Check out “Sambhogakaya,” from the new Dzogchen-inspired album by Sir Richard Bishop and W. David Oliphant

Two respected figures from the independent-music world have released an album inspired by Dzogchen — "The Great Perfection" — the main teaching of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. (You can watch the video for one of its tracks, "Sambhogakaya,"below.) As music site TinyMixTapes.com reports:

"Sir Richard Bishop (of Sun City Girls and a ton of solo work) and W. David Oliphant (of Life Garden, Maybe Mental, and a ton of solo work) … [have released] their first collaborative album, Beyond All Defects, through their own ChodpaMedia label. The set was recorded last December in Phoenix, with Bishop playing acoustic guitar and Oliphant producing sounds through computer software and a MIDI controller. Bishop's guitar on the record was frequently detuned, bowed, and beaten, as 'treated' by Oliphant.

"The songs on Beyond Defects were inspired by the concepts of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the Dzogchen body of teachings. Additionally, many of the musical ideas presented on the record derived from dreams the duo had the night before recording. If this all sounds a little too high-minded for you, keep in mind that the impetus behind the collaboration was Bishop's desire for 'big-ass Tibetan horn sounds.'"

You can order the album — and check out its tracklist and impressive packaging — here.  And watch/listen to "Sambhogakaya" here:

Want to learn more about Dzogchen? Check out these select articles from the Shambhala Sun archives (links open in new windows):

  • Beyond Meditation: Grounded in our formal practice of meditation, we can relax into the vast, open awareness that is our ultimate nature. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche tells the story of his own introduction to the Great Perfection.
  • Rest in the Sky of Natural Mind: The tantric path of Buddhism is complex and arduous, says Mingyur Rinpoche, but its surprising culmination is the practice of spaciousness, ease, and simplicity known as Dzogchen, the Great Perfection.
  • Discovering the True Nature of Mind: Geshe Tenzin Wangyal teaches us a five-stage Dzogchen meditation that begins with contemplating our worst enemy and culminates in the discovery that mind is empty, clear and blissful.
  • Mahamudra and Dzogchen: Thought-Free Wakefulness: The ability to dissolve thoughts is essential to attaining liberation, says renowned Dzogchen teacher Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. Devotion and Pure Perception are two principles that lie at the root of Vajrayana practice that lead beyond confusion to thought-free wakefulness.
  • Quintessence of Compassion: From her book Sacred Voices, Sandra Scales offers a selection of portraits and teachings by some of the great Nyingma masters of our time, whose presence "is nothing other than the quintessence of compassion."

…And look for "The Great Perfection of Creativity," a Dzogchen-informed teaching about unleashing creative energy, in our November 2012 magazine, coming soon.

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