The Arjun Bruggeman Interview

When I was 22 years old I started practicing Daoism. I became very close with a teacher in New Jersey. I received a lot of amazing openings. It was a time when I actually stopped playing music because I was so into my practice. Music was something I did for myself. Performing and trying to please people seemed like something that was messing my head up, I gave that up. I obviously went back to it..... The Dao for me is the nature of our being. My upbringing was tough, like most people. There was a lot of suffering and at an early age I recognized that there’s something wrong here with everything. I was very quiet as a kid, I felt I didn’t need to be part of all the insanity that was going on which sent me into music tremendously. I felt there had to be a different way to live. My teacher introduced a lot of ideas to me that were beyond anything that I would think of as spiritual. I would say, “I’m trying to raise the energy up the spine, and I’m getting stuck here.” He said, “why don’t you try to get in touch with the energy before it manifests into a thought.” “Whoa, wait a second, what does that have to do with energy channels and all this “chi stuff.” He was trying to stop my mind, which is the essence of everything in all practice, really. The energetic practices are hidden in there, in some kind of poetic way. Most of it is about doing nothing. Having no internal reaction. I was experimenting with mushrooms and doing some peyote ceremonies, but when I started practicing Daoism I actually stopped. At first I would do the practice and eat mushrooms and get stoned. Eventually I found out it’s robbing me of my energy and it can open you to deeper levels of consciousness, but it’s something that goes because it’s an external thing. Being present and aware is different then going out or being in a trance state. These outer things were taking away from my being present. I stopped all drugs and drinking and everything. It was around then that I was having different experiences while playing music, even playing drum kit for “rockish” kinda of bands. I was just being completely present with it, in a devotional way also. That’s a big part of it also, being grateful of the gift that you have as a musician and how the music comes out of you naturally (in my case). I studied later.... Being grateful for what is coming through and being devoted to that and surrendering to that, then music becomes a completely different experience.