Saturday, March 19, 2011

Saturday Music Club: The Prayer Cycle

Happy Saturday, and forgive this late post as I am still somewhat "enjoying" my Friday night. Today's look into the world of my music will be taking a cue from yesterday's story installment. I am by no means a religious man, in fact I believe that organized religion is responsible for about a third of the world's problems. The remaining two thirds being money, greed, and nationalistic and ethnic stupidity. But I am a very spiritual person, a Deist if you wanted to sit down and define me, with a sprinkle of Pantheism and maybe a dash of injun Paganism.

But I also believe that at the root of all organized religions was an original thought or intent that was so beautiful, but at the same time so easily corrupted by people who sought power. And I always be sure to pay proper respect to every religion for their original intent and not the people who lead it. And that brings me to this week's feature artist, Jonathan Elias and his incredibly beautiful and transcendent project called The Prayer Cycle.

This is a nine part choral arrangement featuring artists and vocalists from all over the world, each representing one of the major religions of the world. In these nine tracks you will hear the voices of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and more all singing together in unison for one of the most gorgeous musical experiences your years will ever absorb. It came out in the year 2000 to commemorate the new millennium and the possible promise of a new age of humanity. Well, as it turns out we are getting better but we're still pretty dumb... But on the upshot, kickback and listen to the samples I've posted below of this incredibly beautiful musical composition and the message of hope behind it...

 

Each of the nine compositions represent one of nine tenants that each major religion shares. As the previous one was "Mercy" (yes, that was Alanis Morrisette), let's take a listen to "Forgiveness" and my absolute favorite on the album, "Compassion".

 


See you next Saturday for music you may not have ever heard before, but really appeals to this weird guy hanging out in the middle of the jungle... I leave you this quote from Jalaluddin Rumi to ponder...

 I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He
was not there; I went to the Temple of the
Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not
find a trace of Him anywhere.
I searched on the mountains and in the valleys
but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I
able to find Him. I went to the Ka'bah in Mecca,
but He was not there either.
I questioned the scholars and philosophers but
He was beyond their understanding.
I then looked into my heart and it was there
where He dwelled that I saw Him; He was
nowhere else to be found.
 

Enjoy your weekend everyone (Lord knows I am!)

24 comments:

Give Everything said...

i laugh so hard at the cats pic, is amazing, great songs also!

Sharon Day said...

Thanks for sharing that. We seem to be ideally aligned on these matters. I have my own saying. In fact, I shared it with Bill Maher when congratulating him on "Religulous" and he liked it a lot, "Religion is the prostitution of spirituality." That it is. I consider myself pagan/buddhist so far as my spirituality but I will never adhere to a religion and let some strange man tell me how to deal with my view of the natural world and my place in it. As soon as I finish my work for the day, I'm going to check out those vids. I admit when I got to Sedona, I like to do drum circles and sagings and such. I like any way to express a new interaction with the natural world. Thanks for a great post--just what I needed today.

Chris said...

Cool tunes brah!

Justin said...

This is a pretty cool idea. I'll give the songs a listen :)

Bassislv said...

nice pics, loving the songs

Meghan Moran said...

I just try to live by the simple ethos of "do unto others as you would like done to yourself" or something like that haha.

Something Concupiscible said...

That is amazing. I'm surprised all the singers survived.

Robert Fünf said...

I agree with you that organized religion is responsible for a large percent of the world's problems.

ed said...

im religious and im ok with it

Sam said...

Thank you, my Saturday night just started! time to enjoy it.

Jesse Brooks said...

Lovely music and great post. :)

Merlyy said...

Awesome music!

Alphabeta said...

Agreed about religion.
Music is lovely.

Glad to hear you're having a good weekend. : ]
Enjoy.

T. Banacek said...

I don't see religion as the problem at all. "Money, greed, and nationalistic and ethnic stupidity" disguised as religion are the problems.

duffboi said...

I enjoyed these songs. And I really appreciate Rumi.

jopjopjop said...

great post as always, going to check out the videos when i'm at home.

Moobeat said...

great tracks

Shutterbug said...

This is all new music to me. Thanks for sharing! :)

G said...

wow great idea for a project and some great tunes...

ebm93 said...

Not my style, but nice!

Lemmiwinks said...

great background on this, bro!

D22 Zone said...

Good that you're heavily organised! :) Keep up the good work man!

Patti D. said...

awesome songs, very nice indeed!

Spike said...

thanks for sharing mate