[T]he patterns [were] well-known and everybody [was] playing them. . . . I knew what it took to learn them but I just couldn’t stomach it. . . . When Bud Powell made them, fifteen years earlier, they weren’t patterns. . . . Jazz got so it wasn’t improvised anymore.32
—Steve Lacy Inflated Points
In order to understand how the inner-directed conception of improvi-sation motivates transcendent experience, it is necessary to understand how object-referral, conditioned patterns, primary features of ordinary consciousness (the antithesis of transcendence), are constructed and dis-solved within this temporal flow. The key principle here is that because musical ideas manifest in time, conditioned ideas will occupy time frames that run counter to the overarching directionality of the operation at hand. Therefore, because as noted earlier the conditions of improvisa-tion direct attenimprovisa-tion toward the innermost boundaries of the localized present, improvisers in ordinary consciousness are prone to conditioned patterns that thwart this inner-directed movement. Instead of sustaining a moment-to-moment awareness, awareness is instead overshadowed by inflated points that expand the boundaries of the localized present and preclude spontaneity. In heightened consciousness improvisation, these
inflated present boundaries collapse to yield the greater inner-directedness that is key to optimal inventiveness and interactivity. We will shortly con-sider the correlate in ordinary consciousness composition, where within the expanding temporal conception that drives the process, conditioned patterns manifest in weak spans that confine temporal projections to a modicum of what is possible.
Nonlinear time dynamics illuminates how this transformation from inflated points to collapsed points occurs in improvisation. In examining this we will delineate parameters that define the localized present, which we will see is more productively fathomed as a cognitive construct rather than one measurable by the clock.33 To begin, imagine a sequence of improvised ideas in time, where one musical object—sound or silence—
follows another. Now imagine this sequence could be hypothetically stopped so that small moments within it could be examined much like the workings of a single cell in a biological organism might be examined under a microscope. What I believe one would find are transformations in perception of moments as either resulting from prior moments, or as generators of subsequent moments. In other words, ideas tend to be either understood—perceived as meaningful or logical—as either products of their past, or sources of their futures. In any given sequence of ideas or objects—sounds and silences—some will be understood as generating moments and others as resultant moments. The length of the localized present may be measured as the time span that elapses between generat-ing moments. The contents that are encompassed within this time span comprise a musical event. And, because as consciousness transforms an idea that was previously understood solely as a product of its past may in turn be also understood as a generator of future moments, different states of consciousness give rise to varying numbers of events that might be perceived within a given unit of time as measurable by the clock.
With higher consciousness comes higher frequency of event perception.
At this point spontaneity, inventiveness, and interactivity—key facets of improvisatory creative expression and impact—increase. Chapter 12 will examine the planetary ramifications of this idea in considering the need for the transformation of unsustainable ecological and sociological pat-terns on a global scale to avenues for progress.
Let us return to the implication-realization model considered earlier for a closer look. Imagine an idea sounding at moment n that gener-ates implications, or possible successors, n1, n2, n3 and so on. Imagine a resultant event n-n3, defined as such because moment n3 is the point in time at which awareness shifts from perception of objects n1, n2, and n3 as resultant from generator n to perception of n3 as a new generator
of its future possibilities. This perceptual shift from realization/generator to implication/successor back to realization/generator comprises a cogni-tive event cycle. The rate of transformation within a given unit of clock-time is called event cycle frequency. Heightened consciousness, because of its capacities for dissolution of time-bound attachments, enables greater event cycle frequency—and thus creative decision making moments—than ordinary consciousness within a given unit of time. If the event n-n3 just considered is mediated by the inflated points of ordinary consciousness, it might be experienced as the shorter n-n1 in transcendent consciousness due to the neutralization of inflated temporal projections and collapse of ordinary present boundaries atop the waves of the inner-directed flow.34
It is important to emphasize that higher event cycle frequency indi-cates a condition of greater freedom, one of greater differentiation within wholeness in which conditioned patterns, which in ordinary conscious-ness are not realized as creative choices but rather regurgitated responses, are transcended and included within the broader slate of options that open up. This helps us redirect our gaze when it comes to the param-eters that define creativity, where exterior concerns such as novelty that have dominated conventional exploration of musical creativity give way to interior considerations, such as degree of self-Self integration.35 Certainly, improvisers functioning from high degrees of this integration will have access to a much-expanded palette of musical materials, and thus capaci-ties for novelty. But they will also be more highly attuned to the needs of a particular musical moment, which may at times call for a reiteration of some idea the improviser has played before, and possibly many times.
If this idea is expressed from deep self-Self union, it will be capable of as powerful and magical an impact as any that appears to be radically novel; it will be as if the improviser had just unearthed some treasure for the first time. By the same token, an idea whose surface features appear novel but which is not realized from a deeply integrated consciousness will be devoid of any kind of transformational impact.
Therefore, while a creative statement made at any given moment by an individual in heightened consciousness may involve surface features that he or she may have played many times, and thus superficially may resemble the mindless regurgitation of inbred clichés that Lacy rightly laments in the epigraph to this section, it is important to realize the two scenarios are considerably different. Creative substance needs to be measured not by degree of exterior novelty but by interior integration of consciousness. “I’m always a little distrustful of the criticism,” states Larry Polansky as he points in the direction of this inner locus, “that
‘If you improvise long enough, you’re just playing your licks.’ ” Rather,
“if you’re a smart enough musician, that’s just a way to something else.”
To which Christian Wolff adds, “even if you may do things you’ve done before, you’re still doing them with complete presence at the time you’re doing them.”36
This analysis should dispel any confusion about the importance of emulative engagement in creative development. Rigorous internalization of the very idiomatic conventions that Lacy found it difficult to “stomach”
may, in fact, be genuinely part of the emulative process scope, which when sustained in tandem with robust exploratory studies, will help dissolve tendencies toward conditioned regurgitation of the content assimilated.
Complementing these aspects of parts-to-whole creative growth with engagement in meditation practices that ground the entire enterprise in consciousness will promote optimal growth. Meditation also helps ground awareness in the transcendent interstices from which sounds emerge, and the temporal perception of sounds may be rendered optimally inner-directed and event-cycle rich.
Mind the Gap
Here we return to the idea of the “gap” from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s commentary on the Rig Veda, the Apaurusheya Bhāshya, which illu-minated the silent, unmanifest junction points between the primordial sounds, or frequencies, that emerge from the eternal field of self-referral consciousness and give rise to the infinitely diverse creation. The Vedic literature is thought to be a direct manifestation of this inextricable link between sound and form, whereby the syllables that comprise the verses and chapters of this literature directly reflect the sequential unfolding and differentiation of the vibrational building blocks of the manifest world.
The transformation of one syllable, or sound, to the next involves its disso-lution into the gap from which it emerged and its successor subsequently emerges. The gap is at once abstract and unmanifest—atyānta-abhāva—
and at the same time a site of infinite dynamism—anyonya-abhāva—
where interactions occur between the three impulses of rishi, devata, and chandas—or subject, process, and object—and the samhita that is their composite wholeness.37 Recall also that these may be correlated with first-, second-, and third-person dimensions of wholeness central to Integral Theory, which are the core impulses underlying spirituality, art, and sci-ence. The Apaurusheya Bhāshya illuminates the interplay between these impulses as manifesting in every grain of creation, thereby exemplify-ing the principle of anoraniyan mahato-mahiyān—bigger than the big-gest and smaller than the smallest—where the structuring dynamics of
wholeness may be seen at infinitesimally small scales as well as cosmic scales.38 The transcendent, primordial frequencies from which originate subjective, processual, and objective, or first-, second-, and third-person realities (recall our analysis in chapter 3 where the integral intersubjective realm was shown to be a manifestation of the process domain) are active in the silent gaps between fluctuations in an eternal source of creation.
How does this relate to improvisation? Because in the transcen-dent experience that is invoked within the inner-directed, nonlinear flow of improvisatory creativity, and its breaking down of time frames into constituent present moments that characterizes heightened event-cycle frequency, awareness is grounded in the gaps and thus the holistic, struc-turing dynamics that govern cosmic and—never losing sight of the non-duality premise—individual creation. Inner-directed perception represents enlivenment of a fullness in each present moment that is grounded in the totality, or samhita, of rishi, devata, and chandas interactions. When, by contrast, temporal perception is dominated by the inflated points of ordi-nary consciousness, this fullness is weakened and the transformational power of improvisatory expression significantly compromised.
Here it is also important to not conflate inflated points of ordinary consciousness improvisation with the kinds of temporal projections that enable profound compositional choices; because of the overarching inner-directed flow of improvisation, no degree of temporal inflation would be enough to yield compelling compositional strategies. Perhaps ironically, it is only when inflated points are neutralized, and inner-directed con-ception is enlivened, that the aforementioned retensive-protensive strate-gies, which are the closest approximations improvisation can make to large-scale compositional construction (which ought not be considered an improvisatory ideal, nor spontaneous interaction a compositional ideal), are optimal. In order to escape, as it were, the gravitational pull toward the localized present that is inherent in inner-directed, nonlinear percep-tion, one must first ride its waves and penetrate to its core. At this point, limited, though interesting and not unfruitful expressive capabilities of a compositional nature may become part of the improviser’s creative palette.
Nonlinear time dynamics may thus be summed up as the prin-ciples that govern the potential by which improvisers contact the silent, transcendent gaps that underlie surface musical processes and structures.
This is not to suggest that the gaps are only active, or contacted, in the overt spaces between sounds, as when a wind instrumentalist takes a breath or space is used as part of the creative flow. The silent nature of the gaps refers to their eternal, unmanifest nature, which is present, and thus can be accessed, even amid the most intensive surface turbulence.
To explain this another way: A long sustained tone that, in its surface manifestation, consists of unbroken sound can be created as a result of extremely high event-cycle frequency, where the improviser at the initial point of realization has no intention of playing a long tone but as aware-ness continually returns to new generative points, and thus new event boundaries, chooses to continue the sound. The resultant long tone, in this case, is not a product of a decision made at some relatively distant past point, but a dynamic series of moment-to-moment decisions—each of which are richly grounded in the fullness of the transcendent gaps in which the transformation of awareness from the idea at hand as result of its predecessor to generator of new possibilities occurs.
However, the use of overt silence in the improvisation process can help enliven this awareness, as well as further expand the improviser’s surface creative palette. Here I might also mention the system of “silence studies” that I use in my improvisation teaching that help students shift from ordinary conception to heightened inner-directedness. The first step is to urge them to shift their thinking about music whereby instead of considering sounds central, silence is central and thereby sounds are inter-ruptions atop an underlying field of silence. I have them create music in which spaces of silence comprise as important a part of the creative fabric as the sounds that are made. With practice, it is possible to create improvi-sations that make use of fairly lengthy stretches of time in which no sound is being made but the music retains extraordinary vitality.39
Let us close this section with questions that often arise regarding the initial catalyst for transformed temporal perception and thus conscious-ness in improvisation. This will underscore the complementary functions of improvisation and meditation. Does this transformation originate with the creative activity of improvisation, whereby movement of temporary conception toward the heightened experience of the present motivates dissolution of inflated points and thus transcendent experience? This shift may thus be seen as point-driven, through the heightened sense of the localized present. Or might it work in the opposite direction, where per-haps a propensity for transcendent experience and the heightened span aspect of the present—a facet of which is heightened localized present experience—impacts the dissolution of inflated point perception?
In fact, transformed consciousness can be motivated by either of these parts-to-whole or whole-to-parts angles. From a parts-to-whole per-spective, the dissolution of inflated points can be seen as the shattering of conditioned logic patterns, the cognitive threads that keep ordinary awareness in place, allowing a more transcendent experience to flow. The inflation of localized present perception happens to be how conditioned