Bodhi Bill

Your Weekly Source for Inspiration

IMAGINE, every Saturday, in your mailbox, receiving a fresh, new inspiration. A song.
A poem. A story. An uplifting thought.
Subscribe today and never miss an issue. It’s free. It’s inspiring. And it’s easy.
Fill out the form below to subscribe.

NOTE: If you do not receive a Welcome Message, check your spam filter for an email from bill@bodhibill.com

BLOG POSTS:

Start reading here

  • 5: Jack (our crazy janitor)

    One step over and two steps back…

    JACK WAS a real person and everything in his song really happened.

    Backstory: in the early ’90s I was a partner in a new graphic design business in Reno specializing in lavish casino high-roller party invitations—we were literally pioneering a new art form. Our (very cheap) office lease included weekly janitorial services, which we thought was a steal—until Jack showed up. The rest is history.

    Perhaps as interesting is that this was the first song to stream in from elsewhere, in Chewelah—a small burgh in eastern Washington—while touring the area with friends in the back seat of their compact station wagon.

    I was lucky enough to have a pen and a scrap of paper, which was a good thing as I soon came to realize the muse has no pause button.

    This was around 1995, and I had no idea it represented the beginning of an avalanche of unbidden musical creativity. Why and for what purpose, I still don’t know. 

    If you enjoy it, that’s a good enough reason for me. I’ve enjoyed producing it.

    Happy listening…

    Why am I doing this?

    HINT: NOT FOR THE MONEY.

    Most of us came of age during the now fading era where making songs was about making money, a business that kicked into high gear with the invention of recording, creating a product to sell, a product that was expensive to make and risky to market. If a company scored a hit, they scored big.

    That model collapsed with the introduction of studio-quality home recording and digital streaming. Musicians could now produce and sell their own tracks—flooding the market.

    For example, Spotify now has over 100 million songs online. One hundred million. So most musicians trying to make a living have to tour constantly to hope just to make ends meet. Except for a handful of superstars, there is no money in recording.

    Lucky for me, I never intended to make money off my songs. Heck, I never even intended to write them! But, to me, they seem meaningful and inspiring.

    So my mission is to give them away to people who might find them meaningful. My price is that listeners actually listen to what the songs say and evoke.

    That’s why they are videos with the lyric included as subtitles. And that’s why I will NOT be putting them on streaming. These songs contain wisdom that didn’t come from me; it came through me. I don’t want that to become background music to distract from other tasks.

    We are losing the ability to savor. Technology is assaulting our birthright as humans to be present, open, aware and centered.

    I’m doing this to help bring some of that back, even for a minute or two—ironically using the very technology being used to destroy it.

    Thanks for listening.

    Enjoy!

  • 4: Little Heart

    A Song for a Child’s Heart

    “There is only one heart in all creation, one heart in which all others beat in time…

    I DIDN’T see this one coming. It started when I was transposing a bluegrass banjo picking pattern onto a classical guitar and this fluttery sound appeared. It felt like a heartbeat, and as I leaned into that notion, out came this lyric.

    Over the years, it has become one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it.

    Nurturing Hope and Joy

    THESE ARE dark times: a wanna-be dictator smashing America’s democratic norms; a rapidly evolving AI threatening to seize and disable the internet with either out-of-control bots or malicious actors; a worsening climate crisis, mostly ignored. It’s almost rational to give in to despair.

    Morally, despair is not an option. Fascism feeds on despair and hopelessness. Neither is denial in its many forms, including blind optimism—all of which conveniently excuse action. Those of us concerned with the better good must act.

    The question is: in what context? To simply fight oppression and injustice is to become a fighter and risk we get lost in the fight. We need, I believe, a balance between that and faith, hope and joy. That is my mission on this site.

    Little Heart is an ode to innocence, vulnerability, compassion and hope.

    Give it a listen.  I think it’s worth two minutes of your time.

  • 3: Searching for Something

    Embracing the Paradox

    And so the journey begins. First step: paradox. The coolest word I learned in grad school was antinomy— that the opposite of any truth is another truth.

    From Merriam Webster:

    1: a contradiction between two apparently equally valid principles or between inferences correctly drawn from such principles.
     
    2 : a fundamental and apparently unresolvable conflict or contradiction.
     
    The material realm is constructed out of paradox. Good, evil. Happy, sad. Eveerything has its opposite. The spiritual realm is unity. Bringing one into the other requires skill and an appreciation of nuance.
     
    More on that later. Just sit back now and enjoy the song…

    WE ARE LIVING in dark, dystopian times. Inaction in the face of a deliberate sabotage of democratic values—let alone basic human decency—is  unacceptable. No one is coming to rescue us.

    But getting lost in the fight is not a workable long-term strategy either.

    What I will be offering in this section Is a discussion on how to balance lived spirituality with ongoing action to resist an advancing tyranny and its future of despair, destruction and even death—perhaps culminating with an out-of-control AI seizing the internet and ending civilization itself.

    We can change this ominous trajectory if we act in unison with vision, hope and courage. And, most importantly, with joy, awe and wonder.

    We can do this. Joy can prevail. See you  next week…

  • 2: Starting the Time Machine

    A JOURNEY through TIME and SPACE

    TIME MACHINE is a virtual CD with 12 virtual tracks. It is a compilation of the best of my songs written over 30 years. It is meant to be listened to, so that is why I’m releasing them only as sub-titled videos, to encourage listeners to slow down for just a few minutes and savor an experience.

    Time Machine begins with two songs meant to dovetail each other. The first, Diamonds of Song, is the only song I’ve intentionally written that works. It sets the stage for what follows.

    The second, Rockin’ to the Grave, is more spirited than spiritual, but starts at the beginning—the first crack in the façade, the first glimmer of awakening—that can ignite an urge to rebel.

    To pursue spirituality in the West is an act of rebellion. It means to step out of conventional safety and security to enter the unknown—a realm of radical self-empowerment, where authentic spiritual teachings lead to practices that lead to experiences that lead to transformation.

    Rationally, radical transformation can be terrifying. As the veils of delusion begin to fall away, and things gradually start to appear as they truly are, you will begin to become estranged from conventional reality, still participating in the rituals but now perceiving the utter madness that drives them. Living in the world, you may begin to feel on your own, alone, unless you have a spiritual partner or cross paths with fellow seekers from time to time.

    Yet, paradoxically, you will become more grounded and sublimely joyful, even in the midst of the horrors of our age. You will need less, want less and become less. And it will slowly cease to matter.

    And, ironically, this can lead not to dropping out, but dropping in. Action, not apathy. Increasing social passions for justice and equality while fostering a detached equanimity.

    Don’t say I didn’t warn you!  😇 

  • 1: Coming Soon

    WELCOME to BODHI BLOG!

    STARTING SATURDAY, September 19, 2026, I will be posting a weekly blog featuring a video of a new song, poem or story. Along with that will be a Musings section with various thoughts on spirituality in real life.

    SONGS

    FIRST UP: SONGS. The first collection I’ll share is from my virtual CD Time Machine. I’ll begin by posting a video of one a week along with details on how it came about.

    Sometimes seeming more spirited than spiritual, they represent a lived spirituality. I hope you find them useful in your own life process. 

    STORIES

    AFTER A FEW SONGS, I will begin sharing my KO-EMS, first with an introductory video montage as an overview, then one at a time.

    KO-EMS are a combination of an austere the Zen koan (What is the sound of one hand clapping) with a whimsical children’s poem (The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout).The result is two rhyming couplets that can both twist your mind and bring a smile.

    There will be other stories down the road and around the bend, but we’ll start with KO-EMS…

    MUSINGS

    ALONG WITH each weekly video posting I’ll be exploring my own spiritual journey, warts and all.

    We live in dark, dystopian times that call for action. However, acting against the overwhelming forces of cruelty, oppression and injustice can can lead to burnout.

    This space is an opportunity to explore the balance between two opposing realities: one outer— temporal and material—appearing solid, yet ever changing; the other, inner—at its core timeless and blissful—yet hidden beneath dense layers of irrational mental static—seemingly unreal yet often terrifying to face.

    THIS IS the journey we are about to embark upon. Welcome aboard. Hope you find value, freedom and joy in this inner expedition.

    BEGINNING Saturday, September 19