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Puja This Sanskrit term is used by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists to designate an offering ritual. For Buddhists, a Puja dedicated to Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig in Tibetan) will have as its object the development of Compassion that this deity symbolizes. The Dalai Lama and the Gyalwa Karmapa are the current incarnations.
It should be noted that the album Puja lasts 108 minutes, a sacred number in the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist traditions. It is also the number of beads of the large mala (specific rosary used by Buddhist practitioners).
Album playlist
- Dewatchen Part 1 Phowa (8’24)
- Dewatchen Part 2 Amithaba (16’10)
- Karmapa Tchenno (12’26)
- Sherab (7’47)
- Chöd (7’09)
- Yamantaka (13’39)
- Nagaraja (6’01)
- Vajrasattva (8’43)
- Dorje (4’41)
- Kalachakra B (7’25)
- Zen Hoyo (8’57)
- Lhassa (7’28)
The team
- Roger Lahana: Cubase Pro
- Philippe Perrichon: Guitars
- Several lamas, monks and nuns: mantras, chants, ritual instruments
- Thierry Moreau: graphics (https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci2wxykNOQD)
- Photos: Thierry Moreau, Stéphanie Lahana (Dorje), Roger Lahana (yellow-hat monks)
Description of the different pieces
Dewatchen Part 1 Phowa / Dewatchen Part 2 Amithaba
Dewatchen is a term that designates “The Pure Land” in Tibetan, a place of post-mortem life where the deceased who have reached an advanced stage of development can continue their spiritual path without being subjected to earthly rebirth again. The Buddha who teaches the Dharma at this stage is Amithaba (Amida in Japan, who will give birth to Amidism, Pure Land Buddhism).
Phowa is a tantric practice present in Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet. It consists of projecting one’s own consciousness out of the corporeal plane, the goal of the practice being to allow the intact preservation of consciousness during the passage from the bardo of earthly life to that of the bardo of death.
The invocation of Amithaba and the practice of Phowa are therefore the “skillful means” that a Buddhist master offers to his disciples to access Dewatchen in a preserved state of consciousness. Phowa is an individual practice implemented under the guidance of an accomplished master.
Karmapa Tchenno is the name and content of this specific mantra of the Karma-Kagyüpa Buddhist lineage founded in the 12th century by the great saint Yogi Jetsun Milarepa. This mantra is both a praise to the master and an invocation that could be translated as “Karmapa near us”. This mantra invokes the protection of the Gyalwa Karmapa. HH Trinley Thaye Dorje Gyalwa Karmapa is currently the 17th incarnation of Dusum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa, who lived from 1110 to 1193. The Karmapa is both the first Tibetan master to initiate the principle of tulkus as lineage masters, and the last holder of the entire Karma-Kagyu teachings without any break, which includes the entire corpus of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Padmasambhava had announced that the 6th Buddha would also be the 21st Karmapa.
Roger Lahana and Philippe Perrichon took refuge in this lineage in 1975 with HH Ranjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa.
Sherab is a Tibetan term for wisdom, one of the six fundamental virtues of Buddhism (the Paramitas), with Compassion (jinpa in Tibetan), Ethics (tsultrim), Patience (zopa), Determination (tsondrü), Concentration (samten). It is said that a being who has fully realized one of these perfections accomplishes the plenitude of the other five, this is the particularity of beings who have attained Buddhist Awakening.
When Sherab is one of the components of a proper name, it is considered as an orientation towards which the follower must tend in order to achieve Awakening.
Chöd (pronounced Tcheu) is a tantric practice integrated into Vajrayana Buddhism (the Diamond Way) and inherited from Bön, a pre-Buddhist religion prevalent in Tibet until the 8th century and which has been maintained to this day in parallel with the Buddhism introduced to Tibet by Padmasambhava. Chöd is a practice aimed at offering one’s physical and psychic being as fodder to the starving spirits of the lower worlds in order to free the practitioner from fear and, through the abandonment of the perception of oneself as being separate from others, to allow him to experience an inner serenity freed from the egotistical and mental obstacles that founded his dualistic perception of the world.
Yamantaka is a Yidam (protective deity) particularly honored in the Gelugpa lineage, the one whose current master is HH Tenzin Gyato, XIVth Dalai Lama. It designates the wrathful aspect of Majushri, god who puts an end to the dual perception of the world. His name means “exterminator of death” (Yama is the god of death whose action completes the Sidpa Bardo: see the previous album “Thödol” by Evohé). Yamantaka is considered the assistant of the Buddha Amithaba in the sphere of the Pure Land.
Nagaraja, which means king of the nagas (serpents) in Sanskrit, is the title borne by three Hindu gods, who are brothers: Seeshaa, Vasuki and Takshaka. Seesha is a follower of Vishnu (who, in the trinity of the Indian pantheon, maintains and protects the world), Vasuki is a follower of Shiva, destroyer of the worlds at the end of the kalpas (the immeasurable age of the universe created by Brahma). Shiva is also the patron saint of Yogis in that he symbolizes the destruction of the veils of illusion. Takshaka, the third brother, is the personification of the danger represented by the nagas.
The piece is inspired by the atmosphere of fervor that prevails during the great Hindu pilgrimages. Mucilinda is also one of the names of the king of the nagas; it is said that he protected the Buddha from the rain during his Awakening.
Vajrasattva corresponds in Sanskrit to the primordial Buddha Dorje Chang. He is both the timeless archetype of the Buddha and the personified unification of the power of the five dhyani-buddhas. In Sanskrit as in Tibetan his name means “bearer of lightning”, where lightning designates spiritual power. The Indian Buddhist master Naropa (initiator of the lineage of the Golden Rosary which continues with Tilopa, Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa and Karmapa) received the teachings of Mahamudra (the Great Seal) from Vajradhara, an emanation of Vajrasattva.
Dorje (Vajra in Sanskrit) designates lightning, a metaphor evoking spiritual power. His “teeth” now curved in a bouquet, were once part of the trident of the Indian god Indra. Losing, through the convergence of its teeth operated by Shakyamuni Buddha, its warrior aspect by migrating to Tibet – where it was incorporated into the Bönpo symbolism – it now symbolizes the transmutation of raw vital energy into pure spiritual energy allowing access to Awakening in Bön and Vajrayana.
The dorje is sometimes doubled (it then has the shape of a cross). The bell symbolizes wisdom and the dorje effective action. With the mala (rosary), the bell, the dorje and the damaru (small drum) constitute the four basic ritual objects of Tibetan Buddhist practices. When Dorje is part of a proper name (given by a master to his disciple when taking refuge), it is considered as a sustained incentive to develop efficient spiritual action.
Kalachakra B The Sanskrit term Kalachakra (Telugu in Tibetan) designates the Wheel of Time. This protection ritual, present in most Buddhist lineages in Tibet, is mainly the prerogative of the Gelugpas. The Kalachakra tantra was incorporated late into the Tibetan ritual corpus as it contains purely Indian elements and terminologies.
This powerful protection ritual evokes in filigree the persecutions suffered by Buddhism via Islam and Hinduism and its implementation, often dispensed by HH the Dalai Lama, aims to protect the Dharma and Tibet.
Zen Hoyo is a tribute to the Buddhist liturgy of the Japanese temple of Daitokuji dedicated to the practice of Rinzai Zen. The ritual that constitutes the framework of the piece is a sound journey aimed at leading practitioners and listeners to the perception of this emptiness that is revealed during Awakening and which contains all potentialities. Evohé wanted to place his few congruent paving stones on this steep and dreamlike path.
Lhasa: how can we not have in our hearts this name that symbolizes the roof of the world in what humans have of noblest in terms of spiritual aspirations, while we live in a time where its intensive sinicization is done at the price of blood? Nostalgic evocation of rituals that fade here to be reborn elsewhere, Lhasa is a lesson of supreme impermanence whose centuries-old culture nourishes all the pieces of this album. May it one day shine again with all the brilliance it deserves.
“Truly I say to you: in this very body, mortal, and only a fathom high, but conscious and endowed with intelligence, is the world, and its growth, and its decline, and the path that leads to its surpassing”. Shakyamuni (Anguttara Nikaya).
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Email address: puja@evohe.eu
The albums Thödol and Puja are available on most streaming platforms.
Other publications by Evohé:
- at Vapeur Mauve Productions (www.vapeurmauveproductions.com): CD K’a long version (43 min), vinyl K’a (18 min) and Sharga (16 min)
- at Musea Records: double CD “77-81” (complete)
- at Music Research Library (USA): vinyl K’a (18 min) and Sharga (16 min)
