Dharma Forest

Meditation At Swannanoa

Teaching Meditation For Musicians at the Swannanoa Gathering's Guitar and Contemporary Folk Week. (Photo by Guitar Week Coordinator Al Petteway)

Learning Guqin In Shanghai

Musical Blessings! In Shanghai before returning to California I took a lesson on the ancient Chinese zither (table-top lute) at the You Huang Li Studio (幽篁里).

Director of the Studio, Qiao Shan, an accomplished performer and teacher of the guqin, showed me the basics of left and right hand techniques for making sounds correctly on the instrument. The guqin has been in constant play since the time of Confucius, and its music is soothing and deeply grounding. Some of the available music for guqin is thousands of years old, and one feels while listening, that the music speaks with the voice of the Dao.

Joanne Shenandoah In Concert Oct. 21st!

Award-winning Native American composer, musician and songwriter Joanne Shenandoah, will perform in concert at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery on Saturday, October 21st, 2006, at 2:00 PM. Joanne is a Grammy-nominated composer and spokesperson for the Iroquois Nation, and the First Peoples of North America. Joanne's musical vision delivers a message of peace for the world in a time of conflict and despair. Joanne is perhaps the most celebrated Native American musician performing in her generation. (www.joanneshenandoah.com)

For photographs of Joanne's first visit to the Berkeley Monastery, click here:

Venue information: Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. Berkeley, 94703, corner of Bancroft. Further info: (510) 848-3440. Street parking available. Limited Seating, first come, first served. Suggested donation: $12 dollars; nobody turned away for lack of funds. Joanne's CDs will be available at the concert.

Recording Completed at Fantasy Studios!

16 Tracks of New Buddhist Music recorded and ready to mix! The two days of sessions went smoothly at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Everybody donated their time, skills, effort and good wishes with giving hearts. I can't imagine a finer, more positive experience.

Henry Kaiser, my friend and producer and Stephen Hart, Fantasy's chief engineer guided myself, Paul Hostetter, Robin Petrie, Alan Senauke, Josh Michaell and Brian Godchaux through a dozen intense hours of recording. Please check the photo blog for a set of 16 photographs. The project is only two-thirds finished - - we still have to edit and then mix and master the tracks, which may take up to a month. As soon as the songs are ready to distribute, I'll post them. Photos Here!

Engineer Stephen Hart, Producer Henry Kaiser, Rev. Heng Sure.

Three Tunes From Music In the Dharma

Three New Tunes from "Music In the Dharma!"

1) Turn and Return (Lyrics by Ven. Ajahn Sucitto, melody by the Pindar Family) (Vocal harmonies: Betsy Rose and Alan Senauke)

2) Guan Shi Yin, Won't You Hear Me? (Adapted by Rev. Heng Sure, from Diamond Joe, traditional work song, by Charlie Butler) (Vocal harmonies: Betsy Rose and Alan Senauke)

3) Yashodhara (lyrics and tune by Rev. Heng Sure) (Second guitar: Alan Senauke, vocal harmony: Betsy Rose)

Enjoy!

The Second "Music In the Dharma, Dharma In the Music"

Music in the Dharma, Dharma in the Music

Friday, April 7, 2006 7:30 PM 9:30 PM
Berkeley Buddhist Monastery • 2304 McKinley Ave
Berkeley, CA USA
This evening of song brings together three Western practitioners of Buddhism and of music. Betsy Rose, Hozan Alan Senauke, & Rev. Heng Sure's folk-rooted acoustic music combines tradition and innovation much as our practice here in California does the same. But the bottom line is that we can share and enjoy this music together.

The joys and teachings of Dharma flow through every human activity. The creation of sound and rhythm in the midst of space and silence has always helped people wake up to life. Music flourishes in specific ways in every culture around the world, and it has the ability to cut through our perceived differences.

Son of Buddhist Christmas Carols

Yet another Dharma Carol
(Imagine a hypothetical Valley Girl in LA during the Christmas break witnessing two Buddhist monks bowing along the highway and making a full prostration every three steps)

I Saw Two Monks
(To the tune of "I Saw Three Ships")

I saw two monks come bowing there,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day
Dressed in robes, they had no hair,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

I've watched them bow since after two,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
They must have nothing else to do,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

I heard they bow for world peace,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
It says so on their press release,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

The one in front he would not speak,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
I’ve never seen a stranger freak,
On New Year's Day in the morning?

I wonder who they're bowing to,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
Don't ask him he won't answer you,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

Two preachers came to hassle them,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
To endless hell they did condemn,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

The monks kept bowing just the same,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
The men of god looked pretty lame,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

I bowed along the avenue,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
Because my uncle dared me to,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

On the spot I felt such peace,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
Bowing brought my heart release,
On New Year's Day in the morning.

To my surprise I made a vow,
On New Year's Day on New Year's Day,
Every year I'm going to bow
On New Year's Day in the morning.

Another Buddhist Christmas Carol

Due to a diminishing number of requests the editors of this blog have updated our musical offerings to you this holiday season. Determined to fill the lacuna of online Buddhist Christmas Carols we present a lovely new/old Dharma tune filled with chestnuts, mistletoe and yuletide cheer.


Empty Christmas to You
(By Michael Harjne) (Michael, are you responsible for this?)

(To the tune of "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”)

Chestnuts roasting free of all desire,
Jack Frost sitting in repose;
Yuletide sutras are intoned by the fire,
By monks adorned in Santa's clothes.

Everybody knows, some Dharma and some mindfulness,
Help to make a silent night;
Tiny thoughts full of greed and distress,
Will disappear into the light.

You know that peace is here right now,
It's just that all our searching misses it somehow;
So sit your suffering ass beside the tree
Unwrap the presence of a self-less mystery.

And so I offer you this fond lampoon
With tongue in cheek, but reverence too
Although I might mean it in a nondual way
Merry Christmas.
  Empty Christmas.
    Merry Emptiness to you.

Gwhyneth Chen Piano Concert In Calgary

Gwhyneth Chen, world-reknowned concert pianist gave a benefit concert for Avatamsaka Monastery in Calgary. She performed with the Calgary  Philharmonic Orchestra, and guest conductor Maestro Edmon Colomer, from Barcelona, Spain. Gwhyneth gave an outstanding performance, 1100 people attended, and Maestro Colomer lent his considerable skills and personal aura to the event.

Dharma Music Sound Files!

The First Northern California Multi-yana (Chan/Zen/Vipassana) Buddhist Music Night took place in Redwood City and by some accounts, went pretty okay. (That's cautious praise).

Here are the audio files, for streaming or downloading, courtesy of the kind hosts at Insight Meditation Center. You might stick around and download some of the Dharma-talk files by the resident teachers, particularly Gil Fronsdal and others.

There are four segments, each about 20 or 30 minutes long, including songs by Alan Senauke, Betsy Rose, and myself. All unedited, raw, and straight from the source.

http://www.audiodharma.org/talks-all.html