The three CDs on the One Bright Pearl Music label all feature what I call songs of presence, or mystical songs. They came about when I began receiving meditation instruction from my teacher, Ruth Gilbert. At the time, I was working as a psychotherapist and training as an opera singer in Toronto. Shortly after receiving the Buddhist Dzogchen teachings on the Nature of Mind, original music – melodies and words, arose during Dzogchen practice in my daily life. It was my intention to bring non-dual awareness into the experience of recording these songs, to the extent that I was able at the time that the CDs were made. These songs are a record of that process. One Bright Pearl was created in 1995-96; Boundless was created in 2000; Birdsong arose during a silent retreat in the summer of 2008. I now live on Vancouver Island, inspired by the ocean and the endless sky.
I am grateful to my teachers, Ruth Gilbert, Jon Parmenter, and H.E. Garchen Rinpoche, to my students, and to all those who are on the path of awakening. May these songs evoke the natural, infinite and ever-present light of awareness that we are.
“We sing not for that which dies, but for that which never dies.” -Steven Levine
Sharon Wiener
British Columbia, Canada.