There is music you grow into, you grow up with, you grow out of. But more important than finding an anthem for your life is composing your own meaningful music and lyrics. May it sound...

From ‘Young Blood’, as covered by Birdy… Lyrics: We’re only young and naive still We require certain skills The mood it changes like the wind Hard to control when it begins Comments: Most of us are still spiritually naive, despite our age, still lacking much skilful...

Dukkha is suffering from Birth Ageing Sickness Death Departure from who/what we like, Being with who/what we dislike, Failing to achieve what we like or to be with who we like, Form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness (Five Aggregates) subject to clinging Dukkha is from...

Sometimes, the key message of a film is right at the end (or maybe I missed subtler messages along the way). Such is the case, so it seems, for ‘The Marc Pease Experience’, where Marc sings Joe Jackson’s ‘You Can’t Get What You Want’. Then everything falls...

Tori Amos’ intriguing music video for ‘A Sorta Fairytale’ tells an unconventional love story. Unfortunately, it’s the kind that might be seen as weird by many (but not me)! It reminds me of a paradox about love… We tend to love one another because we feel...

‘Never mind, I’ll find someone like you…’ who I will fall in love with again, who will break my heart like you again. After which, I will sing this song again… ‘Never mind, I’ll find someone like you…’ who I will fall in love with...

How ‘Elmo’s Song’ can be yours too. A simple song that epitomises being Elmo as the opposite of being ‘Emo’. The nonsensical Mah Na Mah Na ‘Mantra’ of zany joy for no particular reason. An actually sensible yet funny analysis of Yankee Doodle by Don...

It is difficult to find a song that expresses your current thinking and feelings exactly, that is the song in the moment, as most lyrics are either too estranged or too common, as most tunes are either too dispassionate or too emotional. Does your favourite song expresses your thoughts and...

Does how fickle you are in changing your favourite love song reflect how fickle you are about love itself?

The above is Faith Yang’s (楊乃文) song ‘Proof’ (證據). The video depicts mildly voodoo-ish scenes, and the words sing of vengeance for an ‘unfairly’ broken heart. The most interesting scene is the last though, when she sings the following and finally smiles...

Recently, when I pay attention to the lyrics of love songs, I discover many logical errors in them. The chorus of James Blunt’s ‘Goodbye My Lover’ goes like this: Goodbye my lover. Goodbye my friend. You have been the one. You have been the one for me. But if someone was so...

Bad news: Songs can get stuck in your head - even those which marry unworthy emotions with unworthy reasoning. Good news: Every song stuck in your head eventually becomes unstuck. (Applies to every other unwitting attachment too.) The easiest and best song to mindfully replay in our...

‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’, simply put, is an ode to life. An ode to living itself: He who is not busy being born is busy dying. - Bob Dylan: It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) This is like another way of saying this: Heedfulness is the deathless...

The gently humourous yet very touching official ‘Paradise’ video from Coldplay, which speaks of animal liberation. Worth a post in itself, without me needing to comment much. (My review of the...

I’m interpreting ‘You’ve Got The Love’ by Florence + the Machine my way, with ‘Lord’ standing for Lord Buddha, and even Amitabha Buddha (Amituofo). Electric ‘spiritual’ beginning to the song at the concert in the video above! In a way, the...

S: ‎Depeche Mode in ‘Lilian’ sung, ‘Pain and misery always hit the spot. Knowing you can’t lose what you haven’t got.’ The truth is, nothing can be grasped on to. Not even enlightenment, for it is a state of non-grasping freedom. J: *Gasp!* S: When...

She’d say, ‘oh, ohohohoh… I know the sun must set to rise.’ - Coldplay (Paradise) She expected the world, but her dreams are continually dashed. She would run away in her dreams, dreaming of paradise. Life would get unbearable but she would dream on. ‘This could...

To sing with much emotion but with little reason, a song can be moving, but in a wrong direction. (Hey, it kinda...

Above is Ni Andong’s cover of Damien Rice’s ‘The Blower’s Daughter’, whose original version is below. Ni’s take sent some shivers down my spine (in a resonant, not creepy way), more so than Rice’s version, which is moving too. But what’s more...

Text visual on the video wall of Depeche Mode’s Tour of the Universe concert in Barcelona during the song ‘Precious’: I Have Learned So Much I Have Learned So much from God That I can no longer Call Myself A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim A Buddhist, a Jew. The Truth has...