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A Magical Moment of Ma 間
To make beautiful music from a block of wood, you first need to make a hole. To create empty space.
Emptiness which in time will allow for the emergence of resonance but which at first will be just that, a whole lotta nothing.
Emptiness which will be profoundly uncomfortable and dissonant long before you find resonance.
Emptiness which honestly you’re going to have to be with for quite some time before you’re able to produce beautiful music.
I love this metaphor as a way of thinking about transformation and personal growth.
When undergoing change — whether self-directed or thrust upon us by outside circumstances — we have to create and be with empty space. We have to stop doing what we’ve been doing — stop playing that same old song on repeat — and be with the emptiness that results before we can compose a new tune and make music again.
At first there is nothing. Just emptiness. Emptiness and the profound discomfort that sitting in a space of nothingness and not knowing gives rise to.
Discomfort that often drives us back to the unsatisfying relationship we left, the bad habit we’re trying to break or the former self-identity we want to evolve from.
