The True Horizon (Equanimity)

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
Bhikkhu Bodhi, born December 10, 1944,
you wrote in 2000 about that balanced state,
absence of attachment, aversion gone.
Here in Watugala's meditation hall,
worn wooden floors under us,
but it's the rough cool stone I feel,
underfoot at 4:30 AM, 22 degrees Celsius,
damp earth and sandalwood mixing in the air.

[Chorus]
Oh stone, you hold me steady,
neither pleasure nor pain,
just this true horizon,
where the mind finds its poise,
equanimity like a neural baseline,
free from extremes, in the forest's quiet.

[Verse 2]
The Upekkha Sutta whispers from the Pali Canon,
Samyutta Nikaya's pages turning in my thoughts.
Monks meditate near charnel grounds,
observing decay since the 5th century CE,
but you, stone, you're my anchor now,
cool against skin, grounding the synaptic sparks,
no ups, no downs, just this even field.

[Bridge]
Clay bowl in hand, filled with sticky rice and kola leaves,
alms at dawn from unnamed women in the village.
Their faces lost to records, but their gifts remain,
like this stone's unyielding touch,
balancing the osmotic gradients in my cells,
the voltage gates steady, no shock, no spike.

[Verse 3]
Sangharakshita's words from 2003,
living with awareness in the mist,
wet moss scent at 5:00 AM.
You, stone, you're the sensory anchor,
rough and cool, embodying that poise,
neuroscience's homeostasis in Buddhist robes.

[Chorus]
Oh stone, you hold me steady,
neither pleasure nor pain,
just this true horizon,
where the mind finds its poise,
equanimity like a neural baseline,
free from extremes, in the forest's quiet.

[Outro]
The distant mallet strikes at 6:00 AM,
echoing through misty hills,
and you, stone, remain.