Bodhisattva, would you take me by the hand
Bodhisattva, would you take me by the hand

Can you show me the shine of your Japan
The sparkle of your china, can you show me

Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva
I'm gonna sell my house in town
Bodhisattva
I'm gonna sell my house in town

And I'll be there to shine in your Japan
To sparkle in your China, yes I'll be there
Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva

Bodhisattva, would you take me by the hand
Bodhisattva, would you take me by the hand
Can you show me the shine of your Japan
The sparkle of your china, can you show me

Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva
I'm gonna sell my house in town
Bodhisattva
I'm gonna sell my house in town

And I'll be there to shine in your Japan
To sparkle in your China, yes I'll be there
Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva, look out


Lyrics submitted by AbFab

Bodhisattva Lyrics as written by Walter Carl Becker Donald Jay Fagen

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Bodhisattva song meanings
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  • +4
    My Interpretation

    I think there are hints of the real meaning in the posts here.

    The song is an eye-rolling satire of Westerner's (Hollywood/California flakes in particular) oversimplified misunderstandings of Eastern 'religion'. The protagonist does want a quick fix. He could be a middle aged guy, someone who's wasted his life, an addict, or someone who has just realized that they are spiritually bankrupt. They've heard that Buddhism has the answers or so it seems to them.

    They reach out to a teacher. The teacher may be a charlatan, as many have suggested (like the Beatle's reference in Sexy Sadie) or they may be legit. This is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the protagonist thinks that they can follow a set of rules or a recipe to achieve enlightenment or happiness. Rather than doing the hard work of self-assessment and self-improvement, they want the "Cliff's Notes" version of spirituality. They seek to copy off of the teacher's paper, so to speak.

    "Sell my house in town" could refer abdication of worldly attachments in earnest or as a 'check-off' item on their list to obtain enlightenment. Or maybe it's just what they focused on during a quick reading of #2 from the "The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas" by Gyelsey Togmey Zangpo, ie, "Give up your homeland".

    I agree the protagonist sounds rushed and insincere, likely intentional on Fagan's part, particularly with a lot of the repetitions. Also, if you take a step back, there are a lot of vampy repetitions in the song both lyrically and musically. I suspect that this is a musical joke for Walter and Donald, a metaphor for the continuous cycles that the protagonist is stuck in an "ocean of cyclic existence"--on a grand scale repeating mistakes in reincarnation and on a microscale of repeating meaningless phrases over and over.

    jwebbjron August 03, 2011   Link

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