Bound by the beauty

(Jane Siberry, 1989)

I'm bound by the fire
I'm bound by the beauty
I'm bound by desire
I'm bound by the duty

I'm coming back in 500 years
and the first thing I'm gonna do
when I get back here
is to see these things I love
and they'd better be here

first I'm going to find a forest
and stand there in the trees
and kiss the fragrant forest floor
and lie down in the leaves
and listen to the birds sing
the sweetest sound you'll ever hear

and everything the dappled
everything the birds
everything the earthness
everything the verdant
the verdant green

I'm bound by the fire...

then I'm going to find an open field
and lie down in the flowers
and then I'm going to find a guitar
and play play play for hours
and then I'm going to find a river
to see what kind of body in

and everything the granite
everything the kiss
everything the earthness
everything the verdant
the verdant dream

I'm bound by the beauty
I'm bound by desire
I'm bound to keep returning
I'm bound by the beauty of the light
the slightest change
the constant rearrange
of light upon the land
I'm bound by the beauty of the wind
that blows across the earth
the unfetteredness the wheatness
and through the flying hair
the slowness of the falling leaves
across this warm November door
and the geese the flying southness
the arms out evermore
I'm bound by the snow
the soft the fallingness
the everupward face...
the everupward face...
bound by the sunsets
the rivers
the music
the beauty...

(Jane Siberry, 1989)


Dear members,

Please forgive me for not beginning with a scriptural passage (again!!).

Those of you who know me pretty well know that I really like music. There's something about the melding of melody and word that produces a kind of space in time that quite often catapults me to successive thoughts other than the words that have been stated by the artist. Maybe it's the creative impetus that the artist feels as they are making their creation that provides the framework for this jump, or maybe it is merely the hypnotic effects created by repetitive sounds, I'm not really sure; but, either way, certain songs seem to generate ideas for me.

This song "Bound by the Beauty" by Jane Siberry does exactly that for me. I had bought an album by her some sixteen years ago in 1984. The album "The Walking" was generating some popular interest in her as a Canadian artist of some merit, so I thought I would take a chance and buy it. To be honest, I did not like the album too much at the time. It seemed a little too "artsy" for me, as I was pretty much into straight forward, standard "four-chord rock'n roll" at the time.

Last year though, while I was looking through a bargain bin at a local record store, I found a greatest hits cd by her. I thought that for eight dollars I could listen to her again and see if my previous opinion of her music had changed. Maybe its because of my four years as an English major at university, or simply a hunger for new sounds; but her rather quirky voice and unconventional phrasing seemsed far less strange than it did when I was younger.

I fell under the spell of "Bound by the Beauty", the last song on the cd, as soon as I heard it. It seemed as if she inherently knew some Mahayana and Japanese Pure Land Buddhist doctrine; particularly the parts about being "bound" by things that we usually consider positive, and the possibility of it taking 500 years to finally return to this world to complete our bodhisattvic intents.

Being as I intend to flesh out the various thoughts that arise when I listen to this song in further Dharma messages, I am going to leave those topics for now. (It seems that I too am "bound" to one page submissions for each newsletter.) The main point is: the non-linear/mystical/ (for lack of a better word) true reality resonates around us at all times. Being as it is "suited"; that is, is able to reach each sentient being in the mode that that particular being is most readily receptive to, it may use any particular leaning/hobby/interest that we may have towards leading us to a more intimate connection with it. Amida Buddha's Primal Vow is working on us in a myriad of subtle ways.

You know the activities that lead you to connect with the seemingly wiser aspects of yourselves. Please use them as "jumping-off points"; rather than as plain, simple interests. You may just surprise yourselves.

In Gassho,

M. Hayashi