Where the Music of India and Japan Meet |
NAKAGAWA Hiroshi |
On the Shichiseikai (Part Two) / The Buddhist World : Full of Music (1) |
There is Music in the Pure Land Too |
There are a great many descriptions of music throughout Buddhist scripture, including some in those sutra that are chanted by monks. Take, for example, the Amida-Kyo (Smaller Sukhåvat·vy¨ha) that I recorded the other day with Shichiseikai, which assures us that in the world awaiting us after our deaths, Jodo (the Pure Land), there will be music playing. In part because this sutra was written in classical Chinese, it struck me as being quite sublime when the monks chanted it. For the most part, the words contain a concrete description of the Pure Land: In the Pure Land, there is a pond from which exquisite waters flow abundantly with sands of pure gold covering its bottom. On the surface of the water float yellow, red, white, and blue lotuses, and the four banks surrounding the pond are staircases made of gold, silver, glass, and crystal. The part about the staircases reminds me of the purification baths in Benares, India, where I lived for three years. Maybe it looked something like these. Next, there's a description of tengaku (music of the heavens) and how it is always playing. Of course, there is no mention here of genre, it might be jazz, rock, enka (Japanese ballads), Western classical, reggae, the Nenes, or Tsugaru shamisen. But since these sutra were written down by ancient Indians, it is safe to say that the music of the heavens was the Indian music of the time. A few verses down, it also says that the instruments of the heavens can produce 100 thousand different sounds, and that a net full of bells in the trees makes mysterious sounds as it sways in the breeze. Is this perhaps something like ambient music? The Jodo sect also teaches that at the time of our death we will be guided to the Pure Land by a group of musicians who come to welcome us with their instruments. I had always had the vague impression that the place we go after death would be silent, but it sounds as if there will in fact be music. This is by no means the only description in the Amida-kyo. The other two sutra that make up the three canons of the Jodo sect, the Muryoju-Kyo (Larger Sukhåvat·vy¨ha) and the Kan-Muryoju-Kyo, also describe the magnificent world of the Pure Land as containing not only music but paintings and sculpture, descriptions which were to have a great influence on all types of Japanese art. |
Buddha Was Born Together with Music |
The descriptions of music are not, of course, only limited to the afterworld. There are so many of all kinds that it is no exaggeration to say that Buddhism is jam-packed with music. In his book Buddhist Music and Shomyo, OYAMA Kojun writes that from the time of his birth until he reached Nirvana, Siddhårtha was constantly surrounded by music, as the following passages from Buddhist scripture make clear. When he was born, Siddhårtha, riding a white elephant and emanating radiant light, appeared in his mother Måyå's dream. At that instant, the sound of koto, drums, and song could be heard. It must have been an instant something like that "jaan" you hear when you turn on your Mac. (from the Shugyobon-Engi) Following his birth, Siddhårtha was raised as a prince in a palace. Wanting to keep him within the palace, the king prepared a host of attractions to entertain the prince. There was a room prepared for him inside the palace that held an orchestra of harps, so (a kind of koto), gogen (a five-string koto), kotsuzumi (small drum), koto, biwa, saiko (drum), drums, sho (a wind instrument made up of bamboo pipes), and shichiriki (a small double-reed instrument)--there were a thousand of each as well as a thousand kinds of song and dance being performed. Music could be heard twenty-four hours a day. (from the Butsu-Hongyoshu-Kyo) Although he was raised in this environment of non-stop music, one day Siddhårtha found that the musicians had fallen asleep and made the best of this opportunity to escape. The reason given for his desire to get out of the palace was his search to find out why all human beings suffer, and through meditation and other ascetic practices, discover some method of releasing them from their pain. But it is just as easy to imagine that because he had been constantly surrounded by music since the day he was born, he wanted a little rest. |
At the time he left home, Siddhårtha was 29, and after six years of meditation and yoga, he became enlightened. He had, in other words, become the Buddha at the age of 35. As I write this, I can't help but think, "Okay, satori at 35, and here I am at 46 still full of worldly desire and miles away from enlightenment." At any rate, it wasn't long before Siddhårtha found himself in the midst of music again. Delighted at having found enlightenment, Siddhårtha became enthralled with playing the instruments of the heavens, so much so that he lost all sense of the difference between night and day. The gods and goddesses responded in kind by assembling a collection of flowers and incense, and performing their own music as a blessing. Later, when he visited Sarnåth to begin the first Buddhist sermon, and also when he visited RåjagÂha (a town in Central India, which was the capital of Magadha) in search of an appropriate place to start disseminating the Buddhist teachings, Siddhårtha began by playing his own music. This wasn't however the music of the ancient human world, but the music of the heavens. (from the Kako-Genzai-Inga-Kyo) And again as he made his way toward Nirvana, there was, naturally, music. In the Hokuhon-Nehan-Kyo (Nirvana Sutra), there is even a list of all the instruments that were played at the time. I don't know whether these descriptions are literally true or not, but even today there are Indian ascetics who leave home to sing songs in praise of the gods. So it doesn't take a great stretch to imagine that Siddhårtha himself used music as a means of propagating his teachings. Even if we accept the fact that the scriptures were written by the faithful, it is quite easy to believe that Siddhårtha was a very talented musician. | |