ABOUT THE CREATORS:
'Journeys into Bliss’ offers a unique and rejuvenating fusion of Tibetan healing mandala artwork and the magical sounds of ancient instruments and mantras, conceived and directed by Melanie and Robert Sachs. Certified Ayurvedic Lifestyle Counselor, Melanie Sachs' work as a healing professional spans more than twenty years. Her skill as a teacher and therapist has made her sought after by some of the world's leading spas and beauty schools. Along with his wife, Melanie, Robert has pursued studies in Indian and Tibetan Ayurveda for over a decade. Robert works with physicians, clinics, hospitals, and private individuals, teaching them how to integrate contemporary scientific approaches with the ancient wisdom traditions in the areas of stress management, preventive health care, and relationship and group dynamics. He is a certified hatha yoga instructor, a trained mental health counselor and a licensed massage therapist.
ABOUT THE MANDALAS:
The mandalas presented on this DVD are traditional geometric representations of enlightened universes designed to respectively enhance healing, rejuvenation, and wisdom. They are digitally arranged versions of original artwork by Tibetan thanka master Karma Thupten.
ABOUT KARMA THUPTEN:
Karma Thupten was born around 1954 in the high mountains of eastern Tibet. His family were nomadic herdsman, who, in 1959 fled the Chinese Communist invasion and spent almost 18 years living in different regions of India. It wasn't until the the mid-seventies that his family settled in Kathmandui, Nepal. There he took a Nepali wife, Tashi Angmo. They live on the outskirts of Kathmandu and have six children, one who is a recognized high Tibetan reincarnate lama, two sons who are monks, a son and daughter who currently live in the US and a youngest daughter still at home.
Karma Thupten began to study thanka painting in the mid-seventies and apprenticed under two Khampa painters, Rinchen Norbu and Tsetin Tashi. Karma paints in the Karma Gadri tradition of Tibetan thanka painting, started in the 15th century by the 7th Gyalwa Karmapa, H.H. Chodrak Gyatso. He has been commissioned to paint for monasteries, schools, individuals who appreciate fine Tibetan sacred art, and has attracted students from around the world to come and study with him. He and Robert and Melanie Sachs have been good friends since the early 1980's.
ABOUT THE SOUNDTRACK:
Karma Moffett is an internationally respected artist known for his unique creative style expressed through music, oil painting, graphics, sculpture, hand-made musical instruments, and jewelry. His creative work is the manifestation of his spiritual odyssey.
Karma's performance of Tibetan Singing Bowls for Chapters One and Two, is an original musical interpretation of the mandalas viewed on JOURNEYS INTO BLISS. This soundtrack was recorded while he was viewing the sequence of unfolding mandala images featured on this DVD. This enabled Moffett to produce tones and harmonics that enter the physical and subtle bodies of the listener, to unlock blockages and move energy. You hear the music of the bowls and internally experience their vibrations. The overall effect has been described by people who have experienced his musical compositions as "experiencing the center of the mandala", "a journey into light" while producing "a sense of peace, harmony and well-being."
Karma has sifted through nearly five thousand bowls over a period of twenty-six years to accumulate his set of twenty-four bowls, including the bowls you hear on JOURNEYS INTO BLISS. Over the years, Moffett has selected his bowls for their purity and clarity of sound, for their sublime sustained resonance, and for their harmonic blending or pairing with the other bowls in his set. These bowls are hand-made, using from five through nine metals, including meteorite. The varying thickness of the metals, produces a variety of tones and harmonics, within each bowl.
In addition to the recordings of his music, Karma performs up to three ceremonies per week at his studio in San Francisco. He has also toured throughout the USA and Germany and he has been commissioned to perform at the Himalayan Fair, the Chinese Mood Festival, and the Festival of Harps.
Deva Premal and Miten
Track Three and continuous play Track Four on JOURNEYS INTO BLISS features the music of top-selling chant musician Deva Premal and Miten. Deva and Miten’s music is an expression of spiritual devotion, through song and chant. The couple have been living and playing together since 1991.
Deva, best known for her top-selling chant CDs, is a classically trained musician and gifted singer, who grew up singing mantras as lullabies in a German home permeated with Eastern spirituality
Miten, originally from England, was a singer-songwriter in the 70s, opening for such groups as Fleetwood Mac, Lou Reed and Ry Cooder. He later discovered the power of meditation and left the world of rock 'n' roll behind.
Deva & Miten first met in India, at the ashram of the mystic, Osho. Their music arose through their experience of meditation in the ashram. Encouraged by Miten, who was responsible for the evening meditation music, Deva began singing harmony with him. Later she found her true expression through the rediscovery of the mantras she'd chanted as a child with her father in Germany. Deva & Miten are living proof that the power of mantra is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.
