YUVAL AVITAL

The mantras, mandalas, chants, prayers, rituals of cleaning the the karma, breathing meditations are anchored in the voice. The human voice is a vessel in which the Bön priests are putting verbal and non verbal metaphysic meanings of their beliefs regarding the essential functions  of their reality.

It is interesting to reflect about the use of vocals in the Bön culture and in Buddhism in general, in comparison to the musical use of "Amen" in the European Cristian liturgy - while both carry a function of a meditative word rather than an informative word (even though that in Hebew the word "Amen" carry many meanings deriving from its root A.M.A.N - which could hint art, practice, faith, artist) the Catholic tradition use its AMEN either as a closing pattern (all musical parameters go down) or as a rich base of musical movement and decoration (Melisma in musical terms), the vocals demostrated by Lama Samten are a rapresentation of the constant, the invariable, the eternal. This opposing difference - or complimentary relations if you wish - makes me think of the great debate between Heraclitus of Ephesus and Parmenides of Elea: