Rev. Heng Sure - Urban Lotus (2025)

Tracklist

01. Never Stop Reciting
02. She Carries Me
03. Samantabhadras Repentance Verse
04. Praise The Buddha
05. Medicine Buddhas Name
06. Amitabha Buddhas Name
07. I'm Feeling Glad (For My Mom And Dad)
08. Road To Brotherhood
09. Sweet-Tooth Blues
10. Bow Down, Turn Around
11. You Are I (The United Religions Initiative Song)
12. Set It Down
13. Dedication Of Merit
14. Dana Paramita (Wedding Blessing)

Buddhism came to California a century ago. One of Buddhism’s symbols is the lotus flower. Lotuses are rooted in the mud but their blossoms stand above the mud, pure and undefiled. The heart of the Mahayana’s hero, the Bodhisattva, or Awakened Being, is the same way. Bodhisattvas keep a pure heart while living in the muddle of the mundane world.
Chan Master Hsuan Hua (1918-1995) opened monasteries in the heart of major urban cities up and down the West Coast: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Sacramento, San Jose, Berkeley and elsewhere. He trained Western monks and nuns to become like lotuses and bloom amid the concrete city sidewalks. He himself was a song-writer and he challenged his disciples to rewrite the daily ceremonies, chants and praises to accord with the musical tastes of the contemporary West. This album, Urban Lotus is our second go at setting the Buddha’s Dharma teachings to Western melodies, played on 6 and 12-string guitars, banjos and an octave mandolin Please make these tunes your own and watch a lotus bloom!

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