Mr. Altig’s Overview of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra

A stripped-down folk-blues meditation for anyone who’s ever felt the weight of the world on their shoulders. “The Dewdrop and the Sea” is a story about moving from the burnout of trying to fix everything to the quiet hope found in small, meaningful action. It’s a song about a simple truth: our individual acts of kindness are never lost, but are like dewdrops rejoining an ocean of compassion that holds us all. A front-porch tune for a heavy heart.  

(Lyrics)

(Music begins with a simple, repeating acoustic guitar riff in a minor key. A lone harmonica plays a short, mournful melody, then fades.)

(Verse 1) Well, the garden of this world is overgrown and wild The soil is cracked and thirsty for the tears of every child I took my rusty shovel, I took my calloused hands Tried to fix the sorrow spread across these broken lands But the weeds just grew up higher, the more I cut ’em down Felt the weight of every soul in every lonely town.

(Verse 2) I was sittin’ in the silence, ’bout to give up the fight When I heard a sound like water in the stillness of the night It wasn’t thunder, wasn’t rain, it was somethin’ soft and low The sound of someone listenin’ to the seeds that wouldn’t grow A name that came like mercy, a voice that heard my plea Said the work is not in conquerin’, but in what you learn to be.

(Chorus) ‘Cause the vow is deep as the sea, friend, it’s wider than the sky And you’re just a single drop of dew beneath a watchin’ eye Don’t you try to hold the ocean in the bottom of your cup Just let your own small sorrow join the tide and lift you up.  

(Verse 3) I tried to build a fortress, tried to make the crooked straight Broke my back against the stone and cursed the hands of fate Thought the answer was in power, in the strength that I could own But the whisper came again and said, “It’s in the quiet seed you’ve sown.” It ain’t the mighty river that can carve the canyon deep It’s the patient, steady water that is flowin’ while you sleep.  

(Chorus) ‘Cause the vow is deep as the sea, friend, it’s wider than the sky And you’re just a single drop of dew beneath a watchin’ eye Don’t you try to hold the ocean in the bottom of your cup Just let your own small sorrow join the tide and lift you up.

(Bridge) (Guitar becomes a little softer, more contemplative. Harmonica plays a gentle, hopeful phrase.) That voice can wear a thousand faces, a thousand different skins It’s in the beggar’s open hand, the place where grace begins It’s in the mother’s gentle touch, the ruler’s steady gaze It’s livin’ in the web of life through all our tangled days You think you’re workin’ all alone, a solitary soul But every thread you gently mend helps make the whole thing whole.  

(Verse 4) So put away your anger, friend, and lay your armor down You can be the hands that soothe a fever in this town You can be the ears that listen to a story full of pain You don’t have to stop the flood, just offer shelter from the rain That is how the vow is lived, that is how the work is done Not with the power of a god, but the wisdom of the sun.  

(Outro) (Guitar slows, returning to the opening riff. Harmonica comes in, playing a final, quiet melody that fades out slowly.) A single drop of dew… In the ocean, me and you… Deep as the sea… Deeper than me…

(Final guitar chord rings out and fades to silence.)