​Mission
Halcyon Arts brings the world of music and spirituality ​to New England by presenting programs that enrich and transform. 

Purposes

1. Bringing talented musicians, other artists, teachers, and spiritual leaders from around the world to New England, in person and digitally, to share their work and programs with the public.
2. Maintaining a series of public events such as concerts, classes, workshops and retreats each year.
3. Offering music lessons, spiritual direction, and related services, to individuals.

Definitions

​World Music: Roots magazine describes “world music” as “local music from out there”. “Out there” may mean, for example, New England traditional music as well as local music traditions from around the globe. We also include quasi-traditional music, intermingled traditions, and world fusion. Examples include the various forms of non-European classical music (e.g. Chinese guzheng, Indian raga, Tibetan and Mongolian chant), Eastern European folk (e.g. Balkan and Bulgarian), Nordic and Celtic folk, Latin, Indonesian, and the many forms of folk and tribal music of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Central and South America. Traditions have their indigenous roots as well as modern crossover and fusion expressions. 

​Spirituality: The word has come to have such a broad meaning that it is one of the vaguest in the English language, but herein lies its usefulness. Traditionally, it is a process of re-formation of the human self into the original self, named variously in a wide variety of traditions: the image of God, Buddha Nature, The Ground of the Soul, Atman, etc. This transformation is exemplified by the founders and expressed in the sacred texts of the world’s religions. In early Christianity, it referred to a life oriented toward the Holy Spirit. It broadened in the Middle Ages to include intellectual development. Since that time, the term has broadened further to include a wider range of experience, particularly those of non-Christian religions and esoteric traditions. Today, we think of spirituality as an experience of a sacred dimension and the "deepest values and meanings by which people live" (Philip Sheldrake). A person’s spirituality may have little or no reference or affiliation to organized religious institutions, but generally shares:

1. belief in a dimension beyond or within the known and observable, 
2. practices that aim at personal growth and transformation,  
3. a quest for sacred meaning and purpose, and 
4. an experience or encounter with the transcendent, inter-fused, or interior dimension.

​Program Formats

1. Public concerts, lectures, and other events such as dance or literary performances and  interfaith dialogue/encounters.
2. Day-long workshops.
3. Ongoing groups and classes.
4. Residential workshops and retreats.
5. One to one music lessons, spiritual direction, and spiritual coaching/companionship.

Vision Statement
To establish and operate institutes in world music and spiritual studies that embody, coordinate and support these programs.

Were William James, Aldous Huxley, and Huston Smith right? Is there a perennial philosophy at the core of the world's religious traditions? Do we know by some sort of compass when we encounter a wisdom tradition? Do authentic mystical experiences all tap into the same reality at the core of our being?

Huxley did not coin the phrase, ‘perennial philosophy’. Thomas Aquinas first developed the idea in the thirteenth century, and the Renaissance humanist Agostino Steuco first coined the phrase 'perennial philosophy' in 1540. The idea is that there's a core of shared wisdom in all religions. Marsilio Ficino’s Neoplatonist school attempted to synthesize that wisdom into one transcultural philosophy. This philosophy, writes Huxley, ‘is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the perennial philosophy may be found among the traditional lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions.’

Huxley argues that there are three main points of agreement in the religious traditions:

1. God is unconditioned eternal Being,
2. our consciousness is a reflection or spark of that, and
3. we can find our flourishing or bliss in the realization of this. 

The mystical traditions within the western theistic religions share these points, but what about their counterparts in the east? Certainly eastern traditions are more mystical and share the goal of overcoming the ego and waking up to reality. Egoic consciousness is a trancelike sleep, a series of desires and attachments. Waking up takes daily training in meditation, detachment, and love. Cultivating selflessness leads to awakening. There are many paths up the mountain, explains a well-known Sufi story, and like in that story, Huxley proposes that the peak experience is the same in all traditions: union with the pure light of the divine.

The late Huston Smith, likewise took up 'perennialism', as it is known--a comprehensive philosophy of comparative religions--in his book, Forgotten Truth. Smith declares that despite their great external diversity, the religious traditions share a conceptual spine. Our western civilization, he says, is the only one out of step with this primordial tradition, and we have exported it around the world. Scientism is the mistaken belief that science offers a world view, like that of religion. Science is a method, a powerfully useful tool of modern civilization. It brings us vaccines and space flight, high tech gadgets and greater ease and comfort in our lives, but mistaking it for a world view "has reduced the mansion-of-being to the ground floor of what is material and measurable".

The heart of the book describes the full mansion of being beyond the first floor and articulates the 'forgotten truths' at the core of the religious traditions:

1. that there are distinct but interrelated levels of reality,
2. that both the world and the self exist in a hierarchy of being whose apex is the infinite,
3. the fullness for which all things yearn.

(Note: Referring to 'the apex of a hierarchy of being' may be open to cultural critique for good reason.  I would rather speak of the 'ground' or core of our being and that of the material world. Its presence interpenetrates, flows in and through the self and nature. Children and indigenous peoples may more readily sense this flow. Words like hierarchy, apex, and great chain of being, are analogies of a civilization in its death throes, and can easily be replaced.)

I agree with many perennialists; we can speak of an 'empiricism of the spirit'.  Science relies on the evidence of our five senses in its empirical method. Spirituality also has its methods: we can 'see' the beauty of God in the natural world, in a sunset or pristine wilderness. And we can plumb our own depths with senses we have yet to awaken. We yearn for experiences beyond those of the five senses, using the so-called 'mystical' senses.

According to William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience, mystical experiences share four defining qualities:

1. Ineffability. The mystical experience "defies expression, that no adequate report of its content can be given in words".
2. Noetic. Mystics stress that their experiences give them "insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect."
3. Transiency. James notes that most mystical experiences are short-lived, but their effect persists.
4. Passivity. According to James, mystics come to their peak experience not as active seekers, but as passive recipients.

Yet, unlike the scientific method which shares the results of controlled experiments and advances through objective proofs as a "community", mystical experiences, given their ineffability, cannot be shared or proven in the same way. Applying this expectation is scientism and does not disprove their reality. 

Likewise, mystical experiences may be spurred by life events and even chemical interference. These influences may well be real but cannot disprove the reality of transcendent perception. The amazing variety of religious traditions and the commonality of spiritual expressions across cultures belies critique.

Truth and Being are so rich beyond measure, they spill out into human consciousness and natural systems. Scientism and materialism may judge the mystic and the spiritual quest, but this reductionism does not hold sway over everyone nor does it hold back the outpouring of infinite light and love. The life at heart of reality spills out in an infinite abundance for those who 'see', enlivening our universe in ways beyond measure. Likewise, the wisdom traditions are living traditions because they express that life in ways rich beyond measure and, therefore, awaken new seekers every day.

​Dear Friends,

Since Stone Church Arts and Center closed in September, I have been compelled to continue working to bring the world of music and spirituality, now to New England. We have had live-streamed concerts and hope to offer in-person live concerts soon. We also offer groups and retreats exploring topics in spirituality. 

I want to thank the Founding Board of Directors for all their great work on this journey of laying the groundwork for Halcyon Arts. They put in much fruitful time drafting, editing, and approving the Articles of Organization. This has allowed me to apply for 501(c)3 federal tax-exempt status which I hope is forthcoming in the next month or so.

The seeds have been planted, and now we can let Spring sunshine and rain, warmth and nutrients, feed the tender sapling so that, in time, it may thrive as Summer and all the seasons pass, nurturing, each, in their own ways.

All the Best,
Beau