Urban Lotus

Music: Rev. Heng Sure
Lyrics: The Flower Garland Sutra translated by Rev. Heng Sure

This verse comes from The Flower Garland Sutra, The Avatamsaka Sutra and it’s from a bodhisattva, an awakened being whose name is Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is the awakened being who looks over our good deeds and our bad deeds, the results of all the actions we do in our lives. He’s called The Repentance Host and so his verse from the last chapter of The Flower Garland Sutra says, “For all the harmful things that I’ve done, with my body, speech and mind; from beginningless greed, anger and stupidity, through lifetimes without number, to this very day, I now repent and I vow to change entirely.” With this verse we step into our lives and take charge of our karmic scorecard, so to speak, we become the architects of our future. By going in and saying, “No, I am going to clean up, I know what I’ve done in the past and I’ve hurt a lot of people myself and now is the time to turn around and take charge, be a blessing in the world.” This is the verse that inspires us to continue with that good work.

For all the harmful things I’ve done
With my body, speech, and mind
From beginningless greed
Anger and stupidity
Through lifetimes without number
To this very day
I now repent and I vow
To change entirely

For all the harmful things I’ve done
With my body, speech and mind
From beginningless greed
Anger and stupidity
Through lifetimes without number
To this very day
I now repent and I vow
To change entirely

For all the harmful things I’ve done
With my body, speech and mind
From beginningless greed
Anger and stupidity
Through lifetimes without number
To this very day
I now repent and I vow
To change entirely
I now repent and I vow
To change entirely

Music: William Walker, “Amazing Grace”
Lyrics: Traditional Verse translated and adapted by Rev. Heng Sure

This song is called “Praise the Buddha.” It comes from a song that in our tradition we do once a year on Buddha’s birthday every year, and that’s too bad because it’s such a good song. I translated the song out of Chinese into English and it was too short, so I added some verses. There’s a melody that probably if you had to say, “What is the most popular American melody that has Christian origins?” It would be “Amazing Grace.” So I happily borrowed the tune of “Amazing Grace” for “Praise the Buddha.”

Upon the earth, below the sky
The Buddha has no peer
In ten directions everywhere
He is beyond compare

He’s gone beyond duality
He’s never born again
With wisdom bright he blesses me
He knows my joy and pain

He walked the noble middle way
With strength and purity
In dark of night and light of day
His kindness touches me

He’s not divine, but he’s awake
He’s neither come nor gone
I find him in each blade of grass
He is the wisdom sun

I’ve searched around this whole wide world
And now I can declare
You’ll never find a wiser one
Than Buddha anywhere
You’ll never find a wiser one
Than Buddha anywhere

Music & Lyrics: Rev. Heng Sure

In the northern tradition, the Mahayana tradition, we have more than one Buddha that we celebrate. One of the most celebrated Buddhas is named; Medicine Buddha, the Healing Buddha, Bhaisajyaguru is his name in Sanskrit, 藥師佛 Yao-Shi-Fo in Chinese. He has three names; he is the Medicine Master, we translated YaoShiFo from the Chinese. He is also called The Buddha Who Dispels Calamities and Lengthens Life. People will recite this Buddha’s name, read his Sutra and draw pictures of him to bring that presence, that healing presence into their life. He has a third name which is The Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Light because this Buddha is associated with the color blue, blue light like the stone lapis lazuli. So he has three names and the way you access, the way you get to the energy of this Buddha is through his name. I put it into a banjo tune so people can get to know the Medicine Master Thus Come One. Thus Come One is the translation of Tathagata, the being who arrives.

Medicine Master Thus Come One
Namo Namo
Medicine Master Thus Come One
Namo Namo

He dispels calamities and lengthens life
Namo, Namo
He dispels calamities and lengthens life
Namo, Namo

Medicine Master Thus Come One
Namo Namo
Medicine Master Thus Come One
Namo Namo

Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Light
Namo, Namo
Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Light
Namo, Namo

Medicine Master Thus Come One
Namo Namo
Medicine Master Thus Come One
Namo Namo
Medicine Master Thus Come One
Namo Namo
Medicine Master Thus Come One
Namo Namo

Music and Lyrics: Traditional Buddhist chants

The most popular form of Buddhist practice in Buddhist East Asia is reciting the name of the Buddha Amitabha. His name is Limitless Light.  In Sanskrit we say “Na Mo” which means I take refuge, I find my security, my true homeland security in the Buddha of Limitless Light.  This Buddha made vows that said if you recite his name at the time of death you can go to his Pure Land, a paradise where there’s no suffering. All suffering is over in that place, the place where you cultivate to ultimate awakening, to Buddhahood.  The way you get there is to recite his name, Na Mo Amitabha and in Chinese Na-Mo-A-Mi-Tuo-Fuo.  More people practice this way than any other way, including meditation.  This is the most popular practice.  I thought, while devotional Buddhism may not catch on in the west right away, but I thought if we can, dress it up in Western sounds, in sounds familiar to us, maybe that’ll take us a step closer to the practice of devotion in the Buddha Amitabha.

Namo Amita Buddha…

Namo Amitabha…

Music & Lyrics: Rev. Heng Sure 

Young people mostly through their teenage years, have a challenge reaching out and feeling grateful for what their parents do for them.  That’s a time of maximum restraint and limitation, lots of “no, or you can’t, or you better not, or else,” and that’s a perfect time for young people to hear the message of the song.  Which is to say, “Hey I’m actually feeling glad for my mom and dad,” in real terms and for such things like food and shelter and all. In the Buddha’s teaching, recognizing the kindness that has been done for us and the goodness that has been given to us is a major step towards reconnecting with the goal, being great compassion.  “Hey, I’m feeling glad” for my mom and dad, not only for my parents but also for the kindness given to me by teachers both secular and spiritual.  Also gratitude for the planet that we live on, all the food, the water and the beauty and the support given to us by the planet.  So, there are plenty of places to feel grateful and this is a song that just keeps that front and center. 

Thank you Mom

For your love and care

Thank you Dad

For letting me stay here

Hey, I’m feeling glad for my Mom and Dad

This morning my mom said

‘You’ve got to pay me for my cooking

Three meals a day

For the last nine…24…37… years

You got to pay for what you eat

No more freebie treats

There’s a padlock on the kitchen

I’m not your maid.’

Well, I can’t pay

But I can start by being grateful

Thank you Mom

For your love and care

Well, thank you Mom and Dad

I didn’t know how good I had it

Hey, I’m feeling glad for my Mom and Dad

This morning my dad said

‘You got to pay me for my driving

Gas ain’t cheap

And there’s wear and tear

I’m going to charge you for every night

You’ve been sleeping underneath my roof

Your bed’s out on the driveway

Your iPhone is there.’

Well, I can’t pay

But I can start by being grateful

Thank you Dad

For letting me stay here

Well, thank you Mom and Dad

I didn’t know how good I had it

Hey, I’m feeling glad for my Mom and Dad

This morning my teacher said

‘I’m not interested in teaching

Nobody listens

It’s just a waste of time

I’m not puttin’ on a show

You’ve got to pay for what I know

Learn it or lose it

That’s the way it goes.’

Well, I can’t pay

But I can start by being grateful

Thank you teacher

For letting me learn here

Well, thank you Mom and Dad

I didn’t know how good I had it, 

Hey, I’m feeling glad for my Mom and Dad

This morning the earth said

‘You’ve got to pay me for my growing

All those crops

For all those years

You cut down all my trees

You waste me as you please

I’m fed up

You humans got to go (Don’t mention earthquakes)

I can’t pay

But I can start by being grateful

Thank you earth

For your love and care

Well, thank you Mom and Dad

I didn’t know how good I had it

Hey I’m feeling glad

Hey I’m feeling glad

Hey I’m feeling glad for my Mom and Dad

Dedicated to Joanne Shenandoah

Music & Lyrics: Rev. Heng Sure

One of my musical inspirations is a woman named Joanne Shenandoah, who is an Iroquois from the Haudenosaunee community in Upstate New York.  She’s the granddaughter of Chief Shenandoah of the Iroquois community.  Joanne is, in some circles, called the voice of Native America.  She inspired me to put this song down as I recalled my own ancestors and their behaviors.  They invaded this new land and claimed it for themselves.  Joanne is a voice for peace and for reconciliation and for transcendence of differences.  The song is dedicated to her.

In the distant past

Ancestors fought a war

The grievances flowed on from generations

The curses and the lies

The vengeance and the blood

Their children and their children learned the hatred

Your nation in the valley

My family in the hills

The strangers on the plains beside the river

Your color and your clothes

Your language and your ways

Kept us far apart from one another

In the past there was violence

Now we are related

And violence is no more

Before we met

There was hatred

Now we are related and hatred is no more

Then your daughter fair

Met my eldest son

Then I traded baskets for your silver

Then I saw you laughing

Then I heard your songs

Then we shared a meal beside the river

Now the ancient lies

Vanish in the sun

Now my eyes awaken to the vision

Now I see the ties

Now I see the kin

Now I see the future of our nation

In the past

There was violence

Now we are related

And violence is no more

Before we met

There was hatred

Now we are related

And hatred is no more

Music & Lyrics: Rev. Heng Sure

Check the label on your toothpaste tube: why is there sweetener in a product that reduces tooth decay? Addiction to sweets is a sign of an unhealthy society; childhood onset diabetes is a national health epidemic. Even the military is having difficulty recruiting men and women for the armed services who are not overweight, and sugar is a primary cause of the problem. I wrote this song to help me get past my own sweet-tooth. I sing it like a mantra when I’m tempted by a second piece of cake. The Buddha teaches that all dharmas are ultimately equal. Sugar is not to blame! It’s the mind and body that attach to things we love and things we hate.

Sugar is this Bhikshu’s bane

Just one bite can fog my brain

One sweet cookie melts my spine

Gets me high as quick as wine

I’m singin’

The sweet-tooth blues

Turned by sugar that I ate

I forget to cultivate

Red of face and short of breath

Unconcerned by birth and death

Singin’

The sweet-tooth blues

Sugar makes my thoughts run on

‘Til concentration’s lost and gone

Makes me want to laugh and play

And wander from the Middle Way

‘Til I’m singin’

The sweet-tooth blues

People like it good and sweet

We sweeten everything we eat

Read the label, yes it’s true

There’s sweetener in the toothpaste, too

Colgate’s got us singin’

The sweet-tooth blues

Sugar used to taste just great

Now I would rather concentrate

I won’t eat another dose of 

Dextrose, fructose, and sucrose

Gotta kick ‘em

The sweet-tooth blues

People like it sweet and good

We sweeten nearly all our food

Tell me Doctor, who’s at fault?

Who put Dextrose in the salt? 

Sun-dried, iodized

Sweet-tooth blues

But one day to be really true

I’ll put down no sugar, too

Until then I am glad to be

Bittersweet and sugar-free

You and I

We can be

Bittersweet 

And sugar-free

Music: Traditional-African American kids’ ring game song, “Green, Green Rocky Road”

Lyrics: Martin Verhoeven

On a pilgrimage that I did from South Pasadena, California in LA up to Ukiah with a companion, another monk; we bowed every three steps, and did a prostration to the ground.  It took two and a half years and 800 miles, and probably a million or more bows to get there.  To keep our spirits up, we occasionally would write songs and sing them to ourselves and let the energy of the song carry us through the down days.  So this is one of those, it’s set to the melody of “Green Green Rocky Road”.

Return the light and turn around

Found a penny on the ground

Met a friend I always knowed

Bowing down on a rocky road

Bow down and turn around

Look inside and see

Is it black or white? 

Is it up or down? 

Is it in the sky?

Is it on the ground?

Bow down and turn around

Look inside and see

Leave the beaches find the gate

Hurry up now, don’t be late

Leave the false and find the true

Ten thousand Buddhas inside of you

Bow down, turn around

Look inside and see

Return the light and turn around

Found a penny on the ground

Met a friend I always knowed

Bowing down on a rocky road

Bow down and turn around

Look inside and see

Music & Lyrics: Rev. Heng Sure 

This song was written for the United Religions Initiative, otherwise known as URI.  It expresses the global vision of religions that are post tribal. Our planet cannot hold that tribal view any longer, this is a global village.  Our religions should become good neighbors, in harmony with each of us, each of our faiths.  There’s a line in here that comes from The Peacemaker of the Iroquois.  The Iroquois story; the original, the first residents, the First Peoples of this land called Turtle Island, were at war with each other.  The peacemaker Hiawatha put them all together and made everybody take their weapons and bury them beneath the great white tree of peace.  They invited an eagle with all due respect, to sit on top of that tree and make a great sound as soon as he saw any one of the tribes, sneaking over to dig up the weapons and go back to war.   They’re the united Iroquois Confederacy, former warlike tribes.  It became the foundation of The United States Constitution studied by the founding fathers and that verse appears in the United Religions, URI song, so listen for it.

You are I

We are one

Reunited

We become

If the religions of the world could sit

For just one hour in harmony

What a peaceful happy world

That hour of harmony would bring

If the leaders of all faiths agreed

To share their hearts in honesty

What a model for the world

Their friendship and integrity

You are I

We are one

Reunited

We become

And when the children of the world agree

To teach their elders harmony

What a joyful laughter in

That lesson to humanity

When the people of the world agree

To be the change they wish to see

What a peaceful, happy place

This world of suffering could be

You are I

We are one

Reunited

We become

And when the nations of the world agree

To bury guns beneath the tree

What a blessed celebration

The end of death by guns would bring

When the URI guides society

To religious hospitality

Happiness abides within

That commonwealth of harmony

You are I

We are one

Reunited

We become

Reunited

We become

Music & Lyrics: Rev. Heng Sure

This song is called “Set It Down.”  It arose from a gathering in Antwerp, Belgium of the United Religions Initiative.  We had just heard the story of one of our courageous young leaders from Uganda, who went out into Northern Uganda where Lord’s Resistance Army was kidnapping young people and turning them into bloodthirsty soldiers and drug addicts.  They’ve been teaching 12 year olds how to kill with machine guns and chop children’s hands off and things like that.  She was testifying how she goes out and uses religions to cross these boundaries that before were ironclad.  She demonstrated how there was benefit to all when you make friends across religious borders in the face of the terror of The Lord’s Resistance Army.  Her name is Despina.  Despina said the hardest thing is to get people to forget the old stories; to set aside the slights and the insults that have been in front of people, for sometimes generations, “so and so stole a cow a hundred years ago and we have never forgiven them.”  The song was born from that idea that, “God taught us forgiveness, heaven holds us all.  Nevermind who hit who first, be still and hear the call.  O set it down, set it down, set that vengeance down.  Set it down, set it down, set the vengeance down.  Some say bad religion is worse than none at all.  Anyone who teaches hate, someday is bound to fall.  O set it down.  To free your mind of hatred, makes you truly great.  All your ancestors rejoice when you put an end to hate.  Oh set it down.  Coal turns into diamonds, there’s diamonds in the coal.  Hell turns into heaven when there’s forgiveness in your soul.  Oh set it down, set it down.”  That’s the song. It was a hit in Antwerp and it’s a song we need to sing a little more often.

God taught us forgiveness

Heaven holds us all

Never mind who hit who first

Be still, hear the call

O set it down, set it down

Set that vengeance down

O set it down, set it down

Set that vengeance down

Some say bad religion

Is worse than none at all

Anyone who teaches hate

Some day is bound to fall

O set it, down set it down

Set that vengeance down

O set it, down set it down 

Set that vengeance down

To free your mind of hatred

Makes you truly great

All our ancestors rejoice

When we put an end to hate

O set it down, set it down

Set that vengeance down

O set it down, set it down

Set that vengeance down

Coal turns into diamonds

There’s diamonds in the coal

Hell turns into heaven

When there’s forgiveness in your soul

O set it down, set it down

Set that vengeance down

O set it down, set it down

Set that vengeance down

Music: Loreena McKennit, “The Dark Night of the Soul” from the Quinlan Road

CD The Mask and Mirror. Published by Quinlan Road Music Ltd (SOCAN/BMI).

www.quinlanroad.com

Lyrics: Traditional Buddhist Hymn translated and adapted by Rev. Heng Sure and Bhikshu Heng Lyu

“Dedication of Merit” is a way to share the goodness of enjoying music together.  The music and the harmony that it brings create something called virtue and merit.  It’s a force, actually the ancients called it the only force that can cut without harming.  When someone has virtue, they can mold the world to their will and no one minds, nobody objects.  When we hear this song, take the opportunity to send out a wish for goodness, however you would like to make a better world.  In Judaism they say, “Tikkun Olam,” you repair the world.  That makes it, you being here, my being here, worthwhile.  So let’s make a wish, however you would like, to make a better world. Share the goodness of music with people, who are hungry for the goodness that we know and enjoy so freely.  Let’s share it with everyone.

May every living being

Our minds as one and radiant with light

Share the fruits of peace

With hearts of goodness, luminous, and bright

If people hear and see

How hands and hearts can find in giving, unity

May our minds awake

To Great Compassion, wisdom and to joy

May kindness find reward

May all who sorrow leave their grief and pain

May this boundless light

Dispel the darkness of our endless night

Because our hearts are one

This world of pain turns into Paradise

May all become compassionate and wise

May all become compassionate and wise

Music & Lyrics: Rev. Heng Sure 

This song is called “Wedding Blessing.”  It’s also known as “Dana Paramita,” the perfection of generosity, giving that takes one across, dana paramita, the perfection of giving.  It was written for a wedding of a couple that were central and still are central in our community.  The wedding took place down in Madurai, South India and there was a large number of friends and family in the community who couldn’t make it over to India to celebrate the wedding.  But we knew the time that the wedding was happening and this is an Indian wedding that takes place over many days.  So we all got together in the monastery in Berkeley and sat in silence in a circle and put our hearts together and sent off good wishes to the couple.  This song emerged from that meeting, as a memorial, is a commemoration and a celebration of their happy wedding.  Since that time, we’ve brought it out at appropriate moments to send off other folks-happy weddings.  Here it is, this song is called “Wedding Blessing.”

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Let my eyes see

Let my heart learn

Let my hands give

Let my feet serve

Make our roof into a refuge

Make our floor a Bodhimanda

Make our hearts into a shelter

Make our eyes into a beacon

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Turn ourself into the selfless

Turn our passion to compassion

Turn our seeking into service

Turn our love to liberation

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Let our deeds reflect the Dharma

Let our words resound with wisdom

Let our thoughts be filled with kindness

Let our hands bestow compassion

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

May this family be a blessing

May these children love their parents

May these elders teach with patience

May this house contain the world

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Dana Paramita

Let my eyes see

Let my heart learn

Let my hands give

Let my feet serve