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UNIQUE FEATURES OF A COMPACT DISC HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED
In Tibetan Buddhism there is a ritual of rotating prayer wheels.
A prayer wheel is a cylinder with mantras inscribed on it. Rotating
a prayer wheel has a very powerful positive effect: it helps purify
karma, not only of the person who is rotating it but also of all the
living beings the person thinks about while doing so. One revolution
is considered to be equivalent to reciting all of the mantras carried
by the wheel, which can actually be quite a large number as the inner
space of the wheel is filled with mantras written on rolls of the
thinnest paper. The purpose of this "mechanization" is not
simply to render the ritual more efficient: the circular motion of
certain magic formulas acts to shape streams of energy in an optimal
way thus purifying the space and everybody within it.
It has just been discovered that an ordinary compact disc might be
also used as a prayer wheel. This discovery has been employed for
the first time in the "Music for the 35 Buddhas" CD. The
mantra рOM AH HUMс is inscribed on its surface, - just one mantra,
but a CD rotates at a very high speed: it makes about 20,000 revolutions
per hour. This means that while you listen to the music this mantra
is silently repeated about 20,000 times! If you meditate every day
with the help of this music the positive effect increases. Even if
you don't like this music at all you can play this CD with the volume
turned down - the mantra will work anyway. It is important to realize
that the positive "charge" you accumulate this way is not
your private property which can be saved and multiplied. The power
of this energy is endless, and sharing it with others is the greatest
joy.
Music for the 35 Buddhas
Composer's note
This 60 minute composition consists of two movements:
- Like Dust that Covers the Mirror
- Prostration to the 35 Buddhas
The first movement (for piano and vibraphone) is a 40 minute long
meditation on emptiness . At the 32nd minute (by which time a "normal"
listener would have already either stopped this CD and started playing
"normal" music, or simply fallen asleep) the voice of Lama
Thubten Zopa Rinpoche enters. Lama Zopa is one of the greatest Buddhist
teachers of our time, and this text is a fragment of a conversation
with him at the Kopan Monastery on November 30th, 2000. The interview
lasted about two hours, and made one of the strongest impressions
on me that I have ever experienced in my life. For this composition
I have selected just a few of Lama Zopa's phrases about emptiness:
...Like dust that covers the mirror: you have to clean the dust. Because
our mind has all the potential to see emptiness, to be free from all
the suffering causes, to be free from death, even to achieve ultimate
liberation which is called full enlightenment which is the cessation
of even the very subtle negative imprints left on the mental continuum.
By ceasing that our mind becomes fully awakened.
This realization of emptiness is something that makes you to be
liberated from the whole entire suffering including the cycle of death
and rebirth.
What creates the death? This ignorance, not knowing the ultimate nature
of the I and the ultimate nature of the mind.
What is I?
And what is mind?
Realizing that it is totally nonexistent, empty, that it is false and
a
hallucination...
You have to clean the dust.
It is empty.
It is empty but it is not totally nonexistent.
When you realize THIS...
When such a highly realized master speaks, something is happening
that cannot be described with words written either on paper or on
a monitor. Realization begins when our intellect working with words
and notions and always searching for similarities and distinctions
has stopped analyzing. Fortunately, music can work "beyond the
brain". Through the music I have tried to transmit my experience
of listening to Lama Zopa's teaching.
The second movement is written for piano, vibraphone, Javanese gong
and antique cymbal. This movement is based on the traditional text
"Prostration to the 35 Buddhas". The text is recited in
English by Ven. Ani Karin, a Western Buddhist nun who has been living
in Kopan for 25 years.
When we are prostrating we are paying homage to all buddhas of all
times. During one's lifetime one should do at least 100,000 prostrations.
It helps purify negative karma, and it is also an antidote to pride.
Anton Batagov, September 2001
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