Sublime vs. Nirvana

The Buddhist teachings hidden in your favorite '90s songs

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine who’s a Buddhist meditation teacher posited an interesting theory: There are no love songs; there are only attachment songs.

In Buddhism, attachment, or uncontrolled desire, is one of the three root delusions. It essentially means searching for happiness in external things rather than finding inner peace. And when it comes to relationships, you might confuse it with love; but when you love someone, you want them to be happy. When you are attached to someone, you want them to make you happy. (And if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll probably see that almost all of our relationships are a mixture of love and attachment.)

Back to my friend’s theory, which I loved (and was not at all attached to)… First of all, he’s absolutely right. Most love songs are the singer wanting the other person to make them happy:

“I’ve hungered for your touch a long, lonely time.”

“Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you’re never coming ‘round.”

“Pour some sugar on me.”

But I love a challenge, especially a musical one, and I think he’s wrong. (Sorry, Sumit!) There are a lot of songs about self sacrifice out of love.

I didn’t even use the gif with the lyrics…

Case closed. And I’m not even going to get into Boyz ii Men. But I still thought about it from time to time, and one morning I was rocking out to Sublime when it hit me… “What I Got” is actually the perfect Buddhist song. Further, it is so jam packed with Buddhist principles that I was shocked it took me so long to notice.

A musical love fest below. But first, a big thanks to my newest paid subscriber, Michael! This newsletter will always be free, but paid subscriptions help my cats to maintain their lavish lifestyle.

I feel like I need to start with a brief disclaimer that there is no indication that Bradley Nowell (may his memory be a blessing) was a Buddhist.

Now back to it. The Buddha gave many thousands of teachings around 500 BC. There have been many presentations of his teachings over the centuries, and the scholar Atisha’s is among the highest regarded in Tibetan lineages. Atisha managed to condense all 84,000 of Buddha’s teachings into 21 meditations. Talk about an efficient dude! Atisha’s presentation is known is the Lamrim, or the “stages of the path.”

Well, life is too short, so love the one you got

Precious Human Life is one of the first meditations in the Lamrim, in which we contemplate how just being alive as a human is precious, rare, and incredibly meaningful.

Buddhists believe in reincarnation, and that we’ve all lived countless lives— and not all of them have been a fortunate human rebirth. Sometimes we’ve been reborn as animals, and those lives are often short and incredibly difficult. And animals can’t engage in a spiritual practice! So by meditating on just how lucky we are to be alive, to be a human, and to have the conditions we need to meditate and study dharma, we develop a strong feeling in our heart that we must make the most of this incredibly rare opportunity.

‘Cause you might get run over or you might get shot

You know what the very next meditation is in the Lamrim? Death!

In fact, part of the contemplation is very similar to the lyrics here: “The lives of many strong and healthy people are destroyed by accidents.” You might get run over or you might get shot!

Many people have a vague awareness that they will probably die at some point in the distant future. Very few people wake up knowing that they might die on this very day. But if we do cultivate an awareness that our life could be taken from us at any time, it can add a profound meaning to every moment we get. It’s the other side of the Precious Human Life coin; we will be inspired to make the most of the life that we have.

Never start no static, I just get it off my chest

Bradley has no beef with anyone, and he’s found a healthy way to express his feelings. Don’t we all love a man who’s been to therapy? Not only that, but he’s also demonstrating the virtuous mental factor of non-hatred here.

Like attachment, anger is one of the three poisons that Buddhists work to completely eradicate from their minds. Not only is anger painful for us in the moment we’re experiencing it, but when we take actions out of anger, we create causes for our future suffering. Thankfully, Bradley seems to be navigating this beautifully on his spiritual path.

Take a small example, take a tip from me
Take all of your money, give it all to charity

You guys, Bradley is a straight up Bodhisattva… A friend to the world! Bodhisattvas practice the Six Perfections, the first of which is giving. (There’s also moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom.) We should give material things, dharma, and fearlessness (or protection). Bradley is focusing on the first of these here, an excellent example for us all.

Love’s what I got, it’s within my reach

There are many types of love that Buddhists try to cultivate as they grow their compassion. In the Lamrim, we spend a lot of time contemplating the kindness of others, and how everything we have in life came from others— from our food and our clothing to our smart phones and even our bodies. (Thanks, mom and dad!)

The more we think about how others have benefitted us, the more our love for them grows. We find ourselves wishing for everyone to be happy.

It all comes back to you, you're bound to get what you deserve
Try and test that, you're bound to get served

Karma, obviously.

Every action we take plants a seed in our mind that will ripen later, whether in this life or a future life. Positive actions will lead to pleasant experiences for us; negative actions, not so much.

Why I don't cry when my dog runs away
I don't get angry at the bills I have to pay
I don't get angry when my mom smokes pot
Hits the bottle and goes right to the rock

He really seems to have perfected a mind of equanimity and patient acceptance here, as he’s able to face difficulties without getting upset. Bradley isn’t disturbed by changing conditions, and he isn’t trying to get his happiness from other people. He has a lot of love to give, and it’s for all these combined reasons that this is my submission for Lowkey Best Buddhist Song of all Time.

I’d love to hear from my fellow nerds about your zaniest pop culture crossovers. And if you ever want to hear more about Buddhism as it relates to music of the 80s and 90s, please ask me about a class I taught in which I used a Wilson Phillips song to explain the teachings of Geshe Chekhawa.

Cat Update

Finn knows my roommate hates it when he’s on this counter. Ask him if he gives a single shit.

Jake has been working on his best Renaissance painting pose. I think he’s really nailing it.