Music Circle at Yesim Patisserie Cafe

For a few months now I've been arranging a music circle in a local cafe here in Leicester, which several people from the Great Heart Society have been taking part in regularly.  We do it on Sunday evenings once a fortnight, it's unplugged and acoustic so everyone can listen to each other's voices.  We have English folk, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Kurdish, Turkish, Iranian, Scottish and Irish, original songs, classical violin and piano... it's really a rich mix of different voices and nationalities, with a warm-hearted circle atmosphere like the Great Heart Circle.  Zen Master Bernie Glassman describes the point of Zen practice as realising and embodying the Oneness of Life.  Spiritual groups can only go so far in this, cos they only attract people who are interested in meditation etc.  A circle like the Yesim Music Circle can include a much wider variety of people, and give a bigger sense of what this 'oneness' is about  beyond the label of 'religion' or 'spirituality'.  The cafe owners are Alevi-Bektashi, from Turkey, and have the ideal of Humanness - "Insan" - deep in their culture.  For me the Music Circle helps us feel the oneness of our shared humanity, and celebrate it through musical expression.  Ya Hajji Bektash Veli, Patron Saint of the musical Anatolian Alevis!