I know, I know, “Culture and Arts Week” was last week, but this is Buddhism and we don’t get attached to forms and rituals nowadays, do we?

Dharma-skippy we don’t.

And, once you meet today’s artist, you’ll be glad we threw tradition to the wind.

Meet the lovely and talented Ms. Ravenna Michalsen.

Andrew: So Ravenna, tell us a little about yourself.

Ravenna: In 2002 I met and became a student with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche who wrote two song-like poems for me to set to music. From that time on I began to write songs directly related to either great practitioners, bodhisattvas or various dharma teachings. Being a trained classical cellist who had to put down the instrument due to arthritis, I was ready to experiment aurally and the songs that emerged were quirky and sometimes a bit odd structurally. I recorded my first album ‘Bloom’ in 2005 with the hope of not repeating instruments (except the voice) on any of the tracks, and then recorded my follow-up album ‘Dharmasong’ in 2007, which was truly a labor of love! After a tour in Malaysia, I re-recorded Bloom with more instrumentation and (hopefully) a more nuanced vocal performance (voice is not my primary instrument!). Since I have a deep interest in great female religious practitioners, many of my songs feature these women: Tara (Dolma), Machik Labdrön, Jomo Menmo, and Yeshe Tsogyal. When performing I usually speak about the life stories of these women to order to spread awareness of their impact on the 1,300 year old tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

Andrew: Could you tell us more about dharma music?

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Ravenna: ‘Dharma’ is a Sanskrit word meaning “the teachings of the Buddha”, “the way things are” or simply: “that which holds us back”. The Tibetan word for dharma is ‘chö’, which can be translated as: “to heal”, “to restore” or “to repair”. Dharma music then is music that turns the mind toward the teachings of the Buddha or that which holds us back from harmful action.

The idea of combining dharma and music is very ancient. Some of the earliest female and male disciples of the Buddha wrote songs and poems about their experiences as new renunciates. As in the Homeric tradition (Homer lived about 100 years before the historical Buddha; the poet Sappho lived about 40 years before and 20 years before the Buddha was born Homer’s poems began to be sung at the All-Athenian Festival), these songs and poems were sung or recited, memorized and passed down to succeeding generations of renunciates. Two collections of such songs and poems, the Theri- and Theragatha (divided by author gender), are said to be composed by direct students of the historical Buddha. They were collected and included in the Pali Cannon around 80 BCE; Dhammapala, working in the 400s CE, added biographical information about the Therigathas’ many authors. Both the Theri- and Theragathas continue to be read and re-translated to this day because of their accessibility, beauty and proximity to the very beginnings of Buddhism.

Songs also figure prominently in the Tantric tradition as spontaneous outpourings of realization and devotion called dohas. The Tibetan Buddhist master Milarepa, (11th century), is probably the most well-known composer of dohas; it is said he wrote over 100,000 of them. Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), Machik Labdrön and Yeshe Tsogyal are all said to have  used song to teach disciples, and express their practice motivations, devotion and realization.

Andrew: Thanks for dropping by, Ravenna, and for sharing your art with us. I wish you much success in your future.

To find out more about Ravenna and her music, please visit her website, www.RavennaM.com.