Transcript Myths and Music Tibetan Monks

Myths and Music
Tibetan Monks
Vesa Matteo Piludu
Helsinki
Department of Comparative Religion
University of Helsinki
Tibetan Monks Chanting
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTHoTmjKZc&feature=related
 Part of the ceremony the monks do before beginning to work on a
Sand Mandala. The particular mandala they are working on is for
Avalokiteshvara, one of the deities of compassion.
 Part of the ceremony the monks do before beginning to work on a
Sand Mandala.
The particular mandala they are working on is for Avalokiteshvara,
one of the deities of compassion.
CD: sacred chants of the Tibetan Buddhism
Trance 1, track 2
Tibetan Monks
The entranced are the musitians
Performing vocal and instrumental
music in a mystical trance state
the entranced are the musicians
and the singers
Instruments: Bass trumpets, drums,
handbells, four drums
Overtone singing
 each singer produces three at once: One Voice Chord
 type of singing, that manipulates the harmonics
 chanting style that would embody both the masculine and
the feminine aspects of the divine energy
Sound Vehicles
The Tibetan monks
believe, that in the
creation of the 'One
Voice Chord', the
monks do not
'make' the sound.
Rather, they
become a vehicle
through which the
sacred sound may
manifest
Mantra (invocation)
 Sanskrit word: 'the thought that liberates and
protects'
 The sounds and words are changing the
consciousness of the reciter.
 to unite the reciter with a particular deity or
energy form.
 To empower the reciter
 to resonate and activate the chakras (focal point
of energies) of the reciter.
Mantra
 Each sacred scripture is an invocation to a specific deity or a
collection of deities.
 The chanters visualize these deities while creating a Mandala, a
circular cosmological painting which they inwardly visualize in
archetypal symbols
 This combination of vocalization and visualization allows the
monks to become the embodiment of the energies they are
invoking
Mandala
Mudras – sacred gestures
 practice of mudras
 movements and positions of the
hands which have profound
symbolic meaning
Tantra
 Mahayana: Union of
wisdom and compassion for
the suffering of all
 Tantra: uses the energies
and also the passions for
spiritual growth
 Chanting is combined with
visualizing deities in the
adept’s body
CHAKRAS
 The rites are designed to
mobilize the practitioner’s
psychic and physical energies
 Chakras seem to be the focal
point of manifestation for energy
which makes up the subtle body
 7 as the notes
Chakras
 Chakras
 7 as the notes
Goal
 The adept may have the possibility to experience
the opening of the enlightenment in his lifetime