The Heart Sutra Embedded in the Lyrics… LE SSERAFIM’s Challenges Never Stop [HT Focus]

LE SSERAFIM, a group that never stops challenging itself, has now brought out the Heart Sutra. LE SSERAFIM’s new song “BOOMPALA” is densely layered with Buddhist symbolism from beginning to end. Its lyrics, music video, and choreography all interlock across three levels to form one unified worldview.

It begins with the choreography. The stage for “BOOMPALA” opens with the members sitting cross-legged and pressing their palms together. In Buddhism, the cross-legged position represents meditation and spiritual practice, while pressing the palms together signifies reverence and taking refuge. This is not simply a visual choice, but a structure that declares from the very first scene what kind of world this song exists in. At the beginning of the second verse, the other members’ arms spread out in layers to the left and right behind one member, creating the image of multiple arms extending from a single body. It is a moment that calls to mind Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes, reaching out with hands of compassion and salvation.

Buddhist imagery appears repeatedly in the music video. Scenes of the members sitting cross-legged and pressing their palms together appear several times, and LE SSERAFIM is also shown ringing a singing bowl. A singing bowl is a tool used in Buddhist meditation practice to focus the mind and let go of distracting thoughts. The scene in which an egg cracks open to reveal HUH YUNJIN sitting cross-legged inside can be read as an image of awakening and birth expressed through the language of Buddhist practice. The same goes for the scene in which SAKURA blooms from within a lotus flower. In Buddhism, the lotus is a symbol of enlightenment, blooming purely even from the mud. The hanok buildings that appear in the background evoke temples, enclosing all these images within one space.

The lyrics are the linguistic completion of this worldview. “Namaste namaste I'ma stay up” and “My celestial chakra is stunning” directly draw on the vocabulary of spirituality that spans Hinduism and Buddhism. Namaste is a Sanskrit greeting that pays respect to the divinity within the other person, while chakra refers to the energy centers within the body. “Zen out meditate on the daily” is a line that translates Zen practice into everyday language. The most direct moment is “Everything's empty so everything's clear.” This line, which suggests that because everything is empty, everything becomes clearer, aligns precisely with the idea of emptiness, or śūnyatā, which lies at the heart of the Heart Sutra.

This point also matches the creative intention behind the song. HUH YUNJIN has stated that she was inspired by the concepts of emptiness and nothingness in the Heart Sutra. LE SSERAFIM has described the song as an anthem of encouragement for people trapped in anxiety and loneliness in a rapidly changing era. The lyrics that continue with “Nothing's forever so nothing's to fear” and “Only loving on myself, I'm coming” are the result of translating the concept of impermanence into the language of self-affirmation. The message is that once one lets go of attachment and the illusion of permanence, which are the source of fear, one can instead move forward. The title “BOOMPALA” also connects to this worldview. HUH YUNJIN has said that the word felt like a spell that everyone could enjoy together the moment they heard it. A spell, or mantra, is a sacred sound used in Buddhist and Hindu practice to focus the mind through repeated chanting. In that sense, the new word created by LE SSERAFIM has come to carry the function of a mantra, whether unintentionally or intentionally.

Since their debut, LE SSERAFIM has presented new concepts and musical genres with each album, making the act of challenging itself part of the team’s identity. Rather than remaining fixed in one specific image, they continue to show new sides of themselves, and that has become their defining trait. Drawing an anthem of encouragement for modern people from the Heart Sutra—that is LE SSERAFIM today.