Ignorance is one of the great evils in the world. Blind ignorance causes all kinds of problems and always has.
Ignorance is not knowing or unconsciousness. We can be ignorant in many ways. The grossest way, and the most dangerous, is to think that life is what you decide it is. You are born into a circumstance, it effects you, you ride along in your life from day-to-day without any kind of awareness except survival and you make decisions based on very little information.
This leads to fear, pain, anger, suffering and all manner of problems. If you are under the burden of a dysfunctional family dynamic, an oppressive or restrictive religious programming , a cultural structure that sets you apart from others by making your group “good” and other groups “not good”, you are suffering under great ignorance. It seems the world is full of people and groups right now that think what they believe is the only way and that those beliefs should be shoved down the throats of others, at any cost.
The most conscious, the most present people are open. They take life with an open mind and heart and ride with the unknown but with an attitude of presence and awareness, not fear and negative judgment. People like this may have the same number of challenges to overcome as everyone else, but they take on life with a sense of excitement, wonder and adventure.
The path of mastery is to have a clear vision of what you have discovered and to know in a discerning matter what is clear, true and honest. To share from that place means that you do no harm and you do not carry doubt into your work. It implies, however, that that clarity is not the same as absolute, rigid ideas that cannot change and that others must accept without question. When being an expert devolves into “always being right” it loses its authority and become hollow and empty.
Teaching singing requires that the teacher have a clear, organized approach to teaching, to singing and to interpersonal interaction. This doesn’t mean, however, that this one way is right for everyone or that it would be appropriate to think so.
Beware of experts who say that everything anyone teaches is good, everything is equal, there are no differentiating factors in anything and it’s all OK. No one who thinks that way deserves to be considered an expert. Beware, too, of the people who tell you they know everything, they can never be wrong, everyone else knows nothing, and that every word they utter should be wrapped in gold and preserved in a museum alongside other icons from world history and culture.
To bridge the gap of ignorance you MUST ask questions, hard questions. You must investigate why you believe what you believe, you must unearth where your ideas came from, and why you are invested in them. You must question all the aspects of your life and your self and of Life itself. Carry that over to singing, and you must question everything you have been taught and everyone who taught you about singing. That is the only way you will know what to trust. You must live the questions until the answers are revealed and not handed to you.
Do not allow yourself to be deliberately ignorant in any area where you could just as well investigate on your own and wake up. Look around. Seize the opportunity. Break free!
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