Prof. Anne Harley, Scripps College (voicesofthepearl.org), YouTube, John Schneider ("Global Village," June 21, 2018, KPFK 90.7 FM); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
The Buddhist Therigatha is 2,600 years old. |
Professor of Music Anne Harley (Scripps) |
Their efforts span time, religion, nation, and culture. This project commissions, performs, and records musical works from composers across the world, setting text by and about female esoterics from world traditions throughout history, reclaiming these lost voices and the tradition of female spirituality.
By juxtaposing and performing four to five cycles by living composers, a full-length evening of portraits is created of female esoterics, traversing time and geography.
By juxtaposing and performing four to five cycles by living composers, a full-length evening of portraits is created of female esoterics, traversing time and geography.
Ayya Tathaloka, California Theravada nuns |
- [The section on Buddhist nuns is particularly striking as it sets to music rare and ancient Buddhist texts known as the Therigatha or "Verses of the Nuns," which are songs about individual enlightenment experiences of theris or female-elders, an "elder" being anyone with ten or more rains retreats in the robe. Harley gathered these texts from "female monks" in Theravada Thailand, the are fully ordained nuns. But "nun" has another, lower-status meaning of the Maechi or White-Clad Ten Precept Nuns, like Srirasmi Suwadee is treated, who are not fully ordained.]
Goddesses (devis) can teach and sing. |
Second, women are often considered by religious traditions incapable, due to their female bodies, to attain an authentic [enlightenment or] direct mystical contact with the divine.
[The Buddha said they could and made them "nuns," wandering female ascetics, but that did not stop sexist societies from doubting them and them doubting themselves.]
Voices of the Pearl traces the tenuous lineage of women who dared to encounter the divine directly. More
Voices of the Pearl: Vol. 1, Secret Book of Sun Bu'er: Step 5: Cultivating the Elixir (養丹)
Global Village, Thursday, June 21, 2018, 11:00 AM
Listen now: This episode will only be available for 90 days in the KPFK Archives |
Artist | Song Title | Album | Label | Played |
Joan Huang | Along the River During the Gingming Festival (Bustling Market) | Festive River, East Meets West | Cambria Music | 11:01 AM |
Anne Harley, Steve Thachuk | Voices of the Pearl, excerpts | Live In-Studio | Live In-Studio | 11:15 AM |
Anne Harley, Steve Thachuk | Voices of the Pearl, excerpts | Live In-Studio | Live In-Studio | 11: |
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