IV.  Tibetan Shamanic Rock Opera

West

Contemporary Rock, with its complex roots in African rhythms, blues, European and American folk music and gospel, has become a universal vehicle of human communication. With its rich tapestry of story-telling and primal sounds, it reaches deep into our hearts and minds. From the sublime to the ridiculous, and from the frivolous to the profound, it has the power to take us on a journey through the human condition, and potentially beyond. Borrowing the improvisational qualities of jazz and the symphonic elements of European Classical music, it is eclectic and flowing. Like life itself, it is ever re-inventing itself with new and surprising twists of evolution and revolution, where both beauty and the beast struggle to show their face.

East

Eastern music, with its formalized and highly structured melodic and rhythmic systems, is designed to be a container for spiritual values and meanings. If successful, this relatively static approach is not rigid or inhibiting, but instead provides a stable context for a variety of spiritual and shamanic manipulations, including:

• Allowing a stream of blessing from enlightened lineage masters flowing down through time-space, centuries or milennia.
• Enacting the four “Buddha activities” of pacifying, enriching, controlling and destroying, appropriate to the situation.
• Activating the power of the Dakini, Protector, Yidam and Lama.
• Generating the energy of healing body and mind, cleansing the land, clearing karma and generating spiritual unfoldment.

Fusion

The union of Western and Eastern paradigms brings the dynamic spiritual power and wisdom preserved in the remote Himalayas into the global mindstream. Thus, the Tibetan Shamanic Rock Opera is conceived in three parts, corresponding to the three levels of spiritual reality in which we exist.

Act I: The Formless

Dharmakaya

The Dharmakaya, sometimes translated as the “Body of Truth,” is the basic ground of luminous awareness that is the matrix of all phenomena. All form, all experience arises from this open dimension. Yet it itself remains a stainless, unperturbed, immovable whole. Synonymous with the God Head, the Source, or Atman of other traditions, it is beyond all polarities of self and other, being or non-being, life or death. Though beyond all form,  we need tangible doorways to be able to enter and dwell in this basic ground of Ultimate Reality. For the Tibetans, Yumchenmo, the Great Mother, is one such entry point. Synonymous with the Perfection of Wisdom, she is the start and end point of the mystical journey. Her form, and sonic essence—her mantra—can bridge the gap between worlds, so that relative and absolute are no longer seen as separate realities.

Chö

All Vajrayana rituals begin and end with a “visit” to the original ground of Dharmakaya. In Chö, however, we return to it frequently, constantly reminding ourselves that, in spite of the wild or intricate phenomena that arise, that is our real home. The mystic syllable PHAT (pronounced ‘pay’) cuts through discursive thought and catapults the hearer into this open space of Being. This mantra is intertwined through the whole Chö ritual, with dozens of meanings and actions. The mantra of the Great Mother: Gate Gate ParaGate, ParaSamgate Bodhi So Ha also allows us to peer beyond the veil of phenomena and glimpse  the nameless open dimension from which everything arises, and into which everything subsides.

Music

Passages from the Refuge Prayer of TangTongGyalpo’s Chö, and the Gaté Mantra of the Shukseb tradition of Chö.

Act II: Rainbow ENERGY

Sambhogakaya

Playfully, the basic ground manifests as pure energy,  archetypal form, mantric sound and blissful experience. It paints each moment with the palate of the Five Wisdom Energies, expressed as the Five Feminine Dakini Powers, perceived as the five pure elements. This dynamic display is the basis of the baroque and ecstatic art of Tibetan Buddhism, which provides a window into this world. This archetypal realm also forms a bridge from our deluded, overwhelmed state, to the streamlined simplicity of the pure energy world. Through connecting with deity forms, mantra, chakras and activities, our own body, speech and mind are purified. We are realigned with original luminosity, which is unfabricated and unfathomable.

Chö

In Chö, we evoke the Five Wisdom Ladies. Dancing in the space of mind, they display their five colors, five symbolic emblems, and five elemental powers. They express their five wisdom qualities and perform their five activities. Invoking their blessing stream, we receive extraordinary support and release from our intractable karmic shackles, the tangled skein of actions and reactions. We are instantly re-configured into the Pure Realm of the Dancing Dakini. We hear the ancient secret language of our mind echo and reverberate, in each of the flavors of the Five Element rainbow—Warrior, Lover, Creator, Ruler and Guru.

Music

From the Precious Rosary of Machik Labdron:  The “Exhorting the 100,000 Dakinis”

Act III: EMBODIMENT

Nirmanakaya

The world of embodiment is the world of Samsara: where the illusion of form and personal identity are the most dense, and suffering is the most intense. Here is the endless cycle of brith, aging, sickness and death. Here vast numbers of life forms, including humans, experience a seemingly endless variety of loss, pain and confusion. Wether in a gilded cage or iron chains, it is an interminable prison, from which escape seems remote. Knowing the Openness and Radiance of the first two worlds, how does the tantric adept behave in the world of mundane form? Beyond the polarities of hope and fear, he acts with fearlessness. Beyond limited self-concern, she acts with compassion and generosity. Enlightenment for the sake of others becomes the guiding principle, transforming the limitations of embodiment.

Chö

In Chö, we enact fearless generosity through infinite offerings. We let go of everything, and give away everything. Turning the physical body into an infinite ocean of nectar—the essence of the purified five elements—it can be transformed into whatever is needed for others. Through offering pleasing sacred objects to Enlightened Beings, they rejoice and grant blessings. Offering beauty and bliss to Dakinis and archetypal Energy Beings, we receive spiritual power. Offering to Guardians, we are given protection. Offering to sentient beings, they are relieved of suffering and we accumulate great positive karma. Offering to demons and the vast horde of our karmic debtors, we purify oceans of negative karma and obstacles. And by giving all away, we come full circle, experiencing our original open and luminous nature.

Music

Passages from the Body Offering (LuJin) of Dudjom Lingpa.