Thomas, I appreciate your honesty, and it reminded me of a poem by Rick Cain

“The ancient of Man ponders his curiosity. Questions arise as he wonders of his own significance… How time moves as sands of an hour glass, not to be grasped, but reckoned with by the moment. The focus of a single crystal houses Hope, Love and the rainbow multitude of Life’s involvement. We see these things as in passing… we feel them as now. The Master of these sands is he who loves each crystal.”

I’ve never been great at zazen myself. I used to approach the silence as if I were building a fortress, trying to keep the “world” out so I could finally be “spiritual.” I had to let that go. Part of the letting go was changing my relationship to the word “spiritual” to a experience of “Harmony”.

So when you say a pop song breaks in, wonder if that song isn’t a wall but a Gate?

When you sit in the silence and a song arises, it feels like encountering that “rainbow multitude of Life’s involvement.” That lyric in your head a crystal of sand, a opportunity to “reckon with the moment,” where the silence turns out to be big enough to carry the song.

Your instinct to writing those lyrics out feels like an act of loving the crystal. Acknowledging that right now, the universe is singing a popular tune through you. I don’t think the SandMaster would tell you to be quiet; he’d probably just start humming along.