The Waterbearer
Today was in the landscape of sound – I have put together my first professional song and am now calling it “The Waterbearer.”
Hours since making it, I listen to it again and it sounds new and different from while I was making it. I am declaring it a pleasant success, and am moving on to my second song.
How was it made?
In a similar way that Bjork makes her music – all electronically, alone, herself. I am using Garageband – every note is played by me – in this song, there are 15 tracks – I play them individually on a keyboard and layer them on top of eachother, selecting very natural-sounding electronic instruments. For example! In this song, I’ve used the Chinese Erhu Violin, yes – and if you listen to the song, the violin is unmistakable. I’ve also used an African drumkit, a tripped-out Sitar, Tibetan Singing bowls, a Celtic Harp, an Indian Bansuri Flute, and my very own African Choir. They’re friends of mine. They like to eat mega-bytes and they’re staying in a guest house inside of the Macintosh.
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The Dance is not Mine
The sun is a grace on our shoulders,
and I know not the difference between my selves.
No poetry can speak of a soul, but oh can it try!
I approach the pain (“my” pain) as flavors,
like a person slowly tasting a type of ice-cream, and tasting,
and tasting – not stopping to ignore the flavor.
And I taste the thoughts that follow,
each one deliciously subjective – Oh yes, me!
And so here it is,
this pain,
swimming in my body,
peaking on the horizon of discomfort,
Only here and now,
I watch it, and I become its lover.
And then a sweet thing happened,
The pain delivered me to their feet, in reverence,
and I see myself worshipping the precious life within them,
though I have often despised them in my sadness.
I see myself yearning to love them,
to unfold my love for them,
and to be true – to no longer play games on them.
They are too easy to trick, I say – and I’ve felt for so long that the games carry a sad cruel tinge to them.
I yearn to love them – to end our games together.
Then we will be lovers, they and I – and endlessly so.
How could this love end when “they” and “I” – when “we”, when “it” is forgiven all wrongs?
I look at myself and the world and anything,
all inside of me – the whole mess,
It’s on the table, tumbling around.
It doesn’t stop and,
from judging eyes,
it all looks cockeyed, imbalanced, wrong, imperfect,
fucked, unfair, crude, bastardly, incomplete, needing a bit more of this and that – and so it is.
But let it go,
Let it all go,
Let it go,
Let it all go – and who cares – who has ever cared.
No one has ever cared, but CARE. Truly care.
The actor who cannot leave the stage, has only the choice but to act.
Let the actor be. He plays it well. Let him be.
Let him ride the effortless wave of his personal truth.
It’s the only thing anyone can do, is it not?
Who cares where he’s going?
Love is his internal compass – and so he’s blameless.
Yes, he’s prideful, and incomplete – he knows that of himself.
And so let him be – let him find new pathways to love, that is his only goal.
He yearns to love them – to end his games with them.
He is lovely – and what a collection of attributes.
Find him in the Great One.
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Below Me, Over Me, Through Me
“Oh! – Bright light!
It’s Bright, so Bright!
No effort at all,
Through day or night.”
How sweet they are,
his glowing eyes,
the metropolis son,
now knows both lives.
“Dark underground is Love as well,
for Love is This,
say ‘heaven’ – say ‘hell’.
No time for thinking,
Now it is.
In Love, inside,
The savior lives.”
It is! it is!
The world ain’t fair,
But he don’t care,
“Only eyes that think it,
see it’s there.”
He one holy roller.
He got true sense, and lies all day.
“Don’t ask for more. That’s all,”
He say.
“Afraid? Let it be,
For I am you, and you are me.
The one thing I can tell you is,
YOU GOT TO BE FREE!”
The Secret of the Rye Sisters
Watch it fullscreen, and load.
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CREDITS: Starring Roger Ingraham, Tarynn Wiehahn, Shannon McCarthy, and Roger C. Ingraham (my father). Collaborative writing with cast and director.
NOTES: Co-written and shot in one very spontaneous evening. Part 2 may or may not be available – waiting for an available editor. Interested editors please email me.
Roger Ingraham – Directed, Edited by
The Quintessence of My Teaching
This dialogue took place about a year before Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s death, when he was 83 years old.
Note from Roger: This dialogue is a VERY clear tangible pointer towards what is meant by “the true Self.”
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Nisargadatta Maharaj: During your entire lifetime, you do not have any permanent identity. Whatever you consider yourself to be changes from moment to moment. Nothing is constant.
Visitor: What you think you are going to become changes too, with time, in spite of yourself.
Maharaj: That change is also made possible by the child-conciousness. Because of that, all these changes take place. That is why you must grasp this principle.
If you really want to understand this, you must give up your identification with the body. By all means, make use of the body, but don’t consider yourself to be the body while acting in this world. Identify yourself with the consciousness, which dwells in the body; with that identity, you should act in the world. Will it be possible?
So long as you identify yourself as the body, your experience of pain and sorrow will increase day by day. That is why you must give up this identification, and you should take yourself as the consciousness. If you take yourself as the body, it means you have forgotten your true Self, which is the atman. And sorrow results for the one who forgets himself. When the body falls, the principle which always remains is You. If you identify yourself with the body, you will feel that you are dying, but in reality there is no death because you are not the body. Let the body be there or not be there, your existence is always there; it is eternal.
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