ID Music: Autumnal Koans
A soundtrack for cultivating awareness that when the leaves fall, our trunks are visible in the autumn wind
In years past the three or four regular listeners to our understandably unpopular yet surprisingly long-running broadcast have (possibly?) come to look forward to the annual Autumnal Melancholy series of goth-leaning programs, each built around the Gary Snyder poem “They Are Listening.” This year we’ve expanded our chapbook library to include capping verses taken from several different editions of Shōbōgenzō, translated as Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, a canonical collection of koans assembled by Zen Master Dōgen in the 13th Century. These fresh programs are archived alongside classic autumnal-ish shows at the end of this message.
Shōbōgenzō is sort of like a dungeonmaster’s guide for Zen practice. Koans are often presented to Zen students by a guiding teacher as one-on-one “interviews” during meditation retreats or special sessions. The teacher reads the story, and private discussion between teacher and student follows. There aren’t precise right or wrong answers: The interview process changes depending on the relationship between the two individuals as it stands that day. You can get it wrong – which usually means you’ll have to do the same koan next retreat – but it’s more about catching the drift of the confounding story than figuring out an exact answer. To aid in this process, koans are presented as a case that includes the original story/parable/puzzle, followed by a set of information that one can use to adapt the koan for their particular party’s dungeon-crawl toward enlightenment.
As John Daido Loori, one of the translators of the The True Dharma Eye (2005) that we’re using for these shows, writes in his introduction, “it can be said that there is no one answer to a kōan. Seeing into a kōan requires the embodiment of a certain state of consciousness rather than an abstraction of intellectual understanding. It is this direct ‘seeing into’ that the teacher looks for and tests to determine the clarity of the student’s understanding. And it is this direct understanding that is at the heart of realization—not the intellectualization of an idea.”
For this 2005 compendium, Loori has written updated commentaries to make these slippery, often paradoxical tales relevant to contemporary practice. “The commentaries are short,” he writes. “They take up the different points—both primary and secondary—that need to be dealt with if the kōan is to be understood in its entirety. The capping verses, used extensively in Zen, are in effect dharma words. They are a poetic expression of the heart of the kōan.”
For the purposes of these programs, I’ve lifted verses with seasonally appropriate language. Which means they’re mostly about falling leaves, cold winds, and death. I’ve also included one from the 1973 selection Zen Koans compiled by Venerable Gyomay M. Kubose because I enjoyed the directness of his commentary, which wouldn’t be out of place as a Panopticon interlude:
The autumn wind is blowing. Lonesomeness is there, and the end of life is near, and one knows it. Do not pretend. Be aware that when the leaves fall, the trunk is clearly visible in the autumn wind.
Autumnal melancholy is here, and Inter-Dimensional Music once again strives to provide a soundtrack that allows us to embrace all of the sensations that accompany falling leaves and visible trunks. Each of these sessions was mixed live-to-FLAC with Serato here at Cosmic Chambo Studio, with minimal edits in post-production. Use them at your own discretion, or follow along as we cultivate awareness of the dark, difficult emotions that go along with the season here in the northern hemisphere. Your presence is a welcome reminder that we’re in this together, watching the leaves which only ever come to rest right here and now.
Special shout-out to the dozen or so Vøid Contemplation Tactics subscribers in Morocco, Uganda, India, Australia, and Brazil. Please be in touch if you need a re-up when autumn vibes commence in your equatorial or southern hemisphere zone. IMO it’s rude to monitor the analytics too closely but I am absolutely STOKED that you’re here, even if it’s just a fluke of your VPN.
And to everyone else, I once again express my gratitude to you for reading, listening, clicking the links, lurking anonymously, subscribing for free (!), subscribing for money (!!!), commenting publicly, emailing me privately, writing about us on your blog, sharing this with friends, or smashing that unsubscribe if our free intermittent correspondence with its confounding audio accompaniment is no longer to your liking.
blessing up and blessing down,
Daniel
Previously on Inter-Dimensional Music …
Inter-Dimensional Music 20231013
Autumnal Koans I
stream | download
This week's session begins in a cacophonous yin space with mystical sludge from Virginia. From there we fade into bass-forward Bugandan drumming intent on undermining hostile immigration policies, droning backcountry hymns, swooning astronomical love songs, and polyrhythmic electronic music from Gary, Indiana and Nairobi, Kenya.
32 Taiyuan Fans Himself
Autumn's wind blows
and falling leaves fill the air.
When they fall, they always come to rest
no place but here.
We'll also hear John Daido Loori Roshi's autumnal verses, excerpted from a 2005 translation of Zen Master Dōgen's The True Dharma Eye.
PJS - Bird's Eye (Teo Macero) (edit)
Inter Arma - Transfiguration (Live at Club Congress 2017)
Nihiloxica - Olutobazzi
Jlin - Carbon 12
Kaya North - Depth
Primal Scream - Higher Than The Sun
uon - Bus
OMD - The Romance of the Telescope
Dntel x Enya - Caribbean Blue
Slikback - TRAIL
Eomac - Prayer Pt. 1
Grateful Dead - Mountains of the Moon (Aoxomoxoa studio outtake)
PJS - Bird's Eye (Teo Macero) (edit)
dharma: John Daido Loori Roshi
Inter-Dimensional Music 20231020
Autumnal Koans II
stream | download
For this week's practice, it's an hour of autumnal remembrances and reflections including a microcosmic encapsulation of a monolithic melo-rhythmic trance ritual, modern electronic folk ballads, silicfied visions observed in deep meditative states, a doom metal McCoy Tyner cover, and inter-dimensional dedications to loved ones who have passed.
We'll also hear an autumnal Zen koan with commentary from Zen Koans, a 1973 selection compiled by The Venerable Kubose, an American-born Buddhist priest, as read by your host.
modern folk electronic ensemble - the ballad of lents part one (edit)
NKISI - Centripetal Vortex
Coil Presents Black Light District - Die Wolfe Kommen Zuruck
Leslie Keffer - The Veil
Medicine Singers, Lee Ranaldo & Yonatan Gat - Honor Song
Remembrance Quintet - Recollections
Ascend - Desert Cry (McCoy Tyner)
modern folk electronic ensemble - the ballad of lents part two (edit)
dharma: Visible Trunk, Autumn Wind
Inter-Dimensional Music 20231027
Autumnal Koans III
stream | download
For this week's practice, we head deep into an autumnal yin space overrun with a selection of contemporary and vintage death metal of the cosmic, existential, and blackened varieties. From there, an unusual detour into crusty, noise-spattered hardcore before coming down nice and easy with Arabic drone, Tunisian bass, and dubbed-out New Age music. Also! This is a newsletter-exclusive extended session with 10 minutes of bonus ambience that we had to cut from the live mix in order to fit into our hour-long slot on the actual airwaves of WQRT Indianapolis and Marfa Public Radio in Far West Texas!!!
The Autumnal Koans series continues, with more of John Daido Loori Roshi's verses, excerpted from a 2005 translation of Zen Master Dōgen's The True Dharma Eye.
198 Dongshan and Shenshan Cross the River
A hazy autumn moon, solitary and full,
falls as it may on the winding river ahead.
There are those who seek perfect clarity,
yet, sweep as they may, they cannot empty the mind.
Our practice begins with "real magic, psychedelic, corroded twin guitar, bass and scuzz" from Yellow Swans and Gray Daturas, a counterintuitive wash of lush yet harsh noise.
Yellow Swans & Grey Daturas - Untitled 4
Blood Incantation - Obliquity of The Ecliptic
Death - Destiny
Death - Pull the Plug (Live at Backstreets, Rochester, NY 12/13/88)
SUNN O))) - Evil Chuck
Negative Prayer - Hell
YELLOWCAKE - Indiscriminate Shelling
Cicada - Cicada
Azu Tiwaline - Antennae Opening
Abu Ama + BedouinDrone - Idris
Blues Control & Laraaji - City of Love
Ford & Lopatin - Emergency Dub (Produced by The Bug)
EMÆNUEL - WARRING
Deadbeat - For Palestine
dharma: John Daido Loori Roshi
Inter-Dimensional Music 20231103
Autumnal Koans IV
stream | download
For this week's practice, we once again find ourselves in autumnal yin space. Our session begins with more of Blood Incantation's deathy New Age non-metal which quickly turns to a blitz of proggy cosmic actual black metal from ID Music mainstays Krallice. We'll also dip once again into the Yellow Swans archives for more blasted kosmische scuzz. In the second half of the show, listen for industrial psychedelic folk, and the transcendental roar of Japan's most meditative noise rock.
249 Nanquan's "Dharma That Has Never Been Spoken"
Buddhas have not appeared in the world,
nor is there a truth that can be given to the people.
There is only the yellow-voiced, cold cricket
singing in a pile of autumn leaves.
We'll bring this year's Autumnal Koans series to a close with more of John Daido Loori Roshi's verses, excerpted from a 2005 translation of Zen Master Dōgen's The True Dharma Eye.
John Paul Bohon - MMM (Mononymous)
Blood Incantation - Luminescent Bridge
Krallice - Porous Resonance Abyss part II
Deterioration Yellow Swans - Reintegration
DEAFKIDS - Seva Pulsátil
Don't DJ - Lemon Garlic
Yellow Eyes - The Ritual is Gone
Les Rallizes Dénudés - Bird Calls in the Dark
John Paul Bohon - Standing Waves
dharma: John Daido Loori Roshi
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