Limitless Sky Records: Blog

Om Cumbia Om: The Liberating Message of the Dalai Lama Finds Deep Global Resonance on the Dalai Lama Renaissance Soundtrack
There’s a sanctuary where the pulse of cumbia moves to Tibetan notions of eternal time, where Native American and Indian sonics transform the voice of a female Sufi from Iran. A retreat where one of the planet’s most revered teachers’ words become a melody, and the message dances in the medium.This place, created in a cozy home studio in the L.A. hills, is the home of the striking soundtrack to the documentary film Dalai Lama Renaissance (White Swan; May 11, 2010). The film follows the journey of some of the world’s most distinctive thinkers—from nuclear physicists to self-help experts, with narration by actor Harrison Ford—to see the Dalai Lama at his Indian home-in-exile and discuss a way to freedom for Tibet and humanity. The release is timed with the Dalai Lama’s May 12-23 speaking tour of the United States. The soundtrack [...]

A review of the Dalai Lama Renaissance Soundtrack posted on Target.com is both funny and tragic.  The reviewer has not read any material on the album, nor has he listened to it, but his review is published anyway.  Here it is:"The soundtrack features prayers, chants, and excerpts of teachings by Tibetan Buddhist monks, electronic ambient music, Native American poetry, song and dance, and narration by Ford in places. As a disc for simply listening, it works just fine, but heard in the context of seeing the film, it is delightful" -Thom Jurek, All Music GuideIf any of you have an inside track to Target.com, perhaps you could alert them to the fact that this CD has no "electronic ambient" music, there is no "Native American poetry", the "teachings" are by HH Dalai Lama only and prey tell, what is "song and dance"?! 
This sort of ignorance and blatant disregard has so many of us lumped into to "world music", a category encompassing ANYTHING that is not Western music.
That said, [...]

 
The summer of 2009 took a most unexpected turn. The theory's and ideas discussed and presented over many meetings began to come to life.  Rosa and I found ourselves at a Brazilian barbeque restaurant in Burbank, California.   We carried that funny feeling, the intersection between nerves and excitement, as we went to meet Dennis Banks for the first time.  We were poised to leap off the edge of a cliff whose end is unseen.  Just know that Spirit guides.Through this lens we spot Lynn Salt, David Mueller and Dennis Banks at a table, sipping water.  Hearts throbbing, we greet Lynn and David who then make the formal introduction.  Dennis Banks extends his hand and I look at it.This is the hand which has been through the stuff of myth.  It's attached to a body controlled by a brain that is the stuff of legend.  This hand has wielded pen to paper, those challenges successfully presented to one of the most powerful governments in the World.  [...]

"Truth is best.  It is available to all who desire it. But we should desire the truth for truth's sake, -- not to be well thought of, not because we want to be rewarded, not because we fear "hell" or "bad karma", but simply for its own sake, because it is the right thing to do."
- the meaning of the Zoroastrian prayer, Ashem Vohu