Witness • SEARCHING FOR SPIRITUALITY

In search of my own music, I discovered my spirituality

Throughout all cultures, music is a vehicle that enables us to enter the realm of the divine. The author shares his own journey to spirituality through music, his innate passion.

BY Jesús Vargas* | IT Business Manager, Madrid, Spain

Reaching the music in our souls through silence

The rapid pace of life in the 21st century, especially in Western countries, led me to explore and find different ways to nourish my spirit a few years ago. During a time of significant change, I sought to get closer to God, seeking paths that resonated with me.

How Gospel music came into my life

In 2011, I travelled to Denver (USA) to spend a month with an African American family at a summer camp. They welcomed me into their home, taking care of me as one of their own. I had four Sundays to immerse myself in their customs. I discovered gospel music and a community of amazing people who incorporated forms of spirituality, cultural identities, and social dimensions into their lives, something I had never seen before.

Music has always been part of me, wanting to emerge, to blossom, to express itself.

The masses we attended lasted three hours, but time flew. People danced, smiled, sang, and savoured every moment as if something had truly taken hold of them. I remember how spiritual songs, Christian hymns, and blues and soul rhythms were combined. I was amazed by their choral strength, intense emotions, and their spiritual messages. Having never been in Africa, this was my first contact with the African continent, its people, and its customs.

Since then, I have remained captivated by this discovery. Music has always been part of me, wanting to emerge, to blossom, to express itself… and as I started my own business, I decided to open my arms and seek my purpose in life, the one God gave me: Pure Gospel.

All forms of openness and change involve sacrifices. Embracing music as the spirituality of the soul brings with it a transformation, a detachment from the Self, from the material things that surround us as human beings. It is precisely this path towards detachment that guided me and brought me closer to searching for the link between music and spirituality. ‘I no longer live, but Christ lives in me’, St Paul states in Galatians 2:20.

It was at that juncture that I began to meditate, becoming self-aware of my breathing and my connection with nature, of my inner self, in ways I had not experienced before.

Meditation: The sound of silence

Meditation is an ancient practice that seeks to silence the mind and connect us to deeper levels of consciousness. Although it is associated nowadays with well-being or mindfulness, its origin was always spiritual: a tool to achieve unity with the divine, inner awakening, or cosmic harmony.

Although meditation is associated nowadays with well-being or mindfulness, its origin was always spiritual: a tool to achieve unity with the divine, inner awakening, or cosmic harmony.

In its purest form, meditation requires extreme concentration and daily perseverance in order to experience its silence and enter a state where the Self dissolves and where intuition, clarity, and connection with something greater emerge.

In my go and forth in this form of communication with the divine, my thoughts travel to places where I perceive happiness, such as a walk on the beach with my sister, being on a surfboard, experiencing the sand and the sea… time suddenly stands still. I am overcome by a feeling of freedom that is difficult to explain. It is at that moment, in complete silence, that I begin to hear the waves, feel the caress of the wind on my face and the splash of my body as I swim… it is music to my ears, to my soul…

Music is medicine for the soul; it is the connection with the divine, and meditation, gospel songs, tribal rhythms, and all our different expressions — depending on where we are— are the means we use to reach that unique and exuberant state.

A journey connecting with Africa

In 2023, on my honeymoon, I travelled to Tanzania and had the opportunity to see another form of connection between music and spirituality. There, I learned more about a famous tribe called the Maasai, a semi-nomadic Nilotic people who live mainly in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, in areas like the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Amboseli.

Historically, the Maasai moved with their cattle in search of pasture and water, maintaining a very deep spiritual relationship with the land and their animals. Maasai music is closely linked to their spiritual and community life. It is not a spectacle, but a collective expression of identity, unity, and connection with the divine (Enkai, their name for the supreme God).

They are characterised by their polyphonic songs, devoid of any instrumental accompaniment (except for voice and body percussion). The leader or soloist begins with a melodic phrase, and the group responds: an ancestral call-and-response structure also found in gospel and other African music. The singing is often accompanied by rhythmic jumping (the famous adumu dance), in which young men jump as high as possible while the group sets the rhythm with their voices. Women usually sing in groups, creating a hypnotic choral base that symbolises the strength and fertility of the community.

During my stay in Tanzania, I was able to understand once again how music transcends not only borders. Music can unite us with the divine, with that which we cannot comprehend. It penetrates every pore of our skin, lifting us to a dimension that is better understood in proximity to God, if it has a spiritual dimension.

The connection between music and spirituality is the awakening of our senses. We can find music through silence, and through music we can find the silence and the detachment of the Self.

A project to connect music and spirituality

Upon my return from Tanzania in September 2023, I began a project that, unbeknownst to me, would eventually bring me closer to music.

This journey has made me understand that music and spirituality share the same language: both connect us to something greater than ourselves. Music can awaken something which, amid the noise of everyday life, we sometimes forget: serenity, emotions, and faith.

Music can awaken something which, amid the noise of everyday life, we sometimes forget: serenity, emotions, and faith.

Every experience — from gospel music in Denver to Maasai songs in Tanzania — has shown me that spirituality can be expressed in many ways, but always in authenticity.

I am still learning to listen, even in the silence. And although it is not always easy, I am certain that as long as there is music, there will always be a reason to keep searching, to believe, and to continue growing.

“May music make men and women humbler and more generous, may it unite them, not only in a fleeting way through an ephemeral feeling, but by instilling in them the great ideas of fraternity.” Saint John XXIII. 

*Jesus Vargas is the cofounder of Shamusic, a platform designed to protect the copyright of musical works. 

More info: https://shamusic.es/