Into the mainstream -
Awakening: Buddhist music for
Western people

EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW AUGUST 28, 1980

conducted by Bi11 Steele, Program Director,
KWNE FM RADIO, Ukiah, California

Bi11: Who inspires you?

Heng-yin: Well, the sages and ancients and also people of today who present us with, not "new" but timeless ideas—ideas which are alternatives to our ordinary ways of thinking. Those who suggest, let us say, that there is another better way of living besides living simply for the gratification of our own desires, who suggest that true happiness comes not from getting what you want but with wanting less.

Bi11: Let's talk about one of the more controversial cuts, "My Body." This addresses one of
the topics we don't like to talk about in western culture and that is death.

Heng-yin: True. We are taught that the body is something to preserve at all costs. We treat
it very well, watch our weight, and so forth, but ultimately, what happens to the body? Ultimately, we die. In Buddhism we learn to break our attachment to the body so that we can concentrate on the spirit. The song is based on a contemplation the monks in India performed. Although it is a very funny song, the possibility of hearing it on, say, AM radio is pretty s1im--I suppose.

Bi11: Te11 us about the song we are going to hear later, "Might as We11 Cultivate," described by our DJ Chris Walker as "Buddhist Punk."

Heng-yin: The song is based on the four vows of a Bodhisattva or "enlightened being." It is presented from the point of view of a person involved in the suffering of this world who is making a vow to do something about it and then saying, "When I have had some accomplishment, I am not going to go ahead and realize enlightenment. I am going to stay here and help everyone else get out." Thus the sound is appropriate, if not highly spiritual.

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The album Awakening is receiving radio airplay in the Bay Area on:
KSAN FM, San Fran. / KSFS FM, S.F. State/KCSF
FM, City College/ KALX FM, UC, Berkeley, and
In Northern California on: KVRE FM, Santa Rosa/
KMLS FM, Santa Rosa/ KPMO AM & FM, Fort Bragg/
KMFB FM, Fort Bragg/ KWNE FM, Ukiah, and
In Southern California on: KCRW FM, Santa Monica,
and KTNB AM, Bakersfield.

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AWAKENING: 12"stereo 1p and/or cassette tape
           both are $7 plus $1 post. and handle.

Write:

           WONDROUS SOUND
           Box 217
           Talmage, California 95481

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