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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Songs of an Ancient Truth Vol. 1, We Can't Hold Hands When We're Pointing Fingers, Meanwhile, Back on Earth..., The Other Side of the Sky, The Lost Trail, Season of Change (Holiday Album!), Bardic Dharma, Crown of Kindling, and 4 more.
1. |
Twin Verses
10:55
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All experience is preceded by mind
Led by mind, shaped by mind
Speak or act with a corrupted mind
And suffering follows like the wagon wheel follows
The hoof of the ox
All experience is preceded by mind
Led by mind, shaped by mind
Speak or act with a peaceful mind
And happiness follows like a never-departing shadow
They cheated me, they defeated me
The robbed me
Go on thinking in such a way
And hate will never end
Go on thinking in a different way
And hate will end
Hate never ends by hate
By love alone does it end
This is an ancient truth
Many of us do not realize
Here we all must die
But for those who realize
All quarrels end
Those who live just for pleasant things
Mind unguarded, immoderate, idle
Will be overcome by temptations
A tree too weak in the wind
Those who live not for pleasant things
Mind guarded and moderate and vigilant
Will not be overcome by temptations
A mountain in the wind
Those who wish to wear the saffron robes
And yet they have no self-control
They are not free
Those who wish to wear the saffron robes
Have embraced the truth and self-control
They are free
Those who see the truth as false
Those who see the real as unreal
Will never see the truth in their hearts
Will never be free
But those who realize the truth
Those who see the real as real
Can see the truth in their hearts
And they shall be free
Just like rain on a leaky roof
Desire floods the mind
Make your home waterproof
Keep a well trained mind
One who makes unskillful choices
Will suffer both in this life and beyond
We will see the consequence of our actions
If we choose to do wrong
One who lives skillfully
Will be joyful in this life and the next
We shall live delightfully
If we do our best
Read as many verses as you’d like
But if you do not heed those words
You might as well be counting cattle
In someone else’s herd
Read as little of the verses as you’d like
As long as you live skillfully
Let go of desire, fear, attachment
You shall be free
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2. |
Diligence
06:35
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Diligence is the path to Deathlessness
Negligence leads to death
The diligent never die
The negligent are already dead
The wise, having known
Diligence
Rejoice in the
Noble Ones
The wise, meditating
And striving on,
Touch Nibbana
Freedom from toil
Those who are energetic
Mindful and pure
Discerning and self-controlled
and diligent
Glory grows for them
The wise
Make an island
Which no flood
Can overtake
The foolish and ignorant
Indulge in negligence
But the wise keep
Diligence as a treasure
Do not give in
To negligence
Do not indulge in sense pleasures
Only the diligent
Attain happiness
Just like on the mountaintop
Looking below
The wise one, casting off
Negligence
With Diligence, ascends
The tower of wisdom
This sorrowless sage
Sees the sorrowing below
The wise among the negligent
Awake among those who sleep
Advances forward like horse
Leaving behind the weak
The greatest of the gods
Ascended with diligence
The greatest of the gods
Rejects Negligence
Those who delight
In diligence
And turns their back upon
negligence
Roars like a fire, burning away
All of the fetters
The subtle and the clear
There is no going back
bluesy chord
Nibbana’s drawing near!
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3. |
The Mind
06:39
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The restless mind
hard to control
The wise one makes straight
As an arrow
Like a fish out of water
wriggles and thrashes
The mind won’t sit still
Trying to escape from temptation
The mind jumps about
Landing where it wishes
Taming the mind
Brings happiness
The mind hard to see
goes where it wishes
The wise one protects it
It brings happiness
Traveling far
The mind, hidden and solitary
The wise one does well to subdue it
And they shall be free
The mind that is not steadfast
Who knows not the Dharma
Whose serenity wavers
Wisdom does not grow
There is no fear
For an awakened one
No desire or hate
Or gain or loss
Can affect the mind
This body is like a fragile clay pot
Wield the sword of wisdom
Against temptation’s hoards
Remaining unattached
Protect what has already been won
Soon this body will lie on the ground
Cast aside and lifeless like a log
Whatever harm an enemy does to an enemy
Far worse is an ill-trained mind
Whatever good a dear one delivers
Comes nowhere near a well-trained mind.
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4. |
Flowers
07:19
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Who will master this world
the realm of gods and men
Who shall perfect
The path of wisdom?
A wise one on this path
Will master this world,
They shall perfect the path
Like a wise one gathers flower
Knowing this body is like mere sea foam
Knowing it’s mirage-like and illusory
Plucking out the flower-arrows of sensuality
One escapes Death’s eventuality
Like a flood sweeps away the sleepy village
Death sweeps away the distracted mind
The distracted minds who
only pick flowers of pleasure
Those who only go on
Picking flowers of pleasure
Will never escape
The sway of Death
Like a bee, who gathers the honey
Without harming the flower’s scent
In such a way should the wise one
Through the world walks gently
Do not look to others
To find their mistakes
Turn your gaze inward
And see the mistakes you have made
Like a beautiful flower
With color but no scent
Are wise words spoken
But actions not practiced
Like a beautiful flower
With both color and fragrance
Are the wise words spoken
And fruitful actions
From a heap of flowers
Many garlands can be made
With this one short life
You can do beautiful things
The scent of flowers
Sandalwood and jasmine
Cannot go against
The strong blowing wind
But the fragrance of virtue
Goes against the wind
And travels far and wide
In every direction
The scent of flowers
Sandalwood and jasmine
When compared to the scent of virtue
Pales in comparison
Temptation cannot find
The path of the virtuous
Who walks with wisdom
And abides in diligence
Like the lotus growing sweetly
In the trash on the side of the road
A wise, awakened one,
In a blind world will grow
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5. |
The Fool
06:25
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The night is long for those who cannot sleep
The road is long for a weary traveler
Samsara is long
For those who do not know the Dhamma
If, when on your way, you meet no traveler
Who is equal or better than you
Let them go on their way
There is not fellowship with fools
A fool suffers when they think
“I have children and I have wealth”
If one’s self is not even one’s own
Whose are the children? Whose is the wealth?
A fool who knows they are a fool
Is at least as wise as such
But a fool who thinks they are wise
They are the fool
A fool who knows the wise
Even for their whole lives
Will still not know the Dharma
Anymore than the spoon can taste the soup
A mindful one who knows the wise
Even for just a moment
Will surely know the Dharma
Just as the tongue can taste the soup
The fools who are foolish
Are their worst enemies
Doing unskillful deeds
Will bear the bitter fruit
The bitter fruit of fools
The fool will regret
All unskillful deeds
Eventually
Tear-stained cheeks
They will surely weep
One will not regret
Acting skillfully
Rejoice in delight
And they will be free
As long as the fool
Has not yet been caught
They think it is sweet like honey
But when it catches up to them
They’ll bear the bitter fruit of fools
Month after month
after month after month
the fool
Eats their food with the tip of a bad of grass
This is not worth a moment of Dharma being grasped
Just like fresh milk
Unskillful actions
Have not yet curdled
But just like an ember
In ash
The fool will be burned
Reasoning is lethal
To the fool
Like an axe it will cleave their head
Split it wide open
And then the foolishness is dead
Seeking status, seeking fame
The fool wants to be praised
“Look at me, look at all that is mine.”
What foolishness, those thoughts
Desire and pride
You can have wealth and fame
But the path to freedom is different
A wise one does not delight
In being venerated
But strives for a peaceful mind
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6. |
The Wise
06:54
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When a wise one points out your faults
Stay close to them, good things will come
Heed their advice, listen to their instruction
Those who are wise, will find them a pleasing person
Don’t hang around with unskillful people
Spend your time with noble friends
Those who drink of the Dhamma
Will keep a clear and cool head
Those who are wise
In the Dhamma will delight
Irrigators guide the water flow
Fletchers fashion arrows
Carpenters shape the timber
The wise tame their mind
Like a steadfast boulder
That no wind can move
So is the wise unmoved
By praise or reproof
Just like a lake
Glass-like calm and crystal clear
So is the wise
When it is the Dhamma they hear
When the wise let go
They talk not of pain or pleasure
When touched by either one
The wise remain measured
We should not strive for wealth and fame
Procured by unskillful means
So skillfully and wisely
We should strive to be
Few are they who reach the other shore
Innumerable are they who scurry on this shore
Those who practice the way
So wisely it is taught
Beyond into the Deathless
To the other shore they shall cross
Renouncing unskillful ways
The wise cultivate the bright
To wandering without home
Into uncomfortable solitary life
The wise will seek delight
Not in sense pleasures, having no possessions
They will purify themselves
Their minds they will cleanse
Those who cultivate Awakening
Those who no longer cling
Have broken the fetters
They shall be Free
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7. |
The Arahant
04:17
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Sorrowless and at journey’s end
For one who all bonds have loosened
Free from all bonds
Passion’s fever is gone
The mindful ones exert themselves
Nowhere do they abide
Like wild swans flying from the lake
They leave every home behind
Like a bird on the wing
You cannot trace their path
Of those who do not cling
And are moderate in every task
Whose skies are the freedom
Of emptiness
Like a bird on the air
You cannot trace their path
Of those who destroyed every fetter
Of those unattached
Whose skies are the freedom
Of emptiness
Those who are calm and clear
And pride abandoned
A steed tamed by charioteer
They even the gods hold dear
They, who like the Earth
Untroubled by quake and thunder
Like a pillar, a crystal lake
They no longer wander
Peaceful mind, deed, and speech
With perfect skillful understanding
One who is thus
Is at utmost peace
Gone beyond views
The Unmade is known
The fetters shattered, kamma severed
Clinging no more
In the wild or the village
Th the valley or the hill
Pleasant is the place
Where the Arahant dwells
In the peaceful quiet forest
Where no one else abides
They who are free from passions
Not seeking pleasure they delight
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8. |
The Thousands
07:55
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Better than a thousand meaningless words
Is a single word that brings peace when heard
Better than a thousand meaningless verses
Is a single verse that brings peace when heard
Better than chanting a thousand meaningless verses
Is a single verse of Dhamma, that brings peace when heard
Better in battle than one who could conquer a thousand men
Are they who could conquer just one—themselves
Better to conquer yourself rather than others
When you’ve trained yourself, living in constant self-control
No deva or gandhabba, nor Mara or Bramha
Can turn that victory into defeat
You could month after month
After month after month at a cost of a thousand
Conduct sacrifice a hundred times or more
Or, for one moment pay simple homage
To a wise one at peace
Better than a hundred years of sacrifice
Would that one moment of homage be
Everything offered for a whole year in this world
Doesn’t come close to equal one fourth
Better it is to pay respect
To those who have gone forth
If you’re resoectful by habit and honor the worthy
Long life and beauty, happiness and strength will increase
Better to live one day in virtue and meditation
Than a hundred years with no virtue and uncontrolled
Better to live one day, wise and meditative
Than a hundred years foolish and uncontrolled
Better to live one day resolute and energetic
Than a hundred years sloth like and apathetic
Better to live one day seeing the rising and passing away of things
Than to live a hundred years without seeing the rising and passing away of things
Better to live one day seeing the Deathless state
Than to live a hundred years without seeing the Deathless state
Better to live one day seeing the ultimate Dhamma
Than to live a hundred years without seeing the ultimate Dhamma
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9. |
Evil
07:58
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Hasten to do good!
Restrain your mind from evil
One who is slow to do good
Their thoughts delight in evil
If you do something evil
Do not do it again
Do not wish for it
Piling up evil brings suffering
If you do something good
Do it again and again
Set your heart upon it
Piling up goodness brings joy
One who does evil think “It is well!”
When the evil has not yet ripened
But when the evil matures
They’ll see the results of the evil actions
One who does good may think “It is ill!”
When the good they have done does not yet ripen
But when the good matures
They’ll see the pleasant results of their good actions
Don’t think lightly of evil, thinking “It will not come back to me!”
Drop by drop, the pot is filled
Little by little, the fool is filled with evil
Don’t think lightly of good, thinking “It will not come to me!”
Drop by drop, the pot is filled.
Little by little, the wise one is filled with good.
Just as a merchant with a great caravan
Avoids a dangerous road
One who loves life avoid poison
Even so, should you avoid evil
A hand with no cuts can carry poison without harm
Poison does not enter without a wound
For one who does no evil
there are no ill consequences
Like dust upon the wind
evil falls back into the face
Of the fool who
who harms an innocent
Some are born in the womb
Evil is reborn in hell realms
People who do good are reborn in heavenly realms
The stainless are fully released in Nibbana
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10. |
Violence
09:07
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All beings tremble at violence
All being fear death
Seeing other as like yourself
Do not kill or cause other to kill
All beings tremble at violence
All beings cherish life
Seeing others as like yourself
Do not kill or cause others to kill
If one, desiring happiness
Uses violence to harm
Other who desire happiness
One won’t find it after death
If one, desiring happiness
Does not use violence to harm
Others who desire happiness
One will find happiness in this life and the next
Speak not harshly to anyone
For what you say will come back to you
Angry, harsh speech will hurt
And retaliation will overtake you
Like a broken bell
If you remain silent
You will have reached Nibbana
And no hostility will live in you
Just as the cowherd herds the cattle to pasture
So death and old age drive all life on
The fool, when doing evil, does not know its nature
By their fire the fool is burned
One who uses violence
to harm the nonviolent and innocent
Will swiftly find themselves
in one of ten states
Intense pain or disaster
Injury or insanity
Illness or slander
Oppression from rulers and blame
The loss of loved ones or wealth
Homes destroyed by flames
And with the dissolution of the body
The fool will fall into hell
No nakedness or matted hair
No smearing oneself with dust and ash
No fasting or lying on bare ground
No squatting in austere postures
Will purify one who has not overcome doubt
Even when well dressed
If one lives at peace
Calm and controlled, assured in what is holy
Giving up violence to all living beings
They are truly holy, brahmin, renunciate, monk they are holy
Rare in this world is the one who avoids reproach
Is restrained in conscience
And is as the horse
knows nothing of the whip
Like a good horse, ever alert to the whip
With virtue and effort, be alert and diligent
Concentrated and discerning
Destroy the endless suffering
(same progression as first verse)
Irrigators guide the water flow
Fletcher fashion arrows
The carpenters shape the timber
The wise tame their minds
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11. |
Old Age
05:47
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Why this laughter and joy?
When fire is ever burning?
Surrounded by dark
For the light shouldn’t you be searching?
Behold this body, a painted image
A propped up mass of sores
Full of illnesses and plans
None of this lasts!
This body is worn out
A nest of disease, so fragile
When life ends in death
This body will dissolve
What is the delight
Seeing these dull bones
Tossed to the ground
Like an autumn gourd
It’s a city built of bones
Plastered with flesh and blood
Inside dwell decay and death
Jealousy and pride
The most beautiful chariots wear out
Just as this body wears out
But the Dhamma of the Good does not
thus the Good make it known to the good
One who learns little grows old like an ox
they grow in size, but wisdom does not
Through many a birth I have wandered
Through samsara in vain
Seeking the builder of this house
Over and over, rebirth is suffering
O house builder, you are seen.
You will not build this house again
Your rafters are broken, your ridgepole shattered
The mind has attained the unconditioned
I have attained the destruction of craving
Those who in their youth
Have not led the holy life
Or failed to acquire wealth
Stoop over the waters like a crane with no fish
Those who in their youth
Have not led the holy life
Or failed to acquire wealth
Like misfired arrows from a bow lament the past
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12. |
The Self
06:36
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If one knew oneself to be dear
One would watch oneself with diligence
The wise will keep vigil
In the watches of the night
First, establish oneself
In what is proper
Only then, one can instruct others
In this way the wise will not be reproached
One should do what one teaches
Only the self-controlled should teach restraint
Indeed, difficult is self-restraint
One is truly one’s own protector
Whoever else could it be?
With self-control can one
Obtain a protector hard to find
The evil done is done by oneself
Born of oneself, produced by oneself
They are ground down
Like a diamond does to a stone
Just like the vine that creeps
How it strangles the tree
One who covers themselves in misconduct
Harm themselves as if by an enemy
It’s easy to do what is not good
Things that harm oneself
Extremely difficult is it to do
Things that benefit and are good
The unwise who, with unwise view
Scorn and malign the Arahants
Who live the Noble Dhamma
Will destroy themselves with the fruit they bear
Like the reeds that die with the fruit they bear
By oneself alone is evil done
By oneself is one defiled
By oneself alone is evil avoided
By oneself is one made pure
Purity and impurity depend on oneself
No one can purify another
Don’t neglect your own welfare
For another’s welfare, however great
Clearly know your own welfare
And be intent on the highest good
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13. |
The World
08:19
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Follow not a foolish way
Dwell not in negligence
Hold not unskillful view
Don’t be engrossed in worldly ways
Arise! Be not negligent!
Live life skillfully
One who lives the Dhamma lives happy
In this life and the next
Live the Dhamma, a righteous life
Don’t live in misconduct
One who lives the Dhamma lives happy
In this life and the next
See the world as a bubble
As a mirage
One won’t be seen
by the King of Death
Come, behold this world!
An exquisite royal chariot
Fools flounder in it
But the wise do not cling to it
They who cease negligence
And does good deeds
Illumines the world
Like the moon freed from the clouds
Blind is the world
Few have clear insight
Only a few, like birds escaping a net
Will go to heavenly realms
Swans fly the path of the sun
Psychics will fly through the air
The wise go forth from the world
Conquering Mara’s hoards
Those who speak falsely
And go against truth
Who scorn the next life
There is no evil they won’t do
Foolish misers will not ascend
To heavenly realms
The wise who praise generosity
Will find happiness in the next life
Better than ruling the world
Better than going to heaven
Better than supreme rule over the universe
Is the fruit of stream entry
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Barefoot Bran Kansas City, Kansas
Bran crafts his unique, down-to-earth folk songs that tell stories that are fun, inspiring, insightful, and ofttimes
humorous.
From heart-felt songs of world peace, to earthy tunes of Nature; from epic myths and stories, there’s sure to be something in Bran’s music for any groovy, tree-huggin’, peace-lovin’ soul!
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