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Midnight Media Cafe - Praan
Monday, September 12th, 2011 08:37 pm.
Today's Writer's Block question:
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Praan - Gary Schyman
Featuring the glorious voice of Palbasha Siddique
Adapted from a poem by Rabindranath Tagore. Here is a translation:
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
This song never fails to fill my heart and lift my spirits. The video images are a great match to the lyrics.
The kinds of emotions that deeply religious people feel in their temples and synagogues, I feel in nature. Walking among redwoods; gazing at mountains; tasting the spray of the ocean and dancing on the sand; marveling at birds and butterflies, snakes and coyotes, bears and wolves; working the soil and loving the plants in my garden - these experiences fill me with intense spiritual rapture. My religious feelings and emotions are deeply tied to what Carl Sagan called "the numinous" - the experience of the natural world and the universe as inherently sacred in and of itself. My gods do not live outside or above the world; they are the world. I see the Earth as my mother in a very literal sense, and feel myself her daughter just as much as I am my human mother's daughter. This song embodies all of that for me, and much more, because besides expressing thoughts and words, music itself contains a dimension of emotion and insight whose currents and patterns can never be wholly translated but only felt, a river within which the soul swims towards the ocean of the universe.
Today's Writer's Block question:
[Error: unknown template qotd]
Praan - Gary Schyman
Featuring the glorious voice of Palbasha Siddique
Adapted from a poem by Rabindranath Tagore. Here is a translation:
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
This song never fails to fill my heart and lift my spirits. The video images are a great match to the lyrics.
The kinds of emotions that deeply religious people feel in their temples and synagogues, I feel in nature. Walking among redwoods; gazing at mountains; tasting the spray of the ocean and dancing on the sand; marveling at birds and butterflies, snakes and coyotes, bears and wolves; working the soil and loving the plants in my garden - these experiences fill me with intense spiritual rapture. My religious feelings and emotions are deeply tied to what Carl Sagan called "the numinous" - the experience of the natural world and the universe as inherently sacred in and of itself. My gods do not live outside or above the world; they are the world. I see the Earth as my mother in a very literal sense, and feel myself her daughter just as much as I am my human mother's daughter. This song embodies all of that for me, and much more, because besides expressing thoughts and words, music itself contains a dimension of emotion and insight whose currents and patterns can never be wholly translated but only felt, a river within which the soul swims towards the ocean of the universe.
.
Wisdom is
sweeter than honey,
brings more joy
than wine,
illumines
more than the sun,
is more precious
than jewels.
She causes
the ears to hear
and the heart to comprehend.
I love her
like a mother,
and she embraces me
as her own child.
I will follow
her footprints
and she will not cast me away.
-- Makeda, Queen of Sheba
circa 1000 BCE
Wisdom is
sweeter than honey,
brings more joy
than wine,
illumines
more than the sun,
is more precious
than jewels.
She causes
the ears to hear
and the heart to comprehend.
I love her
like a mother,
and she embraces me
as her own child.
I will follow
her footprints
and she will not cast me away.
-- Makeda, Queen of Sheba
circa 1000 BCE
Midnight Media Cafe - Astrae
Sunday, August 21st, 2011 08:23 pm.
I have this theory that revealed itself to me when I first heard this music...
Astrae - Vas
The music of the Haradrim
...that far back in the First Age, some few of the Elves headed south, and were thought lost to the great deserts. But in truth they wandered until they came to Far Harad, and there brought word of the Valar to the people of that land. And they, seeing the beauty and power of these otherworldly folk, built lovely temples to their gods.
When I hear this piece, I imagine slender, dusky priestesses swathed in layers of red silk, dancing beneath an exquisitely filagreed roof open to the sky, singing praises to Al-Barat, the Lady of the Stars.
(Many years ago, I worked with Azam Ali (the voice of Vas) at the Bodhi Tree in Los Angeles, when she and Greg Ellis were just starting their musical careers. This is off their first album, Sunyata. Azam has gone on to great success with her lovely music and mysterious lyrics. This makes me very happy.)
I have this theory that revealed itself to me when I first heard this music...
Astrae - Vas
The music of the Haradrim
...that far back in the First Age, some few of the Elves headed south, and were thought lost to the great deserts. But in truth they wandered until they came to Far Harad, and there brought word of the Valar to the people of that land. And they, seeing the beauty and power of these otherworldly folk, built lovely temples to their gods.
When I hear this piece, I imagine slender, dusky priestesses swathed in layers of red silk, dancing beneath an exquisitely filagreed roof open to the sky, singing praises to Al-Barat, the Lady of the Stars.
(Many years ago, I worked with Azam Ali (the voice of Vas) at the Bodhi Tree in Los Angeles, when she and Greg Ellis were just starting their musical careers. This is off their first album, Sunyata. Azam has gone on to great success with her lovely music and mysterious lyrics. This makes me very happy.)
Midnight Media Cafe - The Christians and the Pagans
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 07:58 pm.
The Christians and the Pagans - Dar Williams
This song articulates my vision of understanding and common ground between all people. It always makes me tear up with a smile.
The Christians and the Pagans - Dar Williams
This song articulates my vision of understanding and common ground between all people. It always makes me tear up with a smile.
