Urban Lotus by Rev. Heng Sure

Buddhism came to California a century ago. One of Buddhism’s symbols is the lotus flower. Lotuses are rooted in the mud but their blossoms stand above the mud, pure and undefiled. The heart of the Mahayana’s hero, the Bodhisattva, or Awakened Being, is the same way. Bodhisattvas keep a pure heart while living in the muddle of the mundane world.
Chan Master Hsuan Hua (1918-1995) opened monasteries in the heart of major urban cities up and down the West Coast: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Sacramento, San Jose, Berkeley and elsewhere. He trained Western monks and nuns to become like lotuses and bloom amid the concrete city sidewalks. He himself was a song-writer and he challenged his disciples to rewrite the daily ceremonies, chants and praises to accord with the musical tastes of the contemporary West. This album, Urban Lotus is our second go at setting the Buddha’s Dharma teachings to Western melodies, played on 6 and 12-string guitars, banjos and an octave mandolin Please make these tunes your own and watch a lotus bloom!

Rev. Heng Sure is a Buddhist monk and pre-Beatles folkie. He has composed four albums of American Buddhist folk songs and stories with collaborators including Jody Stecher, Henry Kaiser, Alan Senauke, Steve Baughman, and the late Paul Hostetter. A noted Buddhist pilgrim, Rev. Sure completed a 30-month, 800-mile pilgrimage for world peace along the Pacific Coast Highway

dharmaradio.org