical brain farts in the music would zap me back into the present moment, and all would be well again.

Audiences were of 3 sorts: 1) a hushed concert audience that had to be shmoozed to an loosened up. 2) a cigarette smokin’, beer swillin’ audience that had to be attacked 3) and something in-between. All 3 types are expected and totally cool. A performer should be able to deal with all those situations. Just don’t play a sentimental ballad for the beer swillers.

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ABOUT THE TRAVEL
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Well, at least now I know I can actually move across an airport and train station with 2 guitars, a suitcase and a laptop case. I was a little unsure about the sheer physicality of moving around, but it worked out ok.

And, kudos to Bruce Lamb of https://casextreme.com – guitars did get thrown around, but survived. The only scratches on my Taylor are due to my percussion!

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ABOUT THE PEOPLE
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One of the success / self help people I have been checking out lately is a guy by the name of Joe Schroeder (I got hold of an interview done by Mike LIttman) and he made a comment “people first, money second” and really beat the drum of the spiritual approach to business, as opposed to the “money first, people second” approach.

You can’t TRY to do this because that’s like saying “once you fake sincerity, you got it made”. It’s only in hindsight that you see what attitudes take you through life happily. Dare I say maybe a smidge of wisdom is dawning? 🙂

I came to realize that touring and playing music can be summed up in one word: LOVE. That is just where it is at! Sounds easy and as if it is regurgitation of someone else’s principle – but I realized that it is all about “people first, gigs second” and NOT “gigs first, people second”….which is an easy trap to fall into when you are booking a tour.

I enjoyed my time with the people who helped me organize and helped schlep PA systems, and all that. I enjoyed connecting with parents of kids who enjoyed that concerts at schools. I enjoyed shmoozing with the audiences. People first!!!

Funny how it works. There was just way less ego involvement than I have had in previous years, less self importance. There I was, just wanting to turn people on with the music…and when faces would light up, and there’d be a buzzing energy in the room. One club owner told me after the gig “I do 100 concerts a year here and can see whether or not the people REALLY dig it or not – and man, they loved this!!”

And I realized, this is about people, whether it is a student, a club owner an audience member, an old friend – whatever. All the yummy stuff surrounding success comes second. All the books say this, but to experience it first hand is POWERFUL.

I am not an articulate enough teacher in this subject to tell you how to do this, all I can tell you is that when my mind shifted to LOVE and PEOPLE, the world shifted to SUCCESS!

I guess another way to say this is when one shifts from GIVING instead of WANTING the world opens up and actually gives the giver even more!

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ABOUT THE MUSIC
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Playing solo is much more akin (at least to me) to being in a rock / pop band than playing jazz guitar with a band.

Every tune is planned, and the evening is “crafted” with dynamics, highs an lows, covers and originals. Contrast is vital to making solo guitar interesting for a long time.

In the vein of my hero, Tommy Emmanuel – I strove to make it enjoyable for non musicians as well as musicians…and it worked!!!

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WHAT, SO WHAT, NOW WHAT ?
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Well it is over and in the past coming home from tours has been a downer. Not this time, I am psyched for the next one. I have some Kentucky gigs in May, some summer stuff, and a festival outside Prague in November 2008, so I’ll be busy filling in dates.

Time to catch up on some sleep!

zzzzzzzzzz

Things are a Changin; Right Livelihood in the ‘Hood!

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

Hi friends. What I am about to write is rather diary like. Hope you don’t mind. It’s also a THANK YOU note.

Ok, to all of you who have kids, and a house and 2 cars and many responsibilities, my life probably looks like a walk in the park. Hey, I have been careful to try to carve out time and space for the “creation” of my life – which is playing music. I’ve also made (and make) emotional sacrifices so that life circumstances don’t eclipse the music.

I have a lovely lady in my life, 3 cats between us, and I am a musical entrepreneur at heart. I am blessed.

Yet I still have my ghosts, demons, responsibilities, doubts. However, action is about to change all of that, or at least kick it’s butt. In fact the action has started – as thought.

I digress – It’s funny – practicing music is like not wanting to drink at a party. It seems everyone pressures you contrary to your needs and desires (unless of course I am simply creating my reality). “C’mon, have a drink” is like “do you have free time, aw you always practice…” Next thing you know – days slip by and others are getting their needs met…just not me. Well guess what, I am saying YES to my needs and it may sound like a NO to them now, but too bad.

The compulsion to fill every moment with something, some activity- particularly if it makes money – does not allow for 2 seconds of spaciousness – the quiet out of which music springs forth. Again, I take 100% responsibility for what’s happened these past few months, and I am responsible for a new direction.

Right now my “music” is many things – communication with people, practice, composition, booking gigs, reaching out and learning from those further ahead than I, and most of all – working on myself as a person. I have been doing the personal development work prescribed by many of todays success teachers and gurus (who are actually very hip).

The upshot?

No more fall back plans allowed. I am jumping off the cliff and will find wings on the way down (Ray Bradbury’s quote).

Music for me is a FULL TIME gig. All the “fall back plans” (steady little time consuming gigs of various sorts) are eating up 4-5 days a week, leaving spaciousness for 2 or 3. So what was once good to help pay bills and “help become” a working musician has now become a ceiling and a hindrance.

Without going into details, I will say this: the train is leaving the station, so to speak. I am on my way to the next level – not externally, but internally. My commitment to music and this life is in a deeper place than ever before.

And who is the thank you for? You!!! Family, friends, fans. Particularly my YOUTUBE fans.

It’s amazing – without audience feedback, I guess much of this music and new acoustic direction would evaporate like a small puddle on a summer day…but the response has been so AWESOME that any last shred of self doubt has turned into a resounding “I can do it!”. All I need now is patience!

Addition: In younger years I had many “great ideas” and thought – “yeah, I could do such and such if I wanted”. Now I see – it’s the action that counts!!!! Anyone can say “I could do it if I wanted”. I ask – “well, what are you doing?”

I know in my bones that this is what the Buddha meant (sort of…err, I hope) with the concept of Right Livelihood. A calling, a passion that benefits the giver and the receiver.

Hmm…I think someone wise once said “get good enough out of the way to make room for great” 🙂

Stay tuned…more music is on the way!

Love

Adam

Thoughts Become Things and Things Become Thoughts

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

And if you watch Victoria’s Secrect ads you’ll know that thongs become thoughts and thoughts become thongs. Thongs can then become things.

All joking aside…

There is plenty written online about “thoughts becoming things”. That is a pretty solid cornerstone in the concept of manifesting the things in life that you want, right? You think of the cup of coffee- and it’s just an idea, an image. In a short time, relatively effortlessly – you can manifest that cup of coffee.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x4sVR67wCk]

It’s the self help du jour, and very interesting to discuss “removing resistance” when you or I want something more – something bigger, more costly or more time consuming to get or achieve. So if I have a vision of a master’s degree or career change, that will take some time, money and effort, right? As well, if I wanted a rolls-royce or a new house, or a better job that would involve what I feel to money and effort.

But for some reason I wanted to look through this thoughts to things “rabbit hole” backwards.

But first – a word from our sponsor – TIME.

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Time does not exist. I’m no Einstein, I know – but time is totally connected to our minds and is inside us, not outside. It is a humans way, though five senses, of “decoding” an ever present now. Meditation will bring you to a timeless state, and you’ll see that time is relative to our mind.

Someone once said that time is our way of not experiencing eternity and everything at once so we don’t go completely mad.

I hate to gloss over this, but just let’s take time out of the equation for now. There is really only a present moment and memory. Past and future are actually quite similar for us – and experiments have shown that imagining and remembering are incredibly similar. There is NOW and then there is the “imagined somewhere else” idea.

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Back to thoughts and things. If we take time (and money) out of the equation – we see that whether it is a term paper, a musical project, a cup of coffee, a vacation to a far away place – the thing has manifested as a result of thought.

How about if we looked the other way? When you look at a thing, you get a thought.

Example – I am walking down the street in lovely peaceful NYC and I see a couple walking with venti starbucks coffee cups. I go get a cup. I hold it in my hand – it is a thing…

And the thing, in my hand gives me thoughts. The warmth, the taste, the smell, the cafeine buzz – are a thought, right? The thing is just a thought.

Let me share with you the real example that made me think of this. I did a major clutter removal and clean up in my apartment and am enjoying things like a clear desk, folded and put away clothing, a clean swept floor.

On a quantum level, I think everything in my house that I started with was still here – every speck of dust included. The clean up thoughts shifted things, and then looking at a clean place gives me thoughts.

These things don’t make me feel good – the THOUGHTS make me feel good, free and inspired. Pretty crazy that a clean desk can unlock such a great feeling.

(What is happening is my creative thoughts can flow unimpeded without the distractions of my past – bills, objects. All the clutter gives you/me thoughts and your / my mind becomes like a car swerving on the road instead of going straight with an idea. The clean desk allows a flow of thought. That then feels good!)

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Then of course, the “thing becomes a thought and the thought becomes a thing” cycle endlessly with no seeming begging or end. I suppose it all had to start with thought.

(Please hang in there until the end -I am getting to my point!!!)

Thought: You saw coffee.
Thing:You drank it.
Thought:You like it, so now you envision it.
Thing: You buy and drink it.
Thought: You enjoy it and think about it.

And you are now in the endless feedback loop of T & T.

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The more I ponder this – and look “backwards” through the “rabbit hole” it seems that there is this “swinging door” between thoughts and things – and here’s the whammy – PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF IT DOES NOT MATTER MUCH AT ALL – it’s a simple swinging door in us, our mind. The manifestation, the will, the want – and the dissatisfaction unless we manifest it – is inside us. Whether it’s learning to play a Mozart Sonata or steaming broccoli for dinner – the urge and need starts in us. So the “inside us” and “outside us” are like a swinging door as well.

Take out the proving to others, the proving to oneself, the money, the time, the fear and all that is left is this swinging door. It’s a given, there’s no way out – and it is effortless to make thoughts into things.

We can know now that there is very little difference between the thought and the thing, as if we can just take pleasure in the thought because it is a thin veil between the idea and material.

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I say this all because I am my own guinea pig. In 2006 I wanted to play around with this idea – the manifesting being really fun and exciting to me. I decided to embark on my journey of solo acoustic guitar and saw in my minds eye a CD, gigs, tours, performing, and practicing. I saw in my minds eye happy faces of people who I am playing music for.

I didn’t even own a steel string guitar, and I had no solo repertoire under my fingers. All I had was inspiration. When I spoke with my girlfriend (we had just met at the time) about my plans, she looked at me and I don’t know what she thought, but I sensed a “well, we’ll see” speck of doubt. I declared – “Watch and be amazed! It is done!” Needless to say – she’s amazed at my results and my biggest fan!

And lo – it’s happening. CD is done, touring is happening. I’m happy. And it happened in a blink. Time doesn’t matter, and is only an idea. (Also, money is an idea as well. I know, that’s a hard one for us Americans!)

But – here’s the point. I look at the thing, the tour, the CD- and I get these happy thoughts. It is not too different a feeling from before any of it was manifested….so what is the point of manifesting stuff? Can we be happy not bothering to manifest?

Ahh – the conclusion, for now. There is some deep, deep, deepak, deep thing about “knowing oneself as creator”. It is an unearthly, loving, spiritual satisfaction to be part of this process. I remember composing a fugue and feeling an unearthly satisfaction and connection “to it all” when I was done. The music was wiggle in the field – out there and I manifested it by writing it.

Just think – if you saw a magic act and someone manifested a person out of thin air, it looks and feels like utter magic to you, right? Well – take time out of the equation – slow down the video of them doing the trick, and it looks like the reality you are used to.

Then, look at something you have achieved and “speed up” the video – and it looks like the guy doing magic. That’s because what you did was in fact magic. Take time out of the equation. You getting that car, house, graduating, learning that new thing – is magic.

All you have ever been doing is manifesting ideas into reality and probably don’t see how magical it is! It’s so magical that most humans walk around deadened to this mysterious, delicious, miraculous cosmic reality. It’s like a fish not realizing the feeling of water.

Spend time with your thoughts and think big, now that you know you’ll get what you think about! But know – the thing won’t make you happy – the “creating” will.

You are creator!

Here is Yogi Gupta talking about similar stuff:
https://ecomall.com/greenshopping/gupta2.htm

Organize and You’ll Be More Productive and Happier

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Hi friends. Boy do I feel great! I can attribute it to many things – but I’d like to stress the importance of cleaning up, throwing junk out, putting things away and all-around organizing.

I hired an organizer / assistant for a few hours here and there and just a few of her suggestions were very valuable:

1) Things, files, objects etc get divided into “present tense” & “past or future” (my interpretation). Objects you really use get to stay out. That’s valuable real estate – “your mind”. Stuff you need to see and that’s easy to get to has to be numero uno important.

2) Establish “homes” for things. I had AA batteries on the window – sill. I had stacks of magazines and yellow pads stuffed together inside living room type furniture. No good. You have to establish and declare homes for stuff.

2.5) Old stuff that you want to keep but never use – that gets put in a hard to reach, back of the closet type place. .

3) Throw out and donate. Example – Empty boxes for electronic equipment – Bye – in the garbage.

Clothes – old sweaters that you never actually wear, but remember wearing in a past life – just drop them at the Salvation Army. Example – my old guitars will get parked at my music school for student use.

Again – those are all “past tense” objects, seeking “future use” that never comes. Christmas bows? Throw ’em out and buy new ones next year. For the low price of $5, you have less crap lying around for a year.

4) Allow for clear space. It’s GOOD for a corner to have nothing in it. It’s good for a desk or wall to have nothing on it. A great artist / designer once told me “not every part of the space has to be filled up”.

The same goes for your computer desktop.

5) THE BIG ONE – don’t de-clutter and organize and clean at the same time. Those are 3 different steps. I learned this basic idea from a book entitled “Getting things Done” by David Allen. (I can’t find my copy,will probably buy again)

I didn’t do his whole system but here’s what I do: collect all crap and throw it in a box first. Decide on where it goes and what to do later. That gets your space clean and clear FAST – and you can think clearly and effectively. Then at a later time, put away & process the stuff. I use big plastic bins from staples and raid my apartment for :

bills
guitar picks
receipts
books
pens
ac adaptors
CD’s
etc

Throw them in the box – DO NOT PUT THEM AWAY AND LOOK FOR PLACES TO JUST GET THEM OUT OF SITE, BECAUSE YOU’LL NEVER GET THE PLACE CLEAN. Just put them in your crap box for now.

Get the place looking clean and clear of junk. Then, clean up (sweep, dust), and then lastly, usually another day – go through the box.

The same applies for you computer. How much crap is on your desktop? Do this and you’ll see what I mean:

a) Create a new folder on the desktop called “junk_1-30-2008” or whatever the date is. Note the use of underscores and hyphens.

b) highlight everything EXCEPT the hard drive of your computer.

c) drop it in the folder

d) enjoy the clarity of thought looking at a blank desktop.

e) In your documents folder create a NEW folder simply called “clean_up”. You can drop the “junk_1-30-2008” folder in there and sort things out later. This way if you accumulate a junk folder every few weeks or week, you’ll have a clean up method and can organize at a later time. Each folder will be sorted by date.

6) When you go through the physical bin or “junk_1-30-2008” type folder – determine what needs immediate action and establish a place for immediate action. It’s really only for RIGHT NOW items.

I recently created and IMMEDIATE ACTION folder in my email program. Scanning past social emails to search for gig offers, customers and radio contacts was too exhausting and time consuming.

This works for me better than various folders like “Gigs”, “Recording”, “Bills” etc because I’d have to still go looking for what is on a “front burner”. At a glance I can deal with the most necessary, urgent stuff.

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The Result?
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You’ll experience an uncanny spiritual rush when things are clean – as if a weight is lifted off of you. Your attention will not be pulled in several directions at once, and you’ll be able to hit the bullseye with more of your actions and feel good.

There is a natural energy in keeping things tidy and organized – why do you think Zen monks clean the monastery every single day?

Try the computer desktop suggestion NOW. Then buy a bin at Staples or Office max and de-clutter. You’ll see – it’s awesome!

Changing Your Reality By Visualizing

By Adam Rafferty 4 Comments

I am fascinated by a topic that is relatively new to me – visualization. Holding in the mind’s eye exactly what one desires. I have many “quantum physics” ideas about this as well, but I will try to remain focused – for your sake! 🙂

Okay, the “Law of Attraction” is all over the place – “The Secret” is mainstream, and we don’t need another blog that regurgitates the same info.

I’d like to make you aware of 2 guys who were in “The Secret” though – John Assaraf and Jack Canfield. I am currently going through “Having it All” by Assaraf, and did my first quick read through of “The Success Principles” (author of Chicken Soup for The Soul). They are experts, and I will be wearing their books out over the next year.

I recommend these books VERY highly. Go get them – that’s an order!!! In fact, if you think they’re bs I’ll reimburse you and buy them off you & give them away as gifts!

I own Shakti Gawain’s “Creative Visualization” and am re-reading it now. For me is was very feeling and meditation oriented – but I found that when I’d get into edgy-New York-gotta have it now “mode” it seemed like really good California fluff that I needed to be totally receptive to and in the mood for after a hot bath.

Don’t get me wrong, it is great – especially now that I have the John Assaraf book. I recommend the Shakti Gawain book to help get in the feeling place of doing the process that John and Jack describe as critical.

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THE COOL STUFF
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John explains that at any given moment we get something like 4 million bits of information through our senses, but hey – who’s counting! Out of the 4 million bits we only use like 20,000 of those bits. Hmm. Very interesting indeed!

Here’s what happens, he says (and he claims to follow all the latest brain research). Our subconscious mind which constitutes something like 75% of our brain stores our images and beliefs. Our conscious mind only uses 2 to 4% of our brain.

Deep in the back of the brain somewhere we have what is called the Reticular Activation System (RAS). The RAS is this magic little thing that “sifts” out what is important to us. It wants to harmonize what we “see” out there with the image we have in our subconcious.

Out of the 4 million bits it will zone in on what makes the inner picture true or real and discard the rest. We use this all the time.

For example:

– We get interested in getting a Volkswagen Beetle and all of a sudden see them all over the road. They were always there, but now we’re looking even though we don’t realize it. They seem to “appear”.

– We look for a parking spot and all of a sudden notice exhaust coming out of parked cars, people walking to and from cars, and car lights turning on – and block other things out while we do this.

– Ever been in a nice place with a complainer and they see everything that’s “wrong” with the place?

– Someone in a conversation feels like they are not being listened to. Are they on the lookout for not being listened to based on a mental picture they hold, perhaps from previous experiences? Out of all the moments of the other listening, one moment indicating a lack of attention is picked up by the RAS becasue it is on the lookout to make it’s “image” real in the outer world.

– You and a friend (or your mate) go to a social event and notice totally different things about the conversation, the people, the location, food etc. (Guys – have you ever noticed how women tend to notice a lot more about makeup and clothing? Girls – ever feel like guys are idiots because they don’t notice certain things? 🙂 )

Where it gets interesting is when we have thoughts about ourselves (perhaps planted in childhood) that limit us regarding our career, our home, our relationships and so on.

I repeat – it is a brain function to find the inner picture “out there”. In order to change the “out there” we need to change the “inside” picture. At least that is what these very successful fellows are saying. (and I am giving it a try!!)

John and Jack then describe the absolute need for visualization, and all visualization books will tell you – see your goals as achieved now in the present and imagine everything in great detail. Why? Because the more you bombard the subconcious with the images, and sounds and feelings – the more your RAS is on the lookout. It doesn’t like the outer and the inner being out of whack, so you’ll end up re-arranging the outer to reflect the inner.

Something I am grappling with right now is this: while I want to be “successful”, how much of that is “not wanting failure”? You see – the mind thinks images so while a may say “not wanting failure” the brain hears “failure”.

All the Gurus tell us the dialogue and images MUST be 100% positive so

– Having a loving mate DOES NOT EQUATE to “not being alone”.
– Being good at music DOES NOT EQUATE to “not sucking at music”
– Being financially well of DOES NOT EQUATE “not being poor”

and so on. Get it? Positive is POSITIVE. It’s not NOT NEGATIVE.

Anyhow, that’s all for now. I’ll let you know how my progress goes…I surely have some re-programming to do through Visualization and Affirmations (I’ll discuss affirmations in another post).

When I get some great results then I’ll be able to really convey these messages to you with a deeper meaning and first hand experience will make it juicier. For now I remain a bystander looking into the mystery of life by your side as you do the same.