Leonard Cohen (September 21, 1934–November 10, 2016) was trained as a poet and ordained as a Buddhist monk. He wrote songs partway between philosophy and prayer — songs radiating the kind of prayerfulness which Simone Weil celebrated as “the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Today when events in our countries, and smaller but significant experiences in our own lives, spell outrage and confrontation, what we need is a “a revelation in the heart rather than a confrontation or a call-to-arms or a defense” for healing our wounds and divides. What might our world look like if this is what we aimed for....?
Church music, synagogue music, mosque music....they all came together in Cohen. He said a good song was 'a miracle' and observed that the creative process itself was a spiritual channel to the miraculous.
It's hard to accept death, and death of a person whose life was synonymous with music is harder to accept.
Thank you, Leonard Cohen, for everything.