Chinese Contemporary Buddhist Music

I have visited the Peoples Republic of China on four different occasions since 1996 and during these trips I must have visited more than fifty different temples. Each visit would envitably end up in the Gift Store where I would always buy too much stuff to bring back to the states. I still have stuff in boxes in my Garage. Anyway, in each of these temples there would be music playing very loudly, so I thought I 'd share a sample of the current music of Chinese Buddhism played in temples today in China.

Breaking it Down

I don't normally do this but I was so taken by this post that I am adding a link to it. I was very taken by the authors honesty and insight. I hope you enjoy.

Breaking it Down

the story of hakuin

Many of us have an extraordinarily superficial understanding of what Buddha described as the complete unexcelled awakening. In essence, Buddha said that there is an absolute and infinite world that is unified outside of thought and that most of us never find it. He said that this world is always present yet remains unseen. He also said that love is the dominant force manifested in that world and that the spirit of love always supersedes logic or rational thought as a basis for action. He said that anyone who discovers this experience will also find freedom from life and death and that nothing in the ordinary world is worth anything compared to finding this ultimate treasure.
Because indoctrinated thinking habits lead to a kind of existential blindness, it can often be helpful to read about unfamiliar religious figures. The story of Hakuin and Xuěfēng Yìcún, for example, deals with finding the unknowable truth from a radically different cultural perspective.
In 884 ACE, Xuěfēng Yìcún, a Chinese Buddhist spiritual master who had over a thousand disciples, one day told his monks that just prior to his death in the future, he would give a great shout. Three years later, during a period of civil unrest, some bandits who had come to loot his monastery temple murdered Xuěfēng. As he died, he yelled so loudly that villagers reported they heard the yell over two miles away.
About a thousand years later, in 1705 ACE, Hakuin, a young Japanese monk, was greatly troubled when he heard this story. “If even a great master like Xuěfēng could not die peacefully,” he thought, “what hope is there for me?” Nevertheless, Hakuin meditated each day in an effort to free himself from reflective thought and to reach a deep enough level of mind to understand why Xuěfēng yelled when he was murdered. Five years later, he had a major enlightenment experience whereupon in great joy he exclaimed, “Wonder of wonders. I, myself, am Xuěfēng unharmed!” Hakuin then visited Shoju, a living master, to receive confirmation of his understanding. However, Shoju indicated that his understanding was still very limited and laughingly called him “a poor hole-dwelling creature.”
Later, after much more hard practice, Hakuin was crossing a stream when he had an enlightenment experience so great that he dropped all of his belongings and fell down into the water laughing. Some passing people thought that he had gone mad and assisted him from the river, but Hakuin could only sit helplessly on the riverbank and continue laughing with joy and happiness at what he had discovered.
After this experience, Hakuin was a changed person and he began attracting many followers. Ultimately, he became the teacher of hundreds of monastics and thousands of lay-people and became one of the most beloved spiritual teachers in seventeenth-century Japan. Today, he is remembered in the West as the man who developed the well known but little-understood existential test question, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” (Hakuin used this question and several variations of it to discern to what extent people had transcended reflective thought).
After about thirteen years of effort, Hakuin discovered a world which most of us never find. After he found it, he no longer desired anything for himself. After he found it, he became filled with love and compassion and his only concern was helping others. He spent the next fifty years of his life telling everyone he met that the most important thing in life is to discover one’s identity.
Many of us waste our time arguing about scriptures and how we ought to follow particular codes of conduct or adhere to particular systems of belief, but this is a great mistake. Scriptures, beliefs, and codes of conduct will not lead to freedom from life and death. They will not eradicate ego, they will not produce love and compassion, and they will certainly not lead to some idea of enlightenment. If we want to find the simple teaching that Buddha insisted, is worth more than anything else, then we must spend as much time as possible learning to transcend the habit of conception. We must practice looking, listening, and experiencing without distinction. We must practice suspending our internal speech and ideation so that our mind will stop hiding from us the fantastic kingdom in which we already live. If we want to experience the truth, then we must strive to perceive what lies behind the images and ideas that we project and to which we become so attached. We must learn to see the world just as it is.

The Danger of Watching Too Much Mind Television

Many adults complain about the amount of time children spend watching television, but the habit of watching television five or six hours per day is relatively insignificant compared with the adult habit of watching mind television fifteen or sixteen hours per day. As adults, we often spend less than fifteen minutes each day perceiving or experiencing the real world while the rest of our time is spent glued to the internal tube of cognition perceiving an endless stream of images, ideas and symbols produced by our own minds. What’s worse, most of us watch mind television unconsciously, don’t understand the consequences of this habit, and don’t know that it is possible to quit.

In a nutshell, learning how to turn off mind television is what the spiritual life and Zen practice is all about. All of the other distractions, the ideas, interpretations, and beliefs are just a fantasy broadcast from our internal television station. Only by turning off our mind television does the welfare of all human beings become as important as our own. Only by turning off our mind television does the need for external security or recognition disappear. Why? Because reality is a unified whole whose wholeness can only be perceived when the image/idea/symbol-making function of mind is transcended. If we think about the world or see a mental image of the world, it is too late; we have already lost the real thing. Reality is alive and present whereas the image, idea, and symbol are dead constructs we carry with us.

The choice in life is whether to wake up and become conscious of what is real or remain asleep in a television dream world created by our intellect. The reason that so many great spiritual masters have gone into the wilderness to find enlightenment is to get away from the social distractions that stimulate reflective thought processes. They intuitively realized that mental silence is a prerequisite for perceiving the Absolute. The Bible sums it up in two verses, “Be still, and know that I am God,” and “The kingdom of God is within you.” The Hindu Upanishads are even more explicit, “The wise shall surrender speech in mind.” If we insist upon using our mind solely to conceive and project ideas on the television screen of our mind, then we will never experience the world of unity; we will only experience our own thinking.

To break the habit of watching mind television requires great effort because the habit is far more powerful, pernicious, and addictive than the habit of watching ordinary television. If we want to verify this fact, we can sit down and silently watch what goes through our mind for five minutes and then try to shut it off.

The Pharisees couldn’t perceive the reality about which Christ taught because they were in the habit of watching endless Pharisee mind television programs. Today, many of us are addicted to personal perception mind television programs. Ironically, the world about which all spiritual teachers have taught can never appear on anyone’s mind television because it cannot be captured in images, ideas or symbols. Alive and incomprehensibly vast, that world can only be perceived by a far deeper level of mind than the intellect.

Yusuf Islam - the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens

This new song Roadsinger is brilliant. I came of age listening to Cat Stevens and love so much that he has come back to writing and singing.

Steven Seagal: Lawman on A&E

I will reserve the comments for you to make.

Signal To Noise - Peter Gabriel - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Live)

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Peter Gabriel performing live in a concert - Signal to noise

I got to see Peter Gabriel back, I think it was '04, but my memory isn't as good as it used to be, on his Growing Up Tour in Anaheim. Actually I was three rows from the revolving stage and have always loved Peter's progressive and brilliant writing. He did play the piece that Nusrat sings in the background, and unfortunately Nusrat had passed away several years before the concert. I started listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in 1994 when one of the residents of the Ocean Eyes Zen Center bought one of his CD's and all the Zen students became instant fans. I just discovered this recording on youtube and wanted to share it with everyone.

Leonard Cohen collapses on stage in Spain: reports

MADRID — Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was forced to cut short a concert in Spain late Friday after he became ill and collapsed on stage, Spanish media said.
A member of his band, Javier Mas, said Cohen suffered a "severe attack of indigestion" and vomiting but that his situation was not serious, the newspaper El Mundo reported on its website.
It said Cohen, who turns 75 on Monday, was performing "Bird on the Wire" about half an hour into the show in the eastern city of Valencia when he lost his balance as he went to pick up a guitar.
He was saved from falling by backup singers, but moments later he collapsed again and was helped off stage to receive treatment from a medical team.
Mas came out almost an hour later to tell the thousands of people gathered in the Luis Puig Velodrome that Cohen would not be returning to the stage that night, but that he hoped to reschedule the show for another time, El Mundo said.
Valencia was the penultimate stop on his nine-concert tour of Spain, which is due to end in Barcelona on Monday.
The Canadian poet, novelist and singer-songwriter emerged in the 1960s with his first album "Songs Of Leonard Cohen", which included one of his best-known songs, "Suzanne".
He quit the music scene in the early 1990s, living at a Buddhist monastery in California, where he was ordained a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the name Jikhan, meaning "silence".
But he was forced to return after being swindled out of his retirement nest egg by his former manager.

God?

A close friend of mine sent me the following story last night. She is from Mumbai and is a Svetambara Jain who follows her religion vigorously. It is nice to have friends with diverse backgrounds and I have learned a lot from her and her circle of friends. Many Buddhist’s may have a problem with the “G” word that is used in this exchange; however, the concept of God in India is closer to the concept of the Dao in China than it is in our Western Judeo-Christian Society. The baggage of conceptualization is always a mistake, so please read this through to the end. There are a few sticking points in this story that don’t hold up to 21st Scientific understanding, yet given the context of this conversation taking place in the late 1940’s or early 50’s it shows why the student in our story ended up where he did.

A Professor of Science was lecturing to his class on the problem science has with the concept of God, the unknowable thing itself. During his lecture he asked one of his new students to stand and.....
Prof: So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, Sir.
Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.
Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes.
Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm?
(the Student remains silent.)
Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No.
Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student: From....God.
Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.
Prof: So who created evil?
(the Student remains silent.)
Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.
Prof: So, who created them?
(the Student remains silent.)
Prof: Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.
Prof: Yet you still believe in God?
Student: Yes.
Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says God doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.
Prof: Yes, faith, and that is the problem science has.
Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.
Student: And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.
Student: No sir. There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.) Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture hall.)
Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?
Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?
Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?
Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought.. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from primates?
Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)
Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? You are not a scientist but a preacher. (The class is in uproar.) Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)
Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)
Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it sir... The link between man and God is faith. That is all that keeps things moving and alive.

This is a true anecdote and the student was none other than.......... Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam Tamil: அவுல் பகீர் ஜைனுலாப்தீன் அப்துல் கலாம், born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007. During his term as The President, he was popularly known as the People's President. Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam is a scholar of Thirukkural; in most of his speeches, he quotes at least one kural. Kalam has written several inspirational books, most notably his autobiography Wings of Fire, aimed at motivating Indian youth. Another of his books, Guiding Souls: Dialogues on the Purpose of Life reveals his spiritual side. He plays the rudra verna and reads the Bhagwad-Gita.

Before his term as India's president, he worked as an aeronautical engineer with DRDO and ISRO. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology. In India he is highly respected as a scientist and as an engineer.

Kalam played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974. He is a professor at Anna University (Chennai) and adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India. With the death of R. Venkataraman on January 27, 2009, Kalam became the only surviving former President of India.

Thirukkural (Tamil: திருக்குறள் also known as the Kural) is a classic of couplets or Kurals (1330 rhyming Tamil couplets) or aphorisms celebrated by Tamils. It was authored by Thiruvalluvar, a Jain poet of aboriginal Dravidian race and is considered to be the first work to focus on ethics, in Shramana literature of India. However it begins with salutation to Adi Bhagwan first dravidianThirthankar. Thirukkural expounds various aspects of life and is one of the most important works in Tamil. This is reflected in some of the other names by which the text is known: tamilmarai (Tamil Veda); poyyamozhi (speech that does not become false); and teyva nul or dheiva nool (divine text). It is dated anywhere from the second century BC to the eighth century AD. The book is considered to be a posterior to Arthashastra by some historians and to precede Manimekalai and Silapathikaram since both the latter acknowledge the Kural text. Thirukkural is and remains to be the book that has been translated into the most number of languages and hence it is called as "Ulaga Podhu Marai" meaning the Common Knowledge for the world. Copies of Tirukkural are available even at places as far as New York Copies of Tirukkural published as early as 1930 can be found in New York Public Library.

Thirukkural (or the Kural) is a collection of 1330 Tamil couplets organised into 133 chapters. Each chapter has a specific subject ranging from "ploughing a piece of land" to "ruling a country". According to the LIFCO Tamil-Tamil-English dictionary, the Tamil word Kural means Venpa verse with two lines. Thirukkural comes under one of the four categories of Venpas (Tamil verses) called Kural Venpa. The 1330 couplets are divided into 3 sections and 133 chapters. Each chapter contains 10 couplets. A couplet consists of seven cirs, with four cirs on the first line and three on the second. A cir is a single or a combination of more than one Tamil word. For example, Thirukkural is a cir formed by combining the two words Thiru and Kural, i.e. Thiru + Kural = Thirukkural. It is has been translated to various other languages.

There are claims and counter claims as to the authorship of the book and to the exact number of couplets written by Thiruvalluvar. The first instance of the author's name mentioned as Thiruvalluvar is found to be several centuries later in a song of praise called Garland in Thiruvannamalai.

hold your breath

The events that have transpired since Barak Obama has been sworn in as President of the United States of America have caused me to take pause and move back to my youth as an American growing up in the US in the post Hippie movement of the 1960’s. In High School in the early 1970’s I was required to read “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury and “1984” by George Orwell. It seemed to me when I read these books as a fourteen year old that such ‘fiction’ could never exist in the America that I knew.

However, with the recent allegations that have followed Barak Obama, since taking office as President of these United States of America, by the left, by the Republican party, by those who seem to be owned by big money that runs this country; I am aghast at what we are willing to accept as ‘news’ (fox) and what is being accepted by our country as acceptable.

I must apologize to Ray and George because they had a clearer vision than I. If you are not familiar with either of these books, please buy them, read them, and digest their thesis prior to passing judgment on my statements. I have not, and will never be political; yet this is beyond politics. This was at the core of what Adolf Hitler used in his propaganda campaign that ended up in creating World War II.

Also, this post is not politically motivated. I have no agenda other than stating the ‘truth.’ What happened to Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite? We live in a world of ‘scripted reality’ television that is one step removed from the World Wrestling Federation. The problem is that far too many Americans believe that the WWF and the rest of ‘Reality’ TV is real.

The reality of our lives is simple. Those who have the most money want to keep it so they will do whatever it takes to hang on to that money. They will do whatever they can to motivate the believers in the WWF to support their cause. If you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it. I am sorry that I have grown old enough to see that Ray and George were right about the United States. Please take this seriously and open your heart to the reality of our lives.

If my comments seem political, they are not. If you believe they are, there is of course nothing I can do to change your opinion, and I will not try. I can only post this in hopes that those who understand the significance of this will take the right measures to support compassion and humanity in the twenty first century.

Greg Penn, DD

Greg Penn, DD who produces the Television Show "Aspire" was my first Buddhist Teacher in the middle 1980's, I thought I'd share a bit of his zaniness with you so you might get a flavor of my roots. He used to have a center in Escondido, CA but in the 90's he moved to Carmel, CA. I still communicate with him on occasion, and I have always loved his irreverent style.

The story is actually from the Collection of Zhaozhou's Recorded Teachings and isn't used too often by teachers; although I remember hearing it for the first time in 1993 during the opening of the Mojave Desert Zen Center (that later became the Great Bright Zen Center) in Las Vegas. Hope you can appreciate his levity.