Yeah, I'm feelin' this.
Submitted by Becca on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 18:20.
in
The Logical Song - Supertramp
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
oh joyfully, oh playfully watching me.
But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible,
logical, oh responsible, practical.
And then they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
oh clinical, oh intellectual, cynical.
There are times when all the world's asleep,
the questions run too deep
for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
please tell me who I am
I said now watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical,
a liberal, oh fanatical, criminal.
Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're
acceptable, respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable!
Oh Take it take it yeah!
But at night, when all the world's asleep,
the questions run so deep
for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
please tell me who I am,
Who I am
Who I am
Who I am
Who knows who's so logical.
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Propeller
Reddit
Furl
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
- Becca's blog
Email this page- quote
- 923 reads
I never realized just how awesome this song is until you posted it here. I always loved the sound of it, but never listened closely to the lyrics. I vividly remember that when I was a very young child, I FELT the truth that we're all immortal and that this life is just another day in an endless sea. I FELT the truth that magic is everywhere, in everything. I think everyone knows this when they're very young.
Many of the large entities like religions, governments, and certain types of businesses, industries, and scientific institutions have created a culture of fear and limitation in an expression of a subconscious social drive to control people. Our society encourages large entities to take control and maintain it, and those structures that are created have been passing these horrible illusions on from generation to generation about us being mortal, non-magical beings, because that's the only way people will go along with much of what they're teaching and buy much of what they're selling. Most of my life, I did my best to resist these horrible illusions, grabbing at the tidbits of wisdom I would find in various books, religions, conversations, classes, etc, and spending a lot of time looking inward to my heart for answers. There were a lot of very sad times where I felt nearly alone in my beliefs. This song definitely speaks to these emotions.
"Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned":
The good news is that science is finally catching up with spirituality in this arena. There's even a segment of pop culture that embraces the truth now! The great spiritual (not religious) teachers have always said that we are immortal spirits and that magic is everywhere, that we are basically gods. Now, quantum physics is proving this scientifically, and there are more books, movies, and groups coming out every year about how we are immortal spirits creating our reality. Some great examples are The Secret, What the Bleep Do We Know, and many, many books about The Law of Attraction and Quantum Physics and Consciousness.
I have always loved this song! I even keep it on my MP3 Player. The lyrics are some of the best ever.
This has always been one of my favorite songs. I've been focusing my daily prayer, meditation and Qi Gong on regaining that perpetual joy that we had as children. If we could all do that and combine it with our wisdom...the world would be a much cooler place.
I agree! I'd love to have some more of that feeling back. I can still feel it when I'm able to tear my mind away from all the details it gets caught up in during its business being sensible, responsible, dependable, etc. Maintaining it is the hard part.
I can totally relate. I am such a type A personality that it's hard for me to trust in the universal flow that I know is there to help me. I'm hoping that like everything, I get better with practice. Define irony; a Taoist, that is type A, with CDO. CDO is the same as OCD, just in alphabetical order as it should be.
CDO is the same as OCD, just in alphabetical order as it should be.
I remember when I was four years old we lived in Elizabeth, Indiana. My Mom helped manage a pay lake, and we got to live on the property. It was beautiful. I had hills and trees outside my front door, and a big lake outside my back door. Every day was new. Of course being young and having such a great backyard made it easier to have a very optimistic and happy outlook, but there are kids who have it as nice or nicer growing up, take it all for granted and still act like brats. On some level I chose to be happy, optimistic and appreciative. As I've gotten older, I've allowed the BS and stress of daily life cloud up my once sunny mental sky. Not thunderstorms constantly, just more partly cloudy with a chance of rain days than I'd prefer. Working for myself and having the time to exercise, pray and meditate are helping to brighten things up. Still, health issues, a profound lack of money and the stress that comes with raising four kids manage to make some part of the day a bit overcast. I'm just going to keep training my brain to think happy by habit. Routine exercise made the rest of my muscles strong, let's see what it does with the most important one.
That's a great outlook! You can definitely train your brain to think happy thoughts. I remember when I took a stress test a few times several years ago and I was in the highest stress category. After this, I spent 20 minutes a day thinking only happy thoughts: things that brought up joyful feelings, things I was thankful for (already thankful for, not things I wanted to become thankful for), things that excited me, etc. I did this for a month, and it had a profound impact on my feelings, my personality, and my overall behavior. I took the same stress test a few times after this, about a week apart, and they all showed the same thing: very calm, in the least stressed category. I had changed nothing major in my lifestyle other than that one thing: training myself to focus on the positive.
The brain, mind and spirit are like any other parts of us: they are made of what we focus on, ie what we choose to do regularly, what we choose to be. I "knew" already that I "should" focus on the positive, that the positive is all that really matters, etc, but it didn't really sink in until I actually chose to consciously do it for 20 minutes a day. We tell our inner selves what's really important to us by our actions. Of course thoughts, prayers, and meditations are actions, too.
Perpetual Joy is an awesome goal. I wish you well in your focus on this. It's something I keep coming back to as a goal and making a bit of progress on occassionally.
The lake-home you describe sounds wonderful. Like you said, you chose to take in the beauty of it and appreciate it. If you grew up in the middle of a city, you might have felt similar awe and wonder at the beauty and newness of every day of city life. Personally, I think a strong spirit will find joy in any environment, though maybe more joy in some environments than others. Nature is certainly easy to admire. I spent much of my childhood in nearby woods and around the creek that ran behind my backyard, and I have very fond memories of the occasional camping trips to Nolin Lake and Deams Lake.
These days, I have a much easier time maintaining a fairly positive focus at all times. I almost never feel anything even close to fear or hatred anymore. I feel at least content most of the time, and happy much of the time. I would like to feel more excitement and deep appreciation. I get these feelings from the usual sources, but I'd like to be able to maintain them. Sometimes when I meditate, I feel it for a while. Perhaps I take it for granted, because I sometimes end up not meditating for a few days after I get myself to a great state. I "spend" the spiritual energy working and doing other "mundane" things, although much of the time, my site and my work on it are themselves sources of spiritual energy. I remind myself that every moment matters, and whatever we focus on, that becomes a stronger part of us, whatever level we're at. Whether we feel like a novice or a master, we can always improve in any area.
Jordan posted something that connects with our discussion here in this thread: Wake Up
I made a comment there that contains a good metaphor for what I was saying above when I said:
Many of the large entities like religions, governments, and certain types of businesses, industries, and scientific institutions have created a culture of fear and limitation in an expression of a subconscious social drive to control people. Our society encourages large entities to take control and maintain it, and those structures that are created have been passing these horrible illusions on from generation to generation about us being mortal, non-magical beings, because that's the only way people will go along with much of what they're teaching and buy much of what they're selling.
I'll copy the relevant part of that comment here:
The deeper meaning of The Matrix
I was just thinking about watching The Matrix again last night. It's been a while. I absolutely love that movie. Here are some quotes from Morpheus that are fairly good matches for what I was saying in the other thread. To understand the connection, realize that The Matrix is a metaphor for the great lie that our society (and our ego) perpetuates to keep us under control: that we are mortal, non-magical beings. The truth is that this life is one in an infinite number of lives. We are eternal. Everything we do matters forever. We create our own eternal heaven and hell through our own choices. We are living it right now, and at the same time, we are completely free to change in any way at any moment. We are the ones who control our own destiny.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morpheus: I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morpheus: Free your mind.
Post new comment