Saga Dawa Heart Sutra Recitation

At the request of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, this is a new choral arrangement of the Heart Sutra presented as a “virtual choir.” It was sung as separate tracks by over thirty participants in ten different countries, which were then edited together to create the choral arrangement. The video was produced and edited using Zoom and broadcast across the world on Zoom, YouTube and Facebook Live for 24 hours to commemorate Saga Dawa Düchen, the day where Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana is celebrated across the world. The melody is based off of a musical setting of the “Nilakantha Dharani,” a dharani associated with Avalokiteshvara in Japanese Buddhism, written by Kanho Yakushiji, a Zen priest. The translation of the Heart Sutra was done by the Nalanda Translation Committee, the video editing by Sophie Perks and the choral arrangement by Harry Einhorn. Produced and practiced with the intention of pacifying the turmoil of the world at this time, in the words of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, “May we invoke love, kindness, and healing, and open our hearts for the earth.”

Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish

Read the transcript here.

Watch and listen to the coral arrangement here.