May 5, 2010
- Dan Ingram on the Obviously Not True being Truly Not Obvious -
Given our basic dualistic illusion, it often seems that we must let things go in some sort of literal sense, such as quitting a job, in order to “let it go” in the insight sense, to see the true nature of the sensations that make up the process. This is obviously not true, but such erroneous logic can be very tempting.
That is, truly not obvious until it’s pointed out. This one hit me like a buncha bricks… The way our subconscious mind takes metaphors literally is infuriating.
Comment by Ian — May 5, 2010 @ 1:26 pm
Abstract Thoughts? The Body Takes Them Literally
Except the point of the article is that it works both ways.
Comment by Ian — May 5, 2010 @ 1:29 pm
Your recent posts have made me think again of the Curse of the Baronet of Ruddigore, as immortalised in light opera by Messers Gilbert & Sullivan:
The Baronet is cursed by the spirits of his ancestors. Every day he must commit a crime, or they will torture him to death in a most gruesome manner. He breaks the curse as follows: he decides to refuse to participate. He will commit no ‘crime’. This is tantamount to suicide, which is, of course, a sin…!
If that’s not a meditation on ‘letting go’, I don’t know what is. :)
Comment by speedbird — May 19, 2010 @ 3:21 pm
That’s pretty profound for a musical, though I’m sure there’s all kind of spiritual undertones to be picked up on in musicals (take Die Zauberflöte, for example).
As the teachers at the Zen temple are fond of repeating: “when you’ve let go of everything, what do you have?”
“Everything”
Comment by Ian — May 21, 2010 @ 12:49 pm
>> As the teachers at the Zen temple are fond of repeating
Man, that’s cool…
As an amateur musician I have found myself spending quite a bit of time with a couple of musicals, and I’ve found several of them have really deep stuff in them once you’ve listened to them a few times. I guess it’s the nature of the medium: it takes so long to write and score a musical that you’re bound to end up with lots of content. Bit like animation. ‘The Gondoliers’, for example, has all sorts of weird stuff about a returning king. Even ‘Bugsy Malone’ (‘He’s a sinner, candy coated’) has its moments; ‘We could have been anything that we wanted to be’ now brings a lump to my throat every time. I guess this is why I still lurk on Mr. Boucher’s site from time to time, he’s probably onto something.
Lehar’s ‘The Merry Widow’ is complete fluff from beginning to end, of course… :)
I’d love to see the Magic Flute, never quite managed it.
Comment by speedbird — May 21, 2010 @ 2:35 pm
No doubt he is, though I have no idea what. I wonder if he does… Or if it matters?
Since I live in New York, I get to take advantage of weird trials, ideas people want to put into play but aren’t sure if there’s a big enough audience for them. To whit: I managed to catch Julie Taymore’s version of the Magic Flute in a movie theater, recorded live from the Metropolitan Opera House here in New York. Julie Taymore + major European Enlightenment symbology (illuminati freemasony goodnews)? Awesome. :)
Comment by Ian — May 21, 2010 @ 4:11 pm