ID Music: Heavenly Zen Sickness Supersessions
Two wondrous heavy mellow mixes for persisting through dark days of heavy malice
In such dark days as these too many conversations begin with apologies for falling out of touch. The common ground of our apologies is revealed as we both acknowledge that we have not spoken because . . . what is there to say when unwholesome action continues to fill worlds upon worlds, and swallow up all things upon all things?
Sometimes I hesitate over writing because I feel like I’m repeating myself. But as I learned by chanting the same sutra at every meditation practice when I lived at the Indianapolis Zen Center, this practice offers a refuge by presenting the same ideas over and over. The ideas may be relayed with different vocabulary, or in shifting dialects, but there is always the warning to regard any teacher presenting claims of newly discovered, wholly original insight with suspicion. Many things have changed in the 1600 years since Bodhidharma left for the east, but the suffering that connected people in the 400s is the same suffering that connects us in the 2020s: Impermanence doesn’t change. Avoiding suffering is just another form of suffering. Craving enlightenment is just another form of craving. It is easy to miss opportunities to relieve suffering in the world if you become distracted by the endlessly scrolling timeline of suffering in the world.
In a rare example of taking my own advice, I have returned to meditation practice at the Indy Zen Center several times over the last couple months. If you’re curious to experience the deep sense of connection that comes from sitting in the presence of other people, a feeling that continues to inspire this newsletter and the various projects documented herein, weekly meditation sessions take place on Monday and Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm, in addition to monthly retreats and early morning practice. For more information visit indyzen.org.
Zen teaching, when stripped of the essential confounding poetry that gives its ephemeral simplicity momentum over the course of a lifetime, begins and ends with the proposition that it is better to not be a shit head than to be a shit head. The only place to be or not to be anything is the present moment. How many moments can we refrain from shit-headedness, even as unwholesome action continues to fill worlds upon worlds, and swallow up all things upon all things? Refraining from shit-headedness in the present moment is liberation.
You can lose yourself in the enchantment of mindfulness-maxxing just as easily as in the cynicism of striving for material success. Both extremes take us away from the wonders that persist along with the darkness. They are both sicknesses that infect us with the thinking that enlightenment is for later, and not for now.
Listen for more of these thoughts—paraphrased from dharma talks by Zen teachers Seung Sahn and Thich Nhat Hanh—in the two newsletter-exclusive Inter-Dimensional Music Supersessions available to stream or download below. In his long-awaited ID Music debut, Leon Russell joins these venerated sages to present the original face koan in his own peculiar dialect:
How many days has it been since I was born?
How many days until I die?
Do I know any ways that I can make you laugh?
Or do I only know how to make you cry?
Each of these broadcasts was mixed live-to-FLAC from the yoga mat here at Cosmic Chambo Studio. Abridged versions aired in February on Marfa Public Radio, where you can encounter our transmission in the wilds of Far West Texas and Northern Chihuahua each Sunday night at 11pm CT.
Inter-Dimensional Music
2026.02.15: Bad Zen Sickness Supersession
mixcloud / download
For this week’s practice, we’ll sit with a polyrhythmic post-world music flow that is gradually subsumed by a swirling mass of visceral black, death, and sludge metals. My renewed enthusiasm for the dubby North African-influenced rhythms that have dominated many episodes of ID Music in recent years can be traced back to an encounter with Tunisian artist Azu Tiwaline’s collaboration with UK bass producer Al Wootton. Both artists are once again represented here, in the mix with the self-described tribal industrial power electronics of Tunisian artist Sayf.
We’ll also hear a wonderful example of my new favorite genre of music—”two adjacent stalls in a street market and one is blasting live Autechre AUD bootleg CDRs and the other is shuffling through 64kbps MP3s of top-ranking SWANA wedding party bands”—from Egyptian producer Eyad.
Then on to Shackleton’s psychedelic ritual trance music intertwined with the hypnotic rhythms of Live ‘80s Cure. Though rarely present in contemporary samples, heavy metals will always be part of ID Music’s DNA, so we’ll close out with the high kvlt weirdness of Yellow Eyes, funereal death metal, and a threefer of classic doom, contemporary industrial-adjacent doom, and a sludge metal cover of proto-heavy metal warmongering.
Our practice begins, and eventually comes to an end, with downpressing naturewave ambiance from Deidarabochi.
Listen for correspondence from Zen Master Seung Sahn on the bad Zen sickness of wanting enlightenment throughout the broadcast, as read by your host.
“You say that in the beginning you were enthusiastic and now you are discouraged. Both extremes are no good. . . Zen mind is everyday mind. You must keep this mind during every action-eating, talking, playing tennis, watching television. Always keep don't-know mind. What is most important is how you keep your mind at this very moment. Just-now mind. If you have free time, it is good to sit. If you don't have free time, then just do action Zen.
But be very careful about wanting enlightenment. This is a bad Zen sickness. When you keep a clear mind, the whole universe is you, you are the universe. So you have already attained enlightenment. Wanting enlightenment is only thinking. It is something extra, like painting legs on the picture of a snake. Already the snake is complete as it is. Already the truth is right before your eyes.”
— Zen Master Seung Sahn
Dropping Ashes on the Buddha (1976)
artist — work
デイダラボッチ - 第1章: 終焉への道
Eyad - Mkhlb
Lukid - Underloop
Baptisma - pes#2
Sayf - untitled
Al Wootton - Hospital of The Five Wounds
Flore - Evidence (Azu Tiwaline remix)
Shackleton - When Memory Ceases
The Cure - All Cats are Grey (Germany, 1981)
Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance - Spring Will Return/Oliver’s Letter
Yellow Eyes - Brush the Frozen Horse
Haruspex Chants - Funereal Passages Through Cerebral Lesions
Black Sabbath - Supertzar
Fórn - Anamnesis
Crowbar - No Quarter
デイダラボッチ - 第1章: 終焉への道
Inter-Dimensional Music
2026.02.22 Heaven is Now Supersession
mixcloud / download
For this week’s practice, it’s 72-minutes of equanimity in armagideon with a bass-forward mix of percussion-heavy post-world riddim and voicing. Along the way we’ll hear a callback to the previous episode’s Led Zeppelin cover by way of Rihanna. For some reason we’re going nuts on this episode with what used to be called “mash-ups,” so listen for Damian Marley’s commentary on Jamaican tourism relayed over an iconic Dead Prez riddim. Plus lots of weirdo vintage dub, cryptical electronics, and an unexpected detour into a Dilla-influenced house music appreciation of vintage Detroit vibrations.
If I had to choose the most beautiful song from the thousands that have floated across the Chihuahuan Desert on the ID Music airwaves, it would be Chuquimamani-Condori’s “uru uru golden child e dj edit”, featured prominently alongside Leon Russell at the beginning of this wide-ranging set.
Our practice begins, and eventually comes to an end, with lush techno from Prince of Denmark. Although the diligent practitioner who remains following the the sign-off will be rewarded with our program’s first post-credit sequence. I was up late making this mix and wasn’t ready to wrap it up just yet!
Language throughout the broadcast on the dangers of disregarding the wonders of the present moment, and sacrificing your life in the pursuit of enlightenment, from Thich Nhat Hanh, as read by your host.
“We have a habit of running after things, and this habit has been transmitted to us by our parents and ancestors. We don’t feel fulfilled in the here and now, and so we run after all kinds of things we think will make us happier. We sacrifice our life chasing after objects of craving or striving for success in our work or studies. We chase after our life’s dream and lose ourselves along the way. We even lose our freedom and happiness in our efforts to be mindful, to be healthy, to relieve suffering in the world, or to get enlightened. We disregard the wonders of the present moment, thinking that heaven and the ultimate are for later, not for now.
To practice meditation means to have the time to look deeply and see these things. If you feel restless in the here and now, or you feel ill at ease, you need to ask yourself: ‘what am I longing for? what am I waiting for? what am I searching for?’”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
The Art of Living (2023)
artist — work
Prince of Denmark - Squidcall
Chuquimamani-Condori - uru uru golden child e dj edit
Leon Russell - Stranger in a Strange Land
Nobody - White Folding Slowly (Into Blue Remix)
Rihanna - Umbrella Maker
Bob Marley - Jump Nyabinghi (Dennis Thompson mix)
Clams Casino - Wassup
DJ Shepdog - Bigger than Jamrock
Hype Williams - MITSUBISHI
Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw Cuts #5
High Wolf - 707
Roots Radics - Soldierman Dub
Sabaturin - Berzh
Playgroup - Epic One Drop
Kieran Hebden + William Tyler - Spider Ballad
Prince of Denmark - Untitled
find more sounds from these artists in the
Inter-Dimensional Music library on Bandcamp
