The Dalai Lama Presents - Inner World

As announced today, Khandro Music (NZ) and Hitco Entertainment (US) will release a unique album of mantras and teachings by The Dalai Lama set to music, entitled INNER WORLD.

Released to honour his 85th birthday celebrations on July 6, 2020, the album will be a great dedication to the decades of his vision and work for world peace and educating the heart.

INNER WORLD is an offering of the Dalai Lama reciting mantras and giving short teachings all woven to a bed of music (please see tracklisting below). 

The origins of INNER WORLD began in 2015, when one of the project’s co-executive producers and a longtime student of The Dalai Lama, Junelle Kunin (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), wrote to him requesting his participation, by fervently explaining her feelings that an album by such a compassionate and wise being would be enormously beneficial for people of all walks of life. After reading her letter, his response was enthusiastic, saying, “This will benefit many people!”. She and her husband Abraham Kunin (Teeks, Home Brew), Producer, both from New Zealand, spent the next five years bringing the project to life. 

The Dalai Lama’s recordings have been threaded through music produced by Abraham and performed on thirty-plus instruments by himself and a cast of collaborators, including a special guest performance from Anoushka Shankar on ‘Ama La’. Abraham integrated the live performances with artful programming and production, building a peaceful bedrock for these sacred offerings. Most of the album was created from his home studio in Auckland. 

The couple's heartfelt wish is that it creates, even for a moment, a sense of safety in times of anxiety and fear, giving people the courage to never give up hope.

When Junelle asked why The Dalai Lama accepted the request to make the album, he answered, “The very purpose of my life is to serve as much as I can.” He also added, “Music can help people in a way that I can’t”.

The album will be released in conjunction with an INNER WORLD companion booklet, revealing the benefits of the mantras written by Venerable Robina Courtin, and exclusive, stunning artwork; a collaboration between the acclaimed New Zealand duo of Ella Brewer (classically trained Thanka Painter) and Tiffany Singh (an award-winning visual artist). This particular work of theirs is a combination of traditional Tibetan and contemporary art.

In addition to this announcement today, INNER WORLD has debuted the first offering from the project, the ‘Compassion’ mantra, one of the most famous Buddhist prayers. Reciting the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion (known in Tibetan as Chenrezig and in Sanskrit as Avalokiteshvara) is said to open our hearts and bring us closer to others, to feel love and compassion through wisdom, generating a desire to help.

‘Compassion’ is out now, listen: HERE

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