What's the single best piece of advice you've received as a player?

[Gravity Jim]

There's a huge difference between a "monster" and a "master".

Dayum! I'll have that laminated for my wallet.

"Mastery" is quite a different concept in the East than in the West, o my droogies. In the West one is expected to "master" (that is, overpower, subjugate, have under one's control) the object in question (a horse, a guitar, a woman, whatever). In Eastern traditions, "mastery" begins with mastering one's self, reigning in one's own counter-productive tendencies... in the case of making music, mastering one's own desire to overplay, to flash, to dominate the musical setting, to seek praise, to play with some idea of gain and loss, etc. Nobody is a master that has not mastered the self.

Every morning Zen master Zuigan called out to himself: "Master."
And he would answer himself: "Yes, sir."
"Be sober."
"Yes, sir."
"And after that," he continued, "do not be deceived by others."
"Yes, sir," he answered.

[BlueFrogs]

Jim,
You are one deep dude my man.....

:)