lefreeakblog

With no hesitation Adam Yaunch, better known by his stage name of MCA and who died nine years ago last Tuesday, launches into his band's Bodhisattva Vow, one of the most unique songs in hip hop: " I develop the awakening mind I praise the Buddhas as they shine I bow before you as I travel my path To join your ranks, I make my full time task " The Beastie Boys' Bodhisattva Vow is MCA's masterpiece about being a practising Buddhist and the veneration of fellow Buddhists. What makes it particularly astonishing is how eloquent and palatable it is within the confines of the 3 minute pop/hip hop song, as he himself explained: "The general concept behind the song," Yauch said, "was to take the meaning of Shantideva's text, at least on the level that I understood it, and compress it into a modernised, three-verse rhyming song." The track's genesis started when Yauch attended a lecture by the Dalai Lama in the Spring of '93 whilst recording