Thursday, March 11, 2021

Oh! Heartbreak: "Keep on Lying" (video)

Tame Impala's "Keep on Lying"; Sonic Youth's "Bcuz"; Cilla Black's "Anyone Who Had a Heart", Dimmu Borgir's "Reptile"; X, A.W. (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
  • Q: Do Buddhists experience romantic heartbreak?
What to do? (Native Wisdom)
A: Of course. Any dummy who grasps and clings, who comes under the spell of delusion and attachment, seduced by illusory beauty (whatever one has come to regard as "attractive" or promising sensual pleasure). It's a natural law (karma and result or vipaka). It has nothing to do with how one labels oneself. It has everything to do with practice. And the Buddha has a solution, for there is no dukkha (disappointment, pain, unsatisfactoriness, suffering) greater than heartache. Loss is bad enough, but this loss? It makes it hard to carry on. Now, imagine losing it because of being cheated on and lied to about that cheating. It makes the life of a wandering ascetic (shramana) look very appealing, to be as free as a deer going wherever one lists. There is no "good," there is no "bad," except that we make it so. So we can take this dung dropped off at our door and make something good of it (fertilizer) if we don't spend too much time sorrowing or being confused. "Don't let yesterday use up too much of today."

"Keep on Lying" (Tame Impala)
All I give are little clues
Maybe one day I'll get through
There is nothing I can do
I'll just keep on lying to you

I only need to say it's true
Your poor little heart already knew
But there is nothing you can do
I'll just keep on lying to you

[VERSE]
Should my cover ever blow
Would you ever let it go?
There is something you should know
But hell if I'd ever let it show


So here I am trying to be strong
It was noon, now my shadow's long
I guess I'll go and tell you...just as soon
As I get to the end of this song

To the end of this song
To the end of this song
To the end of this song
To the end of this song...

[BRIDGE]
The curse has won again
Soon I'll be alone
Take all you can, please understand
That it never really was love

[CHORUS (repeat and repeat)]
All I give are little clues
Maybe one day I'll get through
There is nothing I can do
I'll just keep on lying to you... More

"Anyone Who Had a Heart"
(Cilla Black Official) Best selling British solo female with a string of hits backed by the Beatles.

Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Cilla Black
The Five Precepts incumbent on all Buddhists and anyone who wants to be reborn no lower than the human plane of existence is, "I undertake to observe the rule of abstaining from false speech." Technically, false speech is fourfold. But what it comes down to is lying (omitting, gaslighting. deceiving, prevaricating, spinning, dissembling, obfuscating, misleading, not hearing, distracting, denying, zoning out, pretending), you know, leaving out what should be said while inserting what should not. Not all lies are equal, of course. But the romantic ones hurt the most. Why? It's due to our degree of attachment, clinging, and expectations. Which is odd since other lies can have far worse consequences.

(Sonic Youth) "Bcuz" Kim tells Thurston what she'll one day say to him

Just musing in the aftermath: What could be the karmic results (plural) of lying and lying and lying? One lie, one karmic seed (one act of lying, one deed done), will have many results and fruits (vipaka and phala). I guess she'll find out. In the meantime, I'd better nip it in the bud and zip it, keeping my own mouth shut: Noble silence is a wonderful thing.

"Bcuz" - Kim of Sonic Youth rocks out, 1992
Where will mindfulness go for a lying liar who lies who can't access the peace of mind of right samadhi "coherent unification of mind"? A craven craving heart so full of apparent loving-kindness (metta)* is revealed to be an illusion. But the Karaniya Metta Sutra says as clear as anything else it says, "Let no one deceive another nor despise anyone anywhere."

Spiritual Black Dimensions

Sometimes things get dark, but this is a function of an untamed heart/mind (uncontrolled and blemished by the defilements) that leads to suffering. Pain is inevitable, a wise person once pointed out, but suffering is optional. Dukkha is sh*t being off-kilter, better defined as not getting what one wants, getting what is disliked, loss, separation from the loved, association with the disliked... Dukkha will be, but the wise -- having cleaned up their defilements -- will not be disturbed.

"Reptile"
Norwegian Dimmu Borgir member Silenoz composing lyrics in English as a second language
Glowing eyes, staring eyes
Manifest an evil presence
With entities swept up in disease and decay
A fall from paradise beyond redemption

Wrathful child's afterglow

She who speaks of nightly treasures
She who wraps the serpent around my neck
She who pours poisonous wine in my chalice
She who lets me serve and slip away...

And so I will take shelter
In the absence of Light
Hiding like a masked miniature in the dark
A revenant without relief it seems

For the art of becoming progeny
To be raised in such a curse
Is to forever creep among naïve mortals
Infesting the dead in hoards

Her grandeur of guidance in roundtrips obscure
She who immerses my hands in sullen thrills
Her paths on which domination lingers
She who dares to prove this sanity of mine

She who speaks of nightly treasures
She who lets me serve and slip away...

Black unearthly void creatures crawling
Forbidden forgotten fairly underrated
Bastards in the shape of angels holding my hands
Passing me what is left of the wine

*Metta Sutra
The famous Mettā Sutta is the Buddha's "Discourse on Loving-Kindness." It is usually preceded by the Pali term karaniya or "what should be done" or "what is to be done." This sutra contains recollections recited to promote the development of loving-kindness (mettā) through virtue (sila) and meditation (bhavana). It identifies 15 virtuous qualities (causes) and conditions conducive to the development of mettā. These include being non-deceptive (uju), sincere (suju), easy to correct (suvaco), gentle (mudu), and without arrogance (anatimānī). Sutra

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