Sink or Swim

I was really obsessed with this punk band and their socio-political lyrics. Here is the lyrics to one of my favorite songs. The band is called Citizen Fish. If you are curious, there are good clips of them on Youtube. They are a wise punk band, and honestly I know of hardly any rock bands that rock like they do. Honestly, there lead singer may be a Jnani, the Self for all I know (the stage an ashram???). There was something so incredibly uplifting about them, hence my obsession.

"Let's go down to the beaches And run from the edge of the sea See what the movement teaches A frail sense of autonomy Cold toes in the water Two steps from freezing feet Feel the strength as you go in deeper And the cold consistency And if there's anyone watching You dare not turn around Till your arms are doing the clutching As your feet leave the ground Control or capitulation A new sense of affinity Having lost all the hesitation But back there it was just the sea Just a blue mass on the postcards Just a place to race the boats Just a waveline on the blackboard And now see how long the illusion float With risk co-ordination Swim half as far as you can We lose control of the situation When we think we've got it all pre-planned Back in dead-air building blocks We lose the urge to take a risk And calmly change our sandy socks Wishing there was more than this Stuck in these concrete houses We dry out in the heat Invent the worst excuses To stay there permanently Too many regulations Too many rituals The biggest risk was taken Deep-ending in the swimming pool The structured sand and water Reflects our structures lives We swim but never further Than the constraints of our minds Let's get back to the beaches Wider than a postcard And run straight into the sea Longer than a holiday That's what the movement teaches Sink or swim spontaneity You'll see what citizen can be If we recall the deep blue sea That evolved our weary brains Getting shrunk from too much stress We either get back into swimming Or we sink into a mess!"

This song, still profound has alot in it that could relate to Self-Inquiry, and spiritual practice, diving in, unself-consciously into the Self, dispelling the constraints of the mind. Walking into the Sea paying no attention to what others are doing, or whether they are noticing, treating circumstances, problems as insignificant. Discovering what is an illusion, or just a conceptual representation (i.e. the postcards, or wave line on the blackboard is no substitute for the Ocean, in the same way an intellectual understanding of spirituality, is no substitute for the experience of diving inward)



Another song: Dividing Lines
"So busy picking holes in our skin/that stretches tight to keep us all in/thatwhen what we thought were eternal friends/have dissappeared from the scene/orchanged their habits to suit themselves/we begin to see what it means/to bechoosing something outside the rules/that no one sets but we follow/demandingleaders and food for thought/and it's getting harder to swallow/meanwhile thepolice and the tax demands/are coming in harder than ever/we're raising ourfists but not joining hands/for fear of being seen together/with people in thesame mentality/but differently aligned/we got straightedge harcore this corethat core/too many dividing lines/individual personal choices/set examples butdon't create laws/we are not all the same as eachother/but the differece itain't much at all/so do what you like but let me do the same/and maybe we'lldo it together one day! "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIppi2ofhqs&feature=related Here is a clip of this incredibly inspiring band, I still think so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8AwhV2x1bM

Here is the lyrics to these two clips.

Do you know what you are eating?Oh! fill me up with foodThe stomach's ringing hunger bellsSometimes anything will doBeware the wind that coke can bringIt dries the parts it reachesCultural deserts carry the canCoke adds life then bleeds itEat it!Be watching out for indigestionLong time since you touched a cowFarming forms to fit consumptionThat pain is what you eat, not howDo you know what you are breathing?Oh! fill me up with airThe lungs are wringing out the smellsFor something fresh to wearCars that fume in queues for more petrolTo get to somewhere else to breathAir conditioning through acceptanceExtra for the weathermen to readBreath it!As air gains the status of gradesQuality recedes as any of it gets praisedWill they put it in bottles like they did with the rain?"OxyGenerico" in profit again and again and againWhat we eat and drink and breatheFilters down through industryCreates our life expectancyDo you know what you are drinking?Oh! fill me up with waterAll bar the lungs are in on this oneNinety percent and way importantTap on the back says "don't use tap"Scarcity value or it just tastes crapPrivatised and purifiedIts raining chemistry outsideEat it!Drink it!Breath it!What we eat and drink and breatheCreates our life expectancyChoking the consumer diesClutching burger, coke and friesClutching burger, coke and friesClutchingBurger, coke and fries


Growing skin last washed forgotten, when it would be getting rotten but for the rain. Sold times zero to shut out the refrain, "How come we never got to see you again?" Not so much trapped as preferring to hide. Don't open the door unless you're going outside. Living on nothing getting too expensive. Turned it inside out and lost the friendship. With a mood of defiance and not wanting it, becoming reliant on the fact it exists. Searching for something better that this? Throw out the pieces that never would fit. And throw out the jig…saw you coming for miles. Emptied the bin with a, picked up the phone with a, had a few words with a, wrote it all down with a smile. And time stood still like good times do, while bad times hovered in the recent past. Talking them over lets you know you can choose between cutting them dead or letting them last. And the choosing is the using of your own self-esteem. Did you like it as it was? Or has it never really been? Some people want it dirty and others like I clean, denying there's an area that's lying in-between. Watching the blind leading the blind gives you the time to use your mind. Plenty of skin to grown back again, plenty of room outside the one you're in.