We recently connected with Marc Anderson and have shared our conversation below.

Marc, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve undertaken is one that is ongoing and is at the center of virtually everything I do. The project is to live well. I think it’s a project that everyone is engaged in one way or the other. Perhaps it’s also true than any more specific project that is truly meaningful in some way is contributing to one’s own well-being or that of another.

Living well could be described simply as happiness but it’s more than a surface happiness and not the same as pleasure which may or may not be present within it. It’s like a combination of contentment and purpose. Its stable and can be felt even when I find myself in a challenging situation. Its reliable because it doesn’t rely on external circumstances.

The context for consciously taking this project on wholeheartedly was my own suffering which led to an awareness of the magnitude of suffering in the world, much of which seems self-inflicted and unnecessary. I grew up in a fairly dysfunctional family which played itself out in the form of some considerable challenges for me and my siblings. I also experienced a significant medical trauma as I was entering puberty. It took me years to heal those wounds. In the process I came to realize that everyone carries scars and that even the luckiest among us carry a certain amount of existential anxiety. Everyone is seeking true happiness. And, it can be found.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My entry into the search for happiness and self-realization was launched through music. I began playing in bands when I was 19. A year or two into my first band I had an onstage experience that most if not all musicians have at one time or another. During a performance in the middle of a song I experienced what people refer to now as flow state. The sense of me as a separate thing making music sort of dissolved and there was just music. My sense of time and place shifted. A feeling of bliss and contentment came over me and everything seemed oddly perfect. From that point on I knew that music was healing me. For me music, powerful as it is, wasn’t enough. Ten years later, spurred on by the confusion and emotional pain of a marriage beginning to crumble, I found meditation. Music and meditation have been my core practices for many many years now. It’s through my commitment to them that I have found mentors and spiritual friends and other practices. It’s the power of these two timeless practices that characterizes my life’s work.

There are several entry points to what I offer but the ultimate goal is the same. I share with anyone interested, the insight, knowledge and methods I have learned and created through the years to help people make their own journey to self-realization and happiness. I do it as a teacher leading meditation sessions and retreats or through drum classes and seminars. I do it as a performer through concerts and recorded content. And I do it as a healer through sound healing and spiritual guidance.

There are others that do the kinds of things that I do. There aren’t many that have the combined expertise I have in both music and meditation. And, my pedigree is made richer by a solid background in cultural anthropology and healing modalities. I am part of a vanguard that is paving the way in forming new narratives, more complete modalities for people to find themselves through contemplative practices and the arts. I left the Zen community I was involved in for many years to form a non-profit and experiment with new ways to help people in creating a life of understanding and practices that will lead them to a stable and lasting contentment. As far as I know I am the only one in the area doing what is called Direct Path Teachings in meditation. And I am one of only a few offering sound healings. And among those that are, I am the only one with a music background that includes international status and in depth study of traditional music systems associated with trance and spirit possession.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Well there may be some practical details like better financial support etc, but I think the most important thing will come in the form of a shift in consciousness. Creativity is the nature of the universe. Everyone is creative. We are all improvising our way through each and every day. What needs to happen is that more people actually become curious about the nature of their mind and the nature of reality. More people need to look honestly at themselves and their experiences and wonder why, what, how?So much of what we think and do comes to us from culture and family and we generally accept it as truth. We form opinions about everything and learn to assume that what we see and think is all some kind of objective reality but its not. Only by exploring the nature of our minds, the nature of awareness itself can we begin to loosen the knots the bind us and all of us begin living more creatively.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is simple, to realize my innate freedom and infinite potential and in so doing doing share that knowing with everyone and everything else.  

Contact Info:

• Website: marcanderson.org
• Instagram: urbanmonk.marc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marc.fathands/
• Twitter: @marcandy00
• Youtube: @marcanderson3353

Image Credits
marc anderson