Drukmo Gyal Dakini: The "Healing Voice"

You were born into a family of yogis: what was the place of music there?

In my family, we didn't practice music as Westerners understand it, it was more about devotional songs, those melodies that you can sometimes hear when you meditate. Singing was not so much a particular vocal technique as a personal and spiritual search.

You are called the “Healing Voice” because you chant healing mantras. How do they act on body and mind?

I understand this nickname and what listeners perceive in this type of concert, especially when they seek the vibration of the sound and its resonance, but it does not correspond to reality in the sense that the energy of the mantra does not only come from Me ! This experience arises from the interaction between the public and the artist.

Are there any reactions that surprise you from the European public?

What surprises me the most is when I feel the tension of the audience fade away to give way to an atmosphere of contemplation. It's as if there was no longer any notion of time: I sometimes have the impression that I sang for thirty minutes, whereas the concert lasted three hours! (Drukmo Gyal completed a tour in France in February, organized by the Yuthok Ling Toulouse association, attached to Sorig Khang International, editor's note). Even when there are children, no one gets up or gesticulates, the clock no longer exists, they allow themselves to be invaded by the music. This means that, despite the duration of the concert, the public lives an experience of full consciousness, in the present moment, without the limits, the usual barriers of everyday life. That's why I like to sing in small rooms, around a hundred people, so that everyone can share this experience in a complete way, in complete freedom.

“Singing mantras is not a question of vocal technique, but of energy, you have to know how to empty yourself, free yourself from your emotions and welcome what comes to you. »

What do you like so much about this art that is both artistic and therapeutic?

Precisely, the fact of being both in art and therapy! (Laughter) sing mantras, it's not a question of vocal technique, but of energy, you have to know how to empty yourself, free yourself from your emotions and welcome what comes to you. Of course, chanting mantras won't magically touch everyone, it's more for those who can't stop talking and thinking. (Laughs). What is important to understand about mantras is that sound is not only an auditory phenomenon, the vocalizations or chants we make also include silence! However, silence, its resonance, is the deepest sound, the most beneficial that exists for the human being. This is why it is essential to know how to make silence in oneself before chanting mantras. Many people are unable to do this, to concentrate; mantras are a great way to finally live mindfully.

In your opinion, in what area can the Buddhist message provide an answer to current issues?

As Buddhism teaches, what could allow men and women to feel fulfilled, to fully feel happiness, to be in good health, would be to realize that the problems they encounter are not… problems! (Laughter) We are unfortunately trained to see only obstacles, to dramatize, to make mountains out of such and such a situation… Buddhism teaches us to welcome problems and to understand the causes of suffering in order to free ourselves from them.

Thanks to Nelly Thorin