WNET; WGBH Forum Network; Good Vibrations: Michael Fitzpatrick and Rabbi Irwin Kula

Page and. I've been meeting with nine hours. Real world week. Looking at the way which our kids use their skills. To call attention to some of the most pressing problems. That the world had. And they're really almost like doctors. Operation. Put their hands. Inside of the product. Do their skill and offer it up to you. And we know that we can't solve the problem. So we hope to bring ourselves we're often in the midst of a public. So that we can build a larger more compassionate. General intelligence and. Show such an organist. Is michael fitzpatrick. Going to be playing cello for us tonight. And one of the sayings that we've also done this week is to bring into our midst other kinds of intelligence bill ridge's contest

that scholars with which have rabbi there with a cool look with us so what's going to happen. Is that my going to play cello and the. Rabbi cool and i will talk with michael about the vibration. The power to cause. Good vibrations and power. He'll even bring peace. I see some people have just tapped because most important part of this is the conversation that you're willing to have that. Night. Is not bad mama performing for you. And then you clap bad. Really get your to the idea of a power. Like bridge. That really make a difference. So. I'll say something first about rabbi irwin cruise for those of you who don't know him i mean the beer smith by the way. By. Line. Project. Five point three i have any of your business works which is basically your good work.

So grab by for i'm going to give not only one of the most influential. Religious leaders in america today. But also important leader and to the da. He is president of the national jewish center for learning and leadership which is active think tank. And leadership training institute. His services have been sought in the world. Business. Technology. Relationship and religion. He's worked with leaders from the dalai lama. To clean door. On compassionate leadership. He was read two years in a row. In the top fifty rabbis in america is do this week and has been named by post fast company magazine. And religion and f. with ethics. Newsweekly as well as a major spiritual leaders of today. Rabbi poole has also been a regular on n.b.c.'s the today show. As well as p.c.'s. On the oprah winfrey show. Very happy to have you with us. Rabbi cool. Thank

you michael fitzpatrick is an accomplished cellist was performed at venues including lincoln center. Work in concert hall. An institution. And a dark chandler kabillion across the united states. He has also performed in canada. Former soviet union. Romania. Italy spain. Switzerland. Jordan. And most recently for concerts in southern india. He is a recipient of the prince charles ward for outstanding use and. Musicianship. By the prince of wales. He has been described by the new york times. As a rebel marching to his two years performed at the united nations gleni is somewhat of a religious and spiritual leaders. The parliament of the world's religions. Barcelona. In conjunction with the nobel peace prize laureate. Sharin at body. And at the recent parliament of world's religions. In melbourne. With his holiness the dalai lama. Michael is best known for conceiving and producing

compassion and recording and don't project. Inspired by the friendship between his holiness the dalai lama and the late comer smart. To fulfill verts wish for a better world. At the turn of the millennium. And after three years of planning. Musicians and money from both the east and west. Entered into the depths of manic caves. The largest cable system on her for a five day. Musical and vet. It starts for compassion. So they were down their cage. Look at that. And today. We're going to try. My dash here. And. Jane chapel at union theological seminary. And i should thank president. To reject unity legible seminary. For allowing us to come. Do this tonight. In here. So thank you for being with us and would you please welcome. Michael fitzpatrick. Thank you thank you thank you and thank you all for being here and.

I'm glad to be upright again. I think ana has been looking into the wreckage her sphere. For quite some time and the fact that she decided to call. This gathering bodies on the line. It struck me pretty hard when she told me about a couple months ago and. I certainly felt in the process of being a cello player in the twenty first century i'm treading a path that doesn't exist that. My physical body and mind. My entire being has been on the line. Over and over and over. And you get to that point where you kind of wonder when. How many times can you break down. How many times can you break through. And the answer is there is no limit. Because that's the resilience and extraordinary capacity of of the human spirit to endure the most absurd things and the

most inspiring things. And also the most pressing things. So when i come into a space. And it really doesn't matter. The space. My first question is what is the space hold. How much kind of hold. Or how much going to bear. And then i always seek to break. What it can bear. So that that. Other thing that's on the other side. Across the border. Can actually break through and burst forth like a like a beam of light that been a metaphor that has. Has sort of pronounced itself throughout the week. And all of the artist's work. One way or the other. So. Playing that thing. Is a very kinetic.

Charged experience. And my guess is that erwin and i are going to get into the. The context of what that is. And what that's like. But first i want to go into the space. Of the stones that. Ana so wisely. Architected as good as the stage set. All places have mysteries on stone cathedrals particularly have mysteries that were consciously. Put in to place. By the architect. And these are the things that. Our current world. We've just sort of forgotten. Like why would you even think about them. So i'm going to start with an invocation. It's for world

peace and. It actually came out of this massive. System. Of cave tunnels and caverns. Of mammoth cave. Which is in kentucky which is the land that i grew up in and fled from and kind of pull back to it left again and finally decided well. Ok i'm going to come to terms with this place and. Find out what's here. And it. Not only was a physical place but obviously a metaphoric setting. Of the womb. The actual. Literal womb of. This very planet that we are. Curiously and mysteriously. On at this very moment in time. So. I'm a start with the invocation for world peace. And then. My great. Uninterrupted through. A couple pieces that got

inspired by. Some of the other work that was revealed this week with a very beautiful piece called the swan which is an awful. Dance too. And i have a different vision of how that bird flies. So i'm looking forward to letting that loose. And then a piece of bach that was. I later learned. Ultimately miles davis' greatest inspiration. Music of johann sebastian bach and. He called bach a father of jazz. So it was a very liberating. Moment for me. And then. You know i'm going to play the ave maria shriver. It's the.

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know. I met michael a few years back in a cafe in louisville by accident and. Just being in louisville was a weird thing for me. Kind of. Upper west side jewish liberal and. We had this amazing conversation and the next day i get this cd. And it's a remarkable experience to listen to and i have never heard michael. In person. And we were in melbourne together. And i had to leave the day before he played so. That's a long way to go. And not here since sunday and. So i first i just you know i know i know you're all here so if you're just listening in for a second. But i need to say that that. From already i guess five six years. Your music has affected me. And then to be able to to hear it live. I'm a. I'm actually a little unnerved. And i don't get that way so i simply just want to say thank you i feel incredibly. And i think critically grateful. So i guess we should jump right

in you know. Right. Josiah than just jump right in jump right in and and. You know we've been talking about the whole week. Talking about. Bodies and line. Borders and borders being. These odd places that are absolutely necessary and. Actually necessary to transcend and. Places in which you know if you just look at all the birds we use. We. You know we defend borders we preserve borders we raise borders we cross borders we stand in borders and look you know. For so many borderline borderline hate i mean there's just so many ways in which. You know trees borders without borders we wouldn't be human beings and with borders we destroyed a lot of human beings so it's and was listening to the music and i guess what i want to flex on is one. Just the product or process of. Of your art. The kind of music making and then of course your vision regarding compassion. And then. And then how you experience borders but. But one of the things i was listening. I i was. I found myself. First of all few borders being crossed and then you can

reflect on it one is. I thought my body hearing my years hearing. And. And i don't know if that's the cello. Because i don't get. I don't hear their cello. Very often alone. You know i mean that and. I don't know if it's your virtuosity. I don't know if it's. Silence. I'm not used to hearing. I'm used to hearing applause in between let's say or. A piece in another piece. And not. And it's not only silence silence this way. But physical. Silence. So i don't know i'm doing there. But i know it was a new experience. And then also the emotions that came through. So. I know in vocation for peace and. But peace was really complicated. p.e.a.c.e. was really. It wasn't nice and. Only nice and gentle it was messy and and. Going to spin the swan was not flying straight a hundred percent you know and and and.

It's the complexity of the motions i felt like i felt. Peaceful and hopeful and i feel cautious. I felt joy i felt a little disappointment i felt real yearnings. And then i felt satisfaction. Felt really centered i felt a nervous i had all these emotions and. So good vibrations i don't know if it was good vibe. It was a hell of a lot of migrations and. So i. I guess i. I want you to reflect a little bit on. What's going on. You know when you say goodbye gracious because you know me good the same way i think the world is as good good it's more complicated feel. The brunt of this. And the. Friend otus at the bottom of the cup of tea room a neuron said to me many years ago. There's a lot going on. Oh man. And there's a lot going on and.

The the. The ease with which the. I don't want to indict anyone. So i'll say it. I was going to say that the collective media mind but i think it's sort of the. I'll go back to this idea of this global trance. Mentation that. The easy thing to do is to make everything the easy and need. You know that's that's where we've ended up. In so many places particularly in music and. So it's very disturbing. As a. Once upon a time classically trained cellist. Which is about a four hundred year old lineage. To up to speak about the cello. It's very disturbing to hear the cello played clinically. All around the world.

I say. Where did that come in and how did that become the agreement or the like. The cop out. Which is more what it seems like. So the. There is literally. Doing things that. I'm not a child actor ok. I've heard that you're doing things that expect great things right again but in a bad place just that i'm not. It feels like you stay on it. At that sound stupid. Then you'll say it's because it's something else. It sounds like you stay on the. No two in a different way than i've heard. So now. Like you know we've talked about the time you played. The bach. Cello suite for another friend of mine who's a conductor. Or a cartoon. And i told you that when you played it she was like this the whole time. Right right and you knew you were doing it right right. Yeah. And this time it was yet again different. So what are you in the frame of your work

on your work as a call to compassion. That's. You know. Right. Well that's an aspect that's mr aspect of your work. So when you say that there is you're you're looking to do something else with bach you're not just here to play it clinically. Right like it's played all over the world. Tell us what you're saying what that's going on but that's what what are you doing with that version of bach. In this. In this space on still being traditional. Welcome yeah. It's tradition and innovation on the same time. I'm. You know. One way of saying if i'm playing the space right. I'm we're creating it. I mean that was the way it was on this night. Because of this collection of. Vibrating bodies right. And you feel it's you know. Yeah. And and you feel the space and so one of the things

that. Oh. In order to do that i only. I only know how to do it one way to do what just happened. Which is to literally cook the space. And the way you cook the space and i'm going to. Give away the secret. Is what the science. Once everyone gets that we're going to start from the silence. Then we're all together for whatever happens. If we don't have that agreement. I have. I can't speak to you. And you can't hear a thing i'm saying because i have nothing to say. So. Real quickly yeah. One among us today. Talked about how. You know in new york city people walking down the street they got to go in and they got. You know. You know. They're on their bikes. That there's. You know will there be moving it's new music noise everyone's distracted nobody's present. So you're playing in a noisy world. And in terms of your bigger project. You're bigger why. How do you work in the noisy. World.

You always require the silent. Well this is been the great challenge this week. I guess that's why you go to caves. Well i have a script that was certainly the that the. Sonic reason was to find the quietest place. On the planet. So that we had no. Outer world interference. And we could actually listen to the earth itself not as a idea. Not even as a as a pious new age. Foster lived. It was you know. And it all sounds kind of hokey i mean i think about it inside it. But it was. It was. It was about as. Down to earth. As you can get. And what happens is when you when you go into the cave. And those of you that have been in the cave recently or have a memory of having gone into a cave. Suddenly the you. That you think you are. Is checked at the door. And then you feel these layers. Peeling away. Just one after the next.

So that was part of our. Initiation i mean it was a literal. Descent. Initiation and. In this particular. Project that enters referencing with the compassion project a cast of characters. Was ten to baton monks. And a lead trappist monk who had been a novice directly under thomas merton. And a couple musicians with the film an audio crew. Waiting somewhere two miles deep. So just the tripping this. Of watching the monks. Walking on. While they were chanting. Was. It's like. Our molecules got rearranged. Right. And once that happened then we were able to like really come into this. This musical communion space. With the intention of. Literally hearing. The earth's vibration and. Creating a living music out of that. So that that's. In essence what i am intent on replicating.

Every time i sit down with the cello. How that happens in. This is the noisy as i've ever heard in new york city and i've i've been in new york. A little. You know off and on a long time. And i have been unable to deal with it. It literally put me down. Right now. And. So the idea of compassion. Traveling through sound. Is like medicine. And my desire is to share what i'm experiencing when i'm playing. Because when i'm playing. It feels

like a current. And it's a very specific current of energy. That is. Sometimes it's coming straight down sometimes it's coming from. Weird angle sometimes it's coming from. Like all of you. All at once. No problem. But. But the the the the the border busting aspect of it. Is this desire to to send that specific sound out into the planet's airwaves and. Maybe it's. Maybe that's the thing that can change the frequency. So in that good vibrations category. That's how i hold it in and think of it. And. And it's the good the bad and the other right. Oh well. That makes me think. So we always say. I was here music transcends and i think that all that kind of you know but adverse language is first language. But then we also know that. Music can be

used to not march music means more rise of the lowest level absolute so the. Music is is. It's not just finance it's a tool to and. So you have to start to get some level of awareness. Right. I mean what we're getting to see i look at you. I'm watching and i'm watching from the third row fourth row and. It feels like you're dead. And i'm curious you get into a state it seems like you're getting into some slave state of awareness to be able to put patient marks. Located in cham right. And. And then you're hoping for the best out here. That we were at some state of awareness that we're going to be able to use it for something to feel something. I don't even care if you don't even care. I mean it's like. I really because i can accept that i may have a really. Well i think well i don't understand. I don't know i'm going to finally i don't understand our lives well just i don't i don't understand their compassion project i don't understand why you're connected to the dalai lama if you don't let me finish them. They would think that. It's good to do this maybe. I can't

afford to care because i'm too busy experiencing what it is. And so i have to have the conviction that what i'm experiencing. Is that. Which i care the most about. So in that sense. I can't. I can't afford. I'm not. It's not utilitarian in that way. Well yeah. And it's not worth my attention while i'm playing when i'm playing. I don't mean that i don't care. Overall i care. Probably too much. You know. But i want to play. Well. I think before you play. Before that happens. I think i care. And i carry it all the way through but i don't care. In terms of whether or not you're with me or not. I know you're with me. And i also know when you're not with me because i feel it's my to it there's there's not a. Once we lock him. From the beginning. Unless some major calamity occurs. You know somebody's cell phone goes off and keeps ringing and ringing. And then that becomes part of the thing. Which is then its own thing. It's not a it's not a a dual. Home.

It's not a fever station. It's a not. That such is a non. Story that you're saying well. And on one level it's a wonderful experience. On another level. It's a you. It's a communion experience. Right. So there are all kinds of things are going to simultaneous or there's a. You want to kind of the sacred what you know. If you read. If you are trying to literature a monopoly. And i'm knowledge of the sacred. Ok not great sacred. But like isn't the phonology. You would just be mocked with all due respect with the awkwardness of it. The paradox of it. That like didn't mean it that way but i need in this way. Well. I'm carrying it through but not there. I don't want the all pulled back of course. Right. That is the path. That is literally. This description of what a sacred experience is. But let me ask you something really. I was a boy away but what did what is the expectation. In your tradition. What were. Your father was a. Candor.

What is the expectation in your. Tradition of what words and music. Are going to do what they did i think it's going to be paradoxical on the one hand. I mean anybody knows jews and has been to a synagogue knows. We have so many words out of control. Right. A normal person should go for an hour like with protestants. We have to go to this very hour is still not finished. So i did. And i leave it that way it's not it's a definite. There's a lot a lot a lot of words and we have two fundamental traditions regarding the words one is. One is. You can't praise enough. And so that's why we have so much praise. Or you can whatever but not with. Words because words can't possibly describe everything that you're feeling. Words fine about your feelings or is that your your earnings are infinite. So how do you get enough. Words you just have to do. I want to leave on a route but on another. And that's the chance you don't keep going into what i'm doing enough already five words enough. On the other hand there's the tradition. It's she talked with the i mean

the silence of the greatest form of praise. And so you have these two traditions in competition. Now. Turns out for us the holocaust till the latter. Because everybody in america sounds killed. The only people who came here with people who were ready. They didn't have that tradition. So we would have a war from the part of our inheritance. That's one of them and we'll talk about that in public this a while isn't that just because. Because basically all the people who are mastering the. Inherited tradition and bringing into the modern world. Didn't come here. So they're going to leave europe. So we only had literally. You can name on one hand how many people were here. Who died for the duration. They knew the part of the tradition. They do the words part of the tradition. And the intellectual part of the tradition. But that. Whatever we call that non dual mystical. The silence. Part of the tradition is most dreaded of all meaning. Everybody got to rebase. And we're paying a tremendous price right as a. As a culture as a community is people.

So. But music. Here is one of the great teachings. Is it that acting outside of the moment of encounter revelation. What was revealed. Six hundred thousand. Melody. One melody. For each individual first and. So think about a tradition. Grow up learning. Now. I mean most of them in their tradition. But think about a tradition that says that the fundamental revelation. Is reality. Is your soul. And six hundred elements revealed at the moment of encounter. Well. This moment of encounter. One of the things that has inspired you to write. Part of your mythology part of what you were trying to reenact on or come here. Is a meeting of the dalai lama. In terms of who are you playing the meat who you're trying to meet with your music. Well up coming in from the merton dalai lama connection

because we did that is the reference point for. What we created. But it wasn't the. It's it's it's more like a reflection point rather than. The focal point. So. interpretively. The only reason it's of any interest to me. Is something happened when the dalai lama met thomas merton. An actual new consciousness like came into being and it probably would have gotten lost for ever or at least. Remained in the in the in the frame black and white portrait. Where many. Like it to remain. Had it not been for the dalai lama coming to kentucky. To pay homage to merton. Physically go to great. And then he had. He had a thing happen. Right. And. I literally just stumbled until. I wasn't supposed to be in kentucky i was supposed to be somewhere far away. And so i'm just the idea. And. And the the reason.

I'm still willing to carry this project forward in its fourteenth year is cook food we embody in music. What that consciousness spark was is. What is it. Well i think it's. I think it's some new form of compassion and love. But it's. But it's. I like to frame it this way. If. In one thousand nine hundred sixty eight in the. Many thousand years. Traditions of. The buddha's lineage. If the. If. If the living. Archetype of the buddha had met. The living parka type of. The gnostic jesus. What would happen. You know. Just imagine that. Imagine what it is that at some point. Is beyond our immediate. Conception. But big. I would have put him at the g. d's this is the course i think borders this. This is where cutting edge.

Or support well this is the place we talk about the cross the border. Can be catastrophic. Right. But that the cross of the border can be creative and one of them creativity. Much much creativity necessary. So. So you are a white guy from kentucky. In the new study to juilliard in other places like that who are you trying to make. Of them have a kind of like. I'm not really. I'm not trying to meet any. Is your view zick trying to find a point of landing. It has it did. It just did. And that's probably why every. Every time it does. Well. Every time it is. Look at the crisis. Every time it is the catastrophe. Every time. Is the black hole every time is the case of. Oh my god. The terror this is what we were talking about earlier in the week. The sheer terror. Because you can't. I can't get in there is enough for me. I can't get in there. Until i'm

here with you all. And i've tried it many other. You know of many other times and ways but there's without you without you. And if it was just one person without you. Then i can't do that. That doesn't happen. All right. So there was a time when i was trying to meet people. So i was talking about a meeting in terms of. That that. Thing that happened. That spark that happened. Six thousand six thousand two hundred dollars six hundred thousand melody. Right out of a meeting. You know. Were made of the dalai lama. You know leading us up. So with your music coming out of crisis right now the less. You see it as a healing agent told me you know. So tonight was the night. This was it. Said you know. There was nothing else. Nothing else.

Well. Maybe we should hear from the audience member. So you had spoken a bit. Before you started playing about the can is that a connection. In your music and. I don't know the fact that we're in the job. For space. But i feel. This is going through my head and i don't know that the visual reflection of the actual jello. I'm so curious to hear your thoughts. But kim is the. That you think whatever. Pluck. There was a before. And then there was an after moment. And when. When i

first experienced that. Thing that you're describing. It was in a pretty. Unnerving environment. Of about. I was in the middle of a solo and. With an orchestra behind me. And about two thousand people in the audience. In greensboro north carolina and i was seventeen years old and i'm playing along i'm playing along and we were cooking. And there's no question we're cooking and. Long story short i felt. The phenomenon that you just described. But less as a. It was like i was like a tornado. It was like a funnel cloud it was a gale force and. The perception of the time i had was that it was that there was a tornado outside of the auditorium and. The next thing i knew the tornado had seemingly come into the auditorium it was a recipient in the upper right. Balcony. And i'm

flying along in the next thing i realized. It's like coming closer and closer i was and i realized it was coming for me. Now. When you're in a performance state. Juneau. Things are. It's like a lucid dream. So you're. All you can do is go with it and. The next thing i knew this. The funnel cloud had literally come into my body and. Basically disintegrated. And i melted in this. Gold. Light. Of just like. Galaxies and suns it was. It was way out there. And i'm you know on a plane. And i. I probably. I probably would have just dismissed it. But then as it moved through my. My physical body i felt it moved through the cello and i heard it. Change the sound of the cello and i was like that was the evidence. And then i felt it.

Basically engulfed the audience in like this giant wave in the next thing i knew. The whole the audience. And that this the performers on the stage we were just fused in this. It was like refused in this golden light. There was no distinction between out there. Up here in here. It was just pure color and. Living sound. So i played out the rest of the piece. And i remember at one point i just thought. Yeah i guess i gotta see what this looks like. You know i've got to check i got to see what it looks like. And i open my eyes and i look down at my boat going across the string and. Everything was moving in slow motion and it was that was the trickiest thing i've ever seen. And it was so distracting that i just closed my eyes and kept playing. So that was a long time ago that was one thousand nine hundred two. So at that

moment. I said to myself. I gotta figure out a way to get that sound. Out to the people can hear it. So that eliminated in that moment playing in an orchestra playing on a string quartet doing anything traditional with the cello. Maybe solo. You know yo-yo ma kind of thing but even that seemed like that was going to somehow. Obstruct this path. So all these years since. Then. I've waited. I've listened and i sat and. Remote places. You know. And i've done very numb. Cello playing things. To basically allow my nervous system. To hold that voltage. At whatever level it comes through. And just to bring it full circle because we've never talked about

this it wasn't until i met the dalai lama. And sat with him as we're sitting here and played music. This close to him for six straight days. In a remote. Monster setting very much like this that i that i saw someone physically you. Have a grounding. That energy and body. Like no big deal. You know. It was quite extraordinary because i didn't know. I don't know the dalai lama. I don't know. I don't know what to expect from him. Energetically and. So that was. That was the turning point for. Ok. So there was a way to hold it to contain that energy. In a way that. One can function as a teacher and student and. A man is. Is the secular world. Is a

spiritual world. Tradition. How do you think about listening as. The beginning of a bigger conversation. I mean i think also when you talk about. I've only seen the dalai lama. On stage. And there is of course the way that there is an extraordinary silence in high school. So that it. Takes up issues it's as if he just recited the most extraordinary poem worldwide that resonates right. How do you think about sirens and presidents. And how a leader. I'm out of touch. You know and. There's a. It's. I don't think he should answer i'm going to answer with the story that i think that the. Michael appreciate first you know the most i'm the only crew tray or. In the jewish wisdom tradition. Is what's called the shabab. Which means. Listen. So the fundamental creedal calls to listen. We have no record. We have no

the queen's style. Ok so if you're a traditional practicing jew. Ok three times a day. You're going to say. This. Listen i'm really really really really carefully. Ok the world to seamlessly into connected as one. Ok. You're going to say that in silence. Ok with your eyes closed. So the practice times itself is is really critically important you can hear. So there's no listening without without a sound. But i want to i'll tell you a story. This is five weeks or six weeks all that was in oklahoma and how i. And it's how i use science and how science become important to me. And it's. I would say. I've got a brother so there wasn't a lot of silence from god. This is it since nine eleven. That i'm aware of this. I'm in oklahoma. I do mind whatever talk you want to people there are nine. Cetera. Person raises

her hand. Leader in the cults and community. And says to me rabbi. I heard that your. You have been very aggressive in the lead him in speaking out in favor of the mosque at ground zero. By the way i have my space talk was not about the mosque at ground zero the american just went given how we. Meaning in the light is acknowledging. Ok so it has nothing to do with friends. So she asked the question she asks very very nicely. Like an ocean completely normal person she looks like and. And she asks the question. Goes something like this she says. I want to ask you a question. And i ask this. Really i think i speak for a lot of people here. When don't you think. I understand she says that that. You're in favor of this and. And i don't want you think that i'm a bigot or racist but i want to ask you this. Don't just think if. If they want to sit in front of was the day in which to fit in i don't because i don't know the woman. You know and i'm in oklahoma and i'm thinking. Like i don't fit in here. Some. So.

Say i don't you think if they want to fit in. They should just be sensitive to our feelings. And. And here's what i mean says you know. When i when i see. Or when i hear a muslim. The hair on the back of my neck stand up. This is three four hundred people in the room. Have like the jews. You know. In tulsa oklahoma so i'm having my own issues. Like if i figure. Muslims with jews next. And here's a story about smiles i. I mean i felt. Emotions have and. I felt fear. I felt the way each i felt about a certain amount of. You know. We have power with words like that. I don't mean a nice way but i could destroy her. Because i have the power of the mike. And i felt that paxil. Power. I felt that this. I felt. All these emotions rushing if i can explain it was like all the emotions in one second i

felt and. But then also the answer. So i said. You know what. Can we take ninety seconds in which to personally quite hear so i can locate. How to answer what. I know is a really really really serious question. Ninety seconds i needed. I need. One hundred percent. File. So that i can look at the answer. Now ninety seconds in a room with three hundred along side of the book and. I was really i don't know how long it was. But it was in ten seconds. And. And in the silence. I can explain it because all that happened was. And something came to me. I saw my grandfather who's been dead since nineteen. I know a good fifteen twenty years he's been dead and. I guess more than that right. I mean i wouldn't look at my wife. Maybe twenty five thirty years my grandfather's been dead. Who came from poland here. As an adult and. What came to me this is face.

I haven't thought of him in years. Ok i wasn't close to most close to my other grandfather. He came to me and. A story came to me that i hadn't thought of him. At a passover seder i don't know when when i was and twelve. Whatever it was. They told stories about pogroms that came through town. When he was when he didn't. And we asked him like but what about your friends. Because he was a furrier so he dealt with it dealt with actually aristocrats you know. You know for reasons they could. You know. That's jews don't hunt so referrers. So. So he. He's like basically. We asked like what happened sister. And he said this today he said this to us. He said well you know. The polls are really our friends until like the programs that they were our friends and then they be our friends the next day. And that story came to me in the ninety seconds. And i joined turner said you know. And i told lester and said you know what i imagine a lot of those really good poles they were friends they

weren't proper honest. They were friends of my grandfather. But they stayed inside and then they came out of the slip to the program. I bet you. Plenty of poles who said things like. The jews just have to try to fit in a little bit. They feel a little bit better. And you know. Sometimes the way they talk. And. And the way they look it just makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Do you think you got it. I think that what happened was the silence. Produced the space. For the revelation and. The revelation comes in a lot of different ways and there's a great teaching that people could only hear the revelation. In light of their own strength so a baby hears revelation the way a baby needs and. Needs that. A sage is revelation in the way a siege needs to hear it right. And so i think in that room what happened is everybody hears what they heard. They didn't hear anger. They

can hear dismissiveness. They heard person with missing. That comes from being able to hear into the silence. If you don't hear the silence. You know what they would have gotten something like. Do you understand that. With your think you're a racist or not this is so racist what you just said. And i probably could have. I should. I probably could have rallied the troops in the room. Right to say i just want you to know how racist it is ok. I want everyone to raise the him to really thinks that's racist and. Even the people who are racist would have been barriers to raise their hand. Wouldn't three hundred fifty one. And she would be a millionaire but that's what would have happened had the silenced. Not provided the. What i call a more compassionate but compassionate and to deny. Compassion is the fiercest. Practice of all. The million times hard to tarnish me that it is to be just as hard to be right as justice is just fair. One for one to log on was very easy relative. Compassion. So fierce some believe. And i think did. So it did happen and if i can help

them afterwards. You know. I'd go so lot of people but my book self but that was a good thing but i think that. The point is one of the silences is the place where the revelation have been so what we. Each of you say to president obama. In a noisy world. Extremely noisy and. Very noisy right now in washington it's a real noisy place which is all about talk on. What would you. Each say to him as. People who admire silence and say silence is a place of creativity. What would you say to him about. Silence. And how to get it. And how to find it not to use it right now. Lest. I'll. I mean i don't you know this is off.

I would say. First of all. Don't be afraid of gridlock. Everybody's tell you gridlock. Everything. What everybody's telling you think the odds. Right now because there's a partial truth in the opposite and that's why you did so when everybody is telling you gridlock with a grin this time with the good luck is. Maybe gridlock is good. If we had gridlock before the iraq war. It would've been really much better. We need gridlock sometimes we have very serious problems. And very serious problems means everybody from the person you hate to the person who you like as a partial truth. So right now it's very very important for the membership. And you're the leader to hear the partial truths from tieback or to whatever it is on the other side i don't know what the party stand is what did you know that that the other side of the partial truth. Is assignment. Correct. So that's what i would say in texas. Don't be on t.v. every day anymore. Because what you did you wasted a lot of words. You. In the language of politics you over exposed yourself. But i would say we have. There's a tradition that

we only have so many words. And they have to use up all the words that's. We die and. I think maybe you used up too many words. In these first two years. You know you were on the view and then your and jon stewart and then you're on the today show and you're on sixty minutes and then you're. I think the. Noisy places you were. You used too many words. So. Yeah my answer's going to come through the last piece ok. Yeah. And i want to say that that said one of my favorite stories about whitney don't even know if it's true. Maybe jane you know. With this is true that supposedly whitman. Whitman and lincoln. Had never really sat and talked or hung out. Whitman was invited over the white house where there's something in the east room. And that. Whitman. By they passed on the

street. And that. Whitman was saying which president can't say. And so. As you move. Maybe we'll move now to your piece and. Why don't you say what the president can say. Ok. Thank you thank you. You can say but say something before i say simply the. So urban and i were talking before everybody. Entered the space. And i was recounting. An experience that happened last wednesday night in albuquerque where i was given a concert in which i know. It was at the end of it was about nine. Two hours of show and some.

Bring images and we were definitely. Immersed in this. In this field and. So the piece i want to end with is. It was may have been one of those six hundred thousand melodies. Way back. That. Over the many thousands of years. Found its way into catalonia. And became a very beloved folk song. That probably the turn of the century public assaults decided to transcribe. For the cello. Called song of the birds. And it was the piece that he played. As his. Cry for peace. At the end of every concert. He played at the united nations when he was ninety

four and. It was a. If you ever have a chance to see that video and hear. The distillation of a life. It's it's stunning. But the thing that came to me in the space of albuquerque new mexico and. Things were wide open and it was a very silent landscape. That's no idea what was going to be so jarred and jolted by the. The sounds of the city. And then that's just a just on a sort of bodies on the line closing note. The. One of the issues that led to. I guess all of us facing our own discipline but as a musician how do you deal with the noise. How does. You know. If your whole goal is to be sensitive to sound. And then. How do you. How do you.

So i was. King of the of the ear buds in the ways to. You know we close our eyes but it is difficult to close our ears. Anyway as i was less. As i was playing the piece and more as the piece was coming from that vertical. I had this. Clear perception of much as erwin. Saw his grandfather in that moment. I saw that. Melody that had break. No that's five thousand year old ancient. Sorrowful song. Arriving from the stars. And i really i really got it. Or it got me. So the. The from the wallace stevens poem. Of mere being. When he says you know then. It is not the reason.

That makes us happy or unhappy. I don't have anything to say. To the president. But there is a feeling that only the music can connect. Convey. And. So here comes the. Got food. Nerd.

Do the. You're.

Thank

you.