Bob Schwartz

“If somebody doesn’t begin to provide some kind of harmony, we will not be able to develop sanity in this world at all. Somebody has to plant the seed so that sanity can happen on this earth.”
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Always maintain only a joyful mind.

If someone punches you in the mouth and says, “You are terrible,” you should be grateful that such a person has actually acknowledged you and said so. You could, in fact, respond with tremendous dignity by saying, “Thank you, I appreciate your concern.” In that way his neurosis is taken over by you, taken into you, much as is done in tonglen practice. There is an immense sacrifice taking place here. If you think this is ridiculously trippy, you are right. In some sense the whole thing is ridiculously trippy. But if somebody doesn’t begin to provide some kind of harmony, we will not be able to develop sanity in this world at all. Somebody has to plant the seed so that sanity can happen on this earth.

Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness – Chogyam Trungpa

An opportunity to feature the song Make the Madness Stop (1968) by The Free Design.

The Free Design were one of the most inventive pop vocal groups of the late ’60s and early ’70s, transcending run-of-the-mill AM radio fare with intricate harmonies and arrangements that called on expanded instrumentation, uncommon time signatures, and advanced compositional touches. From 1967 to 1973, the band produced seven albums of their specific brand of pop sounds, one that appeared naïve and light on the surface, but held depth in its layers of precise production and emotionally unguarded musical themes. Perhaps too advanced for mainstream tastes, the Free Design would linger in commercial obscurity for their initial period of activity, producing only one charting single in their time while contemporaries like the Beach Boys and the Association dominated the airwaves and the charts. The group’s legacy would live on, however, as new generations of fans were blown over by their complex musicality and fearless sincerity. Artists like Beck, Stereolab, Belle and Sebastian, and Cornelius all cited the Free Design’s influence on their music, and the renewed interest in the band was enough for them to reconvene in 2001 for the album Cosmic Peekaboo.

Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Make the Madness Stop by The Free Design

Follow the way that leads between madness and madness
Flowers on both sides, each side has weeds and gladness and sadness

Pathways are green and black and white and yellow and crimson
Walk on the rainbow flooded by both sides’ truths and opinion

Deplete we must the store of hate immense
And grouping groping nonsense

Honesty and purity, beauty and sincerity
Doesn’t that sound corny?
Wish that I were corny

Walk the way of love, eyes open
Fly the skies above with hope and heart and sense
Blow your mind but not completely
Make the madness stop