Guided body-scan meditation with improvised ambient music.
Takes a while to get started... give it time — lie down with headphones and see how you feel after 29 mins

Ambient Music Relaxation

A short teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh on transforming our relationship with the Earth, accompanied by improvised piano and strings.

We Have Borrowed Too Much — Thich Nhat Hanh + music

An improvisation at dawn with cello and sruti box (with a foot pedal). Then layered the same cello on top of itself to see what would happen.

Echo Within

I made a sampler out of the harmonics of my cello, so that I could play massive chords in natural intonation. I laid down a bunch of chords and then improvised over it. This is what happened.

I think I want to do more stuff like this.

It's Full of Stars

Soundtrack for the podcast The Way Out Is In

The Way Out Is In

Just for fun, a breakdown remix of the podcast intro tune.

The Way Out Is In - remix

Our beloved abbot, Brother Phap Huu, will soon be starting a podcast called "Inside Plum Village"

I wrote this little piece for the intro and outro. A special bonus, and also a huge challenge, was getting the music to frame Thay's voice.

"Inside Plum Village" podcast intro music

This is a new instrumental arrangement of a Plum Village compassion chant - "De La Vision Profonde" - it invites us to awaken the energy of compassion we all have within us. 

(sorry the piano is out of tune - because of lockdown the tuner couldn't get here) 

The original French chant is one that we sing often here in Plum Village - I wrote the melody about ten years ago, as a novice monk. 

The text of the chant is a poetic translation by Thich Nhat Hanh, of a traditional classical Chinese invocation — see below for text in English and French. 

You can find this chant and others, sung by the brothers and sisters of Plum Village on the album “Chanting as a River” available to download here: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/thesister... or on Spotify - just look for "Chanting as a River"

*****

Text in French:

De la vision profonde éclôt une fleur de grande éloquence.
Libre de toute affliction du monde,
Le Bodhisattva se tient majestueusement,
Sur les vagues de la naissance et la mort.
Sa grande compassion élimine toute maladie,
Même celles pensées incurables.

Sa lumière merveilleuse,
Balaie tout obstacle et danger.
Sa branche de saule une fois élevée,
Révèle des terres pures inombrables.
Sa fleur de lotus une fois épanouie,
Dévoile des miliers,
De centres de pratique.

Nous nous inclinons, 
Nous voyons sa presence,
Ici et maintenant.
Nous lui offrons l’encens de nos coeurs.

Que le Bodhisattva nous embrasse,
De sa grande compassion.
Namovalokiteshvaraya
Namovalokiteshvaraya
Namovalokiteshvaraya
 
*****

Text in English:

From the depths of understanding a flower of great eloquence blooms.
The Bodhisattva stands majestically 
Upon the waves of birth and death
Free from all afflictions
Her great compassion eliminates all sickness
Even that once thought of as incurable
Her wondrous light sweeps away all obstacles and dangers
Her willow branch once waved reveals countless Pure Lands
Her lotus flower blossoms a multitude of practice centres
We bow to her, we see her true presence in the here and now
We offer her the incense of hearts
May the Bodhisattva of deep listening
Embrace us all with great compassion
Namovalokiteshvaraya
Namovalokiteshvaraya 
Namovalokiteshvaraya

De La Vision Profonde - instrumental arrangement

"Beloved one, please come, and lean your arms on this window-ledge. Look out. Do you see the wonderful immensity of space in front of you? Do you see the vast blue ocean? Do you see the sunlight on the wings of the seagull? Looking out you see immensity, but looking in you also see immensity. The world inside is as vast as the world outside. In fact, reality transcends both the notions of inside and outside. That special window is everywhere—it is in you and in me. It helps us to see the world of no birth and no death, no coming and no going."

from "Inside the Now" by Thich Nhat Hanh:



This was my first time using the amazing app StaffPad - an intense three days of learning the software and writing a new piece - but I learned a lot :)

Space Outside Of Space

A little track for a trailer we just made for our coming online retreats.

Summer in Plum Village.wav

Buddhist monk, student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, living and practicing in Plum village France.

This is where I put unreleased odds and ends – experimental stuff - work in progress, so don't expect polish

Brother Spirit

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