We who love music of any type share one thing in common. Music touches us intellectually and emotionally. We love the notes, the rhythm, the percussion--the sound. It stirs us where we live. It speaks to us. ... Maybe our styles of faith differ from one another, but there is one binding love, this one celestial music that supersedes our differences and joins us at our hearts, into God. Loving music of any type makes us similar. Our problem is that we tend to note the differences, not the similarities.
Developing a deep quality of interest is one of the keys to the whole art of concentration. Our steadiness is nourished by the degree of interest with which we focus our meditation ... Concentration combines full interest with a delicacy of attention. This attention should not be confused with being removed or detached. Awareness does not mean separating ourselves from experience; it means allowing it and sensing it fully ... As we learn to steady the quality of our attention, it is accompanied by a deeper and deeper sense of stillness -- poised, exquisite and subtle.