ShÅmyÅ
Shōmyō (Japanese声明) is a Buddhist ritual singing in Japan, which is seen by the practitioners themselves less as music, rather than a ritual practice.
Origin
The legend says that on the Chinese Shandong peninsula, the Yu Shan (Chinese鱼 山/鱼 山, fish mountain ', Japanese gyozan ), the reclusive Cao Zhi ( 192-232 ) heard sounding from caves music. He understood it as a music of the heavenly musicians Ghandharva Pancika. Inspired by this, he began singing in Buddhist Sutrentexte transpose. From this developed the Fanbai chants (梵 呗/梵 呗, fànbài ) - hymns which essentially consisted of elongated single notes and short melodic phrases.
The art of ritual chant was probably during the Tang Dynasty ( 618-907 ) at the peak of their development. Kūkai and Saicho, the later founder of two major Japanese Shingon and Tendai traditions, as well Ennin, the real narrator of the Tendai chants, studied at this time for many years in China. A small number of texts and rites that time has survived to this day. The description of a ceremony dates from the year 730, entitled " nationals " - the spreading of lotus flowers. The accompanying hymn is still one of the most-sung pieces from the contemporary Japanese Shōmyō repertoire. The text was taken from the Prajnaparamita Sutra and the first mention of this rite in China can be found at 497
The singing tradition has been handed down in the 6th and 7th centuries to Korea and Japan. While she was lost in their countries of origin India and China, they could be preserved there.
In Japan, the Fanbai chants were first Japanese read as Bombay and later they got the name Shōmyō. This name was derived from the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit term " Sabda Vidya ": the science of words and sounds, which was one of the five studies of the Brahmins. The imported songs without reforms Efforts were as faithfully as possible to continue. Already in the year 752, the eye opening ceremony of the Great Buddha of Todai -ji in Heijo - kyō attended by over a thousand monks and priests should have been involved, Shōmyō was performed along with music and dances. The hymns Bonnon, Shakujo, Bai and Sange were sung and how they are still taught in the Shōmyōzentren certainly similar. Of the three major Shōmyō traditions Nara, Shingon and Tendai, it was mainly the Tendai tradition, of which the other younger schools took her singing style.
Form
Shōmyō is listed either solo or in chorus, usually without instrumental accompaniment. The texts are short and essential and consist of either Sutrenausschnitten or from praise. The tones are sung stretched extremely long, so that their content is difficult to understand intellectually, but allows the pointedness of mind. The singing is aimed at the resolution of the time-consciousness - these non- time must therefore be adapted to the inner time, the inner rhythm, respiratory rate and heart rate. The melodies are a collection of stereotypical motifs that are joined to each other by way of mosaic. Each motif is set in its shape and has a name. Each Shōmyōschule has its own repertoire such melodic fragments. The languages of the texts vary within three large groups: Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. The sound system of pentatonic Fünftonskalen Likewise, changes to seven colors and it can also tones whose frequencies lie between a full and half-tone, can be used. The notation is called " Hakase ". In this case, straight or curved lines, and combinations thereof may be used. It is based on a similar concept as the neume notation of Gregorian chant.
Tradition
The existence of this notation can not hide the fact that Shōmyō was transmitted orally. The passing was usually carried out in secret. The stakeholders in this process do not understand even in this day and age the Shōmyō than music. The ideal is the perfect imitation of the voices of the teacher, without any personal ingredient of the student. It even goes so far that any occurring in the master individual characteristics become an integral part of the tradition of the student are. A specialization began to emerge, and it was quite common among Buddhist monks to devote themselves exclusively to the life-long singing.
( Sanskrit: Siddham ) Often, just the Shingon, while also studying the character of the Shittan was incorporated on which the mantra is based. This ancient Sanskrit writing are highlighted essential and far-reaching meanings. Form ( character shape ), speech sound ( acoustic phenomenon ) and significance of the syllables are the subject of cosmological religious philosophies and belong in a wider sense also to Shōmyō. The first and most important Siddham character is A, which is revered as the source of all vowels and consonants. It includes every sound and is included in every. In an all-encompassing sense of the seed syllable A (A -ji) arise from all physical and spiritual things. The cosmic Buddha Vairocana, which stands for the unity of all phenomena, embodied in her.
Content and meaning
The aesthetic criteria of Shōmyōgesangs can be derived from a passage of Sukhavativyuha Sutra ago: " If it is still divided into a Buddha -land between beautiful and ugly, I do not want to be a Buddha of such a country ." Beauty, from the Buddhist point of view, can not simply be the opposite of ugly. That would be no more than a dualistic conception. Nevertheless, aesthetic principles were formed in Japan out have been applied to all artistic spiritual disciplines. Their four components mean for Shōmyō:
- WA (harmony) - arises between singer and listener
- KEI ( respect) - refers to a music that transpersonal principles, the nature of being, is
- SEI (purity) - is aimed at music as a ritual that cleanses the heart
- JAKU ( silence and simplicity ) - are expressed in minimalist melodies and the tranquil flow of sounds
The deliberate lack of aural seduction means that Shōmyō may also be oriented only to a limited audience. It requires a different kind of listening - after listening does not differ and not be identified with the included. This allows a non-moving spirit in which each sound can return to its original meaning. However, the pragmatic purpose of the listener is often simply that they have a credit transfer are hoping that will bring them blessings.
The special weightiness that is assigned to the right hearing as part of the Eightfold Path in the Dharma is described in Surangama Sutra:
"The eye does not go through barriers, not the mouth and not the nose. Through contact only the body feels, thoughts are confused and torn. But the voice, near or far, can always be heard constantly. The five other institutions are imperfect, all-pervading alone is listening. The 'being' or non-existence ' of sound and voice registered the ear as is ' or ' missing'. There, where no is sound, nothing is heard, Not hearing devoid of nature. Lack of a sound does not mean the end of the hearing, Existing tone, not hearing the beginning. The hearing itself is owned by constant duration, of what comes and goes. And even if in a dream, form ideas, although you do not think - Hearing remains besteh'n. Because the hearing is beyond thinking and goes beyond mind and body. In this Saha world teaching is done by voice. Those who can not see through listening nature, follows the sound and is reborn. "