Ever heard of a Zen musical Pop album? I guess not, now fasten your seatbelts as Zen master Hyon Gak Sunim and Arman Ray takes you for a ride on the Formless Track.
Modern Zen Master Hyon Gak Sunim was initiated more than 30 years ago by the illustrious Zen Master Seung Sahn of the Kwan Um School of Korea. Zen Master Seung Sahn eventually confirmed Sunim’s earth-shattering insight into awakening, and in 2001 Sunim received public approval to share these teachings with the rest of the world.
Arman Ray is a UK fine artist and music producer. After releasing several EPs he approached Hyon Gak Sunim in 2020 to collaborate in making an album that would bring authentic Zen teaching to a new and different audience.
In 2020, he first contacted Hyon Gak Sunim to see if he would allow him to adapt his “What is Zen” YouTube video into a music video. His consent to have his speeches recorded and turned into an album came as a result of this.
In order to create the lyrics from those chats, He had to spend six months transcribing them. The music itself took him another two years to create. There is a theme and a narrative for each song.
The Formless Track is an album of rhythmic Dharma seeds. Like rolling prayer wheels, these 12 songs spin admonitions for practice, for waking up and travelling the Buddha Way.” – Hyon Gak Sunim
These songs are for anyone who is seeking the nature of mind, which is the very nature of reality itself.
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