Music That Moves

 

12.11.2020 MUSIC THAT MOVES From hip-hop to punk, jazz to folk, the best music opens our hearts and minds. Here at Lion’s Roar, we’ve covered a number of musicians influenced by Buddhism over the years, such as Tina Turner, Lou Reed, Wayne Shorter, and John Coltrane. Now, in the January 2021 issue of Lion’s Roar magazine, eight Buddhist music fans let us in on the contemporary artists they love — for both their music and their message. There's a little something for everyone, from recent Grammy nominee Phoebe Bridgers, to legendary hip-hop duo Run the Jewels.    Below are three more of those picks. May they bring a moment of musical meditation to your weekend.

The Spark Is There All the Time Forget the stereotype of the tortured artist, says science and culture writer Steve Silberman. For David Crosby and Becca Stevens, the Muse is happy. David Crosby has had his share of craziness and pain, some of it self-inflicted, including an addiction to drugs that landed him in prison. From the perspective of three decades of recovery, however, “things look different.” Now, he realizes, “The spark is there all the time.” Through the diligent practice of your craft, “Some great lifting force of light / Will come to balance fearful night / And raise its voice and then raise yours.” Meditators just starting out on the path often have similar notions about enlightenment. If they push themselves hard enough on the cushion, they believe, they may prove worthy of a flash of insight that will redeem their whole lives. But seasoned teachers stress the value of consistency—of showing up to sit every day, not judging a particular meditation session as “good” or “bad,” and not doing it to attain some exalted state.

Jarboe on Flying Lotus’s Album “Your Dead!” Singer-songwriter and keyboardist Jarboe on how electronic hip-hop musician Flying Lotus lyrically and sonically explores liberation. You’re Dead! is a bold, compositionally complex album that could be described as a personal reflection on the Bardo Thodol, known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. This 2014 album by Flying Lotus (born Steven Ellison) serves as a musical guide through the experience of phenomena in the bardo, the state of existence between death and rebirth in Himalayan Buddhism. Death on the album is explored as a crossing; it is the alchemy of dissolution leading to transmutation. With songs such as “Moment of Hesitation,” “Descent into Madness,” “Your Potential // The Beyond,” this crossing is at turns a peaceful one.

Austin Mabry on Mumford & Sons’s Album “Sigh No More” Former Budhdhist monk Austin Mabry shares how the Christian-inflected music of Mumford & Sons turns his mind to the dharma. My brother and I have very different spiritual paths. His being a Baptist pastor and me having been a Buddhist monk leaves a lot of room for disagreement. But one thing we both agree on is Mumford & Sons. It took me a while to realize that much of the ideas and imagery in their music are Christian in origin. I once heard a story from Thich Nhat Hanh about a Vietnamese woman who had converted from Buddhism to Christianity. One day while out for a stroll, she walked past a Buddhist temple and could hear the monks and nuns chanting inside. Although she was no longer Buddhist, the sound of the chanting deeply moved her. I think what he meant by this story is that whatever direction we take in life, our ancestors don’t leave us.

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