Music

Excerpts from "The Mysticism of Sound and Music" by author Hazrat Inayat Khan:

"This rhythm has also a great deal to do with the rhythm of man's life. There are certain kinds of sound which irritate man and have a bad effect upon the nerves, and there are other kinds of rhythm which have a soothing, healing, and comforting effect upon the mind. Music is sound and rhythm, and when sound and rhythm are understood in their nature and character, then music is not only something used as a pastime, but then music will become a source of heaing and upliftment.
The Sufis of ancient times, the great mystics, used to develop this art in order to bring about poise in life after their everyday activity. They called this art sam'a, and sam'a has been the most sacred thing for the Sufis; it has been a meditation for them. They meditated by the help of music, by having a certain music played which had a certain effect upon the development of the individual. The great poets, such as Rumi of Persia, used to have music for their meditation, and by the help of music they used to repose and to control the activity of their body and mind."

"What makes us feel drawn to musc is that our whole being is music: our mind, or body, the nature in which we live, the nature that has made us, all this is beneath and around us - it is all music. As we are close to all this music and live and move and have our being in music, it therefore interests us. It attracts our attention and gives us pleasure, for it corresponds with the rhythm and tone which are keeping the mechanism of our whole being intact. What pleases us in any of our arts, whether drawing, painting, carving, architecture, or sculpture, and what interests us in poetry, is the harmony behind them which is music. It is music that poetry suggests to us: the rhythm in the poetry, or the harmony of ideas and phrases"