A Really Fucking Buddhist Song or Two

"Someone Something"

Everything moves so fast I should know it won't last
Take some stock what you are what you see what you got

It tells me true I want a connection to
Someone something
Edge of a knife been missing it all my life
Someone something

They get you where you live
Don't go back you can't go back again

Yes it's true just a connection to
Someone something
Been up all night feel like sucking an Armalite
Someone something

Everything moves so fast I should know it won't last

I want a settled life I want to be calm and polite
Someone something
I'll get this right when I get there now
Someone something

--Spoon

Isn't this song fucking great? Whew. Read it again, and then go listen to it twice. It's Buddhist because he realizes that everything passes and nothing is permanent, and it's oh so fucking human because he still believes he's going to "get there," that there's going to be a connection to someone or something that is somehow true; immutable; unchanging; and permanent. A higher level, something "real." He's sick of grasping, yet, even in seeing the pain it causes, he's grasping for a time when he won't have to grasp. Which really makes it more poignant than if he said "Hey, I figured it all out and I'm totally unattached and Buddha-like and enlightened and superhuman." I love the Buddha and all, but really, the drama of the story ends under the bodhi tree. (Which, when you think of the teachings, is ironic--we're all grasping for that Buddha-like state, in our, "I'm not grasping" kind of way...sort of like the guy in the song.)

This was written by Britt Daniel and iis on "Kill the Moonlight," which isn't my favorite Spoon album, but is still damned good. Oh, and for those who don't know, an Armalite is a rifle...they built the AR-10 which became the AR-15 which became the M-16 which became the M-4, the current military rifle. Made famous in the song "Armalite Rifle" by Gang of Four. (Oh, and also made famous killing people the world over, much like it's Soviet contemporary the AK-47, proving the whole "Everything moves so fast I should know it won't last" bit.)

Here's another great Buddhist treatise in the guise of rock music:

"The Lonely"

Since I found out that all of this
Is nothing more than emptiness
Filled with impermanence
A guided tour of your deepest fears
Designed to help your vision clear
We'll depart from here

And then the strangest feeling drifted over me
Oh we'll begin where you give in now baby dear
Are thou misunderstood

I'll drink all day and play by night
Upon my Casio electric piano
Till in the darkness I see lights
But not candelabra
But things from other stars
Just like Liberace
I will return to haunt you with peculiar piano riffs

So take it back, back to the start
Rip out your lily livered hearts
And hand them over in a vacuum-sealed jar
I say I will not take half a risk
I will not walk half deceased
I believe bravery exists

And the strangest feeling drifted over me
Are thou misunderstood

I'll drink all day and play by night
Upon my casio electric piano
Till in the darkness I see lights
But not candelabra
But things from other stars
I'll drink all day and play by night
Upon my casio electric piano
Till in the darkness I see lights
But not candelabra
But things from other stars
But things from other stars
But things from other stars

--British Sea Power