San Francisco YAD formed an online band called "D’Tunes in the House" and released its first performance online on July 20th. The main purpose of the band is to propagate the Dharma, Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Three Acts of Goodness and Four Givings (3G4G), and to also give everyone hope during this uneasy pandemic through music. A total of 20 YAD members participated in the production of the music video.
The band came up with the name, "D’Tunes in the House" from several perspectives. “D” represents the Dharma, while Tunes represents the music, i.e., Dharma Tunes. House signifies the physical house we live in and the Dharma house. The band was inspired by Venerable Master’s article, “Dharma Abode” in Buddha-Dharma, Pure and Simple. In short, the article encourages us to abide in the Dharma, and take the Dharma as our home. As many have to stay home and unable to leave their own homes to go to the temple to volunteer, SFYAD hopes that through music, the Dharma can be brought straight to everyone’s house. Together with Venerable Master’s Dharma words and letters of encouragement from everyone, we hope to inspire everyone to continue to practice the 3G4G at home and share this with more people. As the saying goes, “wherever there is the Dharma, there is hope.”
The theme for the first video is “Song of Hope”, which consisted of three songs: 明天會更好 (Tomorrow will be better), Heal the World, and 手牽手 (Hand in Hand). Many members participated in the music video: 2 pianists and 2 guitarists made the music track for participants, 10 members participants in singing, 10 wrote letters, and 20 took pictures with their words of encouragement. Although members could only stay home, everyone collaborated and cooperated very closely, thus manifesting the spirit of the Young Adult Division.
The video took about a month to prepare with four subteams: video production team, music production team, letter gathering team, and picture collection team. SFYAD members Qianjun Wang, Winson Yang, and Amanda Ong led and foresee the entire project to fruition.
Finally, SFYAD would like to thank Venerable Ru Yang, the abbess of Fo Guang Shan San Bao Temple, and all the staff involved in the production of the video. Thank you for your support, and let “The Song of Hope” be born in July.