"Come to where hearts are joined in what you have called the Eternal Ecstasy."                Johannes Brahms through Michael Koch.1994

One early morning around three a.m. I sat down to "ask" Brahms about a certain composition and the circumstances that had given birth to that piece. There was in me, at that time, a great desire to know, a strong focus of intent to commune with this great composer. I will someday share all that he "told" me that morning.

My teacher, John Suter, 1910-1992, has often come to me in dreams meditations. So strongly once in Sycamore Canyon in Arizona, the memory of which is recalled in the song Butterfly. The message here is that eternity is NOW. "Yes time lost it's meaning for the message is quite clear,we join in Eternity, even Now we are here."

The words of Jeshua speak ever so clearly when he says:" I am no further away from you than the width of a single thought."

The shamans in Peru use the stars to communicate their thoughts with loved ones that are miles away. The speak to the plants, the water, the stones. All things are sacred. all life is holy, divine.Don Americo Yabar speaks of Christ, Buddha, Krishna, with the greatest love and understanding, yet embraces all men, great and small, male or female, in the beauty of LOve relationship.

Who of us at one point or another has not asked "is this all there is to it?" Have we not all at least suspected that there is more to life, than our intellect can grasp?

When I was very young I had a great love for Jesus. I was so thrilled when I was given a statue of him for Christmas one year. I took it to school for show and tell and announced that when I grew up I would become a priest! Little did I know how the road would take me to places that no one in my life could anticipate, including me!

The mystical aspects of my life have always been very strong. Settling for blind faith, accepting what was laid out for me in the Catholic Church was not my cup of tea. A truth was already established early on.  GOD IS EVERYWHERE. It may have been spoken to establish fear- but that could hold up to the idea that GOD IS LOVE.

One night, a priest from the high school came to discuss the matter of my confirmation. We all sat down together, my folks, he and I, and talked about our feelings about it. It was the first time we had talked about anything in that way that I could recall. Well, it turned out that we agreed that I did not have to get confirmed at that time. I was so thrilled, because it was not something I wanted even though my folks thought it was extremely important.

That night as I lie in bed, I had a, what one may call a near-death experience, although I was not near death in any way. I was so much at peace, more so than any other time in my life. I was 16 years old. As I was "meditating", a term I had not really used then, I was zooming through what seemed liked a tunnel towards a distant light. As I approached this light , or it approached me, it became a face- the face of Jesus. And only for a few seconds did this vision last, yet the peace of that experience and what it meant shall last forever. That is not to say that everything is peachy!!! There are many challenges along the way. But there is, and always has been/will be, something within me that allows me to trust life, to trust my desires, and to become that which in truth I am.

Meeting and knowing John Suter, working on the Biblical Meditations, working in music, is all part of this journey- a journey of BEING THERE. As the shamans would recognize the vertical aspect of Creation linking all life with God and thus with one another, we walk in time and space going hither and yon, but always in His Presence, His Joy, His LOve.Always connected, perhaps not aware. Remember He changes not! What Is is. We used to laugh and call It the Isness. The isness of you... it's the isnessest you can get!

My beingness, my isness, is always here and now. Fresh and New and as Olde as time. We are here joined, One Creation, One Creator---Alpha AND Omega.

----- Michael Koch

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Last modified on Wednesday, March 18, 1998

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