January 16, 2022

THE MUSIC BOX

January 16, 2022

Akina Miyata, vocalist

Bob Philips, piano

Melinda Coffey Armstead, organ

Prelude:

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Deep River
Beulah Land

Offertory: Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

Postlude: You Raise Me Up

The lamps are different,
But the Light is the same.
So many garish lamps in the dying brain’s lamp-show,
Forget about them.
Concentrate on the essence, concentrate on the Light.
In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
The Light streams towards you from all things,
All people, all possible permutations of good, evil, thought, passion.
The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.
One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,
Endlessly emanating all things.
One turning and burning diamond,
One, one, one.
Ground yourself, strip yourself down,
To blind loving silence.
Stay there, until you see
You are gazing at the Light
With its own ageless eyes.

– Rumi