"The Dream" (El Sueno) by Linda Ronstadt

Maggie LePique, UCLA Prof. Dan (KPFK, 11:00 am special prog., 2/7/22); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

LYRICS: El Sueño

El que me oiga mi cantar

Dirá que estoy muy contento

Yo canto por divagar

Ésta pasión que yo siento

Y que no puedo olvidar

Me acuesto pensando en ti

Y en el sueño estás conmigo

Y me siento tan féliz

Al soñar...que estoy contigo

Hubo noche que soñé

Que tu boquita besaba

Y luego que desperté

Fui viendo que era la almohada

La que de besos colmé

Ya me cansé de soñar

El sueño me hace sufrir

Quisiera que al despertar

Mi sueño fuera verdad

Para dejar de sufrir

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Host Maggie LePique (@maggielepique) began special programming on Dec. 7th with this fine song by the amazing Linda Ronstadt most listeners might only remember from her English language hits. But she's Latinx from Tucson, Arizona. The song is a heartbreaking tale of love, clinging, and suffering, interesting Buddhist themes of what happens when we won't let go. We live in an illusion, deluded about what's real. Will we wake up? Not without a struggle and not without intense pain -- such as the loss of a loved one -- to prompt us to search for the real, for emancipation, for an end to all suffering, which is called nirvana. Does Ronstadt know that? She dated Gov. Jerry Brown, of the Dead Kennedys fame, so she might. Many Catholics develop a great interest in the teachings of the Buddha, either from the point of view of Mahayana universalism or Theravada monasticism, which is quite like the Carmelites and Saint Teresa.