Thursday, September 10, 2009

AH! Buddhist Opera in Los Angeles

A Counterpoint of Tolerance: AH!
(Sept. 16, 17, 18, 2009) Bringing together an array of robotic and interactive musical technologies, ingenious stagecraft, and flights of phenomenal musicianship, REDCAT is transformed into an immersive visual and sonic environment for the world premiere of this inventive international collaboration, composed and performed by creators from around the globe and inspired by the classic Buddhist text, the Diamond Sutra.

Ahopera mandala (CLICK HERE)

The Earliest dated printed Book
The Buddhist text known around the world as the Diamond Sutra (or Vajra Cutter Sutra) is a short Mahayana discourse of the Perfection of Wisdom (prajna-paramita) genre.

It teaches the practice of the avoidance of abiding in extremes of mental attachment. A copy of the sutra, found early in the 20th century among the Dunhuang manuscripts, is in the words of the British Library, "the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book."

It is inscribed, "Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 15th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong [11 May 868]." This is about 587 years before the Gutenberg Bible. More>>