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THE SNOW LION BUDDHIST NEWS & CATALOG
$19.95, CHGACD
Chod in the Ganden Tradition
2-CD set
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Chanting Chöd: Interview with David Molk on Chöd in the Ganden Tradition CD
by Christine Cox
When a Tibetan lama carrying a horse-headed fiddle walked into David Molk's music store many decades ago and asked for a repair that needed the skin of a deer killed only by an arrow, he set David's life on a fascinating trajectory. David, who had already developed expertise in working with old instruments, found the requisite deerskin, as well as horse hair for the bow. |
In return for David's work, the lama gave him a transmission and started David's path within the Tibetan spiritual—and musical—traditions. "He gave me a precious gift in return," says David. "The transmission of Tara's mantra."
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Soon afterwards, David found himself in Bombay, playing instruments with a top Indian orchestra for the Indian film industry, and then taught music in Dharamsala at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. Since then he has toured with the Drepung Loseling monks, translated at many Buddhist centers, and had the opportunity for extensive and in-depth study and practice. |
Machig Labdron
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With the recent release of David's CD of Chod chants in English—a companion to his book Chod in the Ganden Tradition: The Oral Instructions of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche—we called him to ask how he came to develop and perfect his mellifluous method of chant, a form that sounds authentically Tibetan without the awkwardness that some English chant translations seem to have.
His first translation for music was suggested to him by Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, who was preparing a chant for a presentation to HH the Dalai Lama. "Being both a musician and a translator is advantageous," David says, "because there are many ways to translate a line of Tibetan."
Chod Practitioner
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From there, he began to work with many types of ritual chanting, always staying with the original Tibetan melodies. "I'm so drawn to the traditional melodies," he says. "There's a lot of blessings in them."
"I came to love translating verse. Coming at it as a practitioner, I was interested in what would duplicate the experience of doing the puja in Tibetan—which I think is such a strong catalyst for realization," he says, adding that he set himself the task of learning how to create that experience in English. The Dalai Lama, he was told, suggests that Westerners do prayers in their own languages.
David learned the taste of the Chod practice with Zong Rinpoche, who sat down with and taught him "one verse at a time, perfectly, with all the nuances." |
"In the course of pujas there is very slow chanting—you have the chance with that long space to really contemplate the meaning of the words, letting the force of your meditation come back to you with what the words trigger. Plus you've got the chanting going on in your body; that's a focusing force that draws energy in. In addition, music makes such a beautiful offering, which creates merit," he notes. The poetic form in English particularly lends itself to memorization, he says, adding (rhetorically), "What could be better than chanting a beautiful melody of verse on a subject that is so meaningful?"
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About the authors . . .
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was born in Eastern Tibet in 1904 and became abbot of Ganden Shartse Monastery in 1937. He was the first principal of the Central Institute of Tibetan Higher Studies in Sarnath.
Editor David Molk began his studies with Kyabje Zong Rinpoche twenty-five years ago, and has translated for many Tibetan lamas. He lives in Big Sur, California.
Books and Recordings by Kyabje Zong Rinpoche:
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