Location: INDIA
 

Lyrics:

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At last I am standing in the garden of his birth
On hallowed ground I am standing
Where Siddhartha entered this world

The great Asoka marks the memory 
Where Queen Maya gave birth
To the Master of the Dharma
From her side He did emerge!

Where He walked lotus flowers sprang from the earth
Mighty dragons appeared before him
And bathed the prince from His birth
His final birth

Four trees stand tall
I kneel before them
Four trees stand tall
I bow before him

He bade farewell
And passed before them
All things will fall
All is illusion 

 

Credits:

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Instrumentation and vocals - Tony Garone

Bodhran and Dumbek: Christian W. Brown

Music and lyrics ©2013 by Tony Garone

Photograph by Amy Bates-Garone

 

Comments:

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These are two songs connected as one. The first, "In the Garden of Lumbini," takes place where the Buddha was born. One of the many things Xuanzang desired in his travels was to visit this site along with eight additional holy sites. And so Xuanzang finally found himself there at one of the pivotal moments of his journey. I tried to capture the reverence and awe Xuanzang expressed in his writings about this place. He was so humbled by the birthplace of the Buddha; this place where a Hindu prince was born and turned away from the pleasures and wealth of his sheltered life to become a spiritual and philosophical leader of billions of souls.

In addition to visiting Lumbini, Xuanzang also went to Kusinigara, the place of the Buddha's death. Before he died, the Buddha laid down before four tall trees. He reminded His disciples that life and all it brings is illusory and impermanent and instructed them to hold his teachings as the most important thing (instead of worshiping him) and then passed away. 

 

I tried to capture the reverence here as well as the sadness and the happiness as the Buddha reached nirvana when he died as it was his last incarnation. Xuanzang wept in front of hundreds of monks at this site with the realization that his karma did not allow him to meet the Buddha as he was still working through it when the Buddha walked the earth. Xuanzang cried out, "At the time when the Buddha perfected himself in wisdom, I know not in what condition I was in the troublous whirl of birth and death!" 

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