Transcript (with Audio recording). Link to Youtube.
Talk given in Waldhaus Buddhist Retreat Zentrum, near Andernach, Germany in October 2023. Talk transcribed, edited and adapted to the written word.
The theme for the afternoon talk is a commentary on a song called Saturn by an American band, Sleeping at Last. Rock music experts describe the song as Baroque rock.
Below is an audio recording of this post/blog. Please click on link below to listen to Saturn with lyrics on YouTube before clicking on commentary.
While researching the song last month, I noticed Sleeping at Last will give a concert on May 2024. I bought a ticket to listen to the band in Bristol, a convenient two hour train journey from Totnes. I went to a Van Morrison concert in Paignton about a decade ago or more and to see M People in the 1990s in London with an Indian girlfriend.
Commentary on Saturn
I will read out the lyrics of the song and then, assuming the gods are with us, will play the song through this loudspeaker. I have the lyrics in front of me and will give a commentary, verse by verse. I will replay the song again at the end of the talk.
The band released the song in 2014. A precious friend in September 2023 strongly recommended I listened to it, which lasted for about four minutes and 48 seconds. I found the music and lyrics deep and inspiring. I experienced a movement through the body of the water element, which converted into tears in the eyes. We cannot anticipate our response. Not everybody would have such a response halfway through a song. Yet a song may come to mind for you.
The lyrics come in around the two minutes 22 seconds into the recording. They finish a few seconds before the song finishes. I'm sure all of us love music. It is genuinely worth maximising the focus, interest, meditative power to listen to both lyrics and the feeling tone in the music.
For example, I listened to a singer and pianist playing through the loudspeaker of my granddaughter who lives with me up in the loft. I heard a splendid voice alongside a powerful beat of the piano in her room.
“What’s the song?” I shouted up to the loft.
She said, “Grandad? It's great song. It's Rihanna singing Stay.” (Lyrics. Girl tells boy she wants him to stay).
A piece of music touches us and then, we as we do - we listen again. With mobile, we can sit, meditate, read the lyrics right there on the phone and feel the heart respond. I'm going to read the lyrics of Saturn slowly to you. I will invite Daniele to press the play button. We listen to the song all the way through. With the lyrics in front of me, I will provide a commentary on Saturn.
Saturn by Sleeping at Last. The Lyrics
You taught me the courage of stars before you left
How light carries on endlessly, even after death
With shortness of breath
You explained the infinite
And how rare and beautiful it is to even exist
I couldn't help but ask for you to say it all again
I tried to write it down, but I could never find a pen
I'd give anything to hear you say it one more time
That the universe was made just to be seen by my eyes
I couldn't help but ask for you to say it all again
I tried to write it down, but I could never find a pen
I'd give anything to hear you say it one more time
That the universe was made just to be seen by my eyes
With shortness of breath
I'll try to explain the infinite
And how rare and beautiful it is to even exist
With shortness of breath
I'll try to explain the infinite
And how rare and beautiful it truly is that we exist
The song offers a deep tribute to a beloved one who has recently left his world or near the end of life. The singer expresses gratitude and the appreciation while sings And how rare and beautiful it is to even exist.
Life flows on regardless. As creatures of the earth, we engage in life; sometimes we hear such music. The music transcends our circumstances, giving inspiration and joy. We feel the aliveness of this engagement with life. The transcendent factor reveals itself so that our personal story for a little while become extremely quiet. We give ourselves up to a bigger, much larger sense of things. Hence the lines:
With shortness of breath
You explained the infinite
The best of the arts and music has a primary aim - to uplift the human spirit. The world of music stands out. With its immense profound love of music, the spiritual tradition of India, keeps bringing us back to the sound of God, to heavenly music. Music reveals the deep sounds of life, the sound of OM in the silence of our being. The rhythm of that sound keeps still occurring - in every sound of our voice, every cough, every word we say and every sound in the rest of nature. We meditate into the depth of sound, into OM, into the Big Bang. We experience a deep silence to confirm OM.
It is not surprising we love the relationship to the power of listening to the sound of music. We listen to the instrumental world, which can uplift our spirit in the gravest of situations.
I couldn't help but ask for you to say it all again
When a song touches a deep place, we come back to it again and again. It is not like we have a choice. We can’t help ourselves but play it again or stop everything when the music, the song unexpectedly reaches our ears.
This is stunning to experience a remarkable sense of pure sound and transcendence revealing the best of the best of spirituality, best of religious experiences and the mystical experience All these experiences point to and direct us to transcendence.
You taught me the courage of stars before you left
How light carries on endlessly, even after death
The song writer of Saturn thanks his beloved one who gave him the trust to let his light shine, knowing too it will shine after death. Just as the light of his mother continues to shine in his life.
True transcendence remains beautifully in touch in an unproblematic way, not out of touch. I write poems and verse as many others do. That’s the way of the heart. Upliftment of the Spirit moves through the body – including through the trunk of the body, the shoulders, arms and out thro
ugh fingertips onto pen, keyboard or paintbrush. The artist shares their depth with others. This is their prayer of the heart. Creativity keeps our heart focused.
Yet sometimes we cannot find the words to share what we feel. Our beloved has left this world and we won’t hear her voice one more time.
I tried to write it down, but I could never find a pen
I'd give anything to hear you say it one more time
Our love for the departed and happiness at what they gave inspire us to live in the same way.
Let me find kindness, to negate resentment.
Let me show generosity to dissolve possessiveness.
Let me stand in the face of pain rather than live in fear.
Let me experience inquiry rather than reaction.
Let me be free from clinging and a narrow mind.
Let me express compassion rather than indifference.
Our heart connects with the realities of others. Let us stay true to an undying principle of treating others as we wish to be treated. So awareness and respect pervade our thoughts, words and actions.
To live in such a way brings dignity and nobility to life, revealing true freedom of being. Sleeping at Last reveal potent features of the intimacy of life and death without hard lines of division since the light still abides.
We may have had the opportunity to be close to a person in the dying stage of their life. The dying person handles their last period exceptionally well. It is a privilege to witness such a death due to the light of our consciousness. In witnessing and listening to others in the dying process, we learn about life and ourselves.
Let me give a personal example. During my years as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, I developed much love for an elderly monk, Por Longbhut. I was the young guy was in my mid-20s and he was in his early 70s. 50 years difference in our age. Every day at noon, he walked to a tree and stood there in meditation without moving until 3 pm, 365 days a year.
I was the only Westerner in the monastery. I thought, “I am going to try this.” I found a tree close to his. I found the experience of thre hours standing meditation edgy and painful in the body, ankles, knees and lower back, for the first few days. The body adjusted and the pain gradually diminished.
Mosquitoes would bite. A snake might wind its way down the tree. Ants would swarm over the feet, as well as larger insects. I practised daily until I could stand and stay grounded for the three hours. From time to time, young monks and novices, including myself, would ask Por Longbhut to give us some teachings.
One young monk said to him, “Por Lungbhut, you are an old man. Lord Yama (Lord of death, personification of death) flies above the Earth every day. He points his finger at millions and millions of people. ‘This is your last day on Earth. To another. This is your last day. ’To another, This is your last day.’ Lord Yama doesn't care about your condition.
“You can be very young or very old. You can be rich or poor. You can be healthy or sick, fat or thin, wise or foolish. “This is your last day.”
The monk added, “Lord Yama circulates around the world every day and night. He’s surely got his eye on you.”
Longbhut smiled and then uttered one of the most profound statements I heard in the monastery.
“Lord Yama circulates this whole world but he cannot find Por Longbhut anywhere.”
The monks spontaneously said “Sadhu. Sadhu. Sadhu.” “Well said. Well said. Well said.”
The elderly monk had realised, non-identification, non-grasping, non-clinging to the range of all experiences - the physical, feelings, perceptions, thoughts and consciousness. In his modest way, he expressed a freedom from being bound to mind/matter, the mental/physical world, as well as a profound inner peace.
Some months later, he reduced his time of standing under the tree. He had liver cancer a very painful cancer. He need persuasion to leave the monastery for the hospital. His days of life were ending. After two days, he told me he wanted to go back to the monastery. The doctor advised against it. He didn't have the strength to sign himself out. So I signed him out. An ambulance took us back to the monastery.
At dawn, two days later, I went on the begging round with the monks to a nearby village. We went in single file from house to house to receive food in our begging bowl. I received a short message from Por Longbhut. The novice said to me “Waylah, mah lau.” “Time has come.”
I went straight back to the monastery. Longbhut was still alive. I lay down beside him, facing him and holding his hand. I cannot remember for how long. After a while, he whispered “Mi hehn.” “Cannot see.” Then “Cannot hear.” His body gradually drifted into death. I placed a hand on his feet. They were changing from warm to cold. Starting in his hands and feet, the temperature of his body went slowly down. Not a whisper of reaction, not a whisper of fear from him, He refused to take any painkillers. We fulfilled his last wish – to die in the monastery. He faded out of this world. As the Buddha commented: “The faculties become cold.”
Some other young monks and myself placed him on a bamboo mat and carried him into the Dharma Hall and put him on the mat in front of the Buddha image. That evening in a crowded meditation hall of monks, nuns, novices and laypeople, Ajahn (Vipassana teacher) Dhammadharo looked over to me and said, “You give the evening Dharma teaching this evening.” A Thai monk gave a sentence-by-sentence translation from English to Thai. I shared my experience and appreciation of two years of knowing Por Longbhut.
At the end of the talk, I said a four worded sentence in Thai Language. I was not sure how my words would sit with the Sangha of meditators in the hall. I said, “Por Longbhut behn arahant.”
An arahant refers to a human being who has arrived at full liberation, free from personal suffering and any kind of egotism. It meant that Longbhut has transcended mundane existence. To my utter delight, the Sangha responded spontaneously. They put their hands together in the prayer posture and said “Sadhu. Sadhu. Sadhu.” “Well said. Well said. Well said.”
I had tears in my eyes. We knew we had the privilege of living with such an exceptional human being, the privilege of witnessing the end of his life and hearing his occasional words of deep truth.
The universe was made, just to be seen by my eyes.
I couldn't help but ask for you to say it all.
Again, I tried to write it down. But I could never find a pen,
or give anything to hear you say it one more time that the universe was made, just to be seen by my eyes.
There are the lyrics of the song, the words of a poem and lines on a screen. There is the recognition in those moments that something precious and beautiful has touched us. A communication comes to us landing deeply inside the being and residing in the deep. A few words can emerge, can flower just when we need them. It is very hard to know in all the things that you and I listen to what we will respond or write or reflect upon.
A few words can have an enduring value. The singer reminds us that we I couldn't help but ask for you to say it all. Again. I tried to write it down, but I could never find the pen.
I give anything to hear you say it one more time, that universe was made just to be seen by my eyes.
It does not matter that we cannot remember the words. The words have fulfilled their function of revealing the deep and the wonder that comes from it, time after time.
We experience this extra ordinary spectacle in which these tiny little instruments, the eyeballs, so small, so minor, even in the body's scale, have the capacity to look out on a clear night sky and see billions of miles out there to the stars. This little instrument is extraordinary, inexplicable - the universe is made for us to see and witness.
We engage in this and belong to all of this. Why? Because we are made of the same substance as the rest of the universe.
A Daily Reflection
I wrote this reflection in the 1980s.
I vow to remember that today is a new day
Full of new beginnings and fresh moments
Today, I will not cling to events of yesterday nor yesteryear
But stay connected with what today brings.
I will not madly pursue my desires at the expense of others
Nor flee from challenging tasks.
I will remain true to the unfolding process of today
Without losing myself in thoughts of what was or what might be.
I will treat today with awareness and sensitivity
Even in the most ordinary of tasks.
I will apply myself wholeheartedly to the fullness of today
For I know that today holds the resource for authenticity.
Meditation on the breath serves as a primary meditation. With a deeper level of meditation, the body becomes still. When the body becomes, it has less need for oxygen barely drawing in air for we require little oxygen. In such stillness, shortness of the breath also applies to the dying person as well. There is the potential for us to recognise how beautiful it is just to exist – in depths of meditation and in the last breaths of our vulnerable existence.
With shortness of breath
You explained the infinite
Despite all the narratives of the tragedies besetting personal life, it would be a pity amid all of that if we neglected daily the line in the song.
And how rare and beautiful it is to even exist.
The singer of Sleeping at Last repeats the above line to point to the infinite.
In the shortness of breath, the sense of the expanse of the infinite reveals itself through the stillness of our being. When we see our life is small and silent, something else informs us of the engagement of the universe with our daily existence. Life, stillness and death belong together.
I wrote this meditation also in the 1980s.
A Daily Meditation
Let us be still for a few moments
Without moving even our little finger
So that a hush descends upon us.
There would be no place to go
Nor to come from,
For we would have arrived in this extraordinary moment
There would be a stillness and silence,
That would fill all of our senses,
Where all things would find their rest.
Everything would then be together in a deep connection.
Putting an end to ‘us and them’, this against that.
We would not move in these brief moments
For that would disturb this palpable presence
There would be nothing to be said nor done
For life would embrace us in this wondrous meeting
And take us into its arms as a loving friend.
Here is the song again.
Let us have a silent minute together.
Thank you.
Thank you. This was lovely to read. And uplifting. I too love this song.
Thank you 🙏 This renews my appreciation of art and creative expression and its place and meaning in our lives.