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.

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!

“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.

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.

On June 11, 1963, at a busy intersection in the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire to protest the government’s discrimination against the nation’s Buddhist majority.

Captured in an Associated Press photograph that was distributed worldwide, this horrific act launched a series of events resulting in the fall of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation also came to symbolize America’s unpopular involvement in Vietnam, and Malcolm Browne’s photo became an icon of the era.

Professor Trian Nguyen, who teaches art and Asian studies at Bates, has received an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship for field research intended to address what he perceives as the scholarly neglect in recent decades of this figure, who remains highly revered among Vietnamese Buddhists. Nguyen was one of 57 to receive the ACLS grant out of a pool of 1,136 applicants.

“Many questions related to this Vietnamese senior monk and his final act are still unanswered,” says Nguyen, assistant professor of art and visual culture and the Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies.

In his project, Nguyen will study Thich Quang Duc’s personal items and letters, books, legal records and other documents kept at Buddhist temples in Vietnam, and some two dozen interviews with people involved in events around the monk’s self-sacrifice.

Culminating in the first full-length book about Thich Quang Duc in English, the research will bring to light significant new facts about the monk and his significance within the cultural context of the time. Nguyen hopes that the project will also reawaken awareness, within and outside Vietnam, of both the historic importance of the monk’s self-sacrifice and the existence of the research materials.

The completed work, Nguyen writes in his ACLS proposal, “will make a substantial and original contribution to the understanding of both this famous monk and Vietnamese Buddhist culture and history in the mid-20th century.”

The ACLS advances studies in all fields of the humanities and the social sciences, and aims to maintain and strengthen relations among national societies devoted to such studies.

Nguyen came to Bates in 2000 under the auspices of a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, and is the first faculty member to teach Asian art history at Bates. He holds a doctorate in Asian art history from the University of California, Berkeley, and obtained his master’s degree in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School.

Nguyen’s primary research situates Buddhist art and architecture within the religious, political and social conditions of Southeast Asian culture. He has a particular interest in Vietnam. His teaching covers a wide range of topics in Asian art history, including the art of Zen Buddhism and Buddhist architecture, storytelling in Asian art and monuments of Southeast Asia.

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”

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.

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.

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”?)

The benefit will be held at Carnegie Hall on February 26. For tickets or more info call Tibet House (NYC) at (212) 807-0563, between 10AM and 5PM, Monday through Friday. More info of course on the TH site, here.

After first writing up this item, I decided to start playing recordings by the great artist, Iggy, himself. Some after-listening thoughts:

First off, I have to give kudos to Tibet House for booking Iggy. And Iggy for supporting Tibet House. (It goes without saying that anyone who supports a fine cause has earned their kudos, of course. And Tibet House surely qualifies as a fine cause.)

But why is Iggy cool? Well, as a writer of music (albeit a private and “unconventional” — read: bad – one)  I would say this:

If I could write one song as good as, say, “Gimme Danger,” I’d be… well… I’d be Iggy Pop. And there really can be only one Iggy Pop.

I mean, who else could write (and sing) the phrases “that’s like hypnotizing chickens” and “I’m just a modern guy; of course I’ve had it in the ear before”? And not only that, he put them back to back. (Those are lyrics from “Lust for Life.” Don’t let those horrible cruise commercials ruin that song for you. The song is brilliant. And darkly so. And, okay, those lyrics may not thrill you, but trust me, it’s about context. And Iggy had it. “Lust for Life” wasn’t key to the soundtrack of 1996’s Trainspotting for nothing.)

Also, as a guy who calls himself a Buddhist (and who advocates meditation for everyone, in pretty much whatever form works for you), I want to hear why Iggy is playing this show. Maybe it’s just that he’s available and said, “Sure,” because he’s an affable and enthusiastic and good guy. Maybe it’s something else, more specifically related to meditation or Buddhism.

Either way, I’d like to know — this is an actual artist, a lifer. And he knows a thing or two about perseverance through suffering. That’s the type of person I consider worth following, whatever the reason he’ll be performing at Tibet House in February. So I’ve got a message in to Tibet House to see what they say.

Anyway, that’s besides the point. The real point is: Iggy is big-time, enduring Great. Nice get, Tibet House. Iggy rules.