Song Of The Day: Easter
Word Of The Day: Clastic / having separate pieces, take apart-able.
Easter was one of the first "Big Mind" songs. It was written shortly after I'd first done Big Mind with Genpo Roshi, I was in one of those despondant, self-pitying cycles. Despressed, dejected. My daughter was in her cholic phase of infancy, screaming like a banshee -literally- six to eight hours a night. Only when I held her, of course. I thought my life was over. No sex, no rock 'n roll, no touring, no money, no partying or freedom. Instead, it was all sleep deprivation and imasculating torture from the feminine forces of the World (Headline: "Wife-Daughter Tag Team Annhilates Alpha Male"). But, I had learned Big Mind with Roshi, and funny enough, one of the voices came to the fore immediately in response to my self-pity. I think it was the Master. And the Master was not happy with this whiny victim. The Master was like, looking around at all the deities, going "Can you believe this guy? Can you BELIEVE this guy?" Then he leaned into me and was like "SHUT THE FUCK UP. You piece of shit. I sent you not one, but TWO Dakinis, and all you can do is sulk?!" So, then the Master wrote the song Easter, and told me I would have to play it thousands of times, to really remember. The whole song is sung from the Master's voice (when he sings 'this master' it's mocking me, like I'm a faux-master, pseudo master, poseur master) except when he throws it over to the chick, who is the Daughter of Man (Jesus' sister).
This is certainly one of my favorite songs I've (well, ok, the Master) ever written. Lyrically, musically, vibe-wise, Easter is really one of those rare numbers you know will have a long life. Alex Gibson produced the fucker like a home run too, and it SOUNDS un-fucking BELIEVABLE on the record. Nate Jenkins made these weird sounds and stuff, and I don't even know how to describe what he did, but damn.
Easter is in large part, a big wake-up call to that old Zen-boy syndrome, the enduring inclination (almost always a masculine thing) to ascend, to bypass that whole messy affair of the manifest realm, just hang out in your Zen tree fort in the Causal clouds. It's a pernicious proclivity in ascenders. In Wilber's model, there's ascending current, and descending current. Transcendent, immanent. Manifest, void. See? Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. But too often the boys get lopsided and it slips into a "Form is emptiness. Emptiness is emptiness." Ha. So, then the send the Dakinis in, and they administer babies, and diapers, and the mundane gravity of familial convention, which is of course always -ALWAYS- the most exalted spiritual teaching in disguise. Decoys, people. 'S all decoys. God has no "other". Anyway, my thanks to the Master for this song, which did help a lot, and still does.
Clues on this song:
Crows are a symbol to me, although of what I'm not sure. I saw a painting by Nantenbo once, and it really, really fucked with my head. It's my favorite painting of all time, it's called Crows. (Zen Master Tenkei Denson was seen one day feeding some crows. Later he was seen sweeping ants off the path. A monk asked him, "Why do you feed the crows and sweep away the ants?" He said, "Because I like crows and I don't like ants.")
The Witness is that which is aware of all that arises, but the Witness itself has no qualities, no location, no characteristics. It is aware of phenomena, it's ever-present, without birth or death, but is aware of birth, death, and everything that goes with the collastomy bag of Being (including Bliss).
Caprophogy is eating shit. You can't find it even if you google, but look it up in the OED. Great word.
In the midst of perfection
this princess starts bitching
In the arms of Elijah
this infant keeps twitching
this "master" that's teaching
is a pupil repeating
this boxer loves headlines
but he couldn't take a punch line
Somebody slap me
I can't stop laughing
Suicide is back in fashion
All ascenders end up sinking
makes Love wonder
what fear's thinking
Two crows
sit at your window
keeping a vigil over your widow
Two coins
drop in a casket
over your sockets
(bury that bastard)
Two-thirds
ready for Easter
thinking you're Jesus
proving your Ceasar
ready for Easter
Right posture, right poses
too bad what's under the robes is
Still cross-eyed
in the witness
and searching for suchness
Back home, God's diamond
puts a diaper on the daughter
of a
Mystical martyr
who triggered a seizure
making believe that
his body's a disease
He's wishing for a World where
his vapor could thrive
giving up his life
(as if he were alive)
He would have his wings
if feathers came from crutches
or that cushion he clutches
Somebody slap me
I can't stop laughing
suicide is back in fashion
all ascenders end up sinking
makes Love wonder
what fear's thinking
Two crows
sit at the window
keeping a vigil
over your widow
Two coins
drop in a casket
over your sockets
bury that bastard
Two-thirds
ready for Easter
thinking you're Jesus
proving your Ceasar
ready for Easter
In the eye of a white tornado
in the pit of a black volcano
In the palm of a human hand
there's a grain of this quick-sand
[woman's voice]
I'm just a girl
with the planet inside of me
I'm the Daughter of Man
but the Men have been fighting me
I bathed my brother
and my brother ignited me
Divinity's twins
till some devil divided
the Goddess
from the Hominid's oddysey
I am
I am what I am
I am an antidote
to New Age philosophy
I am epicac
to this mythic caprophogy
(Refrain)
