The End Of The Sky: Music by Lama Karma Chötso

Lama Karma Chötso’s music

Dedicating your life to the benefit others sometimes takes you places you never thought to find yourself – recording studios in Miami, beaches in Ft. Lauderdale, dog parks, etc. – even after taking quite strict vows expecting to stay in a monastery. The practices of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism are not just about vows, however. They are about realizing the true nature of your own mind and as mind begins to open up, sometimes one's activities in the world decrease, sometimes they increase. The point is to accept whichever happens and do what it is time to do, carrying mindfulness along with you. While I was a singer and musician from a young age, I had given it up for many years until this opportunity presented itself.

Whether or not this particular CD is "successful" in any way depends upon whether or not those who listen to it experience any benefit as a result of their listening – such as peace, contentment, happiness, or thoughtfulness. It was never my intention to record something for posterity or to raise funds. The intention was purely to benefit sentient beings.

The Tibetan chants included here are beneficial to all beings who hear them because simply by hearing the sounds, a connection is made with the Buddhadharma that can bear the fruit of peace and happiness in the future. The song to Tara, written by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, has English words, western melody and Tibetan chanting, bringing together the ancient sounds of Tara’s mantra and the easily understood verses of prayer. This shows the skill of the master who composed it and will bring benefit whenever it is played or sung.

Whether or not my own songs benefit others probably depends more on their patience than on any skill on my part. One song, however, includes the phrase "Lama, please hold me in your compassion like cooling rain". To ask the Lama to hold you in his/her compassion means that you are asking him or her to continue teaching and guiding you; to continue blessing you with enlightened activity; never to give up on you; and, to keep the lama/disciple relationship strong over all distances and regardless of time. It is both a fierce cry of devotion and a tender plea that one's mind mix with the master's enlightened mind and be lifted from all states of suffering.

May “End of the Sky” benefit all who are suffering, delighting their minds, and also delight the minds of those who have transcended suffering completely.

LKC

This collection offers a mix of traditional Tibetan chants, ancient Tibetan songs and original songs, all sung in the beautiful voice of Lama Karma Chötso, an American woman who is an ordained Buddhist nun and a lama of the Kagyu lineage. Opening with the taking of refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, and closing with dedicating the merit to benefit all, this album is a ceremony and a teaching itself.

Produced by the award-winning world music producer Rachel Faro, guest artists such as the acclaimed Indian flautist Steve Gorn and the spectacular quintet, Inner Voice, enhance and bring out the sense of clarity and Dharma inherent in this recording. Whether she is singing a song of Milarepa, a Mahakala chant or one of her own original songs which came to her in dreams, Lama Karma Chötso’s absolute certainty brings it all together.