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Natalie Merchant "Giving up Everything"
Theswingisyellow
Trying to be open to existenceSamsara Veteran
I love Natalie Merchant. From her new album. 
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Comments
For me when she covered the heart with the glass it showed that giving up everything could be nihilism ie trying to have peace by rejecting everything.
Also at the beginning the mask was held to her face with her hand. At the end it was stuck there without any hands.
oooh, thank you! I adore her, I didn't realize she had a new album out/coming out!
I don't think she talking nihilism, (sounds pretty Buddhist IMO) here are the lyrics:
Giving up everything,
my hungry ghost of hopefulness.
Giving up everything,
not haunted by wanting this.
Giving up everything,
the fortune I was saving.
Giving up everything,
I mercy-killed my craving.
Giving up everything,
I’ve opened up my eyes for this.
Giving up everything,
see the whole magnificent emptiness.
Gave what I want for how it is,
for the stone inside and the bitterness,
for the sweetness at the core of it.
Giving up everything,
the master plan, the scheming.
Giving up everything,
my cursed search for meaning.
Giving up everything,
the compass and the map I was reading.
The hinterlands I’m leaving,
I’m finally leaving behind.
Giving up everything,
the big to-do, the hullabaloo,
the tug-of-war for some twisted truth.
For the everlasting ache of it,
no longer slave, not chained to it,
no gate, no guard, no keeper,
no guru, master, teacher.
See the slow-receding faces
dissolve to black, no traces.
I have been listening to her since she was with the 10,000 Maniacs.
Love her work!
Album is awesome!
@theswingisyellow, thanks for this. My GF is a big Natalie Merchant fan, I'll play her this tomorrow.
Why do you think she covered a heart with a glass dome then? Just curious?
M. 29
Hence, the purpose of the Holy Life does not consist in acquiring alms, honour, or fame, nor in gaining morality, concentration, or the eye of knowledge. That unshakable deliverance of the heart: that, indeed, is the object of the Holy Life, that is its essence, that is its goal.
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/word-of-buddha/wobgrad1.htm
Jeffrey,
To me the words and video signified her giving up/ dropping the pretense, the conceptual thinking we have about our lives and ourselves. In the video she puts her hand to her heart at "for the sweetness at the core of it"
The heart at the end is put on a pedestal, it is enshrined and maybe it's really the only important thing. That's my take.
No it's far from nihilism - covering the heart in a dome of glass - well that is just begging me to wield my mental sledge-hammer, to set it free from a brittle shield.
Thank you for that @Theswingisyellow - I Loved it!
Yes I did like it. One good thing about art is that it is open for interpretation.
NM is pretty.