From a new Huff Post interview with Mickey Hart (a “rhythm master” if ever there was one):

Mickey, what is an issue that’s bugging you?

Well, it’s about the rhythm of things. If you look around at the Gulf, North Korea, or Iran, it’s a rhythmic thing I see. We’re out of rhythm with the world. It’s a rhythmic universe, and nature is very efficient and likes to be in rhythm because it’s most efficient. When you break that rhythm and come between it, you have arrhythmic events and it will destroy, it will not build. It will decompose as opposed to compose. Saying the world has gone mad is not a proper way of saying it, but I look at it as the world has gone out of rhythm. If you look at it in rhythmic terms, it’s much more explainable. It’s gone out of rhythm, and we’re not in rhythm with it, and that’s the problem we have in all of these hot spots and these scary places with the Islamic militant views and the extremist religious views. All you have to do is tune into the Dalai Lama, who is about the opposite of that. Now, that’s a rhythm master. That guy is really in tune with things. So, we need to be listening to more of that, and we need to be thinking of things in terms of getting along in rhythm, and being efficient and flowing, and being more aware of our surroundings. When I look at the news, in total, that’s what I think of.

Read the rest of it here.

Remember this great, great, great album?

Well, don’t expect to hear that distinct brand of greatness again. Courtney Love has told the Dallas Observer that:

“Eric Erlandson and myself shall not play guitar together again,”citing that it is for “religious purposes” having to do with them being of different Buddhist sects that are not allowed to be in the same room as one another.

Um, what?

Well, Love is an SGI (Sokka Gakkai International) Buddhist. Erlandson is a practitioner of Nichiren Shoshu, and yes, it seems that never again shall the twain meet. Quoth Wikipedia (because I’m feeling lazy today):

In 1991, Nichiren Shoshu officially excommunicated the leaders of its then-largest lay organization, Sōka Gakkai, for their doctrinal deviations and disputes with the priesthood. In 1997, those non-leaders who chose to remain as members of the Soka Gakkai, instead of becoming members of Nichiren Shoshu, also lost their status as “believers.” The Soka Gakkai now operates as a doctrinally and organizationally distinct group.

Huh.

It’s a trip back in time — via another interesting find from the always-interesting Konchog Norbu, who writes:

OK, here’s a VERY curious bit of cultural anthropology… A couple days ago I watched a documentary on the rise of post-punk British synth-pop (don’t ask). I discovered that arguably the first synth-pop single — The Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ (1978) — begins with the line, “Listen to the voice of Buddha”!

KN goes on to say:

I’d never heard it before; my tastes ran to the more extreme. The song seems to be a protest of the cruelty of boiling worms for silk making (sericulture) and references Buddha throughout. Fascinating. …There were remixes in ‘80 and ‘82, and if you scan YouTube there’s even a live Chili Peppers cover!

Thanks, Konchog!

Huge thanks to the mighty Konchog Norbu for a heads-up on what looks like a must-see film (at least for this Worst Horse):

“Journey of a Dream is a feature-length documentary that will take audiences on a global journey into heavy metal music, exile, Buddhism, and Tibetan roots. How one man is trying to find solace and self-realization through Buddhism, living the life of a refugee, and playing death metal.

I am IN. Are you? Watch the trailer here.

Over on Shambhala SunSpace, I’m sharing with readers the chance to hear “Red As Blood,” a track by Seattle’s Deadly Light, who describe the music on their new CD Six Walls as “fairly heavy rock/metal, with a bit of an ambient/tribal feel as well.” Also, the band are practicing Buddhists. Here, on the Horse, you can also hear another track, “Black Electric” (below).

Deadly Light is Max Neal (guitar, backing vocals), Don Baumer (drums, backing vocals), and Dave Vitello (vocals, electronics). Regarding the band’s connection to the dharma, Baumer tells me:

“As practicing Buddhists, we have written lyrical content that deals with consciousness, the trials and triumphs of working with meditation and the path, and the difficulties of bringing that path into a society that often fosters materialism and alienation.”

Okay — I’m sold on the concept. But how’s the music? Well, I’m sold on that too, but here’s “Black Electric” a sample track from Six Walls for you to check out for yourself. The lyrics are included, too.

Deadly Light – Black Electric (Click to play; opens in new window)

Presence thickens the air
Clear light shines
Why protect the indestructible?
Instead I’ll bow down
Fear suffocates
Break through
Open night
To zero point
Breathe the charge
Central channel
Current shoots
To zero point

Floating in black electric
Let the dream shine
Groundless, the panic comes
Don’t you go unconscious

Take the leap
Reach the shore
Cut through
Chained no more
Reach the farthest shore
Cut through
Chained no more

Gone far beyond
You’re gone far beyond

(About the song, Don says: “Black Electric is about experiencing the moment to moment unfolding of our lives as a transparent intensity, like space being on fire, rather than the ’safe’ world nestled in familiar concepts. ‘Floating in Black Electric’ is what happens when we stop protecting ourselves from illusions of creation, destruction, and separateness and instead experience the present moment as an intense, crackling, electric singularity.”)

For more from Deadly Light:

You can hear another track (also with lyrics), “Red as Blood” over at Shambhala SunSpace.

Or, follow Deadly Light on their website.

Rage Against the Machine, self-titled album cover featuring Thich Quang Duc, 1992.

Outside of Howard Beale from the classic film Network, nothing in the popular culture’s consciousness conveys “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” like the photo shown here, depicting Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc setting himself on fire to protest his government’s oppression of his religion.

So it’s fitting that Rage Against the Machine, a band whose music embodied large-scale protest — on the corporation’s dime, much like Howard Beale! — would employ the image for its eponymous debut. Rage weren’t Buddhists, but they knew that this photograph might make their already-long band name worth at least a thousand words.

In fact, the image turns out to be worthy of a $40,000 grant. After the jump, via Bates College: the story of Thich Quang Duc, and of Trian Nguyen, the Bates professor who hopes to more fully discover the monk whose 1963 self-immolation was not only one of the defining acts of the Vietnam War years, but one of the most significant images of the modern age.

(more…)

Yes, that’s right — people are protesting Akon’s “insult to Buddhism.” Protest = good. Protest with violence = not so good.

Buddhists protesting by throwing stones? Ridiculous.

Isn’t it?

Update: the Sri Lankan government has denied Akon a visa.

March 24 update: Akon has postponed his Sri Lanka tour.

March 27 update, via tamilweek.com: “Akon visa denial has wider impact on Sri Lanka and Buddhism”

This is cool: Over at Shambhala SunSpace I just posted three samples from the forthcoming CD, Dhamma Gita: Music of Young Practitioners Inspired by The Dhamma.

In addition to the three tracks, you’ll find a link to hear more, order the CD, or buy a direct digital download.

Check it out here.

…just typically lame? See this (unfortunately typo-laden) report.

I’ll spare you the Buddhism/Booty-ism jokes. Besides, the Buddha only appears in a flash or two in this video. Is it insulting to Buddhism? Maybe. But that’s probably the least of its problems.

“Trying to find the words… without being disrespectful.” I think it’s safe to say you’d better try again, Akon. Just as I’m trying to find the words to describe the way you portray women without being disrespectful. And failing.

I like hip-hop. I like R&B. I like sex. And I’d like to think I have a sense of humor. But this is just vapid, tired, mimbo, bullshit. Buddha or not.

03/22/2010 UPDATE: Akon says he doesn’t mean to dis. Well, not Buddhism, at least.

Yes, even PerezHilton.com posted this video, writing: “LOLs! In an attempt to attract new, younger followers to Buddhism, Buddhist monks in Japan are trying a new approach – rapping! Check out the HIGHlarity of the hip hop monks…” (And comments there have been positive, too, so far.)

What do you think of Mr. Happiness and his drink-pouring extended posse? The more traditional of us may balk, but he’s doubled attendance at his temple. Can you argue with those results? (And really, is this all so “HIGHlarious”?)