Sunday, December 30, 2007

Redneck Rinpoches

Sleepy Marlin, circa the 1950s.
Apart from my immediate family,
he was the first person I ever met.
Sleepy played the violin,
except when he played it, they called it a "fiddle."

I got mail about yesterday's Merle Haggard post, the upshot of which is I discovered that somebody named David Fillingham wrote a book called Redneck Liberation: Country Music as Theology.

Pearl, if you're reading this, get out the credit card and get on Amazon: we just gotta read this book!

Yes, there really is somebody named Pearl, and she really does read this web log. Her little dog Lucy just passed away, so I am trying to cheer her up.

I recently spent the better part of a month with Pearl, exploring the obvious Buddhist influences inherent in the music of Hank Williams, Jr.

I'm gonna' find me a river, one thats cold as ice.
And when I find me that river, lord I'm gonna pay the price, oh lord!
I'm goin down in it three times, but lord I'm only comin' up twice.

Don't have to get hit with an 18-wheeler to see where he's goin' with that, now do you? There are three classes of Stream-Enterers: (1) those who, if not attaining to Arahantship in this very life, will be born only once before attaining Arahantship, (2) those who will take only two or three births before the final deliverance, and (3) those who will be born seven more times at the most before the ultimate realization. Way to go, Hank!

Anyway, when we kissed goodbye and parted --- that would be me and Pearl, not me and Hank Jr. --- I continued my studies with in-depth analyses of Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Kitty Wells, and various and sundry other artists. I have concluded that if one takes country music as a whole, the aggregate lyrics constitute a gter.

Now, Pearl is also a recording artist, and she has promised to do a country album for me. Initially, we were going to collaborate, but there ain't enough whiskey in Texas if me and that sweet little old gal ever get to it. So, work is proceeding at a fever pace in independent quarters, for the benefit of all sentient beings. I personally feel that something like Take This Samsara-Nirvana Dichotomy And Shove It will turn on a lot of lights. See also my posts on NASCAR, passim, which underscore the cyclic nature of existence... well, at least 500 miles of it.

You may disagree, but then again -- and I think Pearl will wholeheartedly concur with me on this point -- if you don't like it, you can also kiss our ass.

Keywords: apart from the obligatory "it isn't Buddhist" "a real Rinpoche wouldn't say that" "who authorized this?" and "we want to see credentials" from e-monkey tree, we wish to infect the search engine as follows: country music AND/IS dzogchen, hank williams AND/IS sublime ati, merle haggard AND/IS buddhism

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