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Buddhist Music |
ASVAGHOSA
Around the 2nd century CE, Asvaghosa Bodhisattva established the path in India for promoting the Dharma through Buddhist Music. His incomparable wisdom, eloquence and proficiency in creating music, poetry and drama opened up a new chapter for Buddhist music.Playing on his stringed instrument, and singing with great feelings, one day in front of the royal city, Asvaghosa attracted a big crowd. The following day, a great number of youth gathered at the Kusumapura1 Buddhist temple asking to be ordained. Once, while Asvaghosa was teaching the Dharma, King Kaniska2 deliberately fed seven horses that had not eaten for the past six days with his best food to test their reaction to Asvaghosa's teaching. The horses understood Asvaghosa's recitation that life was suffering, empty and impermanent. They did not even touch the food but nevertheless became emotionally distressed. This was how Asvaghosa Bodhisattva was given his name - the horse-who-listens bodhisattva. Asvaghosa Bodhisattva had a natural ability for blending Buddha-dharma with music which could be understood and appreciated by people from all walks of life. He had written about the Buddha in the Praise to the Buddha's Deeds, as a way of using music to explain the Buddha's life. This music became very popular and was heard in the palace as well as on the street. What causes and conditions lead us to Buddhahood? If birth were eliminated, then ageing, suffering and death would be eliminated. Thus, there is no birth, ageing, sickness, suffering, Greed, anger, love, or hatred. The Noble Eightfold Path teaches about our own enlightenment. Gently through the medium of fan-bei, the Buddha walks out from Kusinara3 into our modern world. The Dharma has turned into a crystal clear fountain nourishing the human soul.
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Buddha
Asvaghosa Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Monastic Choir
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