Post by japanesebird on Dec 30, 2012 21:51:59 GMT -5
somewhere masami akita was quoted mentioning a certain idea in mahayana buddhism as featured in many japanese sects that all things have a buddha nature and he related this back to his music.
i am of the opinion that it is not this kind of buddhist philosophy that is 'expressed' through merzbow sound but an earlier purer strain of buddhist thought which focused on insubstantiality. the buddha taught anatta or no-self as a means of relinquishing substantialistic notions of a metaphysical self. the world view that remains is one of interdependence and relativity wherein nothing has any self-nature or 'own-being' but is a causal and conditionally arisen phenomena subject to change.
to relate this to merzbow music, it is not that each sound somehow expresses buddha-nature [this might sound like nonsense anyway to someone unfamiliar with buddhism, but it is a fact that in certain sects of japanese buddhism, the entire phenomenal world is thought to 'be' buddha in essence. it is, rather, that merzbow sound 'captures' and expresses the truths of impermanence and non-substantiality. merzbow sound morphs and transmogrifies with continuity but not total identity, nor total difference. since in many pieces he layers sample over sample and then alters them, it can be said that as a piece unfolds, it is neither the same as nor different from what it began as.
merzbow music seems to exist in a no-self space, from a mind devoid of a conception of a metaphysical self distinct from experiencing. thus in the sampling of natural sounds, frogs and birds and insects and so on, or in their imitation, merzbow reveals an intense sensitivity to the world we are inseparably a part of. merzbow music could be said to be inhuman, if human music is characterized by particular emotions, yet it could never be called unnatural or alienated from the world of living experience. it is the music of a mind that has seen into transience.
i recommend listening to merzbow while using the beat hazard [pc game] visualizer and closing your eyes while facing the screen. the light flashes will be perceptible behind closed eyelids and will greatly enhance your hypnagogic induction process. allow yourself to go within your mind and hear the sound from within while passively gazing through the eyelids at the dancing lights.
in such a state when the parasympathetic functioning of the nervous system takes over and one's experience is entirely introverted, one can ride the wave of merzsound without clinging to where it has been or where it is going. sounds appear and disappear. nothing could bee more buddhistic. who is the perceiver of this impermanence? the perceiver is also impermanent. in the hypnagogic state the mind is liberated by intuitively recognizing its own insubstantiality, impermanence, and interdependence.
i am of the opinion that it is not this kind of buddhist philosophy that is 'expressed' through merzbow sound but an earlier purer strain of buddhist thought which focused on insubstantiality. the buddha taught anatta or no-self as a means of relinquishing substantialistic notions of a metaphysical self. the world view that remains is one of interdependence and relativity wherein nothing has any self-nature or 'own-being' but is a causal and conditionally arisen phenomena subject to change.
to relate this to merzbow music, it is not that each sound somehow expresses buddha-nature [this might sound like nonsense anyway to someone unfamiliar with buddhism, but it is a fact that in certain sects of japanese buddhism, the entire phenomenal world is thought to 'be' buddha in essence. it is, rather, that merzbow sound 'captures' and expresses the truths of impermanence and non-substantiality. merzbow sound morphs and transmogrifies with continuity but not total identity, nor total difference. since in many pieces he layers sample over sample and then alters them, it can be said that as a piece unfolds, it is neither the same as nor different from what it began as.
merzbow music seems to exist in a no-self space, from a mind devoid of a conception of a metaphysical self distinct from experiencing. thus in the sampling of natural sounds, frogs and birds and insects and so on, or in their imitation, merzbow reveals an intense sensitivity to the world we are inseparably a part of. merzbow music could be said to be inhuman, if human music is characterized by particular emotions, yet it could never be called unnatural or alienated from the world of living experience. it is the music of a mind that has seen into transience.
i recommend listening to merzbow while using the beat hazard [pc game] visualizer and closing your eyes while facing the screen. the light flashes will be perceptible behind closed eyelids and will greatly enhance your hypnagogic induction process. allow yourself to go within your mind and hear the sound from within while passively gazing through the eyelids at the dancing lights.
in such a state when the parasympathetic functioning of the nervous system takes over and one's experience is entirely introverted, one can ride the wave of merzsound without clinging to where it has been or where it is going. sounds appear and disappear. nothing could bee more buddhistic. who is the perceiver of this impermanence? the perceiver is also impermanent. in the hypnagogic state the mind is liberated by intuitively recognizing its own insubstantiality, impermanence, and interdependence.