{"id":2664,"date":"2009-06-29T01:18:34","date_gmt":"2009-06-28T17:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2009-06-29T01:18:34","modified_gmt":"2009-06-28T17:18:34","slug":"mj-who-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2009\/06\/mj-who-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"MJ… Who Is It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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‘Who Is It?’ is one of Michael Jackson’s lesser known hits. With news of his tragic early demise, the song suddenly came to mind. It’s the song I would remember MJ by, because I often wondered who the shapeshifting and occasionally physically veiled MJ really was, just as he wonders who the girl he’s with really is in the song’s video. Perhaps as an unintended and thus ironic parallel, the girl continually changes her appearance in secret, just as MJ is believed by many to have done.<\/p>\n

MJ in the video has quiet despair over realising he doesn’t really know who his lover is. Maybe this mirrors his existential crisis over how he’s supposed to look like outside and be inside? The girl in the video changes her name many times too. In Buddhism, we speak of name and form, which represents mind and matter – that mentally conceived and that materially existing – both of which are in constant change. Perhaps MJ needed to make peace with change, without being fixated too much on anything, be it his body or his experiences. There is no fixed self anyway; just free and open Buddha-nature that’s always there.<\/p>\n

In the video of his more famous songs, ‘Black or White’, which was launched shortly after his complexion ‘suddenly’ became fair, we see many ‘colourful’ shapeshifting faces, which morph into one after another. (See video at http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CkXzy1b7Rhc<\/a>) Perhaps this reflected MJ’s open acceptance of people of all appearances (or races and cultures) while he found it hard to accept any one of his own faces for good? Sadly, I think MJ was too attached to ‘perfecting’ his form, while his worldwide fans never really found his looks unacceptable in the first place. And it was he who sang thus…<\/p>\n

I said if\u00a0 you\u2019re thinkin\u2019 of being my baby
\nit don\u2019t matter if you\u2019re black or white
\nI said if\u00a0 you\u2019re thinkin\u2019 of being my brother
\nit don\u2019t matter if you\u2019re black or white<\/span><\/p>\n

I tweeted this the other day – ‘Leaving his illusory Never Never Land, may the King of Pop reach Pure Land (or at least get closer). Amituofo!’ May he discover his Buddha-nature soon, that beyond name and form, that beyond change.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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