From: Christopher Locke [clocke@panix.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 1998 10:18 AM
To: David Weinberger
Subject: the web and the rock

> I'll be on The Vineyard learning how to properly drape a
> sweater over my shoulders with a single knot of the arms
> around my neck.

sounds so... Jay Gatsby. perhaps a little polo? or at
least croquet...

the longing. when we first talked about this I invoked a
Buddhist perspective. historically, early Buddhism -- the
Theravadan or Hinayana school -- saw Passion, Aggression
and Ignorance as the big-three "poisons" -- and calls them
such. Passion = desire of all kinds, not just sexual,
although any monastic setup sees that as a primary big
deal. I'm not well versed in the history (or the
philosophy; it's deep and voluminous) but by the 5th-6th
century CE (i.e., 1000 years after Gautama Buddha) proto-
desire begins to be seen as bodhicitta -- literally, the 
seed of awakened mind -- essentially same desire as the 
poison "variety" and thus the foundation of the non-duality 
that will later flower as the Vajrayana in Tibet. I learned 
this not from books but from a teacher in the direct lineage 
of that tradition, Chogyam Trungpa (who is dead now but 
has reincarnated on amazon.com).

I have certainly never talked about this in email, rest
assured.

shift gears/change metaphors.

much of the best 60s rock-n-roll always struck me as
colored by this non-duality, at least to a degree. it was
the acid surely; it could have been just me, I suppose,
but the artists were coming from the same place, as we
might have said back then. one of the deepest resonnances
involved sex-as-something-else. at the same time it wasn't
not-sex. here's what I mean. when Hendrix sang...

   I have only one burning desire
   let me stand next to your fire

...was he (just) talking about some chick? this music
could easily accompany the iconography of Vajrayogini,
consort to Vajradhara, embodiment of primordial, awakened
heart. in this iconography, the two are usually depicted
fucking.

the eastern stuff turns many off -- and for god reason;
it's mixed up with silly notions of brain-dead happy-go-
lucky mystical bullshit filtered through tripsters and
hucksters who never had a clue. but go back to hundreds,
thousands of rock references to sex, love and desire and
you will find this "other" dimension. it's what gave the
music a depth almost unrelated to the doo-wah girlfriend
ballads of the 50s.

   don't you want somebody to love
   don't you NEED somebody to love
   you better find somebody to love...

one of my favorites from the period is little known now
but an amazing anthem from the Kinks:

   As long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset
   I am in paradise.
   Every day I look at the world from my window...

or the Beatles' Day Tripper

   got a good reason for taking the easy way out...
   it took me so long to find out... I found out.
   she's a big teaser...

maybe it was just a backseat liaison, but I never heard it
that way. the "Day Tripper" of the song is, after all, a
pun, an allusion to some other instantiation. Lenon was
famous for precisely this kind of thing. Closer to Joyce
than Elvis. there are better examples than I've used here.
The girl with kaleioscope eyes perhaps. follow her down to
a bridge by a fountain...

and later, the Police in "Every Little Thing She Does is
Magic" are singing bhyo over and over in the background. 
this is a tantric seed-sylable associated with mandala 
construction and other stuff I can only guess at. I 
doubt Sting knew much about it either, but it's not 
there by accident I think.

   even though my life before was tragic
   now I know my love for her goes on...

closer to the present, U2's Desire...

   Yeah, lover I'm on the streets
   Gonna go where the bright lights and the big city meet
   With a red guitar, on fire,
   Desire

   She's the candle burning in my room
   I'm like the needle - needle and spoon
   Over the counter with a shotgun
   Pretty soon, everybody got one
   And the fever when I'm beside her
   Desire

   She's the dollars
   She's my protection
   She's a promise
   In the year of election
   Sister, I can't let you go
   I'm like a preacher
   Stealing hearts at a traveling show
   For love or money, money, money
   Desire

Bono is shaped, above all, by Irish Catholism. "She moves in
mysterious ways" -- yeah, that's probably his steady date.
Right?

The "she" of Desire is the same dark goddess of the Stones'
Heartbreaker...

   Heartbreaker, pain maker
   I'm gonna tear your world apart...

...Kali, the terrifying dark side of the mother archetype.
still, she is The Beloved -- source of life and object of
all longing when enough layers are scratched away.

this obviously goes a little deeper than the web, but it's
what we long for. though few might admit it, it's what we
seek everywhere and seldom find.

   her eyes were clear and bright
   her voice was soft and cool
   but she's not there...

yet

   see her shake on the silver screen.

god, I gotta stop doin this shit. and no, I'm not sure what 
it means. if it means anything.

in the darkest night,
r. tuesday