'The general concept behind the song,' Yauch said, 'was to take the meaning of Shantideva's text, at least on the level that I understood it, and compress it into a modernized, three-verse rhyming song.' Yauch began his serious study of Buddhism after attending a Dalai Lama lecture in spring 1993, in the midst of recording the Check Your Head album.
As a practicing Buddhist, he had taken the Bodhisattva vow, which is a promise to liberate all sentient beings from suffering by practicing the six perfections of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom.
The song was driven primarily by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (MCA).
