Why Chant?
Depending on your exposure to Buddhism and other spiritual schools, you might well love the practice of chanting — or you might find it awkward or confounding. In either case, chanting has much to offer us. Why do we chant?
- To bolster our attention and our understanding of, and connection to, dharma concepts (and our forebears) through reinforcement, experience, and repetition;
- To fully engage the three doors of body, speech, and mind, and to orient them toward enlightened expression;
- To prepare or frame our meditation — in Zen and Theravada Buddhism, for example, or we might find chanting to be more central, as in Pure Land and Vajrayana Buddhism
And it’s even been suggested that chanting reduces stress: researchers at Hong Kong’s Center of Buddhist Studies declare in 2017 that chanting is “effective in dealing with psychological suffering.”
So it’s certainly worth doing — or at least trying. Here are some pointers for beginning, or renewing, your chanting practice: - If you didn’t grow up with spiritual chanting, choir-singing, or other such vocalizing, it might not come naturally at first. That’s totally okay! Chanting can challenge the ways so many of us go about our days — wishing to keep to ourselves, going mostly unnoticed. Yet, the practice does allow us a sense of relative anonymity. It’s not about “me,” it’s about Us. If you chant with others, you’ll soon note: no one’s paying attention to how “good” or “bad” your chanting is. The point is to do it, not judge it.
- That’s part of why, I gather, one piece of classic advice goes, “Chant with your ear, not with your mouth.” That is, we should each chant not so “I can be heard,” but with the collective voice in mind. How are we contributing to it? Are we putting our whole body into it? Are we being inhibited? And who’s doing the inhibiting?
- In general, don’t worry about carrying a melody -- chanting is monotonic in most, but not all, schools. (Shinnyo-en Buddhist chanting, for example, has melody to it.)
- Try chanting without having a benefit in mind, or without grasping. Mark Unno writes “we chant so we can receive the spontaneous cosmic power of no-self, emptiness, and oneness. Rather than being the instigator, the chanting practitioner is the recipient of the power of awakening,” and says that “there’s a deep joy that arises from the bonds of attachment and suffering and of the great compassion realized in interdependence with all beings.”
- This includes grasping onto language — you don’t have to “understand” or intellectualize — what about doing for the sake of doing? There’s an opportunity there. Most of all, trust that understanding will develop, with continued effort and time.
To that end, this Weekend Reader links to Lion’s Roar articles that can help you deepen your chanting practice. May they give a boost to your body, spirit, and mind.
— Rod Meade Sperry Editor, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Guide & Lion’s Roar Special Editions
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It’s an expression of oneness — with the Buddha, with the sangha, with the cosmos itself. Mark Unno teaches you how to let go into the flow of chanting.
As we deepen in our practice, there’s gradually less conscious effort and a greater sense of letting go into the flow of chanting. This is often accompanied by a shift in the physical center of chanting, as we feel it move from the throat to the heart to deep in the abdomen and, ultimately, into buddhanature, the deep flow of the oneness of reality.  |
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Shinso Ito, the head of the Shinnyo-en school of Buddhism, explains the role of bells and chanting in Shinnyo practice.
Chanting helps align our body, speech, and mind—our actions, words, and thoughts—towards becoming a solid foundation to support, empower, and sustain our prayers and actions. When we chant, we engage the whole of our being in a way that helps to bring out our wholesome individuality. |
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The Pure Land is right here, right now, says Sensei Alex Kakuyo. Chanting the nembutsu can help you see that.
When we recite the chant, we purify the three mysteries of body, speech, and mind, which create our volitional karma. In this way, we plant seeds of merit, and cleanse ourselves of defilements. We also express gratitude for the small pleasures of life, such as a warm cup of coffee, a good night’s rest, and a pleasant conversation with friends. Nembutsu is a simple, three-step practice that anyone can do. |
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