May 11, 2022, by Dr. Rotraut Jampa Wurst aka DJ Jampa Sausage, facilitator of the 4th Conscious Connection of the IQBC.

This 4th Conscious Connection was different than it was planned due to health issues of the guest facilitator. So Luca Raschewsky´s session had to be postponed. And we are looking forward to their session in July! So this time was the time for Dharma Rap, drwurst Dharma Rap.

The Conscious Connections are part of the International Queer Buddhist Conferences which were an idea I came to due to the experience of my own and my siblings, being bullied etc. on different events, but also among their families or kicked out of their job. So last year there was the 1st IQBC on zoom and this year October 22, 23, 2022, the 2nd IQBC will take place, supported by my global organizing team or global queer Buddhist family.

Check out the Call for Contributions here and write your submission to info@iqbc.org 🙂 Looking forward to reading from you!

All right, the agenda here on the monthly CCs is, there is a meditation at the beginning and one at the end. Between there is a facilitator doing a meditation about Buddhism and an artsy expression.

So we first meditated, focussing on the breath (s., https://www.3sat.de/wissen/scobel/scobel–magie-des-atmens-100.html), counting in until 4, and out individually to 6 or 8 like it was individually comfortable for the attendees. In addition this meditation was inspired by the topic with moving a little bit, swaying and swinging to get the idea of rhythm and rhymes.

As a freelancer with own practice I motivate and coach young and elder people, often with high IQ. I coach them with fun, with games I invent by my own, and with playing music or doing rap, conscious rap, e.g. about social issues, education, ethics, politics etc., no gangsta rap :), since 2001.

So it´s interesting that teengagers or the young generation in this well-known form of speech songs, they often for the first time feel understood by the sometimes critical, ironic, or funny texts.

Dharma Rap, exactly maybe drwurst Dharma Rap, cuz it´s the way I do it, was invented/created/founded by me – DJ Jampa Sausage -, aka Jampa, on a Sakyadhita conference, so for the 10th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia in 2008. The title of this first Dharma Rap was „Engagement“, s. https://www.drwurst.de/publikationen-raps/

I did this rap cuz I actually was supposed to do a talk, but in the late afternoon around 5 pm after a long day from the early morning onwards with a tight schedule. People weren´t adjusted or used to the climate on that height in Mongolia and already dizzy, and almost asleep. But I wanted them to listen. So I got up from my chair, put my rapper cap on and began and people became altert and listened. After that I hold a workshop about „Buddhism and Popculture“ 

There we were thirteen people doing rap and the interesting thing was, that two Theravada nuns, living in Nepal, joined the workshop, telling me, that they are not allowed to do music just for fun according to their vow, but they would like to do the baseline, just reciting. And that´s the link between rap and reciting Buddhist sadhanas, because it´s also in rhymes.

They offered a text about „how to become a Buddha“, which they translated into English, and we others made rhymes out of that and jumped in, which you can see on the photo.

Drwurst Dharma Rap from that time had become a tradition between 2008 and 2019 on these conferences, but I also used it, as I mentioned before on workshops at my practice or at academies, in schools or on the anniversaries of my practice.

On the 11th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women in Ho Chih Minh, Vietnam, I did my way of Dharma Rap „Eminent Buddhist Women“ on stage in front of between around 6 to 8000 participants from 45 different countries, according to the news from Vietnamese media, what was difficult, because some of the lines were about being „happy and gay“, because I am not a native speaker… 

And again I did a workshop about, which only was allowed with the title „Diversity“, but was the first workshop about LGBTQQIA2+, that I held among these conferences.

But it was very difficult because the military police was there at the conference with machine guns!

And then only a handful Westerners attended the workshop – cuz of LGBTQIA -, but 50 nuns of two Vietnamese nunneries with their abbessses and a translator. She asked me after the workshop to come, and I thought I would now brought into jail… and never come out … But, the two abbesses told me, they would like to have the text, because with this funny way they finally could speak about everything, also about sexuality, and also about being lesbian! Only these few lines about being „happy and gay“ changed their life!

And it´s interesting, that meanwhile also in Korean nunneries they use rap to recite the Heart Sutra and so get people become interested in Buddhism 🙂 Watch the video on YouTube.

Some other examples and the premiere of a new Dharma Rap, called „Breathing in – Breathing out” finished the 4th Conscious Connection with again a short meditation.

The next Conscious Connection will be on June 15 with B. about qi gong. Soon more here on iqbc.org.