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<p>Publisher's description: Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art documents the growing presence of Buddhist perspectives in contemporary culture. This shift began in the nineteenth century and is now pervasive in many aspects of everyday experience. In the arts especially, the increasing importance of process over product has promoted a profound change in the relationship between artist and audience. But while artists have been among the most perceptive interpreters of Buddhism in the West, art historians and critics have been slow to develop the intellectual tools to analyze the impact of Buddhist concepts. This timely, multi-faceted volume explores the relationships between Buddhist practice and the contemporary arts in lively essays by writers from a range of disciplines and in revealing interviews with some of the most influential artists of our time. Elucidating the common ground between the creative mind, the perceiving mind, and the meditative mind, the contributors tackle essential questions about the relationship of art and life. Among the writers are curators, art critics, educators, and Buddhist commentators in psychology, literature, and cognitive science. They consider the many Western artists today who recognize the Buddhist notion of emptiness, achieved through focused meditation, as a place of great creative potential for the making and experiencing of art. The artists featured in the interviews, all internationally recognized, include Maya Lin, Bill Viola, and Ann Hamilton. Extending earlier twentieth-century aesthetic interests in blurring the boundaries of art and life, the artists view art as a way of life, a daily practice, in ways parallel to that of the Buddhist practitioner. Their works, woven throughout the book, richly convey how Buddhism has been both a source for and a lens through which we now perceive art.</p>

<p>Professor George has ventured into a comparatively unchartered area seeking, as he does, to explore the art and concept of performance in Buddhism -- more specially in the context of Buddhist meditation and theatre. Spelling out the epistemology of performance in all its different connotations and definitional nuances, his study opens out an astonishingly vast panorama of the Buddhist theatrical practices in Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Nepal, Tibet . . . and goes on to demonstrate how, within this panorama, three kinds of theatrical practice can be identified, each corresponding to one of the three paths open to a Buddhist: the karma path, the Bodhisattva option, and enlightenment, and each representative of one of the three main cultures of Buddhism -- the Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana. Supported by extensive endnotes and bibliographic references, Dr. George's book also carries a range of case studies of the art of performance in Buddhism, with definitive examples, among others, of the Sri Lankan Kandy dance and Karma drama, Tibetan Chams and Chod, and Japanese Noh.</p>

The Monks produce polyphonic chanting of incredible power and depth, creating resonances both musical and spiritual. This program also features a performance offering to The Monks by Mickey Hart, Kitaro and Philip Glass and featuring Jerry Garcia. It is important to remember, when listening to this recording, that these incantations are not songs, but prayers from ancient ritual traditions. Recorded during their 1988 American tour, in the sonically amazing confines of Lucasfilm's Skywalker Ranch sound studios, two nearly-30-minute recitations focus traditional Tibetan Buddhist deities and their respective powers upon the modern world. "Yamantaka" aligns the Monks with the divine Buddha form "Terminator of Death," chanting to exorcise human afflictions of anger, avarice, lust and envy. "Mahakala," the frightening six-armed protector, is invoked in this eponymous ceremony to protect the earth and all its inhabitants. A third track, "#2 for Gaia," is a live performance by Mickey Hart, Philip Glass, and Kitaro, recorded at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine as a tribute to the Monks, who were in attendance at the performance. Proceeds from all sales of this recording benefit the Gyuto Sacred Trust.