Buddhism and Music

What is the attitude of Buddhism toward music, singing and dancing? Is there a way for these activities to become a means by which one achieves Liberation? This is a very important point in Buddhism.

In an early teaching, Talaputta Sutta, the Buddha told the singer and dancer Talaputta that singing and dancing, as activities that provoke sensual desires, will ultimately lead the performer to the lower realms. The Buddha’s reasoning is this: In performing music and dance, the performer arouses attachments to worldly pleasures in the audience, and as this attachment appears to lead one away from the Path, then the performers themselves are liable to enter the lower realms. (For those who are rather new to Buddhism, ‘lower realms’ mean those places where you will be if you are hell beings, hungry ghosts, or non-human animals.)

This is not quite a positive attitude toward music and dance. However, as we have seen in the previous post on the Pali chant performed by Sri Lankan girls, the chant is really beautiful and is musically well structured. And if you have listened to Theravada monks chant, you also have an idea that this is almost musical. So what is going on?

The point in the Talaputta Sutta is that, if the performance has its intention merely to entertain or merely to elicit attachment, then the performer could go to the lower realms. But the Buddha did not say that any performer of music and dance will all go to the lower realms. Otherwise these girls will have booked their places in the lower realms merely through their singing, which is absurd. So those musical and dancing acts who motivations are not mere entertainment appear to be exempt.

This is an important point, because it implies that music, songs and dances are not ‘bad’ in themselves. And it points a way for them actually to become a means by which one appreciates the Dharma and gain a foothold on the Path toward Enlightenment. As an illustration let us look at this dance from Nepal:

Very beautiful, isn’t it? The dance was originally intended as an embodiment of the Buddhist deities, in this particular dance is the female Buddha Vajrayogini. She symbolizes the transformative power of the Buddhas and the triumph over ignorance. Here our own attachments and ignorances are being turned inside out. Instead of these defilements dragging us down toward the lower realms, they are being transformed through the power of Vajrayogini so that they instead become positive forces leading us in the opposite direction, that is toward Enlightenment itself.

Thus we are not watching this dance just as we are watching a commercial and entertaining one. We are having a very bad habit because all of us are accustomed to watching these entertainments and we are ingrained in this habit when we watch this dance. This is nothing like the entertaining dance that you watch in most other videos on YouTube or on television at all. Nothing is further from the truth. Watching and participating in this dance is a very spiritual. We are being invited to enter the sphere or ‘mandala’ of Vajrayogini herself, and the figure dancing before our very eyes is not merely a dancer, but Vajrayogini herself appearing to us in the flesh so that we can watch and touch her. And by doing this our defilements are being transformed through the tremendous power of Vajrayogini.

So this is perhaps the attitude of Buddhism toward music and dance. When the Buddha tells Talaputta that his musical and singing career would lead him toward the lower realms, what he actually meant was that for those who are just beginning on the Path, perhaps they might need to stay away from these performances for a while, otherwise they would still be attached to them and hence find no bearing on the Path. This is the case only if these musics and dances are not intended to encourage or to transform one so that one progresses along the Path, which seems to be the Buddha’s presuppositions in his discussion of this matter with Talaputta. But music and dance can indeed be very powerful tools toward realization of the Path, so long as one is able to distinguish the simple attachment that the Buddha implies when he talks with Talaputta from the kind of music and art that transcends mere attachment and become transformative power in themselves.

Filed under: meditation, music , art, Buddhism, dance, laughter, music, pleasure, Vajrayogini, way to enlightenment

Jaya Mangala Gatha

The girls in the last post that you saw in YouTube were singing the “Buddha Jaya Mangala Gatha,” or “Chant to the Buddha’s Victories.” This is a very famous chant in Thailand and in other Theravadin countries. As far as I know the verses were composed by a Thai monk in the fifteenth century C.E. and were dedicated to King Naresuan the Great in his campaign for Siamese independence against the Burmese. It is said that the King was so fond of these verses that he requested that the monks chant them every time he went to war. And he was never defeated anywhere in battle.

The content of the verses, however, had absolutely nothing to do with wars. The prayer consists of eight verses, each depicint the Buddha’s victories against his opponents. However, the main thing is that it is the Buddha’s own victory against defilements and the Mara, who is the personification of defilements and everything that is the obstacles against achieving Buddhahood and Nirvana.

In the first verse, the Buddha defeats the Mara during the moment of his achieving Buddhahood. When Siddhartha Gautama was about to become the Awakened One, the Mara came to him together a full army and numerous weapons. The Mara was intent on bringing Gautama down so that he did not become enlightened. However, due to the merits that the bodhisattva had accrued in countless lifetimes in the past, the bodhisattva was able to defeat the Mara and the whole army. This is the most important episode in the whole life history of the Buddha. It shows the moment when an ordinary person actually became ‘Buddha’ or ‘Awakened One.’ All the weapons hurled to the Buddha were transformed into flowers and garlands. The merit that he had accumulated came to help him in form of a torrent of flood washing away the Mara and his army.

The remaining seven verses refer to other episodes of the Buddha’s victories, such as his defeat of the demon Alavaka, Angulimala and others.

The whole point of the chant is to reflect on the life and career of Gautama Buddha so that we ourselves follow his path and become free from all defilements ourselves.

Filed under: Buddhism, chant , Bodhisattva, Buddha, chant, jaya mangala gatha, Mara