The inner vision that formed this symphony's basis was of a ferryman in a relatively level stretch of one of the Himalayan valleys, surrounded by mountains of breathtaking grandeur. He appears old and simple, but such appearances can be deceptive. Having quietly attained spiritual enlightenment, inwardly he is beyond the passing of time. Free of all worldly ambitions and desire, and fully in tune with nature, he sees every object, every being, as a pure manifestation of consciousness. All sound -- whether it be of human speech, birds singing, rushing water, wind or even thunder -- is of the same innermost nature as mantra. Even the mountains towering all around are seen as nothing more than transient emanations of the very root essence of consciousness, the infinite splendour of which latter cannot be dwarfed even by the whole universe. Yet his inner happiness also contains the gentle sadness that is part of his compassion for the countless beings who are still suffering.
At the same time, the image of the ferryman is also a metaphor for the genuine spiritual master, who leads people across the troubled waters of their own materialistically deluded perceptions towards the recognition of their innermost nature and so finding the peaceful core state of enlightenment.
For the most part the music is gentle and with much repetition, which fact will no doubt not be to the taste of some Western classical music listeners. As with the 7th Symphony, the main focus of the work is on short, chant or mantra-like melodies, which through repetition and building up in canonic structures, convey a sense of timeless splendour. A wilder, more demonic variant of one of those passages is like a brief display of wrathful deities that might at times be visualized by the ferryman with his inner vision -- but again it could be seen simply as a passing storm in the 'real' (i.e. illusory) world. Either way, the ferryman's inner peace remains unsullied, and the music ends in the ethereal way that it began. The text for the choral parts is the mantra known as the Vajra Guru mantra (om ah hum vajra guru padma siddhi hum, pronounced om ah hung benza guru pema siddhi hung), which is repeatedly repeated.
The multitudinous character of certain sections is intentional, and in these I don't expect all details to be noticed in any one performance. By the same token, different performances, with their variations of balance, will inevitably bring out different details in the overall mass of sound. It would be a serious mistake, however, to assume that therefore the work is badly scored and consequently to produce simplified versions of these passages, for in a simplified and supposedly clearer form they could not have the full visionary effect that I intend.