The "Kaikyo ge" says "the unsurpassed, wondrous dharma is rarely met with even in one hundred thousand million kalpas." How long is a kalpa? In HIndu and Buddhist cosmology, about 4.3 billion years. But in reality, no more than the length of one in-breath and one out-breath.

Even In One Hundred Thousand Million Kalpas

While a galaxy 30 billion light years away may seem like an incredibly distant, separate object, it is in fact YOU. The center of the universe, as one teacher said, is your bellybutton.

All The Stars Are In You

Breathing in the pain and suffering of the universe, breathing out compassion and healing, the breath of the universe is nothing other than things "as it is."

Bring Me The Breath Of The Universe

"A Night of Dark Trees” is the second installment in a series of 3-song EP’s produced at what (for me) is a somewhat accelerated pace: the first installment, “Bring Me The Breath of the Universe,” was finalized in August 2022 and released in September 2022; this release “A Night of Dark Trees” was finalized a few months later in December 2022 and released January 2023.

This is also the first of my recent releases to stray from being informed by Zen koans and fundamental Buddhist themes: “A Night of Dark Trees” was instead influenced by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, specifically his seminal work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”
In this well-known book, Nietzsche’s protagonist Zarathustra proclaims the death of God and the pending arrival of the Overman, a being of superior intellect, wisdom and courage who would replace God, but would also replace “Last Man,” the lowest common denominators in humankind - selfishness, laziness, ignorance, indulgence, and a general preference for the path of least resistance.

One point that Nietzsche does not appear to deliberately make, but probably implied, is the possibility that “Overman” and “Last Man” and even God itself are merely different sides of the same being. The idea that, rather than existing on some evolutionary continuum from one “species” to the next - the God of Last Man and Last Man himself evolving into Overman in the absence of God - that all characteristics of God, Overman and Last Man are present, and have always been present, in every human that has ever or will ever exist.

And on this point, my personal take on Zarathustra represented here is my attempt to merge the doctrines of Nietzsche/Zarathustra with the doctrines of Zen Buddhism, trying to pick up where I think Nietzsche left off, if you will.
To be clear - it is well-known that Nietzsche was familiar with and had some fondness for the tenets of Buddhism. But he was also fiercely critical of certain elements of Buddhism, which is understandable considering he was viewing this foreign spiritual practice through the highly-biased and self-assured lens of an agnostic 19th-century German philosopher.

And so, the three musical pieces I’ve composed in this mindset focus on the parts of the hero’s journey where we can see the veil briefly pulled aside, where we can see in Zarathustra’s proselytizing a glint of irony, where we slowly realize the joke is on us, and we see the truth that the Overman, and God, and Last Man, are nothing more than us, right here, right now. We are at different times Last Man (the Relative, in Zen parlance) - when we surrender to the temptations of greed, anger, and ignorance…the Overman (the Absolute) - when we act unselfishly and courageously for the higher good of all beings and our planet…and God (the Transcendent) - when we simply exist as a natural extension of everything that is, and merge seamlessly with the Absolute.

composed/arranged, recorded and mixed by James M Gregg at Rioghal Studios
electronics by James M Gregg
mastered by CloudBounce
cover photo "The Forest for the Trees" by Jessica Beer (IG: @on_my_walks)

All proceeds from the sales of my albums are donated to worthy causes, for the benefit of all sentient beings.

A Night Of Dark Trees

Roses Under Cypresses

Farewell To Last Man

A Bridge, And Not An End

In this collection, I tie together three musical works into a small bundle inspired by the apparent - but false - dichotomy between our “small selves” and our “enlightened Selves.” Each of the teachings that inspired these works has this three-step process at its heart:
At first we don’t see what’s There, and we toil day and night trying to make Here more exciting, more fulfilling, more successful, and we generally fail to achieve anything truly meaningful. Self and other.
Then, after we’ve grown disillusioned with that effort, we start to see what’s There, we catch a glimmer of our true Selves, and we think it’s different from what we have Here, and we try to move to There and away from Here. Still self and other.
Eventually, and usually after much effort and anguish, we finally realize that there is no There as separate from Here, that There was Here all along, with nowhere else to go and no one else to be but the totality of our full and complete Selves, right Here, right now. No self, no other.
And then we immediately forget, and we have to start all over again. Chop wood, carry water.

In the commentary below, I present the original teachings that inspired the musical works, and then give my personal take on each one: not that my understanding or opinions are in any way “valid” or in any way useful to anyone else; in fact, they are most definitely highly flawed and incomplete. But if nothing else, they represent a specific point in time along the 3-step process described above. I debated the idea of presenting them at all, often landing on the side of simply telling the stories and letting you, the reader/listener, draw your own conclusions. In the end, the decision to include my take on these stories won out - maybe it was a desire for the reader/listener to more fully grasp my inner intent and meaning, or maybe it was therapeutic, in that writing out my understanding it helps me solidify how I work with it….or maybe it was just to puff up the ego that loves the sound of its own voice. Maybe all of the above!

Musically speaking, while the three compositions exhibited here are distinctly different in numerous ways, they share a common theme: a basic structure consisting of a repeated two-chord progression, over which the melodies and other elements evolve. In this way, the musical basis for the compositions mirrors the dharmic theme outlined above: the seeming duality of one versus the other, merged and melded into a singularity of musical sound. 
credits
released May 21, 2023

James M Gregg (West Riding): electronics, trumpet
composed, recorded and mixed by James M Gregg at Rioghal Studios, March/April 2023
mastered by The SoundLab
cover photo "Self Portrait/At The Museum" by Jessica Beer (insta: on_my_walks)

At Noon, We Signal Midnight

They Must Arrive By Daylight

So Goes The Moonlight

GambettaStop V8

A collaboration of El Duge and West Riding.

Tami Bath il Thawra Fi il Talafizyoon (The Revolution Was Televised)

West Riding (aka James M Gregg) produces ambient, experimental, and modern classical music inspired by quiet mountains, Zen koans, Arve Henriksen, Brian Eno, Erik Satie, Arvo Part, Library Tapes, Olafur Arnalds, and Phillip Glass. http://westriding.net

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