some small songs written and recorded in various bedrooms and basements (and basement bedrooms) between 2008 and 2010. it was a terrifically terrifying and wonderful couple of years that i can't believe went by so quickly, or even that they went at all, and that i am here after them. thank yous to some beautiful new people (and to some beautiful familiar persons), sighs to some new scars and recent regrets. good things mostly.

here are some words about Sannyasa, for those interested, taken from the Hindu Narada Parivrajaka Upanishad, as translated in Patrick Olivelle's "The Samnyasa Upanisads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation":

"Enduring the pairs of opposites, he is affected neither by cold nor by heat, neither by pleasure nor by pain, neither by sleep nor by honor and dishonor...He gives up slander, egotism, jealousy, pride, deceit, envy, indignation, desire, hate, pleasure, pain, lust, anger, greed, delusion, and the like, and he regards his body as a corpse. He considers nothing within or without as other than himself. He pays obeisance to no one...He neither blames nor gives praise. Let him live without forethought or planning, satisfied with whatever he receives at random. Let him not accept gold and the like. For him there is neither invitation nor dismissal, neither mantras nor non-mantras, neither meditation nor worship, neither the perceptible nor the imperceptible, neither the separate nor the non-separate, neither day nor night. At all times he lives resolutely without a home in deserted houses, at the foot of trees, in temples, on haystacks, in potter's sheds, in sheds for fire sacrifices, in the southeastern quarter, on the sandy banks of rivers, in cellars, in glens, by waterfalls, in open fields, or in a forest...He keeps his conduct concealed; he acts as if he were a fool, a lunatic, or a goblin; and, although he is sane, he behaves like a madman...Waistband, loincloth, staff, garment, and water pot: let him throw all these in water and thereafter wander clad as he was at birth and seeking the self...He has no possessions. He is firmly established in the path of the true Brahman. His mind is pure. At the proper time and merely to sustain his life, he eats food that he receives without asking, using his hand or his mouth as a begging bowl, and remaining the same both when he receives and when he does not. He is selfless. He devotes himself completely to meditating on the pure Brahman. He is grounded in the Supreme Self. He is intent on the uprooting of both pure and impure acts. After renouncing, he gives up the three bodies in the manner of the wasp and the worm, calling to mind the mystic OM with the thought: 'I am Brahman, who is absolute bliss and pure consciousness.' Such a man, who abandons his body through renunciation, has done all there is to do."

a second Sannyasa EP, songs (of Death), should be here to accompany these recordings in the not so distant future.

lots of love,
-mat (August 12th, 2010)