{"id":2342,"date":"2014-03-09T17:09:55","date_gmt":"2014-03-09T16:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/?p=2342"},"modified":"2014-03-09T17:35:28","modified_gmt":"2014-03-09T16:35:28","slug":"buddha-dharma-in-pharrell-williams-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/archives\/2342","title":{"rendered":"Buddha Dharma in Pharrell Williams &#8220;Happy&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am fortunate to have teenage daughters who occasionally point out incredibly positive contemporary music videos. I think the last one was <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/QK8mJJJvaes\">Macklemore &amp; Ryan Lewis\u00a0 &#8220;Thrift Shop&#8221;<\/a> . Normally I&#8217;m a traditional &#8220;shut that noise off&#8221; dad. I listen to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/radio3\">BBC Radio 3<\/a> if anything.<\/p>\n<p>Today they managed to get me to watch the Pharrell Williams &#8220;Happy&#8221; video. I&#8217;d heard the song before in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1690953\/\">Despicable Me 2 <\/a>of course but seeing the video converted me. It really moved me. Check out the embed below. There is also the <a href=\"http:\/\/24hoursofhappy.com\/\">24hoursofhappy.com<\/a> site where people dance to the song one after another for a whole day. Really fun to dip into.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y6Sxv-sUYtM\" height=\"480\" width=\"853\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The lyrics are sparse and not great poetry but they do convey the Dharma rather nicely. Here I point out the inner meaning Pharrell may be trying to communicate in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p00szxv6\/clips\">BBC Thought For The Day<\/a> style.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It might seem crazy what I\u2019m about to say<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Four_Noble_Truths\">The Four Noble Truths<\/a> are only really understandable by those who have been moved to see them (i.e. the Noble) so if this hasn&#8217;t occurred to you before it might freak you out a bit.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sunshine she\u2019s here, you can take a break<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Noble Truths says you can be released from suffering and that this is available to you here and now. You just have to take a break from craving things to be different.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I\u2019m a hot air balloon that could go to space<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I have started to understand this truth and it feels fantastic.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>With the air, like I don\u2019t care baby by the way<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I see my dependent co-existence (interbeing) with the air (and everything else) so am free of the suffering of mental striving, madam.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Because I\u2019m happy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Because I have seen through the illusion of an independent self to my interbeing with all creation I am released from suffering.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clap in time if you feel your non-self nature and are open to the world like a room without a roof. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/brene_brown_on_vulnerability\">Vulnerability is key to wholehearted living (Br\u00e9ne Brown)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clap if you see this interbeing as being the Reality of the world and how cool that is.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Clap along if you know what happiness is to you<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clap if you know how this makes you personally free of the suffering of delusional hindrances rather than being some intellectual idea.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Clap along if you feel like that\u2019s what you wanna do<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clap if you would like to continue living your life in this way of liberation<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Here come bad news talking this and that, yeah,<br \/>\nWell, give me all you got, and don\u2019t hold back, yeah,<br \/>\nWell, I should probably warn you I\u2019ll be just fine, yeah,<br \/>\nNo offense to you, don\u2019t waste your time<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If someone brings me bad news, whatever it is, I can take it because I have seen through the delusion of a separate self and entered into the true happiness of interbeing where everything is impermanent and a source of liberation. Please don&#8217;t take umbridge if I don&#8217;t get mad with you about something. I&#8217;m done with getting mad about stuff because I am happy, happy, happy.<\/p>\n<p>OK &#8211; it&#8217;s just a bit of fun but for me this video is kind of what the Dharma feels like. Buddha means Awakened One but Happy One or Free One would be good translations.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if there are\u00a0 Christian, Islamic and Jewish interpretations of the video?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am fortunate to have teenage daughters who occasionally point out incredibly positive contemporary music videos. I think the last one was Macklemore &amp; Ryan Lewis\u00a0 &#8220;Thrift Shop&#8221; . Normally I&#8217;m a traditional &#8220;shut that noise off&#8221; dad. I listen to BBC Radio 3 if anything. Today they managed to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mindfulness_buddhism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2342"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2353,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342\/revisions\/2353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyam.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}