To be open and impressionable, to hear everything, is dangerous. You can be damaged all too easily.

When you daydream about what others hear, you miss the essence of your labor.

But if you are shut tight against the world you cannot receive nourishment.

Music is such a private part of us, it touches us in so deep and vulnerable a place, that evasion of practice can seem quite reasonable: Why disturb what is sleeping so deeply? Why mess with a functional inertia?

The problem is how to be open enough and safe enough at the same time.

We need to hear machine music. It is an extension of our tolerance, our capacity, our vision of harmonious life.

don’t feel like it. Anything that requires uninterrupted consciousness seems like work. When we are actually practicing consciousness, like meditation or music, it feels like good work that does itself.

The truth is, most of us have to learn specifically the single, pure act of listening to music.

Then at least you will recognize “I don’t feel like it” as a cover for deeper feelings. Opening that window might be considered your music practice for the day.