August 7, 2025 • 35 mins
This is a reflection, not a review. I unpack Avenged Sevenfold’s Life Is But a Dream… as a spiritual journey—from the plastic sheen of consumerism to ego dissolving into loving awareness, with grief and wonder braided through the whole.
What’s inside:
• “Game Over” → the frantic script of modern life and the hunger that turns us home
• “Mattel” → masks, veneers, and the ache for something real
• “Nobody” → nonduality, ocean-and-wave, the courage to let go
• “We Love You” → satire of endless desire, profit, performance
• “Cosmic” → love set to music; loss, memory, and the great return
• “Life Is But a Dream” → the quiet piano coda that leaves the door open
Along the way: Ram Dass’ “I am loving awareness,” Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Please Call Me by My True Names,” the Book of Job’s posture toward loss, plus threads from Proverbs/Isaiah and the Dao De Jing. Themes: Christian mysticism, Buddhist no-self, silence as practice, and living sincerely without taking life so heavily.
If you only have time for one track, start with “Cosmic.” Bring tissues.
If the episode resonates, please follow/subscribe, rate, and share. Say hi on Instagram! @standing.nowhere
Notes: brief lyric excerpts are used for commentary and spiritual reflection (fair use). All credit to Avenged Sevenfold and the artists involved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jacob (00:01):
But then it just explodes.
It's the feeling of love.
It's it's all the joys and allthe sorrows wrapped up into this
glorious explosion of music.
And it's I think it's that partthat really hits people hard.
It almost sounds like there'sangels singing in this song.
(00:23):
It's just beautifully allmelded together.
Today's uh episode numberseven.
(00:48):
And this is not going to be areview, but it's going to be a
reflection on a piece of artthat I really love.
And it's a record by uh VengeSevenfold.
It's called Life is But aDream.
And uh even if you don't likethe band or this album or if you
never listened to it, you'restill gonna get a lot out of
this episode.
The first thing I want to say,a little disclaimer, uh the
(01:09):
episode includes short lyricalexcerpts from Avenge Sevenfold's
Life is But a Dream album.
And this is shared forspiritual reflection and
commentary.
It falls under fair use, and ofcourse, all credit to the band.
This record is a piece of art.
Um the first track kind of setsthe tone for the album.
It's almost like an overture.
It's only about three minutes.
It's called Game Over.
(01:30):
And it's kind of like when thescript of life starts to lose
its flavor.
And um the I don't want you,when you first hear the first
track, I don't want you to thinkthat the whole album is gonna
sound like the franticness inthe first song.
The first song kind of startswith a poignant, almost sad, um,
but beautiful and innocentguitar.
I think it's a like a classicalguitar with nylon strings.
(01:53):
And by the way, AvengSevenfold, I'm not gonna talk
too much about the bandthemselves, but they're all
really virtuosos of theirinstruments.
They're considered progressivebecause they like to push the
boundaries.
And this album is one of thosealbums that pushes the
boundaries of music.
It's not something that you'vereally heard before.
Um, they're trying they try togo to new places with it.
And there's one song inparticular that really taps into
(02:15):
the magic and spirit of life.
And I recommend having a box ofKleenex uh next to you uh when
you get to that track.
And I'll tell you what thattrack is when it's time for it.
But this first track, GameOver, it it starts out with that
beautiful guitar and then itgets really intense and in your
face and really quick.
And if you don't have thelyrics pulled up, it's easy to
(02:35):
not really understand what he'ssaying.
But it's designed that waybecause it's simulating how you
start out as this innocent babyin life, and then life comes at
you like a machine gun.
And the lyric the first coupleof lyrics says uh open, blurry,
nurture, loving, crawling,walking, fleeting, glory, ally,
(02:56):
teacher, recess, buddy.
This daytime TV satisfies.
And then it goes into like alittle mantra where he's like,
um, and and the way he evensings it, he's like, as it may,
as it may, as it may, over andover again, kind of simul uh
pointing to, you know, this islife, this is life, this is
life, I can deal, I can deal.
But then he goes into thisreally poetic lyric where he
(03:18):
says, days are fine and come ontime, but years leave with
nothing to find.
And this kind of points to howlike I was mentioning earlier,
the the flavor of life, it'slike the bubblegum kind of loses
its flavor a little bit whenyou're looking for that ultimate
satisfaction in the material,in the external.
(03:39):
You can't quite put your fingeron it yet.
But then it continues afterthat little melodic vocal part,
it goes right back into theintense part, and you hear uh
him scream in the microphonelike wake up, changes, hormones,
high school, threesome, rollcall, study, license, freedom,
questions, doubtful, wedding,family, happy ever after, dead
(04:01):
end.
And that points to like how inlife we're groomed to uh you
know get to school,kindergarten, and then in first
grade, second grade, move allthe way up to graduate high
school, now I've got to get it,go to college or get a job, and
then you get married, and it'slike now what?
You get to that point whereyou're like, now what?
And that's where a lot ofpeople reach that midlife
crisis.
(04:21):
And the band, they were intheir 40s too when they dropped
this album, so you can tell thatthey've got some dirt under
their fingernails, you know,they've got some experience
under their belt, and they'rethey're singing about it.
And then uh the lyricscontinue.
The best is part of waking up,uh kind of pointing to um the
slogans we hear inadvertisements, and we try to
find meaning in um the mundane.
(04:44):
There's the lyric mundaneideation, how half the time you
you meet people, it's almostlike, oh, I'm into that show
too.
You know, a lot of commoninterests in consumer things are
what connect us these days,which is okay.
You know, it's okay to havesimilar hobbies, but when we
find our identity in thematerial, that's where problems
(05:05):
can start to arise, trying tofind meaning in a consumer
world.
Um, and then he goes back intothe mantra, as it may, as it
may, as it may.
And then uh the the last partof the song is where it starts
to get a little sad.
And and you can tell theprotagonist, who is us, starts
to reflect on life.
And the lyrics say, Days theycome and days they go, until no
(05:28):
more days set you free.
Well, on my way, my way to loseme.
This uh this album is verypoetic.
Though even just reading thelyrics without music, it's very
poetic.
And then he says, It strikes methat I don't belong here
anymore.
As I observe my own reflection,try a happy face, staring
(05:53):
through the warm tears, a sadfrown from the cold years,
adieu.
And it the end of this songalmost makes it seem like uh
literal suicide.
But and my son and I have hadconversations about this where
initially it seems like somebodyis hanging themselves because
there's there's lyrics aboutthrowing a rope over a tree.
(06:16):
But I think it's metaphorical,and you'll I I think you'll
agree with me.
This is my interpretation, andof course, music is open to your
interpretation, but the wholealbum is about losing yourself,
kind of turning within, goinginwards.
And it's not necessarily aboutuh actually killing your body,
but the idea of yourself.
(06:38):
Uh, there's a line where itsays, I hang now from my family
tree, uh, which kind of pointsto the uh death of the idea of
yourself uh in in a lineage.
The Hebrew there's a Hebrewword called uh or it's it's
shuv, and that's the originalHebrew word for repent, which
means to turn back or to return,to come home.
(07:01):
That's what it literally means.
Today repent means um we welook at it as guilt or
self-condemnation, begging forforgiveness.
But the original meaning, ifyou ever read the Hebrew word
shuv in the as it was written inthe Bible, is about turning
within, going inwards.
And Jesus had a parable aboutthis with the prodigal son,
(07:22):
where he took his inheritanceand went out into the world and
lived it up.
And there's a part in theparable where he says, quote,
uh, but when he came to himself,he said, How many of my
father's hired hands have breadenough and to spare?
But here I am dying of hunger.
And this hunger is not just forfood, you know, it's for
meaning, connection, belonging.
(07:43):
And then uh he says, I don'tbelong here anymore.
And that's the turning pointwhere the hunger kind of becomes
a compass.
So this this album is veryspiritual.
And the point of this song, inmy opinion, is that no matter
what's happening, you can justalways stop and breathe and
cultivate that silence justwhere you are.
And uh, like the Quakers say,you can follow that still small
(08:05):
voice that says, come home.
And uh when it transitions inthe next track, which is called
Mattel, it's interesting.
Uh, you know, game over kind ofsets the tone for the album.
And Mattel, uh, it's it's thissong is called Mattel because
it's like the toy company andhow there's a pl almost a
plastic veneer or nature to ourconsumerist society.
(08:26):
All the things that thecharacter in the first song is
not finding satisfaction in,they kind of elaborate on that.
The opening lyrics of Mattel,uh, they they speak of vinyl
skin, plastic bones, cast buttoneyes reflecting an image.
Everything seems like itshould, but nobody's actually
home.
Like we're all wearing masks.
Uh, we have a false enthusiasmfor the jobs we have, the
(08:50):
positions we have in life,because they're not ultimately
satisfying, at least for themost of us.
And the lyrics, uh, they talkabout like our neighborhoods.
It says, uh, quote, cue thebreeze that sway the painted
trees, toy yellow birds upon therooftop sing in chorus with the
buzzing bees, melt in sun, LEDbeams from the sky being held on
(09:13):
a string, while boredom tearsme apart at the seams.
Now I know this might soundcrazy, but I've smelled the
plastic daisies, and it seemswe've found ourselves in hell.
And that part hell uh isscreamed into the microphone by
the bassist, which to me evokesthe idea of our soul desperately
(09:34):
crying out for something real.
Everything looks nice, butwe're crying out for something
authentic, genuine.
So it goes from this materialtrack of Mattel and it
transitions into the next track,which is called Nobody.
And this is all about the ideathat there is no uh separate
(09:55):
individual self cut off from thewhole.
Again, our whole society thesedays is hyper-individualistic.
You know, if you're successful,it's because you did something
right.
If you're not, it's because youdid something wrong.
So the opening lyrics in thissong say ride in the shadows,
wandering beyond the frame,float like a feather through
(10:16):
space and time, outside a dream,pirouette within with divinity
in a dance we've shared before.
And I love that line becausepirouette obviously is uh is
like a dancing type thing.
And in uh the Hindu cosmology,they look at um life as a divine
play, like God is having fun,um, you know, playing all the
(10:40):
parts at once.
Uh there's the the idea of theAtman inside you, which is
connected to the Brahman.
And of course, these areconcepts, but it's a conceptual,
a beautiful conceptual model oflooking at the universe and
yourself.
The universe essentially is notserious, that it's it's
sincere, but it's not serious.
Uh, there's quotes from uh theUpanishads in the Hindu
(11:01):
tradition, uh, like, quote, theLord's pastime, Leela, are for
delight, not from obligation.
Having further increased hisspiritual understanding, uh,
Brigu realized Brahman asspiritual bliss.
From this supreme source ofspiritual bliss, all beings
arise.
By this supreme source ofbliss, they live, and at death
(11:22):
they return to the same supremesource of bliss.
And there's also a line in thebook of Proverbs written by
Solomon in the Hebrew traditionthat points to this idea that
life is essentially playful.
I mean, you could just look atyour kids and realize that.
I mean, they're they're closestto the nature of uh human
(11:44):
nature and reality, the natureof reality, and kids love to
play.
Uh there's a quote fromProverbs that says, Then I was
beside him, like a masterworker, and I was daily his
delight, playing before himalways, playing in his inhabited
world and delighting in thehuman race.
And that word playing, it was alittle too playful for the
(12:06):
Catholic Church when theytranslated this, especially in
the King James, so they changedit to rejoicing.
But the original Hebrew wordwas playing.
It means laughing orfrolicking, just having a good
time, not taking things soseriously, sincerely, but not
seriously.
Serious is heavy.
You know, life is not meant tobe looked at as this serious,
(12:28):
dreadful drag that we have toget through.
And it really embodies that.
And then the lyrics continue inthis song.
It says, uh someonedisillusion.
This is I am all as I am none.
Here we fly so high, there's noI, no coming down.
And this points to the factthat all measurement is
illusion.
(12:48):
Again, the wave is not separatefrom the ocean.
And the character in this songrealizes that and experiences
that bliss, that freedom.
And the lyrics continue saying,return to the boundless,
immerse in the free, letting goas you lose your name and all
you've known to be.
And it's intimidating to letgo.
You know, your ego wants tohold on to its identity.
(13:11):
The ego is uh, there's athere's a quote that I love the
ego or the intellect is awonderful tool, but it's a
terrible master, and it isterrified of letting go of its
identity.
And there's a quote from Osho.
I uh I took too large of aquote from him, so I'll just
paraphrase.
He says, Everybody is afraid ofbeing nobody.
(13:33):
Only very rare andextraordinary people are not
afraid of being nobody.
A Buddha is needed to be anobody, meaning you have to
really wake up.
And he says, a nobody is not anordinary phenomenon.
It is one of the greatestexperiences in life that you are
(13:55):
and still you are not, that youare just pure existence with no
name, with no address, with noboundaries, neither a sinner nor
a saint, neither inferior norsuperior, just a silence.
It reminds me of that uh quotefrom St.
John of the Cross God's firstlanguage was silence.
(14:18):
And uh the last thing Osho saysin that long quote, which I'll
just cut out here, he says, Beabsolutely nobody, and you are
one with existence itself.
And I thought that was perfect.
This is so reflected in thissong.
I hope you guys listen to thiswhole album, especially this
song.
It really points to yourconnectedness.
(14:40):
In the West, we view um theidea of no-self in a kind of a
scary way.
We we th we feel like we'regonna disappear or something, or
that our stream ofconsciousness will end after
death.
And that is not what Buddhismteaches, that is not what
Christianity, you know, anyspiritual tradition will always
say that you you continue on.
(15:01):
And um, the idea of no-self oremptiness, the the way to look
at that from a Westernperspective is that you're
erasing the imaginary outlinearound your skin where you think
that what's inside your skin isseparate from what's outside.
So if you erase that imaginarybarrier, you suddenly see that
(15:21):
you are part of this hugetapestry that's all one thing
happening.
And the lyrics continue.
There's a part where all themusic cuts out, and all you hear
is the lead singer kind ofharmonizing with himself,
similar to uh Freddie Mercury,like in in uh Bohemian Rhapsody,
and he says, I see, I see, Isee, and then it just cuts to
(15:47):
silence, and he says, Nobody.
And then it continues, and hesays, Breathe in the silence,
ebb and flow among the waves,blur on the spectrum, in light
come dark, and equal phase.
And this points to thateverything goes together.
It's all part of one fabric.
(16:08):
Like I've mentioned in pastepisodes, you can't have up
without down, you cannot have uhsoft without hard, you cannot
have uh light without dark, orvice versa, and uh, you can't
have self without other.
There's a there's a quote onthis that I really love that I
wanted to bring up on this note,and it says, quote, He who
(16:31):
knows not that the prince ofdarkness is but the other face
of the king of light knows notme.
Man, that hits you hard.
Uh it's also in the Bible, too.
If you read from the prophetIsaiah, it says, quote, I form
light and create darkness, Imake peace and create calamity.
(16:54):
I, Yahweh, do all these things.
Some Christians in the Westtoday, the way they interpret
the Bible, they don't know howto understand that.
They don't know how to takethat.
And you'll hear apologists tryto um explain that away.
But Isaiah the prophet, he issaying, Look, everything is
(17:15):
Yahweh, which that name means tobe, to exist, I am, being
itself.
All being has this polaritythat we perceive in the human
mind, you know, up from down,black from white, good from
evil, you know, etc.
Now, after this song Nobody,it's really interesting because
(17:35):
it dives back into the materialrealm.
But instead of Mattel, whichzooms in kind of on the
individual perspective and howit affects you, uh, We Love You
is kind of a zoomed-outperspective on the whole system.
And there's kind of like threeelements to this song.
It blends sarcasm and insincereflattery uh to highlight the
(17:58):
horrific truth of endlessdesire, blind profit, and the
frantic doing of modern life allthe way up until you die.
And it's kind of like uh, well,let's jump into some of the
lyrics.
It starts out really weird.
So when you first put this songon, you're gonna be like, what
am I listening to?
And these lyrics are designedto evoke that feeling in you on
purpose, because it's it's it'spointing to how corporations
(18:25):
tell you that they reallyappreciate you and that they
love you, or even from theconsumer end, not necessarily
the employee end, but even theconsumer, you're told that
you're special, that you're aunique snowflake, that you
deserve uh this and that.
So the lyrics open, there youare, you've come so far, sunny
days, the air tastes so sweet,flowers greet, birds will sing,
(18:50):
you mean everything.
You can be anything.
And it's right when it whenhe's when he says you can be
anything, it it's just it soundsso ridiculous, and then it just
cuts out.
And it goes into the next partof the track, but it it this
points to ourhyper-individualism, you know,
that you're a unique snowflake,uh, success or failure is your
(19:11):
own doing.
And right when the lyrics cutout in the beginning, you hear
this just the bass and the drum,just doom, doom, doom, doom,
like a machine.
And it jumps into what'sunderneath that false veneer,
uh, like it points to in thebeginning of the song.
What's underneath thatfalseness, it says more power,
(19:32):
more pace, more money, moretaste, more sex, more pills,
more skin, more shills.
This points to the amplifyingof our desires, stoking the
flame of your wants.
And as they say in Buddhism,it's desire that creates
suffering because you're kind ofbent forward out of your
(19:55):
position, that you wantsomething you don't have or you
don't want something you dohave.
Essentially, you're notstanding directly over your
feet, right where you are,appreciating what you have.
You want something else, or youdon't want something you have.
And it also points to the factthat everyone's obsessed with
their image.
You know, when I went to thegym, uh if you go to the gym,
(20:16):
you see that everywhere.
Guys taking picture ofthemselves in the mirror.
It's good to go there to gethealthy, but you can see the
egoism that's baked into oursystem, you know, more power,
more pills, this and that, moresex.
Uh, the song transitions uhafter that into uh another
sarcastic part where it's like,it's like, uh, you know, you're
(20:39):
great.
Um, let me see if I can findthe lyric for it here.
Here it is.
Yeah, just like in the intro,it kind of transitions into uh,
you know, you're great, look atthe way you've uh been handling
yourself.
Um we love you.
And and the we love you issarcasm.
(21:01):
And then it goes right backinto the system again.
More power, more performance,you know.
And the end of this track, itconcludes with the most poignant
and sad and haunting guitar andvocals.
It's just this simple strummingof a guitar, the saddest guitar
you've ever heard playing byitself, and these these haunting
(21:25):
vocals behind it.
You know, it it ends with theuh we love you, we love you, we
love you, and the sad guitarcomes up behind it, and it just
makes you reflect.
Man, it hits you in the feels.
And speaking of hitting you inthe feels, the next song that
I'm gonna talk about on thisalbum is cosmic, and it is the
(21:47):
jewel in the center of the lotusof this album.
It is, I can only describe thissong as love set to music, you
know, all the joys and sorrowsof life that are bound into
love, they're woven into thisgreat cosmic dance, and it's
reflected so well in this song.
(22:09):
And this is the song that youmust hear.
If you listen to none of thisalbum, this song you must listen
to because you will hear peopleyou have lost speaking to you
from this song, you will hearparts of your soul speaking to
you, you will hear the universeitself speaking to you through
this song.
This song is a miracle, it isthe most important song I've
(22:35):
ever heard in my life, and I putit at the top, and it's always
hard to say this is my favoritesong or this is my favorite
album, but this one it's hard tofind it's it's a meditation.
This whole album is ameditation.
The lyrics to this song open tofade from all that was before.
We shut another door, but not alast goodbye.
(22:57):
Fate has taken once again afight will never win, and time
again we try.
We can't escape from theserhythms of life, you know, this
this divine pulse, the sacredpulse beneath it all, the rise,
the fall.
But we can learn to dance withthem, to move with grace, not
(23:21):
resistance.
And that happens in silence.
You know, but uh in the book ofJob, uh in the Bible, which is
a very profound book, a wisdombook, all about suffering,
there's a simple little linefrom Job after he's lost
everything, and it's thisattitude that we all need to
hold.
It says, Yahweh gives andYahweh takes.
(23:43):
Praise be to Yahweh.
And again, I always like toremind you guys, Yahweh, if you
don't want to imagine apersonified God, remember
Yahweh, the Hebrew names havedeep meaning, and that name
means to be.
So you're being, you are goingto experience giving and taking.
And you've got to be with it,and you've got to love it either
(24:05):
way.
When it takes something fromyou, you gotta love it, you
know.
It's hard to do that.
Uh the lyrics continue.
Pain.
It found its way back in untilwe meet again, into that good
night, none too far, as we chasethrough the stars beyond
forever.
I'll follow you.
(24:25):
In the middle of the song,after the lyrics I've read you,
there's a guitar solo that I canonly describe as the dance of
the universe, the dance of life.
It it crescendos in ways that Ican't even imagine how you'd
play this on the guitar.
And it it it sounds like thebig bang, it sounds like just
(24:47):
everything, and it fades awayand it introduces a very
soothing piano melody withalmost what you would call a
mantra reminding us that we arein everything.
Our loved ones are within us,speaking back to us when we get
quiet and we listen.
(25:08):
And I want to read that nextpart to you.
This is these are the lyricsthat are sung over the uh piano,
and it oh, it's so good.
It says, Dancing in the wind asroses born again, there you'll
find me.
Before the dawn of man, incastles made of sand, there
(25:29):
you'll find me.
Riding in the caves as firelights the way, there you'll
find me.
Mask of royal glow, dawn inPharaoh's clothes, there you'll
find me.
Let it go.
Rings of dust and ice,weightless in the night, there
(25:52):
you'll find me.
Let it go.
And after that beautiful uhpiano and those lyrics that I've
just read you, this it's kindof like the center point of the
song where it it collapses intothis little innocent, beautiful
little um I don't even know howto describe the sounds, but then
(26:15):
it just explodes.
And the explosion I can onlydescribe as love.
It's the feeling of love, it'sit's all the joys and all the
sorrows wrapped up into thisglorious explosion of music.
And it's I think it's that partthat really hits people hard.
(26:37):
It almost sounds like there'sangels singing in this song.
It's just beautifully allmelded together.
You can just you can you canimagine uh all the sorrows and
joys in life wrapped up intothis moment when it when it
explodes and you hear thesethese to me sounds like angels.
And then the song kind ofcontinues and it and it it
(27:02):
almost starts from the middleand works its way back out
again.
Like the song stout starts fromthe outside and works its way
to the middle, and then themiddle works its way back out,
and the lyrics reflect that inkind of a mirror, and the way
they're sung, it's almost likethat person you lost is singing
back to you, like a voice fromthe other side, and and it
harmonizes with the originallyrics and melody, but it
(27:25):
changes the melody just a littlebit in the way it sings.
It really encaptures the danceor the ebb and flow of life.
And uh the lyrics say um youknow the same thing that I read
to read to you before, and theythey say at the end, um, I'm
gone, I'm gone, I'm gone.
You know, that you can't holdon.
You appreciate it while it'shere, you mourn it when it's
(27:47):
gone, but that's just life.
And but there's a poem by TikNot Han that I would love to
read to you guys that this songreally reminds me of.
It's called Please Call Me byMy True Names.
And this one hits hard.
So keep the Kleenex nearby.
(28:07):
It says, Don't say that I willdepart tomorrow.
Even today I am still arriving.
Look deeply at every second Iam arriving.
To be a bud on a spring branch,to be a tiny bird with still
fragile wings, learning to singin my new nest, to be a
(28:28):
caterpillar in the heart of aflower, to be a jewel hiding
itself in a stone.
I still arrive in order tolaugh and to cry, to fear and to
hope.
The rhythm of my heart is thebirth and death of all that is
alive.
(28:49):
I am a mayfly metamorphosizingon the surface of the river.
I am the bird that swoops downto swallow the mayfly.
I am a frog swimming happily inthe clear water of a pond, and
I am the grass snake thatsilently feeds itself on the
(29:09):
frog.
I am the child in Uganda, allskin and bones.
My legs are as thin as bamboosticks, and I am the arms
merchant selling deadly weaponsto Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl,refugee on a small boat, who
throws herself into the oceanafter being raped by a sea
(29:32):
pirate.
And I am I am also the pirate.
My heart not yet capable ofseeing and loving.
(29:55):
I am a member of the Politburowith plenty of power in my
hands.
And I am the man who has to payhis debt of blood to my people,
dying slowly in a forced laborcamp.
My joy is like spring, so warmit makes flowers bloom all over
the earth.
My pain is like a river oftears, so vast it fills the four
(30:17):
oceans.
Please call me by my truenames, so I can hear all my
cries and laughter at once, so Ican see that my joy and pain
are one.
Please call me by my truenames, so I can wake up, and the
door of my heart could be leftopen, the door of compassion.
And that's from Zen Master uhTiknadhan.
(30:40):
You know, if you guys have everwondered what Buddhism was all
about, that poem, that that's anthat just hits it.
Um Ramdas, who I've mentionedbefore, major inspiration in my
life, uh, he actually has a amantra which is on this album
art.
(31:00):
If you get the vinyl edition,uh Ramdas had a has a mantra
where he says, I am lovingawareness, I am loving
awareness, and they put that onthe back of the album.
So you can see they pulled froma lot of different um sources.
And I didn't have time to touchon all of them, but um on this
note of flying away and lettinggo of the ego, uh, Ramdas once
(31:20):
compared surrendering your egouh or intellect to jumping out
of an airplane because it'sscary.
And uh he says on the way down,you realize you forgot your
parachute.
And then a little way further,you realize there's no ground.
It's just falling.
You know, at first it's it'sterrifying, and then halfway
(31:43):
down, there's no parachute, andthen there's no ground.
It's this moment of leapinginto the unknown.
It's not the end, it's actuallythe beginning.
It's making all things new.
You're not falling, you'reflying.
And that's what it feels like.
I've I've touched on this inother episodes, I think episode
four, where the more youcultivate mindfulness and
(32:03):
continuity of mindfulnessthroughout your day, it does
feel a little bit like you'refloating, maybe like you're
falling sometimes because yourbrain is not gripping every
moment in thought.
You're actually experiencinglife.
There's one last track, whichis the title track of the album,
Life is But a Dream, and itleaves a little ellipsis at the
end, like, oh, what's next?
(32:24):
And it's just a little poignantclosing melody on the piano.
And the piano is played by thenone other than the lead
guitarist, Sinister Gates.
And it's a very mysteriousmelody.
It signifies like the end ofthe album, but it also has uh
joy and sorrow kind of wrappedinto it.
And it's really interestingbecause the very last um chord
(32:49):
he plays the highest and thelowest note on the piano at the
same time, kind of symbolizingit's all one thing, you know.
And before we wrap up thisepisode, guys, I want to say
thank you.
I don't know how long thisepisode's gone, but if you've
stuck through all of it, thankyou so much.
I hope you enjoy the album ifyou listen to it.
It's life is but a dream.
It's streaming everywhere, ofcourse.
(33:10):
And they've got an amazing uhback catalog before this as
well.
And before I close the episodeout with a reading from Lao Tzu,
don't forget to take a momentto follow the show in your
favorite podcast app.
It really helps this grow andreach new people.
And I'd like to close out thisepisode today with a reading
from the Tao De Qing.
(33:31):
Lao Tzu writes, The mastergives himself up to whatever the
moment brings.
He knows that he is going todie, and he has nothing left to
hold on to.
No illusions in his mind, noresistances in his body.
He doesn't think about hisactions, they flow from the core
(33:57):
of his being.
He holds nothing back fromlife.
Therefore, he is ready fordeath as a man is ready for
sleep after a good day's work.
Thank you so much forlistening.
Blessings to all.
Have a good night.
But then it just explodes.
It's the feeling of love.
It's it's all the joys and allthe sorrows wrapped up into this
glorious explosion of music.
And it's I think it's that partthat really hits people hard.
It almost sounds like there'sangels singing in this song.
(00:23):
It's just beautifully allmelded together.
Today's uh episode numberseven.
(00:48):
And this is not going to be areview, but it's going to be a
reflection on a piece of artthat I really love.
And it's a record by uh VengeSevenfold.
It's called Life is But aDream.
And uh even if you don't likethe band or this album or if you
never listened to it, you'restill gonna get a lot out of
this episode.
The first thing I want to say,a little disclaimer, uh the
(01:09):
episode includes short lyricalexcerpts from Avenge Sevenfold's
Life is But a Dream album.
And this is shared forspiritual reflection and
commentary.
It falls under fair use, and ofcourse, all credit to the band.
This record is a piece of art.
Um the first track kind of setsthe tone for the album.
It's almost like an overture.
It's only about three minutes.
It's called Game Over.
(01:30):
And it's kind of like when thescript of life starts to lose
its flavor.
And um the I don't want you,when you first hear the first
track, I don't want you to thinkthat the whole album is gonna
sound like the franticness inthe first song.
The first song kind of startswith a poignant, almost sad, um,
but beautiful and innocentguitar.
I think it's a like a classicalguitar with nylon strings.
(01:53):
And by the way, AvengSevenfold, I'm not gonna talk
too much about the bandthemselves, but they're all
really virtuosos of theirinstruments.
They're considered progressivebecause they like to push the
boundaries.
And this album is one of thosealbums that pushes the
boundaries of music.
It's not something that you'vereally heard before.
Um, they're trying they try togo to new places with it.
And there's one song inparticular that really taps into
(02:15):
the magic and spirit of life.
And I recommend having a box ofKleenex uh next to you uh when
you get to that track.
And I'll tell you what thattrack is when it's time for it.
But this first track, GameOver, it it starts out with that
beautiful guitar and then itgets really intense and in your
face and really quick.
And if you don't have thelyrics pulled up, it's easy to
(02:35):
not really understand what he'ssaying.
But it's designed that waybecause it's simulating how you
start out as this innocent babyin life, and then life comes at
you like a machine gun.
And the lyric the first coupleof lyrics says uh open, blurry,
nurture, loving, crawling,walking, fleeting, glory, ally,
(02:56):
teacher, recess, buddy.
This daytime TV satisfies.
And then it goes into like alittle mantra where he's like,
um, and and the way he evensings it, he's like, as it may,
as it may, as it may, over andover again, kind of simul uh
pointing to, you know, this islife, this is life, this is
life, I can deal, I can deal.
But then he goes into thisreally poetic lyric where he
(03:18):
says, days are fine and come ontime, but years leave with
nothing to find.
And this kind of points to howlike I was mentioning earlier,
the the flavor of life, it'slike the bubblegum kind of loses
its flavor a little bit whenyou're looking for that ultimate
satisfaction in the material,in the external.
(03:39):
You can't quite put your fingeron it yet.
But then it continues afterthat little melodic vocal part,
it goes right back into theintense part, and you hear uh
him scream in the microphonelike wake up, changes, hormones,
high school, threesome, rollcall, study, license, freedom,
questions, doubtful, wedding,family, happy ever after, dead
(04:01):
end.
And that points to like how inlife we're groomed to uh you
know get to school,kindergarten, and then in first
grade, second grade, move allthe way up to graduate high
school, now I've got to get it,go to college or get a job, and
then you get married, and it'slike now what?
You get to that point whereyou're like, now what?
And that's where a lot ofpeople reach that midlife
crisis.
(04:21):
And the band, they were intheir 40s too when they dropped
this album, so you can tell thatthey've got some dirt under
their fingernails, you know,they've got some experience
under their belt, and they'rethey're singing about it.
And then uh the lyricscontinue.
The best is part of waking up,uh kind of pointing to um the
slogans we hear inadvertisements, and we try to
find meaning in um the mundane.
(04:44):
There's the lyric mundaneideation, how half the time you
you meet people, it's almostlike, oh, I'm into that show
too.
You know, a lot of commoninterests in consumer things are
what connect us these days,which is okay.
You know, it's okay to havesimilar hobbies, but when we
find our identity in thematerial, that's where problems
(05:05):
can start to arise, trying tofind meaning in a consumer
world.
Um, and then he goes back intothe mantra, as it may, as it
may, as it may.
And then uh the the last partof the song is where it starts
to get a little sad.
And and you can tell theprotagonist, who is us, starts
to reflect on life.
And the lyrics say, Days theycome and days they go, until no
(05:28):
more days set you free.
Well, on my way, my way to loseme.
This uh this album is verypoetic.
Though even just reading thelyrics without music, it's very
poetic.
And then he says, It strikes methat I don't belong here
anymore.
As I observe my own reflection,try a happy face, staring
(05:53):
through the warm tears, a sadfrown from the cold years,
adieu.
And it the end of this songalmost makes it seem like uh
literal suicide.
But and my son and I have hadconversations about this where
initially it seems like somebodyis hanging themselves because
there's there's lyrics aboutthrowing a rope over a tree.
(06:16):
But I think it's metaphorical,and you'll I I think you'll
agree with me.
This is my interpretation, andof course, music is open to your
interpretation, but the wholealbum is about losing yourself,
kind of turning within, goinginwards.
And it's not necessarily aboutuh actually killing your body,
but the idea of yourself.
(06:38):
Uh, there's a line where itsays, I hang now from my family
tree, uh, which kind of pointsto the uh death of the idea of
yourself uh in in a lineage.
The Hebrew there's a Hebrewword called uh or it's it's
shuv, and that's the originalHebrew word for repent, which
means to turn back or to return,to come home.
(07:01):
That's what it literally means.
Today repent means um we welook at it as guilt or
self-condemnation, begging forforgiveness.
But the original meaning, ifyou ever read the Hebrew word
shuv in the as it was written inthe Bible, is about turning
within, going inwards.
And Jesus had a parable aboutthis with the prodigal son,
(07:22):
where he took his inheritanceand went out into the world and
lived it up.
And there's a part in theparable where he says, quote,
uh, but when he came to himself,he said, How many of my
father's hired hands have breadenough and to spare?
But here I am dying of hunger.
And this hunger is not just forfood, you know, it's for
meaning, connection, belonging.
(07:43):
And then uh he says, I don'tbelong here anymore.
And that's the turning pointwhere the hunger kind of becomes
a compass.
So this this album is veryspiritual.
And the point of this song, inmy opinion, is that no matter
what's happening, you can justalways stop and breathe and
cultivate that silence justwhere you are.
And uh, like the Quakers say,you can follow that still small
(08:05):
voice that says, come home.
And uh when it transitions inthe next track, which is called
Mattel, it's interesting.
Uh, you know, game over kind ofsets the tone for the album.
And Mattel, uh, it's it's thissong is called Mattel because
it's like the toy company andhow there's a pl almost a
plastic veneer or nature to ourconsumerist society.
(08:26):
All the things that thecharacter in the first song is
not finding satisfaction in,they kind of elaborate on that.
The opening lyrics of Mattel,uh, they they speak of vinyl
skin, plastic bones, cast buttoneyes reflecting an image.
Everything seems like itshould, but nobody's actually
home.
Like we're all wearing masks.
Uh, we have a false enthusiasmfor the jobs we have, the
(08:50):
positions we have in life,because they're not ultimately
satisfying, at least for themost of us.
And the lyrics, uh, they talkabout like our neighborhoods.
It says, uh, quote, cue thebreeze that sway the painted
trees, toy yellow birds upon therooftop sing in chorus with the
buzzing bees, melt in sun, LEDbeams from the sky being held on
(09:13):
a string, while boredom tearsme apart at the seams.
Now I know this might soundcrazy, but I've smelled the
plastic daisies, and it seemswe've found ourselves in hell.
And that part hell uh isscreamed into the microphone by
the bassist, which to me evokesthe idea of our soul desperately
(09:34):
crying out for something real.
Everything looks nice, butwe're crying out for something
authentic, genuine.
So it goes from this materialtrack of Mattel and it
transitions into the next track,which is called Nobody.
And this is all about the ideathat there is no uh separate
(09:55):
individual self cut off from thewhole.
Again, our whole society thesedays is hyper-individualistic.
You know, if you're successful,it's because you did something
right.
If you're not, it's because youdid something wrong.
So the opening lyrics in thissong say ride in the shadows,
wandering beyond the frame,float like a feather through
(10:16):
space and time, outside a dream,pirouette within with divinity
in a dance we've shared before.
And I love that line becausepirouette obviously is uh is
like a dancing type thing.
And in uh the Hindu cosmology,they look at um life as a divine
play, like God is having fun,um, you know, playing all the
(10:40):
parts at once.
Uh there's the the idea of theAtman inside you, which is
connected to the Brahman.
And of course, these areconcepts, but it's a conceptual,
a beautiful conceptual model oflooking at the universe and
yourself.
The universe essentially is notserious, that it's it's
sincere, but it's not serious.
Uh, there's quotes from uh theUpanishads in the Hindu
(11:01):
tradition, uh, like, quote, theLord's pastime, Leela, are for
delight, not from obligation.
Having further increased hisspiritual understanding, uh,
Brigu realized Brahman asspiritual bliss.
From this supreme source ofspiritual bliss, all beings
arise.
By this supreme source ofbliss, they live, and at death
(11:22):
they return to the same supremesource of bliss.
And there's also a line in thebook of Proverbs written by
Solomon in the Hebrew traditionthat points to this idea that
life is essentially playful.
I mean, you could just look atyour kids and realize that.
I mean, they're they're closestto the nature of uh human
(11:44):
nature and reality, the natureof reality, and kids love to
play.
Uh there's a quote fromProverbs that says, Then I was
beside him, like a masterworker, and I was daily his
delight, playing before himalways, playing in his inhabited
world and delighting in thehuman race.
And that word playing, it was alittle too playful for the
(12:06):
Catholic Church when theytranslated this, especially in
the King James, so they changedit to rejoicing.
But the original Hebrew wordwas playing.
It means laughing orfrolicking, just having a good
time, not taking things soseriously, sincerely, but not
seriously.
Serious is heavy.
You know, life is not meant tobe looked at as this serious,
(12:28):
dreadful drag that we have toget through.
And it really embodies that.
And then the lyrics continue inthis song.
It says, uh someonedisillusion.
This is I am all as I am none.
Here we fly so high, there's noI, no coming down.
And this points to the factthat all measurement is
illusion.
(12:48):
Again, the wave is not separatefrom the ocean.
And the character in this songrealizes that and experiences
that bliss, that freedom.
And the lyrics continue saying,return to the boundless,
immerse in the free, letting goas you lose your name and all
you've known to be.
And it's intimidating to letgo.
You know, your ego wants tohold on to its identity.
(13:11):
The ego is uh, there's athere's a quote that I love the
ego or the intellect is awonderful tool, but it's a
terrible master, and it isterrified of letting go of its
identity.
And there's a quote from Osho.
I uh I took too large of aquote from him, so I'll just
paraphrase.
He says, Everybody is afraid ofbeing nobody.
(13:33):
Only very rare andextraordinary people are not
afraid of being nobody.
A Buddha is needed to be anobody, meaning you have to
really wake up.
And he says, a nobody is not anordinary phenomenon.
It is one of the greatestexperiences in life that you are
(13:55):
and still you are not, that youare just pure existence with no
name, with no address, with noboundaries, neither a sinner nor
a saint, neither inferior norsuperior, just a silence.
It reminds me of that uh quotefrom St.
John of the Cross God's firstlanguage was silence.
(14:18):
And uh the last thing Osho saysin that long quote, which I'll
just cut out here, he says, Beabsolutely nobody, and you are
one with existence itself.
And I thought that was perfect.
This is so reflected in thissong.
I hope you guys listen to thiswhole album, especially this
song.
It really points to yourconnectedness.
(14:40):
In the West, we view um theidea of no-self in a kind of a
scary way.
We we th we feel like we'regonna disappear or something, or
that our stream ofconsciousness will end after
death.
And that is not what Buddhismteaches, that is not what
Christianity, you know, anyspiritual tradition will always
say that you you continue on.
(15:01):
And um, the idea of no-self oremptiness, the the way to look
at that from a Westernperspective is that you're
erasing the imaginary outlinearound your skin where you think
that what's inside your skin isseparate from what's outside.
So if you erase that imaginarybarrier, you suddenly see that
(15:21):
you are part of this hugetapestry that's all one thing
happening.
And the lyrics continue.
There's a part where all themusic cuts out, and all you hear
is the lead singer kind ofharmonizing with himself,
similar to uh Freddie Mercury,like in in uh Bohemian Rhapsody,
and he says, I see, I see, Isee, and then it just cuts to
(15:47):
silence, and he says, Nobody.
And then it continues, and hesays, Breathe in the silence,
ebb and flow among the waves,blur on the spectrum, in light
come dark, and equal phase.
And this points to thateverything goes together.
It's all part of one fabric.
(16:08):
Like I've mentioned in pastepisodes, you can't have up
without down, you cannot have uhsoft without hard, you cannot
have uh light without dark, orvice versa, and uh, you can't
have self without other.
There's a there's a quote onthis that I really love that I
wanted to bring up on this note,and it says, quote, He who
(16:31):
knows not that the prince ofdarkness is but the other face
of the king of light knows notme.
Man, that hits you hard.
Uh it's also in the Bible, too.
If you read from the prophetIsaiah, it says, quote, I form
light and create darkness, Imake peace and create calamity.
(16:54):
I, Yahweh, do all these things.
Some Christians in the Westtoday, the way they interpret
the Bible, they don't know howto understand that.
They don't know how to takethat.
And you'll hear apologists tryto um explain that away.
But Isaiah the prophet, he issaying, Look, everything is
(17:15):
Yahweh, which that name means tobe, to exist, I am, being
itself.
All being has this polaritythat we perceive in the human
mind, you know, up from down,black from white, good from
evil, you know, etc.
Now, after this song Nobody,it's really interesting because
(17:35):
it dives back into the materialrealm.
But instead of Mattel, whichzooms in kind of on the
individual perspective and howit affects you, uh, We Love You
is kind of a zoomed-outperspective on the whole system.
And there's kind of like threeelements to this song.
It blends sarcasm and insincereflattery uh to highlight the
(17:58):
horrific truth of endlessdesire, blind profit, and the
frantic doing of modern life allthe way up until you die.
And it's kind of like uh, well,let's jump into some of the
lyrics.
It starts out really weird.
So when you first put this songon, you're gonna be like, what
am I listening to?
And these lyrics are designedto evoke that feeling in you on
purpose, because it's it's it'spointing to how corporations
(18:25):
tell you that they reallyappreciate you and that they
love you, or even from theconsumer end, not necessarily
the employee end, but even theconsumer, you're told that
you're special, that you're aunique snowflake, that you
deserve uh this and that.
So the lyrics open, there youare, you've come so far, sunny
days, the air tastes so sweet,flowers greet, birds will sing,
(18:50):
you mean everything.
You can be anything.
And it's right when it whenhe's when he says you can be
anything, it it's just it soundsso ridiculous, and then it just
cuts out.
And it goes into the next partof the track, but it it this
points to ourhyper-individualism, you know,
that you're a unique snowflake,uh, success or failure is your
(19:11):
own doing.
And right when the lyrics cutout in the beginning, you hear
this just the bass and the drum,just doom, doom, doom, doom,
like a machine.
And it jumps into what'sunderneath that false veneer,
uh, like it points to in thebeginning of the song.
What's underneath thatfalseness, it says more power,
(19:32):
more pace, more money, moretaste, more sex, more pills,
more skin, more shills.
This points to the amplifyingof our desires, stoking the
flame of your wants.
And as they say in Buddhism,it's desire that creates
suffering because you're kind ofbent forward out of your
(19:55):
position, that you wantsomething you don't have or you
don't want something you dohave.
Essentially, you're notstanding directly over your
feet, right where you are,appreciating what you have.
You want something else, or youdon't want something you have.
And it also points to the factthat everyone's obsessed with
their image.
You know, when I went to thegym, uh if you go to the gym,
(20:16):
you see that everywhere.
Guys taking picture ofthemselves in the mirror.
It's good to go there to gethealthy, but you can see the
egoism that's baked into oursystem, you know, more power,
more pills, this and that, moresex.
Uh, the song transitions uhafter that into uh another
sarcastic part where it's like,it's like, uh, you know, you're
(20:39):
great.
Um, let me see if I can findthe lyric for it here.
Here it is.
Yeah, just like in the intro,it kind of transitions into uh,
you know, you're great, look atthe way you've uh been handling
yourself.
Um we love you.
And and the we love you issarcasm.
(21:01):
And then it goes right backinto the system again.
More power, more performance,you know.
And the end of this track, itconcludes with the most poignant
and sad and haunting guitar andvocals.
It's just this simple strummingof a guitar, the saddest guitar
you've ever heard playing byitself, and these these haunting
(21:25):
vocals behind it.
You know, it it ends with theuh we love you, we love you, we
love you, and the sad guitarcomes up behind it, and it just
makes you reflect.
Man, it hits you in the feels.
And speaking of hitting you inthe feels, the next song that
I'm gonna talk about on thisalbum is cosmic, and it is the
(21:47):
jewel in the center of the lotusof this album.
It is, I can only describe thissong as love set to music, you
know, all the joys and sorrowsof life that are bound into
love, they're woven into thisgreat cosmic dance, and it's
reflected so well in this song.
(22:09):
And this is the song that youmust hear.
If you listen to none of thisalbum, this song you must listen
to because you will hear peopleyou have lost speaking to you
from this song, you will hearparts of your soul speaking to
you, you will hear the universeitself speaking to you through
this song.
This song is a miracle, it isthe most important song I've
(22:35):
ever heard in my life, and I putit at the top, and it's always
hard to say this is my favoritesong or this is my favorite
album, but this one it's hard tofind it's it's a meditation.
This whole album is ameditation.
The lyrics to this song open tofade from all that was before.
We shut another door, but not alast goodbye.
(22:57):
Fate has taken once again afight will never win, and time
again we try.
We can't escape from theserhythms of life, you know, this
this divine pulse, the sacredpulse beneath it all, the rise,
the fall.
But we can learn to dance withthem, to move with grace, not
(23:21):
resistance.
And that happens in silence.
You know, but uh in the book ofJob, uh in the Bible, which is
a very profound book, a wisdombook, all about suffering,
there's a simple little linefrom Job after he's lost
everything, and it's thisattitude that we all need to
hold.
It says, Yahweh gives andYahweh takes.
(23:43):
Praise be to Yahweh.
And again, I always like toremind you guys, Yahweh, if you
don't want to imagine apersonified God, remember
Yahweh, the Hebrew names havedeep meaning, and that name
means to be.
So you're being, you are goingto experience giving and taking.
And you've got to be with it,and you've got to love it either
(24:05):
way.
When it takes something fromyou, you gotta love it, you
know.
It's hard to do that.
Uh the lyrics continue.
Pain.
It found its way back in untilwe meet again, into that good
night, none too far, as we chasethrough the stars beyond
forever.
I'll follow you.
(24:25):
In the middle of the song,after the lyrics I've read you,
there's a guitar solo that I canonly describe as the dance of
the universe, the dance of life.
It it crescendos in ways that Ican't even imagine how you'd
play this on the guitar.
And it it it sounds like thebig bang, it sounds like just
(24:47):
everything, and it fades awayand it introduces a very
soothing piano melody withalmost what you would call a
mantra reminding us that we arein everything.
Our loved ones are within us,speaking back to us when we get
quiet and we listen.
(25:08):
And I want to read that nextpart to you.
This is these are the lyricsthat are sung over the uh piano,
and it oh, it's so good.
It says, Dancing in the wind asroses born again, there you'll
find me.
Before the dawn of man, incastles made of sand, there
(25:29):
you'll find me.
Riding in the caves as firelights the way, there you'll
find me.
Mask of royal glow, dawn inPharaoh's clothes, there you'll
find me.
Let it go.
Rings of dust and ice,weightless in the night, there
(25:52):
you'll find me.
Let it go.
And after that beautiful uhpiano and those lyrics that I've
just read you, this it's kindof like the center point of the
song where it it collapses intothis little innocent, beautiful
little um I don't even know howto describe the sounds, but then
(26:15):
it just explodes.
And the explosion I can onlydescribe as love.
It's the feeling of love, it'sit's all the joys and all the
sorrows wrapped up into thisglorious explosion of music.
And it's I think it's that partthat really hits people hard.
(26:37):
It almost sounds like there'sangels singing in this song.
It's just beautifully allmelded together.
You can just you can you canimagine uh all the sorrows and
joys in life wrapped up intothis moment when it when it
explodes and you hear thesethese to me sounds like angels.
And then the song kind ofcontinues and it and it it
(27:02):
almost starts from the middleand works its way back out
again.
Like the song stout starts fromthe outside and works its way
to the middle, and then themiddle works its way back out,
and the lyrics reflect that inkind of a mirror, and the way
they're sung, it's almost likethat person you lost is singing
back to you, like a voice fromthe other side, and and it
harmonizes with the originallyrics and melody, but it
(27:25):
changes the melody just a littlebit in the way it sings.
It really encaptures the danceor the ebb and flow of life.
And uh the lyrics say um youknow the same thing that I read
to read to you before, and theythey say at the end, um, I'm
gone, I'm gone, I'm gone.
You know, that you can't holdon.
You appreciate it while it'shere, you mourn it when it's
(27:47):
gone, but that's just life.
And but there's a poem by TikNot Han that I would love to
read to you guys that this songreally reminds me of.
It's called Please Call Me byMy True Names.
And this one hits hard.
So keep the Kleenex nearby.
(28:07):
It says, Don't say that I willdepart tomorrow.
Even today I am still arriving.
Look deeply at every second Iam arriving.
To be a bud on a spring branch,to be a tiny bird with still
fragile wings, learning to singin my new nest, to be a
(28:28):
caterpillar in the heart of aflower, to be a jewel hiding
itself in a stone.
I still arrive in order tolaugh and to cry, to fear and to
hope.
The rhythm of my heart is thebirth and death of all that is
alive.
(28:49):
I am a mayfly metamorphosizingon the surface of the river.
I am the bird that swoops downto swallow the mayfly.
I am a frog swimming happily inthe clear water of a pond, and
I am the grass snake thatsilently feeds itself on the
(29:09):
frog.
I am the child in Uganda, allskin and bones.
My legs are as thin as bamboosticks, and I am the arms
merchant selling deadly weaponsto Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl,refugee on a small boat, who
throws herself into the oceanafter being raped by a sea
(29:32):
pirate.
And I am I am also the pirate.
My heart not yet capable ofseeing and loving.
(29:55):
I am a member of the Politburowith plenty of power in my
hands.
And I am the man who has to payhis debt of blood to my people,
dying slowly in a forced laborcamp.
My joy is like spring, so warmit makes flowers bloom all over
the earth.
My pain is like a river oftears, so vast it fills the four
(30:17):
oceans.
Please call me by my truenames, so I can hear all my
cries and laughter at once, so Ican see that my joy and pain
are one.
Please call me by my truenames, so I can wake up, and the
door of my heart could be leftopen, the door of compassion.
And that's from Zen Master uhTiknadhan.
(30:40):
You know, if you guys have everwondered what Buddhism was all
about, that poem, that that's anthat just hits it.
Um Ramdas, who I've mentionedbefore, major inspiration in my
life, uh, he actually has a amantra which is on this album
art.
(31:00):
If you get the vinyl edition,uh Ramdas had a has a mantra
where he says, I am lovingawareness, I am loving
awareness, and they put that onthe back of the album.
So you can see they pulled froma lot of different um sources.
And I didn't have time to touchon all of them, but um on this
note of flying away and lettinggo of the ego, uh, Ramdas once
(31:20):
compared surrendering your egouh or intellect to jumping out
of an airplane because it'sscary.
And uh he says on the way down,you realize you forgot your
parachute.
And then a little way further,you realize there's no ground.
It's just falling.
You know, at first it's it'sterrifying, and then halfway
(31:43):
down, there's no parachute, andthen there's no ground.
It's this moment of leapinginto the unknown.
It's not the end, it's actuallythe beginning.
It's making all things new.
You're not falling, you'reflying.
And that's what it feels like.
I've I've touched on this inother episodes, I think episode
four, where the more youcultivate mindfulness and
(32:03):
continuity of mindfulnessthroughout your day, it does
feel a little bit like you'refloating, maybe like you're
falling sometimes because yourbrain is not gripping every
moment in thought.
You're actually experiencinglife.
There's one last track, whichis the title track of the album,
Life is But a Dream, and itleaves a little ellipsis at the
end, like, oh, what's next?
(32:24):
And it's just a little poignantclosing melody on the piano.
And the piano is played by thenone other than the lead
guitarist, Sinister Gates.
And it's a very mysteriousmelody.
It signifies like the end ofthe album, but it also has uh
joy and sorrow kind of wrappedinto it.
And it's really interestingbecause the very last um chord
(32:49):
he plays the highest and thelowest note on the piano at the
same time, kind of symbolizingit's all one thing, you know.
And before we wrap up thisepisode, guys, I want to say
thank you.
I don't know how long thisepisode's gone, but if you've
stuck through all of it, thankyou so much.
I hope you enjoy the album ifyou listen to it.
It's life is but a dream.
It's streaming everywhere, ofcourse.
(33:10):
And they've got an amazing uhback catalog before this as
well.
And before I close the episodeout with a reading from Lao Tzu,
don't forget to take a momentto follow the show in your
favorite podcast app.
It really helps this grow andreach new people.
And I'd like to close out thisepisode today with a reading
from the Tao De Qing.
(33:31):
Lao Tzu writes, The mastergives himself up to whatever the
moment brings.
He knows that he is going todie, and he has nothing left to
hold on to.
No illusions in his mind, noresistances in his body.
He doesn't think about hisactions, they flow from the core
(33:57):
of his being.
He holds nothing back fromlife.
Therefore, he is ready fordeath as a man is ready for
sleep after a good day's work.
Thank you so much forlistening.
Blessings to all.
Have a good night.
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