Obsession: Why won't you love me? (video)

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; LanaDelRey.com

“I have strong relationships with icons,” Lana Del Rey says (Kurt Iswarienko/nytimes.com)

(RV)  Lana Del Rey, "Pretty When You Cry" from the recently released CD now Billboard's No. 1 "Ultraviolence" 

Lana Del Rey is fantastic and making a splash from coast to coast. She was recently featured on NPR and the pro-propaganda American "paper of record," The New York Times.

Finding Her Future Looking in the Past

Jon Pareles, (nytimes.com, June 12/15, 2014)

Lana Del Rey is diving deeper into retro sophistication.
 
LOS ANGELES - In October, before starting an international theater tour, the songwriter Lana Del Rey consulted a clairvoyant. She was instructed to write down four questions in advance and sleep on them. The first question on the list, Ms Del Rey said in an interview in May at her house her, was "Am I meant for this world?" It's probably not the kind of question most multimillion-selling pop singers would ask themselves with their careers clearly ascendant... More

I'm mostly harmless.

Whether she's taking a jab at Lady Gaga in "I *ucked My Way Up to the Top," causing a dance sensation with "Summertime Sadness," singing the glories of the "West Coast," appearing at Coachella 2014, play at the pre-wedding party for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in Versailles, releasing "Ultraviolence," or showing Charli XCX and Amethyst "Iggy" Azalea how it's done, she is on fire.
 
In an interview with Grazia magazine, she explains: 

Lana Del Rey and Lady Gaga (rapgenius.com)

“It’s about a singer [speculated to be Lady Gaga] who first sneered about my allegedly not authentic style but later she stole and copied it. And now she’s acting like I am the art project and she the true super artist. My God and people actually believe her, she’s successful! I shouldn’t continue ranting; it doesn’t get anywhere.” She hasn’t officially named the artist, but speculation is strong that it is about Lady "Fame Monster" Gaga and the record executive in "So Legit" (RapGenius.com). 

• Lana Del Rey still stirs things up with "Ultraviolence"  In her new album, “Ultraviolence,” Lana Del Rey sets herself further outside whatever passes for current pop mainstream. 
• Popcast: Lana Del Rey, downcast superstar (June 27, 2014) “Ultraviolence” hits No. 1 on Billboard's
• Lana Del Rey Becomes a Star (Feb. 2012) For some reason, Lana Del Rey and her sultry songs drive some people nuts.

The best thing about her is how vulnerable she sounds, like a hopeless love addict on Angelina Jolie/Disney's "Maleficent" theme "Once Upon a Dream," with an ironic fierceness that proves she is not just a waif or songstress like Hope Sandoval or the 90's generation of Lilith Fair acts. This is yin with a little yang. Jon Pareles explains that "doubt, regrets, obsessive longing and self-destructive impulses are often at the core of Ms. Del Rey's songs and videos. 'I wait for you, baby, that's all I do/You don't come through, babe, you never do,: she sing in 'Pretty When You Cry.'"

The downcast superstar Lana Del Rey (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com, June 27, 2014)

Sensual and emotional obsessions are like burning at the stake (Lana Del Rey/West Coast)

  

At home with Elvis portrait (NYT)

[Verse 1] All the pretty stars shine for you, my love/ Am I that girl that you dream of?/ All those little times you said that I'm your girl/ You make me feel like your whole world/ [Chorus] I'll wait for you, babe/ That's all I do, babe/ Don't come through, babe, you never do/ Because I'm pretty when I cry... [Verse 2] All those special times I spent with you, my love/ They don't mean sh*t compared to all your drugs/ But I don't really mind, I've got much more than that/ Like my memories, I don't need that/  [Chorus]/...Don't say you need me when/ You leave and you leave again/ I'm stronger than all my men/ Except for you/ Don't say you need me if/ You leave last, you're leaving/ I can't do it, I can't do it/ But you do it well/  [Outro] I'm pretty when I cry.

SUTRA: Seven Obsessions
Dhr. Seven and Crystal Quintero (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly (Anusaya Sutras 1 and 2 from the Anguttara Nikaya, "Numerical Discourses," Book of the Sevens, AN 7.11/AN 7.12)

Theravada novices attend to the Buddha in Burma (Oscar Tarneberg/otarneberg/flickr)

  

(AN 7.11) "Meditators, there are seven obsessions [anusayas, "underlying or latent tendencies," literally, "to lie down with," but according to Ven. Thanissaro, in actual usage, the related verb (anuseti) means to be obsessed with something, for one's thoughts to return and "lie down with it" over and over again]. What are the seven? ["They are]

• the obsession of sensual passion (craving),
• the obsession of resentment (anger),
• the obsession of (speculative) views,
• the obsession of uncertainty (doubt),
• the obsession of conceit (pride),
• the obsession of passion for continued becoming (bhava-raga, for continued existence in fine-material and immaterial spheres),
• the obsession of ignorance.

"These are the seven obsessions."

(AN 7.12) "Meditators, with the abandoning and destruction of these seven obsessions, the supreme life is fulfilled. What are the seven? [Listed above.]

"With the abandoning and destruction of these seven obsessions, the supreme life is fulfilled.
 
"When, for a meditator, the obsession of sensual passion has been abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump [that will not regrow once topped off], deprived of the supportive conditions of development, not destined for rearising.

I am so obsessed and so unenlightened.

"When for a meditator the obsession of resentment... the obsession of views... the obsession of uncertainty... the obsession of conceit... the obsession of passion for continued becoming... the obsession of ignorance has been abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the supportive conditions of development, not destined for rearising.

Bondage then death by cop

"This is called one who has cut through craving, has turned away from the fetter (bond), and by rightly breaking through conceit has put an end to suffering and disappointment." 

2 die in Los Angeles County sheriff's custody (AP) A woman being held at the sheriff's station in Valencia died at about 12:30 pm Saturday, but other details have not been released.

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Kate Moss: Celebrity Buddhist

By Dharmachari Seven

"Everything is uncertain. Don't cling to anything" -- famous words of a Thai meditation teacher.

In 2006, Fametastic speculated about the waifish supermodel's relationship (Kate Moss is back together with Pete Doherty) and her possible motives: "She's hoping that getting her [rockstar] boyfriend off drugs will improve her karma rating."

Apparently the woman voted voted best dressed in the world has been drawn to Buddhist philosophy and its teachings since she was photographed ingesting cocaine -- which might explain her figure -- the year before.

According to Grazia Magazine: “Kate feels Buddhism will get her through the dark times.”

“She’s been reading up about karma and is fascinated by the idea that your behavior comes back on you.”

“She’s thinking about doing charity work to get good karma in her life.”

The Dharma seems to have helped because the following year Kate Moss, who once dated Johnny Depp, and Pete Doherty were unofficially married in a Buddhist ceremony while on vacation in Thailand, although her rep issued a statement denying it, saying:

"Contrary to various entirely false media reports today, there has not been any kind of marriage ceremony in Thailand. She is on holiday." Photographs of the ceremony say otherwise.

The Sun reports a Thai priest announced them man and wife as water was sprinkled over their heads and friends cheered, even though the marriage is not legally binding. The real wedding is set for later with friends saying they've been asked to keep the date free but haven't been told why.

According to the BBC, the ceremony did take place: Wedding services including Buddhist prayers, the pouring of blessed water, and entwining of flower garlands are popular among visitors to the Thai island.

But as such ceremonies are not legally binding, British nationals must still undertake a civil service in the UK. Despite the marriage denial, bookmakers who took bets on the couple getting married this year have said the duo are "living on borrowed time."

David Williams, of Ladbrokes, said the bookmaker has closed its book on the pair tying the knot. But he added that the firm is offering odds of 4/1 that the couple will divorce before 2008. [Doherty's out, and Kate's now engaged to Jamie Hince.]

Moss and Doherty's rocky relationship has been staple fodder for the tabloids since they met in 2005. The ex-Libertines singer Doherty was serving a two-year supervision order for drug offences. And Moss's modelling career was flourishing despite being photographed allegedly using cocaine in a music studio.

EnjoyFashion explained her enduring fame in this way: Kate Moss became one of the most popular models of the 1990s, appearing in hundreds of magazine spreads and in popular advertisements... But she also gained a reputation for a stormy personal life, culminating in rehab in 1998 and then a further brouhaha in 2005 when a British tabloid printed pictures of her sniffing cocaine.

Kate's a mother (with Jefferson Hack) who during her pregnancy posed nude for Sigmund Freud's 81-year-old grandson (Lucien). He created a near life-size portrait called "Naked Portrait 2002," which went on to sell for $6.5 million at Christie's auction house.

So is Moss really a Buddhist and what kind? According to Female First Magazine, Grazia Magazine, and interviews, yes! WQ is willing to go out on a limb by speculating that she prefers the Thai form of Theravada Buddhism, whose doctrine adheres as closely as it can to the original words of the Buddha.

Thailand is famous for the generosity (dana) of its people and the insight (vipassana) of its forest tradition monks. And Ajahn Chah, the country's most renowned monk, was famous for saying exactly the sort of thing a supermodel would want to hear:

"People who suffer will accordingly gain wisdom. If we don't suffer, we don't contemplate. If we don't contemplate, no wisdom is born. Without wisdom, we don't know. Not knowing, we can't get free of suffering -- that's just the way it is. Therefore, we must train and endure in our practice. When we then reflect on the world, we won't be afraid like before. It isn't that the Buddha was enlightened outside of the world, but within the world itself."

"If your mind is happy then you are happy anywhere you go. When wisdom awakens within you, you will see Truth wherever you look. Truth's all there is. It's like when you've learned how to read -- you can then read anywhere you go."

"Everything is uncertain. Don't cling to anything."